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The School for Good and Evil Book Review

  By Ankita Bhargava



(Spoilers for the first two chapters of The School for Good and Evil)

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani revolves around two girls named Sophie and Agatha. They live in a small town, where every four years, two children are kidnapped by the School Master. Those children (one good, one evil) later show up in storybooks that mysteriously arrive in the village, after being taken to twin schools of good and evil. Sophie's dream is to be a Good princess, while Agatha is the perfect candidate for and Evil witch. However, when they are finally taken to the school, Sophie is taken to the School for Evil, while Agatha is taken to the School for Good. 

I really liked this book because of the way that it immediately introduces the character's personalities, their flaws and their relationships with other characters. In the first page, we learn that Sophie wants to marry a prince and that she is a little conceited. It also introduces Agatha as her polar opposite, who lives in a cemetery and is quick-tempered. It sets up that Sophie would naturally go into Good and Agatha will naturally go into Evil, making it all the more jarring when they are dumped into the opposite schools and cannot be moved. 

Additionally, the author gives thought into making both sides three dimensional, so that Good characters are not always heroes and Evil ones are not always villains. Each side has their flaws, with Good being obsessed with beauty and love, and Evil being rude and antagonistic, even within themselves, reflecting Sophie and Agatha, and keeping the challenges they have to face varied and interesting. All of the side characters are children of famous fairy tale figures, but despite that being common in a lot of books and media, they are distinct from each other and are creative allies and antagonists, and are fully fleshed out characters in their own right. 

This book is the first of six, and a film adaptation is due to be released in 2022. 


The School for Good and Evil (School for Good and Evil, 1): Chainani, Soman, Bruno, Iacopo: Amazon.com: Books

Comments

  1. Maya ViswanathanApril 20, 2021 at 1:48 PM

    I have heard a lot about this book and I want to read it. It sounds really interesting and I like reading fantasy books about magical schools. I like how you mention that the characters are 3 dimensional. I think a lot of books have characters that are black and white and it is really interesting how you say that in this book, even though the characters are supposed to be either good or evil, the characters are more gray. I think that the way the characters can have both good and bad traits while still being opposites and fitting into the descriptions of the heroes and villains in stories is really cool. Great job!

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