The School for Good and Evil: The Last Ever After by Soman Chainani

Have you ever noticed that books in a series get longer as the series progresses? It's like editors get leery of criticizing an author's work, but I'm generally of the opinion that a good editor is worth their weight in gold. Creative types sometimes have a hard time seeing their work objectively and that's where a good editor comes in. It's their job to suggest where necessary cuts should be made and where scenes need more substance to aide the flow of narrative. Just think what an amazing book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix could have been if it had been 200 pages shorter and minus the puberty morass.

Anyway, I guess it's clear I think this the third tome in the series suffers from being too long. The Last Ever After weighs in at a whopping 655 pages and I'm generally of the opinion that that's too long for something billing itself as a YA novel. (I'm sure there are exceptions, but I can't come up with any.)

It would be one thing if the pacing was such that I didn't notice the length. That does happen sometimes, but there were several times during my read where I ended a session with a huge sigh and started flipping around to gauge the length of the section/chapter.

That all sounds pretty negative. Aside from its length and related pacing issues, this is a decent book.  At the end of the second book, Agatha has her kiss and chooses Tedros. Sophie has her kiss and chooses the evil school master. The Last Ever After picks up only a few weeks later with Agatha and Tedros trapped in the reader world and having severe relationship issues. In the meantime Sophie is in the school master's tower with a rejuvenated school master deeply questioning the wisdom of her choice.

Of course, the only choice is to reopen "The Story of Agatha and Sophie" yet again but with even higher stakes. I'm trying not to roll my eyes here, but yeah... heavy sarcasm on the word 'again'.

Right, so I think part of my frustration with the length is that the ending was telegraphed from the first book in the series. There were some nice moments along the way and some of the side characters really got developed and fleshed out in this third volume...but it's still quite the undertaking to read.

The School for Good and Evil: A World Without Princes

I was enchanted enough with the first book, that I went ahead and picked up the second. Honestly, the story was so tied up at the end of the first book that I didn't really know where Chainani could go in the second book.

Apparently, when a reader does something strange in the fairy tale world school, it does strange things to the whole world. So, Sophie and Agatha got to go home, but once there they each find that they are unhappy for one reason or another. Sophie is still having a hard time with her father and wishes she could see her mother again. Agatha has moments of regretting her choice to go home with Sophie and wishes for Tedros. They are soon lured back to the fairy tale school but find that everything is different. The schools are no longer for good and evil but have instead becomes a school for girls and a school for boys. The sexes are at war, or nearly so because Agatha proved that a princess did not necessarily need a prince.

Of course, Sophie and Agatha are at the heart of the conflict and it just isn't clear what the right path is.

So good things: Tedros becomes something more than an annoying and self-righteous prick. I also like that the narrative puts Tedros and Sophie on even footing by having him echo things Sophie has said. The pacing issue in the first book is fixed in the second. I like the way the evil students and good students find common ground, even if it feels temporary.

And the bad things: The story is getting annoyingly moralizing. It seems like Chainani's world is punishing action over intention. Sophie often acts with good intention and she just keeps getting smacked down in a way that I'm finding annoying. I don't really like Sophie. I wouldn't hang out with her given a chance but it just seems like she's being bullied by the story and I hate bullies. Agatha seems more than usually powerless which I don't like but may also be temporary leading in to the third book.

All in all, there is stronger and smoother writing in the second book but the plot line is more confusing. Certainly, A World Without Princes was a more enjoyable read than the first book.

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

I've been curious about this book for while. It has compelling cover art and it hit the New York Times Bestseller List which always gets my attention for YA. My sister-in-law read it and had a sort of ambivalent reaction to it which is intriguing in and of itself. As a general rule, Carra tends to have clear reactions to the things that she reads. So, I borrowed it. I can see why Carra had the reaction she did, I can also see how it got to be a bestseller.

The School for Good and Evil is about two girls, Sophie and Agatha, who live in a village called Gavaldon that is completely enclosed in a ominous and somewhat magical forest. The village is completely isolated by this forest and it is impossible to escape. Every four years on the eleventh day of the eleventh month two children who are at least 12 are abducted. One child is good, sweet, and beautiful. One child is evil, sinister, and ugly. Everyone is sure that Sophie will be the good child taken this year and that Agatha will be the one taken for evil. Indeed, Sophie wants to be the one taken.

Sophie and Agatha are, in fact, the ones taken but against expectation Sophie ends up in the school for evil and Agatha ends up with the good. Is it a mistake, or is there something going on beneath the surface?

The world Chainani created for this book is amazing. I absolutely love the premise. The students are basically in training to be in fairy tales. That could be saccharine but it becomes clear very early on that there are dire consequences for failing in your studies which gives the whole world a bit of an edge from the get go. All the characters, in both schools, are well developed. All the primary and secondary characters are fully three dimensional which is challenging given how many there are. The plot reversals all make sense for the characters, and there are a startling number of them.

There are flaws, however. Firstly, Sophie and Agatha are supposed to be 12 and I very quickly stop believing that. The act and react to situations more like a 15 or 16 year old. Frankly, the good schools focus on princesses snaring princes is more than a little odd if they are all supposed to be between 12 and 16, the age range alone makes the concept a little problematic. However, more critically, I think: there is just too much going on here and not enough space for it. There is a massive cast of fully developed characters and almost too many plot twists. While everything that happens is properly seeded in the narrative, so much happens that it is easy to forget say...a two line description on the second page that becomes critically important in the last twenty pages. The last 100 pages or so end up feeling very compressed.

I think Chainani would have done better to split the plot arch over two, if not three, books and take more time developing events. However, I did very much enjoy the read and would recommend it despite the flaws.