"The School for Good and Evil" by Soman Chainani

Title: The School for Good and Evil

Author: Soman Chainani

Series: The School for Good and Evil, #1

My rating: 5 of 5

(Book read from August 13th-18th, 2013.)

Summary:

  

 

“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.

 

My Thoughts on the Book:  

The School for Good and Evil is an amazing magical book, that will take you on quite the magnificent journey that you wouldn't want for it to end, yet you'll keep turning the pages, because you can't wait to see how it will end.

So, what exactly is this book about? Well, it was definitely about more than I expected it to be. Imagine a place where fairy tales, and their heroes & villains, are part of the real world & the history, and your family legacy is to be a hero or a villain, so of course there's a school for you to hone your skills - the School for Good for the heroes a.k.a the Evers, and the School for Evil for the villains a.k.a the Nevers. And imagine that that world is magnificent & magical, but also a little bit dark, and a little bit heartbreaking, too. That's all I'm going to say about it.

The world-building in this book was done beautifully, and the world itself was absolutely brilliant. Seriously, what an imagination. I loved everything about it, the sweet & fun, as well as the sad & dark, just everything about it. I do love when the author really thought it through while creating their story, and Soman Chainani has done a wonderful job in that aspect.

Now, for the story itself. You might think you'll know what will happen in this book, and yeah, for some things I was right from the beginning, but there are so many twists & turns in this book, and they all totally worked, and they didn't feel like too much, and it totally amazed me & made me fall in love with this book even more. Really, this book will be an amazing movie, I really can't wait. It was entertaining, funny, heartbreaking, magical & fantastical read full of surprises, and I can't recommend enough to every fan of fantasy &/or fairy-tale-like books!

But, the strongest point about this book are all the characters, and when I say all, I mean all of them: the main, the secondary, the really minor ones, everyone, both Evers & Nevers. I actually loved Agatha as a character from the beginning, but the rest slowly got under my skin & in my heart, and I absolutely adored everyone of them. They were so, so amazing, beginning with Agatha and ending with Hort.

And now, I absolutely can't wait for the next book, I'm so happy that there will be 2 more, because I want more of this world & especially of these characters.

 

Also, something I have to mention is the amazing art of Iacopo Bruno. I mean, sure I thought it was a beautiful cover when I saw it for the first time, but what I didn't realise until I started reading this book, was how perfect it is for the story, and the details it contains. Actually, it seems that's always the case when it comes to Iacopo Bruno's book cover illustrations. Also, the illustrations inside the book were lovely & perfect also.

So, The School for Good and Evil was quite the unexpected, but lovely surprise this year, and it's definitely one of my fav reads now, and I can't recommend it enough!

 

 

Challenges:

2013 Books-In-A-Series Reading Challenge

2013 Read-along Challenge