"The School for Good And Evil" Book Review

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

New York Times Bestseller * Indie List Bestseller * Indie Next Pick * Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2013 * Soon to be a Major Film from Universal Pictures 

"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…?

"The School for Good & Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one."

Oh my god! I cannot wait for the next book in the trilogy! I loved it! Everything! Poor Tedros! I don't have a clue what he is going to do!

While reading it I felt bad and sympathetic for all of the characters, but after reading and thinking about I feel much more sympathetic towards Agatha and not so much towards Sophie. She's quite horrible at many different stages throughout the book, but it's understandable.

It was a very clever take on witches and princesses and how fairy tales come about. To a certain degree everything is fairly sad. Just punishments and so forth. There were parts of this book that were downright disgustingly awful to read. They were horrible to each other. I'm not sure I would let a little kid read this, but I guess if video games happen, ehh...

It's a middle school age book so don't expect too much of a deeper reading into good and evil, but it is very enjoyable. I devoured it in a day and I didn't expect to do that.

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Five out of five stars.

My review for the second book, "The School for Good and Evil: A World Without Princes" can be found here.

My review for the third book is coming soon!