Review! Tricked (Fairy Tale Reform School #3)

Author: Jen Calonita

256 Pages--Ages 10-13

Published by: March 7th 2017 by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Summary:

Things are changing at Fairy Tale Reform School.

At least, that's what Gilly's heard through the Enchantasia rumor mill. Word is, notorious trickster Rumpelstiltskin has taken over management from Headmistress Flora, and he's locked down the school tighter than the Pied Piper's pants. Not that this news concerns Gilly. She's been released from FTRS and is now suffering through attending Jack of All Trades School, where she gets to learn about different kinds of shoe leather and ways to measure feet. Truly riveting stuff.

But when Gilly's little sister Anna gets whisked off to FTRS thanks to her troublemaking new friends, Hansel and Gretel, Gilly knows she's got to get Anna out of there. There's only one thing to do; make some serious trouble and get thrown back into FTRS.

It's time to out-trick a trickster.



Pre-Thoughts:

I read Tricked and Switched back to back so some of the details of the two books have bended together. Not only that but I wrote the review to Switched first (I’ll be positing that one in a few days) so I kind of don’t remember the exact details of what happened in this book. Therefore, I’ll just give you some of my very basic thoughts.

Post-Thoughts:

Anna played a much larger role in this one. And unfortunately, I didn’t quite like her either. I can’t say I didn’t sympathize with her problems, she had a huge inadequacy problem, but I had a hard time caring for her when she chose to leave with Rumpelstiltskin. She seems to feel incredibly inferior to Gilly and seems to resent the attention Gilly gets, but her response is…weird. I understand she wants to separate herself from Gilly, but I don’t think being evil is the way to go. Rumpelstiltskin obviously has a controlling nature and Anna either doesn’t see it or she doesn’t care. She claims she doesn’t want Gilly to control her, yet she doesn’t mind when Rumpelstiltskin does? I guess there really is no accounting for taste.

[caption id="attachment_1080" align="alignleft" width="200"] Jen Calonita, the author[/caption]

The quest at the end was somewhat exciting and I will admit it was nice to get a change of scenery from the Reform School, but it didn’t last very long and some of it was a bit anti-climactic. Before they went the teachers made it seem like it was going to be one of the most harrowing experience ever. But all the characters come out alive in the end, no broken bones, and no emotional scares. It probably was heavily due to the presence of Little Red Riding Hood, who becomes their guide and protector. Still, the adventure was relatively short and I barely remember what supposed impossible tasks they had to complete were. Regardless, in the end they find the golden egg laying goose and manage to trick Rumpelstiltskin to leave the school, as we all knew they would.

As with all the other Fairy Tale Reform School books, this book was okay. It kept me entertained and I managed to finish it in just a few days. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it.