Age Rating – honestly i’m struggling because I dont think you should spend time reading this at any age, but it depends on you honestly. Its pretty low in violence, but very very high in people being horny even if there isnt much on the page (see details in the review) so I’m going to say 14+B and the B is for the constant focus on sex. If it wasnt for the weirdness around that I would give it a 13+ to be honest, maybe even a 12+B but with it I cant rate it any lower.
I honestly wanted to love this book so much, but I really didnt. I finished it because its Soman Chainani, and School for Good and Evil is a reread several times over series for me, but this wasnt just a new style of writing, it just wasnt good.
- Benton
Dear god, what a main character Benton was and I dont say that as a good thing. He is so unlikeable, incel energy right from the beginning, and when we discover who his crush is it gets worse (and illegal.)I can pity him for being manipulated and also hate him for his lack of capability or character at the same time. His only real character traits were oscalating between I-dont-give-a-damn, i’m no fucks benny boy and just plain horny. I mean he was horny all the time, even after almost dying and the danger not over. Just horny. (I felt like all the characters were, so its not just Benton but it was annoying in a main character that his main motivation was just to be able to get That Girl. Also, I get why for plot reasons she didnt get a name until a good 200 pages in, but I dont like it. It just amplified his incel weirdness because he wasnt calling her by her name. And the plot itself was really unneeded and odd and unresolved, if you’ve read it you know. Benton’s character is summed up in his first entry where he says “the only thing that matters to me is a girl. A girl i know is The One. A girl who acts like she doesnt give a shit about me when we both know she likes me back” – um, do we? Do we really? Are we still writing teenage boys that dont take no for a definitive answer in 2026? the That Girl plot that develops is concerning in its own right, but i’m not going to get into that now. - The Other Leaders
I kept reading because I was sure that Amita and the other political leaders, who seemed at least in the beginning when we were still in the US, to have a better grasp on things and actually want to be in power, and know what to do with it. However, as soon as we get to the G-8, we meet them all. Most of them can be summed up as hot and horny except Steffi (poor Steffi) who is just nerdy and the only one with an inch of emotional stability. They were all just horny and beyond that they were stereotypes that just felt really empty. Justice for Rafaella, and justice for Mori, and justice for Elliot who could have been interesting but barely gets any time. I feel like if Soman Chainani had fleshed out all the characters by them starting with the murder earlier than almost page 300 then we could have had a really interesting all toxic politically wildcard leader cast but they just didnt feel like they got more character after Bentons quick scribbled notes about them. - Benton’s Friends
Was Freddy the only one with some political savvy? Yes. Did he earn my black mark on page 209 when he says “from the looks of her she wont take well to that” when talking about Steffi, Germany’s leader, not liking the potential reveal that Swede and Britain are in bed both politically and physically. And says “she has short hair” and “so she’ll be suspicious of the hot girl is all I’m saying”. Absolutely. I’m with Jax on this one, with his “oh my god” but poor Jax is just a walking steryotype of a hot gay boy, they call him a “turbo twink” in the actual book, and the whole emotional point of him saying he goes after straight guys because they remind him of his friends and he just wants to be with his friends was really random and like what? The least hatable out of the three main boys and the only one I think could have been interesting if he’d got more page time.
ALSO - why as soon as we were in india did Benton start comparing all the minor unnamed characters skin colours to each other and saying if they were darker or lighter skinned when it had no plot relevence? If the author was trying to make a point about racism still being prelevent in the way lighter skinned shop girls are chosen to be at the front, then that could have been made clearer, not a random disjointed sentence stuck in there.
- I also have issues with the politics. It was marketed as the young people can take over politics and make a difference, but it just read as young people are horny idiots, especially teenaged boys which I have to say that Benton for 100% is and I wouldnt trust him to babysit a cat and they can feed and water themselves. However, it didnt feel like an empowering radical shift of the world like it was supposed to be, and after the politics in the beginning, I expected the big colonial reshaping of the world (iykyk) to be mentioned more than eh thats just your problem.
I’m going to talk about the big difference between this book and others, which is the 150 pieces of Nuke Orange coloured art in the book, and how it was almost written in a social media slash diary entry way. I thought it was really interesting, and it could let you predict what was going to happen happen in the chapter ahead which was satisfying for me (I predicted the Teen Swede claim) and also showed polls and social media memes (which was jarring to see in a book, i’ll say). That was interesting. I think that Young World really did achieve something in its format, which really blends social media into a book format, and has some interesting political ideas but it just didnt hit for me. Also, its not a thriller. Its political, but its not a thriller. I’m not sure what genre it is but its not thrilling.
Characters – 0/5 – I hated them all and not in a good way. Sometimes the characters who are toxic are interesting, but all these characters were was horny and that got old fast when it was just pages after pages after pages of that being their only characteristic other than a short stereotype.
World – 2.5/5 – it had so much promise, and yet I just struggled with it because the blend of reality and not was clunky. Its almost exactly the political system in America, but apparently Trump was president but only for one term? I’m presuming so because there is another election, but all the rest of the names are actual presidents and then we just have a whole made up Democrat and Republican leaders who felt like a copy paste name job from their real counterparts.
Plot – 0.5/5 – fundamentally flawed in so many places, I think that the marketing was also to blame because it said it was a political thriller, and it was political but more adventure story than thriller. How Benton got in I can suspend disbelief, I’m good at that I read mostly fantasy and I’m not one to see plotholes unless its a plot chasm and there isnt anything to cover it up.
Romance is -100000000000/5 because no. No no no no no.
Romance Rating: I have no clue what romantic rating this is, the kissing isnt descriptive at all, like one short short sentence a few times, but god are they horny and is sex talked about a lot and people wanting to have sex. There is one scene where we almost see through a video two guys (teenaged guys as well, whom i’m really hoping werent minors) have sex but it cuts of. It has very little plot relevance and raised all my theoretical eyebrows.
Violence Rating: Level 3
Content Warnings: polar bear attack, illegal adult/minor relationship (on page, never seen as bad and a pretty big thing that is left unresolved).
Damsel in Delight 
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