The School for Good and Evil

The School for Good and Evil is a series of fairytale books by Soman Chainani. The first novel in the series was published on May 14, 2013. The series is set in a fictional widespread location known as the Endless Woods.

The original trilogy (known as The School Years) follows the adventures of best friends Sophie and Agatha at the School for Good and Evil, an enchanted institution where children are trained to become fairytale heroes or villains, respectively. The second trilogy (The Camelot Years) follows Agatha and her true love King Tedros ascending to the role of Queen and King of the legendary kingdom, Camelot, and Sophie re-forming Evil into a new image. The final book in the original series was released on June 2, 2020, with the first book in a prequel series debuting in 2022. A film adaptation by Netflix was released on October 19, 2022.

Premise
For the last 200 years, every four years, two children are kidnapped from the village of Gavaldon. Usually, one child is well-behaved and majestic, and the other is hideous and peculiar. The kidnapper, referred to as "the School Master," allegedly 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. They figured this out by seeing many of the kidnapped children in story books, such as Grace and Enya, who were the first children to be taken.

The School for Good & Evil (2013)
Beautiful and pink-adoring Sophie dreams of attending the School for Good and finding true love. Meanwhile, her best friend Agatha, who isn't stereotypically pretty and withdrawn, is deemed the perfect candidate for the School for Evil. On the night of the kidnapping, both girls are kidnapped but are seemingly sent to the "wrong" schools: Sophie to the School for Evil and Agatha to the School for Good. Soon after, Sophie becomes smitten with King Arthur's son, Tedros of Camelot, who also takes notice of her. Agatha, however, only wants to go home; she and Sophie ask the School Master to go home, but the Storian begins their fairy tale. He tells them they must follow it and give them a riddle to solve; the answer is true love's kiss.

Sophie must kiss Tedros to prove they are in the wrong schools and go home; he denies her, however, after she refuses to save him out of selfishness. Sophie becomes bitter and learns Agatha is her nemesis, whom she must kill in her fairy tale to be happy. Sophie begins her transformation into evil when Tedros asks Agatha to be his princess: she loses her perfect beauty and attacks the School for Good. During the battle, Sophie learns the School Master is Evil, and the reason Good wins every fairy tale is because the Storian (the enchanted fountain pen that writes the fairy tales) is atoning the School Master for the murder of his brother, who was Good. He believes that Sophie is his true love, and her kiss will restore Evil's glory. However, Sophie denies him and sacrifices herself to save Agatha, who kisses her, reviving her. The two return home, ending their fairy tale while Tedros is left alone.

A World Without Princes (2014)
Agatha and Sophie have settled back into their old lives in Gavaldon. Agatha misses Tedros and secretly wishes for him. This triggers a wave of mysterious attacks on Sophie, which threaten the entire village and cause the two girls to be run out of town. They make their way to the School for Good and Evil, only to find it had become the School for Girls and Boys upon their departure.

At the School for Boys, Tedros is seeking revenge upon Sophie for supposedly stealing his true love. At the School for Girls, former Evil history teacher Evelyn Sader, who was banned from the schools years before and believed she was the School Master's true love, is now Dean. After Agatha kisses Tedros, Sophie is almost sent back to Gavaldon. However, Sophie is tricked into kissing the School Master when he pretends to be her deceased mother, promising that if she kisses him, her mother will come back to life. The School Master is then transformed into a 16 year old boy by the name of Rafal. Agatha and Tedros are returned to Gavaldon, with the fate of Sophie and the Endless Woods unclear.

The Last Ever After (2015)
In the wake of Sophie and the School Master's kiss, Evil has been shown capable of love, and all the previous fairy tale villains are given a second chance. They quickly hunt down their heroes and murder them, weakening the shield between the world of Readers (those who do not know the fairy tales are real) and the world of fairy tales, threatening the existence of both. With the shield weakening, the sun begins to melt. After leaving Gavaldon, Agatha and Tedros rescue Sophie and recover Excalibur, which they need to destroy a ring Rafal (the School Master) gave Sophie that transforms her soul into the deepest Evil and keeps him immortal. Sophie refuses and returns to Rafal; the two sides begin to prepare for a war on the night the sun will melt completely. During the war, another hero, Cinderella, is killed, and the shield between Gavaldon and the Woods disappears. However, when all hope is lost, Agatha convinces Sophie to destroy her ring, killing Rafal. Afterwards, Sophie becomes the Dean of the School for Evil, feeling content with her new life; Agatha and Tedros arrive at Camelot, seeking to restore it to its former glory.

The Camelot Years
Three books in the series school for good and evil which focuses 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.

Quests for Glory (2017)
The students at the School for Good and Evil set out on their required fourth-year quests. For their quests, Agatha and Tedros must try and return Camelot to its former splendor as queen and king. For her quest, Dean Sophie seeks to mold Evil in her own image. When a mysterious villain known as "the Snake" emerges, terrorizing 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, however, Rhian is revealed to be in cahoots with the Snake and takes over Camelot.

A Crystal of Time (2019)
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.

One True King (2020)
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.

Rise of the School for Good and Evil (2022)
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.

Fall of the School for Good and Evil (2023)
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."

- Soman Chainani

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. Sophia Anne Caruso and Sofia Wylie were cast in the lead roles in December 2020. In addition, Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington, Laurence Fishburne and Michelle Yeoh all have supporting roles in the film. On March 19, 2021, it was announced that Jamie Flatters would play Tedros and Kit Young would play Rafal. On March 24, 2021, it was revealed that Earl Cave will play Hort. 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.