Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.
Book Review
The school for good and evil — “the school for good and evil” series.
- Soman Chainani
- Adventure , Fairy Tale , Fantasy
- Harper and HarperCollins Children’s Books, imprints of HarperCollins Publishers
- New York Times Bestseller list, 2013
Year Published
This book has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine . It is the first book in “The School for Good and Evil” series.
Plot Summary
Every four years, two children from the village of Gavaldon are kidnapped. They’re taken to the famed School for Good and Evil, where they are trained to be either storybook heroes or villains. The lovely but arrogant Sophie can’t wait to be kidnapped. She knows she’s princess material and has proved it through her recent string of good deeds in her village. She even stooped to befriend Agatha, the creepy girl who lives in the cemetery.
Agatha will be the perfect evil child, so Sophie does her part to see they are kidnapped together. But when Sophie’s plan succeeds and the girls are spirited away to the two-schools-in-one, they’re certain there’s been a mistake. Agatha is deposited at the School for Good, while Sophie is sent to the School for Evil. Sophie will have to learn ways to kill, uglify herself, curse others and the like. She begins a campaign to convince everyone she’s been miscategorized, but she only succeeds in annoying her three evil roommates.
Agatha, feeling out of place at the School for Good, only wants to get Sophie and break out so they can go home. But Sophie has no desire to leave. She is still convinced she can right this terrible wrong and get transferred to the School for Good. She also falls for a prince named Tedros and can think of nothing but winning him for herself. She repeatedly thwarts Agatha’s efforts to rescue her and takes Agatha’s loyalty for granted.
Although upset, Agatha continues with her studies in hopes that Sophie will change her mind. Agatha discovers she has the power to release enchanted humans from spells that have held them captive as animals or objects. Then Sophie’s flirting with Tedros begins to convince him she may be good after all, and he vows to help her prove her goodness.
The girls are brought before the School Master. He shows them that the Storian, a glowing pen that writes by itself, is creating their fairly tale at that moment. He tells them the only way they can prove who they really are is to solve a riddle. They must determine the one thing Evil can never have and Good can never do without.
Sophie’s roommates tell her the history of the school. There were once two School Masters who were twin brothers. One was good; the other was evil. The brothers ran the school and protected the Storian, ensuring the balance of good and evil. The evil brother tried to seize the Storian so he could be in control. A great war began, and one brother was killed. No one knows which brother won, but everyone suspects it was the Good brother since Evil hasn’t won a battle in years.
The girls determine that the answer to their riddle is Love. Agatha is convinced that if Sophie’s true love, Tedros, kisses Sophie, it will prove she isn’t a villain. Then they can go home. Only Sophie learns that the students at the School for Good (who are called Evers) are having a ball. She’s determined not to miss it, even if it means keeping Tedros from bestowing True Love’s Kiss upon her.
Sophie’s grades are horrible, so Agatha helps her cheat so as not to be kicked out. Agatha frequently puts a spell on herself to become a cockroach. She sneaks in to the Evil school (whose students are called Nevers) to help Sophie study. Sometimes she hides in Sophie’s hair to whisper answers to her and help her pass difficult challenges in the classroom.
Meanwhile, Sophie starts to dress in heavy makeup and short, tight dresses to get the attention of other males. She begins teaching lunchtime lectures to the girls at her school so they can grow in popularity with the Evers.
Tedros finally agrees to take Sophie to the ball, even though it goes against all the rules about Evers and Nevers remaining with their own kind. Several of the Nevers, who are convinced Sophie has been cheating on her exams and homework, plan to kill her in an upcoming challenge. A disguised Agatha saves Sophie from certain death, but Sophie’s behavior afterward puts her at odds with both Agatha and Tedros. Agatha wishes to be beautiful, and her wish comes true. Soon, she and Tedros plan to attend the ball together. Sophie then shows the extent of her evil nature by waging war against the Evers and trying to destoy Agatha, whom she now realizes is her Nemesis.
In a competition the night of the ball, students are required to demonstrate a talent. Sophie has been locked out of the room, so the students hope there won’t be trouble. Agatha can’t think of a talent. When her turn comes, she realizes that the fairy and wolf guards are actually former students who were given these bodies and guard jobs for failing their classes. She doesn’t have enough power to free their spirits, but her ability to show the other students the truth makes the current students more compassionate toward the guards.
Sophie breaks in, and using her evil magic, sends ravens to brutally destroy the wolves and fairies. She tries unsuccessfully to destroy the student body as well. Sophie soon leads the conflicted Nevers in waging a final battle against the Evers. Agatha visits the School for Evil in an effort to stop the war. When the Evers arrive to attack, Sophie tries to discredit Agatha and convince the Evers that Agatha is on Evil’s side. Evers magically become ugly, and Nevers become attractive, until no one knows who is on whose side. Sophie realizes the only way she will ever get the ending she wants is to destroy the School Master and the Storian.
The School Master, who appears as a handsome prince, tells Sophie they belong together. He reveals that he is Evil, but Good has continued to triumph all these years because Love is the most powerful force there is. He believes that with Sophie, he can find something even more powerful: Evil love. He kisses her and turns into a rotting, maggot-filled corpse.
Sophie is in despair, finally believing she can never be Good. Just then, Agatha rescues her. As the other students look on, the spirit of the School Master’s brother takes on the body of a willing teacher and destroys the Evil brother before vanishing. Agatha holds Sophie’s dying body as Sophie pants that she doesn’t want to be evil. When Agatha thinks Sophie is dead, she kisses her friend on the lips. The kiss revives Sophie, and the two friends happily vanish.
Christian Beliefs
Other belief systems.
Agatha prays a number of times to no one in particular, just as though she is making a wish.
Students at the school are responsible for protecting the balance between good and evil in the world. One leader tells the incoming students all children are born with souls that are either good or evil, and they cannot change their natures. He admits that some may feel the stirrings of both good and evil if they come from families where both existed, but it is the school’s job to rid any child of those stirrings.
Students at the School for Evil are made to uglify themselves. According to a teacher, only once they’ve destroyed who they think they are can they embrace who they truly are. When a Never discovers his or her Nemesis, the Never cannot be happy until that person is dead.
Authority Roles
Sophie’s mother is dead. Her father, for whom she has little love or respect, is interested in another woman in town. Agatha lives with her mother in the cemetery. The girl speculates that her father pretended she (Agatha) never happened and went back to his wife before dying in a mill accident. Tedros’s mother, Guinevere, ran off with Lancelot when her son was 9, saying she had found love. The School Master kidnaps children. He tries to make Sophie love him and become his evil princess.
Profanity & Violence
The Lord’s name is used in vain several times. The words crap and a– also appear. A number of bloody battles take place between the Evers and Nevers. Children fall from cliffs and are swept up in floodwaters. The School Master’s body becomes a rotting corpse with maggots and charred flesh, and he nearly consumes Sophie in the same gory death.
A sign at the School for Evil says the school exists to propagate sin. Some courses of study include casting spells, murdering, kidnapping and causing suffering. One of Sophie’s roommates has a demon tattoo that comes to life. On one occasion, the demon splits into pieces and wields knives to destroy another student.
The story contains a lot of discussions about killing. Nevers are told they will feel free only when they have killed their Nemesis. One class involves murder practice, where the person who kills in the cruelest way wins. Nevers strive to enter into the eternal glory of a land called Nevermore.
The School for Evil’s buildings are decorated with symbols of murder and torture. One of Sophie’s roommates calls her Beelzebub. Skeletal creatures lounge by the bloody carcass of a half-eaten goat. A crypt keeper with a backlog of bodies is seen burying some with coffins and some without while vultures circle overhead.
Students plot to kill Sophie during one of the competitions. The School Master wants Sophie to be his princess because she can give him something more powerful than the kind of love heroes experience. She can love him with Evil love. He suggests they marry so they can hurt, destroy, punish and have something worth fighting for. The School Master and Sophie turn into rotting corpses after their kiss.
Sexual Content
Kissing is discussed frequently. The School Master kisses Sophie, then begins to rot and deteriorate. Agatha kisses Sophie on the lips and tells her she loves her to seal their friendship and give their fairy tale a happy ending.
The girls flock to watch shirtless princes practicing swordplay. Sophie takes to wearing heavy makeup and short, tight, strapless dresses to impress Tedros. One of her seductive outfits even includes a matching nun’s wimple. All the boys, and even some of the guards, give her their attention. Sophie teaches lunchtime classes, including one called Building your Body for Sin.
Discussion Topics
Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books .
Additional Comments
Bathroom humor – Characters frequently fart
Gender inequality – Ever girls get failing grades and suffer punishment worse than death if they don’t get a boy to ask them to the ball. Punishments for boys without dates are far milder. Girls who need a ball date try to look timid and helpless so boys will take them under their wings. When Agatha points out the inequity of these rules, a male classmate tells her that boys can choose to be alone if they want, but girls who end up alone might as well be dead.
You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected] .
Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.
Latest Book Reviews
The Secret Library
All At Once Upon a Time
Impossible Creatures
The Star Horse (Once Upon a Horse Book 3)
Skyshade (The Lightlark Saga Book 3)
The Hotel Balzaar
Weekly reviews straight to your inbox.
Want to stay Plugged In?
Our weekly newsletter will keep you in the loop on the biggest things happening in entertainment and technology. Sign up today, and we’ll send you a chapter from the new Plugged In book, Becoming a Screen-Savvy Family , that focuses on how to implement a “screentime reset” in your family!
the wordy habitat
book recommendations, blogging tips, & asian dramas
The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani || Book Review
When I started my Goodreads account years back, The School for Good and Evil was the first book that I added to my TBR. I was actually in 9th grade then so I was very close to the target audience.
It’s a shame that it took me this long to actually read this book. If I had read it back then, I would have loved it so much more.
This review was initially posted on my old blog and I'm reposting it because the series is being adapted by Netflix and I'm very excited!
the concept
The characters, friendship > love, good vs evil.
The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before. Some years it was two boys taken, some years two girls, sometimes one of each. But if at first the choices seemed random, soon the pattern became clear. One was always beautiful and good, the child every parent wanted as their own. The other was homely and odd, an outcast from birth. An opposing pair, plucked from youth and spirited away. This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil. But when the two girls are swept into the Endless Woods, they find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School For Good, thrust amongst handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.. But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are…?
Trigger warnings: fatphobia, parental issues, bullying.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK.
It’s a shame that I didn’t get my hands on a copy of this back in school! I got the chance to finally read this book as an audiobook and I’m so glad. The audiobook was really fun to listen to.
So let’s get to why exactly I liked this book.
In the book, there are two schools—one for Good and one for Evil. Students who graduate from these schools become heroes and villains in their own stories respectively.
The author brought in students who are children of well-known heroes and villains from fairytales as well as other acquaintances. The students have to do well in their classes in order to get high marks and get their own stories.
The book was super fun to read because of the concept. I imagined it all while listening to the narration and it was great.
Until Sophie and Agatha, all the characters were easily split into Good and Evil. There are easily distinguishable traits in students so there was never an issue.
It should have been the same for Sophie and Agatha but they’re put into the wrong schools which set the book’s main plot.
Sophie and Agatha showed how Good and Evil are not so clearly distinguished. A person can be both and just because you like pink, you’re not Good. You are divided based on morals and thoughts, not what you think you are.
This moral was subtly shown throughout the book. It definitely has something to teach to younger readers.
Sophie and Agatha were so fun to follow! We read from both of their points of view so we have a complete view of their adventures.
They are also complex characters without a straight moral compass. This clear but also subtle way of showing what truly matters as a person was brilliant.
The other characters in the book were interesting enough but they were not as interesting as our main characters.
This book is more focused on friendship than love. The friendship in limelight is Sophia and Agatha’s but we also see other friendships in the book.
I loved the friendship focus. Sophia and Agatha have a complicated friendship which is tested during this book. It was interesting to see how they manage it all.
There is some focus on the love aspect but it’s mainly only to show how love is expected for Good students while Evil students are always alone as villains. And some questions are raised about love as well.
Through this book, the author questions some fundamental things about Good and Evil. Why does Good always win? Why does Good get love while Evil doesn’t? Why does Evil have to be ugly in appearance? Why can’t heroes be ugly and villains be beautiful?
The questions I really loved were: why do villains have all the character while heroes are bland with some morals? Why does Good have no sass and cleverness? Why do they depend on love and companionship while Evil can do everything alone?
These are all questions that kids usually think about and question as they read fairytales. I questioned these things myself.
It was wonderful to see how the author takes these questions and spins a whole storyline around it . Some things are questioned and taken apart while others are answered through the story.
If this book was a fairytale like the others that we know, it would end with the Good student finding love and winning over Evil. But this book turns things around.
I really like how the ending was different and showed the true meaning of a happy ending. It was such a twist and wholly unexpected but was the BEST. I won’t say anymore because of spoilers.
Also, while it has a good enough ending, the series continues after this. It doesn't fully end. But I didn't find much suspense and didn't continue the series.
If you are looking for a middle-grade book to read or recommend, pick this! Especially if you’re recommending to middle grade or younger students.
P. S. I haven't read the second book so I'm not sure about this but I've heard that book 2 has a transphobic element. Please pick it up with caution.
let's chat!
Have you read The School for Good and Evil ? What are your thoughts on it, especially the themes that it portrays?
If you haven't read it, are you planning to? Did you hear that Kit Young (Jesper from Shadow & Bone adaptation) is playing one of the key characters in the Netflix adaptation?! I'm very excited to see him on screen in this story.
Sumedha spends her days reading books, bingeing Kdramas, drawing illustrations, and blogging while listening to Lo-Fi music. Read more ➔
you may also like
- Girl, Goddess, Queen by Bea Fitzgerald || Book Review
- Passenger Princess by Morgan Elizabeth || Book Review
- To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara || Book Review
- Till There Was You by Lindsay Hameroff || Book Review
Be wordy with me! Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .
31 comments
I have this on my TBR too ?? but it's quite a looooong book so I'm putting this off .. I loved your pointers on this book
Haha yes it is long. But its worth it!
I'll keep it handy then ?
awesome, thanks for sharing x
No problem!
I used to LOOVE this book growing up and am so excited that they’re turning it into a show!
Same! Can't wait to see the characters on screen!
With all the books being adapted to screens. I really feel like reading them all and then watching the adaptations. But then where do I have the time. ???
Also, I realised that I lose my patience with screen adaptations because I already know how things are going to turn out. And at times when they do not show your favourite parts. It is such a downer.
I get that! Also, sometimes it's alright to just watch the adaptations. I watched S&B without reading the books and it's alright. As a book community we always feel like we should read first and need to unlearn that ?
This sounds like an awesome book, Sumedha! I'm so glad that you loved and enjoyed it so much! I've never heard of this but the cover looks great! xx
lynn | https://www.lynnmumbingmejia.com
It is! Thanks for your comment ?
readers are loving these!
Support the habitat, get new posts in your inbox.
type your email…
some more amazing blogs
The Critiques of a Fangirl Hardcover Haven 24hryabookblog Books Teacup and Reviews First Line Reader
IMAGES
VIDEO