The School for Good and Evil

Summary

The School Years

For the last 200 years, every four years, two children are kidnapped from the village of Gavaldon. Usually, one child is beautiful and good-hearted, and the other is hideous and villainous. The kidnapper, referred to as "the School Master," kidnaps them to the School for Good and Evil in the surrounding Endless Woods, where they are trained to become fairy tale heroes and villains. The townspeople figure this out by seeing many of the kidnapped children in story books, that arrive mysteriously at Mr Deauville's bookshop, such as Grace and Enya, who were the first children to be taken.

Beautiful Sophie dreams of attending the School for Good, desperate to escape her dreary village life and become a princess, find true love, and fulfil her dreams. Meanwhile, her best friend Agatha, who lives on Grave's Hill— is withdrawn, and not stereotypically pretty, but deemed the perfect candidate for the School for Evil. On the night of the kidnapping, Sophie does everything in her power to get taken, where Agatha does everything in her power to stop it, resulting in them both being kidnapped by a shadowy black figure known as The School Master, and dragged into the Endless Woods. They are seemingly dropped into the wrong schools by a enormous bird: Sophie to the School for Evil, becoming a "Never", and Agatha to the School for Good, becoming an "Ever". At the Welcoming Ceremony, Sophie becomes smitten with King Arthur's son, Tedros of Camelot, who also takes notice of her. Agatha, however, only wants to go home with her best friend. After Sophie is humiliated, the two sneak into the School Master's Tower and beg to be sent home, but the Storian, an enchanted fountain pen that writes all the fairy tales like Jack and the Beanstalk, Cindrella,instead begins their fairy tale. The School Master tells them to return home, they must solve a riddle, "What does Good have but Evil never will have?" The two girls realise that the answer could be true love's kiss.

Thus, Sophie must kiss Tedros, who she believes to be her true love, to prove they are in the wrong schools and go home.

Sophie and Agatha work together to court him, with Agatha mogrifying (magically turning into an animal) into a cockroach, and whispering words to Sophie. Before Tedros is to kiss Sophie and send the two girls home, she rebuts him, as she does not desire a quiet life in Gavaldon. Though the two attempt to maintain an Ever/Never relationship, in the Trial by Tale, a violent competition between the two schools, Tedros denies Sophie after she refuses to save him out of selfishness and learning about Agatha's role in their relationship. Sophie recognizes that she and Agatha are each indeed in the correct school. She grows bitter as she learns Agatha is her Nemesis, whom she must kill in her fairy tale to be happy, and who grows stronger as she grows weaker. Despondent over the loss of her best friend, Agatha seeks the assistance of Professor Dovey, Cinderella's fairy godmother aka The Dean of the School for Good, who helps Agatha to see the beauty within herself.

The Camelot Years

Three books in the series School for Good and Evil focusing on a new adventure featuring new and old characters but a much more evil villain. The books included in the Camelot years are Quests for Glory, a Crystal of Time, and One True King.

The School for Good and Evil students set out on their required fourth-year quests. For their quests, Agatha and Tedros must try and return Camelot to its former splendour as queen and king. Tedros is told to take out the sword, Excalibur, which is embedded in a stone so that he can become the king. But even after trying weeks and months, he cannot pull it out. The issues Tedros is having becoming king affect his and Agatha's relationship, and his opinion of her begins to sour. Dean Sophie seeks to mould Evil in her image for her quest. When a mysterious villain known as "the Snake" emerges, terrorising the land the old friends must work together to save the Endless Woods. A man named Rhian arrives to aid in the fight, who Sophie becomes immediately smitten with. He is the biggest aid in helping Camelot after the Snakes attacks, and eventually wins over everyone except for Agatha. Agatha's suspicions grow, but Sophie is taken by Rhian, and Tedros refuses to listen to her. Rhian is revealed to be in cahoots with the Snake and takes over Camelot, after easily removing Excalibur from the stone. He calls for Tedros' execution, and for Sophie to rule at his side as his queen.

A false king has claimed the throne of Camelot, sentenced Tedros to death, and forced Sophie to be his queen. Only Agatha manages to escape. Agatha and the students at the School for Good and Evil must find a way to restore Tedros to his throne and save Camelot before all of their fairy tales come to a lethal end. Tedros reclaims Excalibur, while Sophie witnesses Rhian and his brother Japeth fighting, with Japeth killing Rhian and assuming his identity. Agatha finds out that her cat, Reaper, is the king of gnomes, and his army helps to find the evil Japeth.

To prove he is the true King of Camelot, Tedros must pass three tests set by his late father, King Arthur. Pitted against him is the pretender king Japeth, who has all of the Woods on his side. Staying undercover, Tedros travels the Endless Woods with Agatha, Sophie, and his friends from the School for Good & Evil in a race to pass his father's tests and save the Endless Woods from Japeth's domination. Then they find out that both of the twins were not King Arthur's sons; they were the sons of the School Master and Evelyn Sader. This also solves the doubt about why Japeth is called R.J. because his full name is Rafal Japeth. Rhian pulled out the sword because Arthur's eldest son was Chaddick who was killed by Rafal. Chaddick was the son of Lady Gremelaine and Arthur. And Rhian had a scrap of fabric that held Chaddick's blood on himself, which enabled him to take the sword. But eventually, Tedros challenges Japeth to try and re-pull Excalibur out of the stone. Initially, it doesn't work because Japeth still has the fabric. Then Agatha incinerates the fabric, Tedros pulls out the sword and beheads Japeth. In the end, everyone lives happily ever after: Sophie ends up with Hort, and Agatha and Tedros marry at the School for Good and Evil.

Prequel series

The twin School Masters, Rafal and Rhian, have ruled the School for Good and Evil for many years in harmony. After a streak of Good victories, however, Rafal, the Evil School Master decides to try and even the scales. The attempts drive the brothers apart, creating a rift that threatens the balance of Good and Evil in the Endless Woods. Rafal realizes that he is the Good brother and Rhian is the Evil one, but not before Rhian's Dean James Hook takes several students to kill the evil Peter Pan. Released in 2022.

The sequel and conclusion to Rise of the School for Good and Evil, released in May 2023. Rhian and Rafal both lay separate claims to the School while Peter Pan attempts to kill them both. After a long and arduous battle, Peter is killed by the Storian, while Rhian and Rafal go to confront it on who will be the School Master. Rhian kills Rafal upon seeing the Storian seemingly draw Rafal's face, but realizes the Storian meant for Rhian to be School Master afterwards. This reveals that Rhian, not Rafal, was the School Master seen throughout the series, Rhian had taken his brother's name in The Last Ever After, and that the Rhian and Japeth from The Camelot Years are Rhian's kids, not Rafal's.

Conception

When Soman Chainani was younger, he did not have access to cable, the Internet, or video games; he only had a TV and VHS tapes of Walt Disney Animation Studios's films, many of which were based on classic fairy tales. At university, the difference between the original stories and Disney's versions captivated him when he took a class about the history of fairy tales.

Disney took the original fairy tales — filled with complexity and darkness and often horror — and essentially pasteurized them to make them more entertaining, and arguably more "appropriate" for children. I'm always struck by the fact that the original Grimms' stories often spoke loudest to older teenaged readers, while Disney tries to peddle these tales to a younger audience, often by changing the core of the story.

Chainani first began working on The School for Good and Evil in June 2010. Revisions, retellings, and mash-ups of fairy tales had gained popularity at the time. Works often included several cliches that had heavily influenced the portrayals Good and Evil, Boys and Girls, and Old and Young, as well as tropes that recurred in the portrayal of antagonists. Chainani, however, wanted to focus on something more primal: a brand-new fairy tale that was "just as unleashed and unhinged" as the older tales. Moreover, it would redevelop the fairy tale genre while acknowledging its past. In this way, by creating his own series, he aimed to dispel the commonly held stereotypes and deliver an original tale devoid of cliches.

Chainani initially planned the series as three trilogies: The School Years, The Camelot Years, and The New Class.

Publication

When he first began working on The School for Good and Evil, Chainani expected it to become a treatment for a screenplay he could sell. He later realized, however, that "it had to be novels". Producer Jane Startz, who Chainani worked with on an adaptation of The Pushcart War, agreed with this sentiment, squashing any doubt Chainani had. Startz negotiated the deal for the trilogy with publishing company HarperCollins after that. According to its editorial director—Phoebe Yeh—she "knew in [her] gut that [the company] were going to have a winner" from the novel's first sentence, being "blown away" by the originality, premise, characters, lore, and language. Yeh's enjoyment encouraged her to acquire the trilogy from Startz.

The School for Good and Evil was first published on May 14, 2013, in a 150,000-copy printing. In the United Kingdom, it was released on June 6 of the same year. The second novel, A World Without Princes, was published on April 15, 2014, while the third, The Last Ever After, was published a year later on July 21. This was followed by the release of the fourth and fifth books—Quests for Glory and A Crystal of Time—on September 19, 2017, and March 5, 2019, respectively. HarperCollins published final novel, One True King, on June 2, 2020.

Reception

Critical reception for the first book in the series has been positive, and the book has received praise from The Guardian and the Miami Herald.

Awards

Waterstone's Children's Book Prize for Best Fiction for 5-12 (2014, nominee for The School for Good and Evil)

Impact

The School for Good and Evil has amassed a significant international fan following. As of 2022, the series has been translated into over 32 languages and sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide. According to Vogue India, the series has become a "mainstay" on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Adaptation

Shortly after the first book's publication, Universal Pictures acquired rights to adapt the first novel into film. In 2020, Netflix announced it would take over and release a film adaptation of the novel, directed by Paul Feig. Filming took place at The Belfast Harbour Studios in Northern Ireland. The adaptation was released in 2022, debuting at #1 on Netflix in over 80 countries.