#even the villain Sylphia Flapper...she's a dragon

[freaky-flawless]

Alright I finished it... just overall not great. I don't really feel like I gained anything from reading it. And there are a good few things that are genuinely problematic.

As for the story itself...it could have been interesting but the writing was so bland. There's a scene at the end that should have been pretty intense where the Ghoulfriends confront the big bad and save the whole school but the writing is so straightforward and bland that it was so unsatisfying. And the solution was so weird and specific.

I know we kinda joke about how useless Bloodgood is, but she was something else in this one. She didn't even get brainwashed like everyone else, from the start she was super ooc and forgetful because she got struck by lightning lol. Lowkey, she shoulda got fired.

I will say Rochelle did grow on me a bit. She definitely had the main character role and did show some character growth. And I did like how the author was mindful of the fact that she's made entirely of stone, and the trials that come with being that heavy. But her constant quoting of the "Gargoyle Code of Ethics" and her constantly correcting people grew old quick.

Other than that the only saving grace of this book is the illustrations. Ugh, they are so good, and I hadn't seen a lot of them before. Darko Dark did a great job, and I love his design for Sylphia (the "villain") he even made the trolls look cute despite the authors less than kind descriptions of them.

Do I recommend anyone read this? No, not really. Unlike the Lisi Harrison books, it didn't give a fresh perspective on the series, it's kinda just a worse version of the actual canon. And on top of that the writing itself is super lackluster, the Monster High Diaries books are way better written despite being half the length.

That being said, wish me luck with the next one. It appears Toralei might feature heavily in it, despite not being mentioned a single time in the first one.

I'm like halfway through the first Ghoulfriends book and main three are so annoying. I'm hoping it's like a character flaw thing, where they'll recognize it and get better over the course of the series, but oof. Gitty did these ghouls so wrong.

They're beefing with Cleo for no reason...Venus flipped out on her out of nowhere (in the middle of class, unprovoked!!) for using paper bags and then sprayed her with hypno pollen, meanwhile Rochelle, who is in her own relationship, is hardcore flirting with her man!!! I wish the author had been more original when it came to giving them a "frenemy" there are so many options aside from Cleo! (Honestly Operetta would have been an interesting choice, but whatever)

Robecca's characterization is the most tolerable, but she's incredibly rambly, and the author decided to give her a bad sense of time for...reasons. And despite being British, she uses oddly Southern phrases while talking...its super strange. With Venus and Rochelle, I can see where her mind went with writing their characters, but Robecca honestly seems so opposite to her canon personality.

And her backstory was kinda mangled too. It's acknowledged that she was disassembled, and recently reassembled, and even that she previously lived with Mrs. Kindergrubber, but she's treated like a brand new student. No acknowledgement that it was Ghoulia who put her back together!

I understand giving the characters a fresh take, but it would have been pretty simple to integrate the actual canon. Robecca and Rochelle were introduced in the same movie, they were new to Monster High, just not new to all of the characters.