Update 2Omg it's finally over.... And I pretty much called it. The only semi- interesting things that happen in this book are all jam packed into the last 100 pages. But I had to bore myself to tears to get there, and by then I couldn't care less about any of the characters (except maybe Alice).
Update 1
I'm making myself sludge through the rest of this book. Why? Because my OCD-like tendencies won't let me leave a book unfinished. Seeing this one title on my "couldn't finish" shelf has been nagging at me for months now. Plus so many other people loved it so I suppose I'll give it another go..
(This review contains a couple minor spoilers)
Ok I tried... But about two thirds of the way in I just couldn't bring myself to finish it. I'm throwing in the towel. And I hate not finishing books even if they are terrible so that really says a lot. This book had the potential to be good. It started out interesting as the main character stumbles into a school of magic but it pretty much goes downhill from there. I didn't think it possible that a school of magic could be so BORING! And the parts that actually had potential to be interesting just failed miserably. For example in the chapter about the beast, he describes being frozen in the classroom listening to the man sing for three pages yet in one sentence he tells us a girl is eaten alive. Don't tell me it happened, describe it to me! It takes 250 pages (out of 400) before the characters are finally released from their misery and allowed to graduate. I suppose the last 150 pages could be mind blowing, but unfortunately at this point I just don't care. I don't even like any of the characters enough to want to find out what happens to them. Needless to say I dont plan on reading the sequel.