Weekly Reader: Miss Mabel's School For Girls (Book One in The Network School) by Katie Cross; Dark Fantasy About Magical Girl's School is Spooky and Spectacular

 

Weekly Reader: Miss Mabel's School For Girls (Book One in The Network School) by Katie Cross; Dark Fantasy About Magical Girl's School is Spooky and Spectacular

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Okay, I admit it. As much as I love most books and other works about witches and other magic users, I am not nor have I ever been a big fan of the Harry Potter Series. I recognize J.K. Rowling's attention to world building, the influence on getting kids to enjoy reading, and the impact that it had and continues to have on Children's Literature and the Fantasy Genre. 

However, personally I never cared that much for the series itself. I find Harry Potter himself the worst kind of Chosen One insufferable lead, a Gary Stu. The other characters are mostly flat and the dimensions that they possess happen too late for me to really care. The series falls to the standard good vs. evil conflict without much gray area interest. It calls back to the late 19th early 20th century of the so-called Golden Age of English Literature in terms of structure and subtle themes of classicism, racism, and adherence to traditional gender roles.

Many of the plot points are predictable and even some of the twists were obvious. Even the idea of a school of witches and wizards had been used before in works like The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy. When it comes down to it, the Harry Potter series wasn't any better written than the OZ series.

Not only that, but I found the publicity and media attention to be overblown, making what I found to be an average series at best overrated. (I'm the contrary sort that the more you tell me that I am supposed to like something the more I will dislike it to the point of hating it.) Worst of all, the single minded attention to Harry Potter overshadowed other books that were also about witches, wizards, and magic users that were better in quality that came out around the time but not near as well known and certainly deserved even some of the publicity that Potter got. Books like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke which was one of my favorite fantasy books during the Aughts.

Another of the books which has similar ideas to Harry Potter but is also better written is Katie Cross' Miss Mabel's School For Girls. It has a better plot, characters, and is less defined in its themes of recognizing darkness in others and recognizing power and darkness in oneself.

16 year old, Bianca Monroe gets accepted to the prestigious Miss Mabel's School For Girls, a boarding school for young witches. It is one of the most notable schools in The Network, a sockety of witches and other magic users with their own government, schools, society, economic structure and so on. 

Bianca makes friends with fellow first years, Camille and Leda and gets the attention of instructors like Miss Bernadette, Miss Scarlet and Miss Celia. When a competition comes for third years only, Bianca raises her hand. She doesn't want to show off her abilities, though they are impressive. She wants to face Miss Mabel, the headmistress. Mabel put a curse on Bianca's family years ago and she wants the curse either removed by Mabel voluntarily or by her death.

Bianca is no Harry Potter. She is not stunned and amazed by this new world where she is propped up as a prophecized hero since she was a baby simply by surviving. She knows about The Network. She is experienced and even cynical about the way the magical world works. 

For lack of a better world, Bianca was home schooled by her father to practice magic. He also teaches her to suppress her thoughts and knowledge so the treacherous Miss Mabel doesn't catch on. She is even told to suppress the magic that she learned outside of school so she can act like the average student and no one knows where or from whom she learned her powers. During her education, Bianca behaves like a spy in enemy territory being a good student but always knowing that the enemy is within.

While the Harry Potter series gets progressively darker, the older the kids get and the more the series continues, the darkness in Miss Mabel's School For Girls is present from the beginning. Many characters pay a terrible price for using and specializing in magic. Leda, Bianca's friend, has precognitive abilities but they make her so physically ill that she prefers to be alone rather than inadvertently reveal a future that someone doesn't want to know.

Many of the tests in the competition are meant to bring out the more sinister side to the characters. Even the smallest assignments like finding the student's individual butterfly comes with the caveat not to trust anyone or anything. The participants have to face their deepest fears and go through psychological torture to move ahead in the competition. 

One of the final tests puts the young witches through a personal physical and mental pain that will only be recalled if the witch withdraws from the competition. The test and results reveal a lot about Bianca and the other participants, what's most important to them, and what drives them to succeed.

Instead of Hogwarts which appears to be a kid's wish fulfillment where Readers long to visit,Miss Mabel's School For Girls should come with a warning: Enter at Your Own Risk. Warning: Physical and Mental Side Effects May Occur.

When Bianca finally gets some alone time with Miss Mabel, it becomes a one on one battle. Bianca has to use all of her self taught magic, love of her family, and desire to end this painful and destructive curse to face Mabel who has power, influence, and a strong ambition to be at the top of the Network. 

Mabel gives off this impression of being a stern but loving leader and headmistress to young witches. However, she has a ruthless cunning nature that destroys anyone who dares oppose or disagree with her. 

To fight against her, Bianca has to be ruthless, cunning, and duplicitous and hide that nature. To face that darkness in Miss Mabel, Bianca has to find that darkness in herself. It takes her one book to learn what it took Harry seven (and eight movies). 

While some could call Miss Mabel's School For Girls, a Harry Potter knockoff, it is less concrete, deals less with absolutes of black and white, and contains less of the old school Golden Age of Literature structure disguised as a new experience. Miss Mabel's has the nuances in character and plot development and shades of gray that Rowling's franchise lacks.