Ever After High: The Unfairest of Them All

I really enjoyed the second installment in the Ever After Series. They are so much more detailed and engaging then either of the Monster High book series and so I give all the credit in the world to Shannon Hale. Shannon is an amazing author of her own works and I think she has done such a great job working her own personality and skills into the Ever After books. I think I enjoyed the first book "Legacy Day" just a little more than this one....I thought the riddle treasure hunt drug on a little too long but that is certainly my only complaint. I loved getting a better perspective on Apple White in this novel. I wasn't sure I cared for her much in Legacy Day and this book did a good job of showing us who exactly Apple is and where her heart is coming from. I do think its time to let Apple and Raven Queen take a seat and let us see more of these amazing characters that are far too often in the background. This is splendid and engaging series for children, teens and adults.

This book was even better than the first book STORYBOOK OF LEGEND. I loved reading the results of Raven's actions and how Raven's mother in her mirror prison hopes her daughter is turning as evil as she is. Besides Raven quest to the answers she seeks for the need to rebel meeting with Red Riding Hood among these she seek answers from. Red Riding Hood's daughter turned out to be among my favorite section of this story as well as Maddie Hatter as she was as fantastic here as she was in book 1. I don't know if this series is continuing any further but this is a book for all those into fractured fairy tale stories.

This is complete literary candy. I try to focus my girls on great literature and well written classics. This is certainly not great literature but it is better written than a lot of stuff for this age group and my daughters (ages 8 and 12) completely love it. I will admit to skimming the books and finding them intriguing. Shannon Hale has successfully created an engaging world and I credit it for my 8-year-old picking up Alice in Wonderland on her own. She wanted to know more about Wonderland since her favorite Ever After High character is Maddie Hatter.

My girls actually put their own money together to purchase this sequel and I am sure we will continue to acquire the books in this set as they are released.

Perfect for young readers! Started a mini book club with my friends' daughters. This series is great because it incorporates in known Disney stories and fairy tales while adding less common ones.

Then it has excellent lessons intertwined for us to talk about! Like who determines good and evil?

The colors of the pages is super cute and the writing style is fabulous and captivating! As an adult I fell in love with it and enjoyed it as much as the 3rd and 5th graders!!

This was a fantastic continuation on the story of what happened after Raven Queen stated she would make her own Ever After. There has been a great divide between all the students denoting those who wanted their original story and ever afters as the Royals and all those who want to make their own story as the Rebels. With the divide between all the students things started to go horribly wrong. Leaving a trail of disaster and rebellions behind them, Apple started to doubt herself as a leader and Maddie Hatter got caught in a horrible situation. The characters must work together to help solve the problems that have arose from the aftermath of Legacy Day.

This book continued in the cuteness that came from the first in the series. Shannon Hale did a fabulous job with the story and addition of new characters and their secrets and stories. In this story you learn more about characters that were introduced in the first book . The characters are so dynamic and full of personality. They are quirky and all have such different stories. Maddie Hatter is definitely one of my favorite characters! She is silly and highly entertaining. The other characters like Apple and Raven are such strong characters and send out such good messages about strong females and deciding your own life.The way that Hale also works and weaves together the fairy tales is perfection.

Overall, this is a great sequel to The Storybook of Legends! It was precious and absolute adorable. The language and writing is wonderful. The book is full of adventure and has great lessons about being yourself and finding your own spot in life! I can’t wait for the third book that comes out later this month! This like my review for the first book is very repetitive. I just had a hard time expressing my feelings. This book just made me so happy and was such a fast read. Although it is meant for a younger audience I am so happy I read it and highly recommend it!

3.5, Originally posted at Fantasy Literature.

The Unfairest of Them All is the second book in Shannon Hale’s EVER AFTER HIGH series for children. These are tie-in novels for Matel’s line of EVER AFTER HIGH dolls, clothing, diaries, and sundry accessories. I feel like a real chump for obliviously falling into Matel’s greedy little trap, but I love Shannon Hale’s children’s books, so…. so THERE.

The first book in the series (The Storybook of Legends) was sweet and charming, so I went in to this one knowing exactly what I was doing and I found it just as original and adorable as the first one. In The Unfairest of Them All, Raven Queen, daughter of the evil queen, refuses to sign The Storybook of Legends, a contract that would require her to carry on in her mother’s evil role. Raven doesn’t want to be evil, but by choosing not to be evil she ruins everyone else’s “happily ever after.” Now some of her friends think she really is evil because she wants to choose her own destiny and ruin theirs. She’s in quite a quandry. How can she rebel without hurting others?

The Unfairest of Them All is Apple White’s story. Apple is Snow White’s daughter and the person who Raven Queen is supposed to give the poisoned apple to. But Apple and Raven are also best friends. While Apple admires and respects Raven’s decision to not poison her, Apple risks losing her “happily ever after” with Prince Charming if she isn’t poisoned. There are plenty of other classmates at Ever After High who are in a similar situation. (It’s probably occurred to you that there should be two high schools in fairyland — one for the heroes and one for the villains. Then these destiny-killing kind of mix-ups couldn’t happen.)

All the cute quirky characters are here again, including Humpty Dumpty the rapping hacker and Madeline Hatter who keeps trying to learn secret information from the narrator. It’s all so cute (gosh, I keep using that word) and silly. Some of the silliness starts to grate (such as using words like “Hexcellent”, “hextreme sports” and “hext message”) but much of it is delightfully clever.

There’s actually quite a bit of contemplativeness, too. Using the fairytale context, the story thoughtfully explores real-world issues such as prejudice (especially about interracial marriage), dysfunctional families, benevolent leadership and crisis management, and the consequences of following or not following social norms. As silly as this book is, there is plenty of opportunity for serious discussion of these social issues, too.

Once again I listened to the audio version read by Kathleen McInerney and produced by Hachette Audio. McInerney gives a wonderful lively performance. I recommend this version.

For reference, I’m nearly 16 years old and still love these books. Seeing as they’re mainly written for a younger audience, it’s a very easy read, but there’s still enough detail in the books to keep you interested regardless of age. I totally recommend Shannon Hale’s EAH book series for any fans of the dolls and netflix show/youtube shorts, as she adds a lot of background to the characters and series while keeping them close to the original show. Again, the book itself is in perfect condition and I definitely recommend buying hardcover as the pages have a pink color on them, which makes it that much more fun to read.

Package was in excellent condition, package was not damaged my daughter will love it on Christmas day

As described, delivered quickly. Granddaughter thrilled! Thank you.

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