Soman Chainani‘s The School For Good And Evil is a fantasy hexalogy. The first book in the series was released on May 14, 2013. In the Endless Woods. The original trilogy (The School Years) follows Sophie and Agatha as they attend the School for Good and Evil. The second trilogy (The Camelot Years) follows Agatha and King Tedros as they become Queen and King of Camelot, and Sophie re-forming Evil. On June 2, 2020, the series’ final book was released.
Summary
The School For Good And Evil
On the 11th night of the 11th month in Gavaldon, two 12-year-olds are kidnapped. Sophie dreams of princesses and princes. Agatha has sulky shoes, bug eyes, and bad shoes. People say she’s suited for the School for Evil because she lives in a graveyard. Agatha sees Sophie taken. Instead of Gavaldon, she and Sophie attend school.
Sophie attends the School for Evil and Agatha the School for Good. Agatha refuses to swap schools with Sophie. Sophie wants to be Good and falls for King Arthur’s son, Tedros. Observes Sophie and Agatha can’t leave school for security. Agatha isn’t Good like Sophie. Why is Sophie in Evil School? They learn from the mistake.
Agatha flunks most of her classes, yet she can grant wishes. Sophie and Agatha ride a stymph to the tower. The School Master challenges them to prove their whereabouts. Agatha and Sophie are sent to the Doom Room after disrupting an assembly. Retaliating, Sophie drowns Beast. Girls use True Love’s Kiss. Agatha transports the girls. She becomes a cockroach and whispers Sophie test answers. Agatha helps Sophie thrive in school despite her desire to oppose Hester, the witch from Hansel and Gretel, in order to prove her place in Evil.
Agatha tries to assist Sophie get Tedros’ kiss. Tedros wasn’t leaving. Tedros offers to kiss Sophie after they both win Trial by Tale, a test in which top Good and Evil pupils dodge teachers’ traps and the opposite side. Ever and Never broken fairy tale rules. Sophie selfishly doesn’t defend Tedros against Agatha’s illegal behaviour. After duping Good’s prince, she’s “#1 Villain.” Agatha stole Sophie’s happily-ever-after.
Unlike Sophie, Agatha saved Tedros. Sophie has Nemesis Dreams, which reveal who the best villains must kill as their Nemesis in order to survive their fairy tale and be welcomed to the Nevermore-Evil paradise. Tedros gives Sophie nightmares, but he’s weakening. Tedros fell behind Agatha. Grimm thinks Agatha is Sophie’s Nemesis, not Tedros. Agatha accepts Tedros’s love in the Circus of Talents. Sophie overhears and gets bald, jealous, toothless. Agatha’s home and school burn.
The Storian atones for the Good School Master’s murder by telling Sophie about his true love. After kissing him, Nevers realises she was always Evil. Agatha will be killed so Sophie can be taken. Sophie’s sacrifice stunned the Headmaster. August Sader, a seer and history teacher, kills the Evil Schoolmaster. After Sophie’s heart attack, Agatha kisses her. Agatha’s kiss revives Sophie, and she and Agatha return to Gavaldon without a prince. Tedros’ love disappeared before the Evers’ Snowball. Good and Evil couldn’t be friends, kids thought.
A World Without Princes
Agatha and Sophie, housewives. Sophie deceives Agatha. Sophie thinks Agatha leaving SGE won’t be celebrated. Sophie’s dad’s wedding is important to Agatha. Sophie’s wish grants her magic arrows. Sophie is attacked. Elders claim to safeguard Sophie, but they’ll yield to rabble. They tell Agatha to leave Sophie in church. Sophie finds a horrifying letter in the woods. Take Me kills her. Agatha protects Sophie. Help them reach blossom line, butterfly. Good and Evil School is by train.
The renamed School for Females is filled with blue-clad girls from both institutions. As Evelyn Sader shows the girls about, they see that damsels in distress have become warrior women. Agatha notices there are no boys and learns the School for Evil’s girls fled to the School for Good. The boys were put to School for Evil.
Sophie is surprised because Agatha anticipated her to marry Tedros. Agatha is homesick. Sophie prevents Agatha from kissing Tedros with an invisible cape. Tedros fears Sophie will seek revenge before Agatha kisses him. While they argue, Sophie performs a spell. Tedros fights Agatha. Agatha ditches Tedros. Sophie lies in School for Good. To take the Storian from School for Boys, a woman must transform. Sophie is selected for her tenacity. Sophie’s father originally planned to name her Filip. Filip defends Tedros during a fight. Making friends. Filip promises Tedros he’ll visit Sophie’s mum. Tedros doesn’t want to meet his mother because King Arthur issued a head warrant (she cheated on him with Sir Lancelot). At 16, he must honour it.
Agatha hides from Fillip and Tedros. Agatha observes Tedros almost kiss Filip. Filip becomes Sophie as his charm wears off, prompting a fight. Evelyn Sader, dean of the new School for Girls and half-sister of August Sader, uses butterflies to join the three. New Dean gives Storian a fairytale book. After telling Sophie she can’t trust her, Agatha kisses Tedros. Dean stops Storian’s paper. Sophie’s yearning to visit her husband-abandoned mother prompted them back to school, says Evelyn. Sophie accepts Evelyn’s request, and her mother is the School Master’s ghost. Sophie kisses Agatha’s soul, who becomes the School Master and says a true kiss can raise the dead. Evelyn’s death sends Agatha home. Agatharescues Tedros. The School Master didn’t abandon Sophie, so she stays. Both are evil. As the girls are separated, they remain in loving arms.
The End of The Story
Three weeks after “A World Without Princes,” the returned School Master renames Old Evil and New Evil. Rafal must’marry’ Sophie and destroy Good. Agatha and Tedros ignored her pleading, so she fears being alone forever. The Storian doesn’t consider Sophie teaching at the School for New Evil a ‘happy ending.’ The girls’ storybook is late. As the sun wanes, the magical world closes.
The villagers try to execute Agatha and Tedros for all the devastation she and Sophie caused. Agatha’s’mother’ Callis sacrifices herself to escape. Professor Uma saves them and says Rafal’s resurrection has allowed past villains to return as undead and that the surviving original heroes have organised a League of Thirteen lead by Merlin to resist Rafal’s onslaught. Snow White, the Seven Dwarfs, Rapunzel, and Tom Thumb die.
Once Agatha and Tedros break Rafal’s ring, Sophie must kill him. Tedros lost Excalibur for Rafal. Tedros tries to rescue Sophie from Rafal as Agatha retrieves Excalibur. Sophie’s pals Hester, Anadil, Dot, and Hort help her enter the School. Rafal liberates them.
Guinevere and Lancelot are alive on Avalon. Slowly, he forgives Arthur’s paranoia and control. Agatha gives Sophie Tedros. Sophie and Tedros kiss and realise they shouldn’t be together. Sophie becomes Queen of Evil in Rafal. Agatha and Tedros become queens before battle. Gavaldon, shielded by fairytale energy, is under attack. Agatha learns in training that Cinderella wasn’t a princess. She joined her stepsisters. Her stepsisters died at the wedding.
Merlin turns the School’s students against Rafal and Sophie with Lady Lesso’s help. Sophie and Agatha follow Lady Lesso to the School for Old Evil, where she explains that Evil was designed to become a part of Good. She and Agatha uncover Vanessa’s corpse and story, which explains their bond. Agatha wants to recover, while Sophie wants to retain Rafal. Agatha says she won’t be alone if she leaves Rafal.
Rafal invades, Cinderella dies, and Gavaldon’s wall fails. Instead of destroying the community, he executes Sophie’s father Stefan. Agatha reminds Sophie about their friendship as she threatens Sophie’s happy ending. Sophie kills Rafal and spares everyone else. The three reunite amid the Endless Woods. Sophie and Agatha mourn Lady Lesso, killed by Aric.
Lady Lesso and Cinderella’s burials look typical. Lady Lesso makes Sophie Dean of the School of Evil so she won’t go to Camelot with Agatha and Tedros. Visit Camelot. Sophie is herself in her new work and purpose.
Reception
The Guardian and the Miami Herald praised the series’ first novel.
Awards
Waterstone’s 5-12 Best Fiction Prize (2014, nominee for The School for Good and Evil)
Adaptation
Shortly after the first book’s release, Universal Pictures acquired film rights. Paul Feig will helm a 2020 Netflix film adaptation of the novel. Sophia Anne Caruso and Sofia Wylie starred in 2020. Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington, Laurence Fishburne, and Michelle Yeoh also star. Jamie Flatters and Kit Young will play Tedros and Rafal, respectively. Earl Cave will play Hort in 2021. Northern Ireland’s Belfast Harbour Studios is filming. 2022 is the releasing date.
