Joanna Wiebe

3.5 stars

In book 2 of the trilogy, Anne is back at school, but she knows more about what is going on around her at this so-called boarding school. Possible book 1 : The students are actually dead and “vivified” (brought back to life via a deal with the parents). And the teachers are demons. . But there’s more that Anne hasn’t learned yet about herself. She has come back to get revenge on the person who is the new headmaster.

I don’t think it was as good as the first one, but overall it was still good. There was a recap, but it was quick and I was still trying to get back into the “world” and was a bit confused. There were also a couple of characters with similar names I kept mixing up. But when we got away from the odd vocabulary and I was able to get more into the story, it got better for me.… (lisätietoja)

Received from NetGalley

When I looked at the reviews for this one, I was a little nervous that so many people seemed to either love it or not finish it. The story was a familiar one. Girl gets sent to a school without any clue as to why. Mysteries abound. Everyone hates her. However, there were quite a few twists and turns to this one that kept me going until the end. Which of course was a cliffhanger and set up for the next book. Honestly, I have no clue what the author plans to do (series, trilogy, etc) but I almost wonder if it would have been better to just make this a complete book rather than chance second book syndrome.… (lisätietoja)

(This review can be found on my blog The (Mis)Adventures of a Twenty-Something Year Old Girl).


I had been wanting to read this book since I saw it advertised on another blog. It has a creepy boarding school which definitely piqued my interest. Luckily, this turned out to be an interesting read!

I like the title of this book. It sounds super ominous. I think the title definitely suits the story as, well, the plot does kind of involve Anne's education.

I love the cover! How creepy does it look!?! I love the way the boarding school on the cover looks really foreboding.

I enjoyed the world building. I'm not going to lie. While I was reading, I kept thinking that never would a poor girl get into a rich school, but the author does a fantastic job of explaining why and how towards the end of the book. I did have a lot of questions about the world building, but Wiebe does an awesome job at answering every single one. World events are mentioned in this book and how a character in this book relates to them. That was the scariest bit of world building for me because it's so easy to picture this scenario being responsible.

The pacing is a bit slow for the first two-thirds of the book, I'd say. I was thinking this would be one of those disappointing reads that I was really looking forward to. However, the last third or so of the book picks up the pace, and before I knew it, I couldn't put the book down. The only thing that would hurt this book is that a lot of readers might give up on it simply because the pacing is so slow throughout a huge chunk of the book.

The plot was really intriguing. A poor girl, Anne, is invited to study at a prestigious boarding school where only the super rich send their kids. Not to mention, it's also a secret boarding school. When Anne arrives at the school, everyone seems to know her story. Anne discovers that not all is as it seems at Cania Christy, and she embarks on a dangerous mission to find out the truth about her secretive boarding school. I really wish I could elaborate more on the plot, but if I did, it would give away spoilers and a major plot twist. The plot twist is what really pulled me in! Also, just when you think the book is going to end, it starts back up again with another plot twist! As this is part of a series, there is a cliff hanger at the end.

I thought the characters were all written very well. I especially liked the main character of Anne. I found her to be just an average teenage girl trying to find her place in the world. I found myself always feeling the same exact feelings she was experiencing during different points in the book. I also really enjoyed the character of Pilot. I loved his care free attitude about everything and how he didn't really let anything get to him. I also thought he was really good at what he did. I didn't really know what to make of Ben at first, but I eventually warmed to him. He seemed like a really sweet guy. The one character that annoyed me was Harper simply because I hated the way the author stereotyped her as she was from Texas. I hate how a lot of authors think Texans are all rich hillbillies which is what Harper seemed to be. The stereotypes that Harper embodied just really angered me. I wish Joanna Wiebe would've done some research on people from Texas before she wrote the character of Harper because it seemed obvious to me, as a Texan, that she didn't.

I thought the dialogue felt very realistic and flowed very well for the most part. The only dialogue that annoyed me was Harper's since the author made her sound like a stereotypical Texan. A lot of the "Texan" dialogue Harper used were words I'd never even heard (and I was born and raised in Texas). I'm thinking the author just made up a lot of those phrases. I'm just hoping that people who read this book don't actually believe that's how we talk in Texas. Other then that, I enjoyed the dialogue, and it felt like a real high school setting. There is some sexual talk, some violence, and some swear words, but I felt like none of that was over the top.

Overall, The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant by Joanna Wiebe is an interesting read. I feel that if the first two thirds of the book would've had a bit more action and there wasn't any stereotyping going on that this could've been a fantastic book. However, I'm looking forward to and will be reading the next book.

I'd recommend this book to those aged 16 who want to immerse themselves in a brilliant paranormal world.

I'd give The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant by Joanna Wiebe a 3.75 out of 5.… (lisätietoja)

Anne is being sent to a private school across the country from her California home, on an island in New England. It’s a school with mostly rich kids, so Anne isn’t sure how her dad managed to pull some strings to get her in. However he managed it, she’s hoping for a fresh start with other kids who don’t know her. But, when she arrives, there is something very odd about this school… She is heartened to find someone she knew from California is also there, though, and he seems to be the only person interested in being friends.

I really enjoyed this! Yeah, many of the characters were unlikeable, but they’re teenagers. That didn’t bother me. I was interested and curious to find out what the heck was going on at this school! There were a few surprises along the way, though at least one of them I guessed very shortly before it was revealed, anyway. Unfortunately, it’s one of those books that ended on a cliffhanger. I’m not a big fan of that, but I was hoping, as I read, that it would be the first in a series, and it looks like it’s a trilogy. I will definitely pick up the next book.… (lisätietoja)