The School for Good and Evil is a 2013 fairytale fantasy novel written by Soman Chainani. The first novel in The School for Good and Evil series and Chainani's debut novel, it follows Sophie, a beautiful girl who believes she will be a Princess, and her friend Agatha, an oddity who is deemed a witch by the villagers, who are kidnapped by the School Master and taken to the School for Good and Evil. After their fortunes are reversed, Agatha is taken to the School for Good while Sophie is taken to the School for Evil, their friendship is put to the test.
The book was first published in the United States on May 14, 2013, by HarperCollins. It was published in the United Kingdom on June 6 of the same year. It is followed by five sequels and was made into a film adaptation by Netflix. The book has received positive reviews from critics who praised the novel's wit and the oddity of its storyline.
Plot
Every four years in the village of Gavaldon, two children are kidnapped by an unknown force into the surrounding Endless Woods, wherein a school allegedly lies where the heroes and villains of tales of folklore are trained. While most of the children and their families fear the unknown force taking them away, Sophie dreams of attending this school, where she can have her very own Happily Ever After with a charming prince. Sophie’s best friend Agatha, with her sulky attitude, ugly appearance, and negative outlook on the world, is the complete opposite of her. Combined with the fact that she lives with her outcast mother right next to a graveyard, she is deemed by the villagers to be a witch and a perfect candidate for the School for Evil. In spite of this, Agatha desires nothing more than to live a normal life in peace. When the feared day of abduction arrives again, Agatha hides in her home, but rushes out to rescue Sophie when Sophie lets herself get captured, causing Agatha to be pulled along with her.
Much to their horror, the girls are sent to the "wrong" schools: Sophie ends up as a "Never", a student in the School for Evil, and Agatha an "Ever", a student in the School for Good. When they have the opportunity to see each other during the common orientation for both schools, Agatha tries to convince Sophie to go home with her so they can stay together as friends, but Sophie is determined that she is meant to be in the School for Good and is smitten soon after by the most popular prince in school, Tedros, who happens to be the son of King Arthur. He also takes notice of her, but soon finds himself running into Agatha much more often.
During their first day, Sophie makes every effort to flunk her classes, only to receive the highest rank in all of them. Agatha does fail at most of her lessons, but soon discovers she can hear and grant wishes, something that can only come from a purely Good heart. Following an ordeal in which they both face hours of punishment for disorderly conduct at the end of the day, Sophie agrees to leave with Agatha the first chance she gets.
Having learned about what happens in the mysterious School Master’s tower, Agatha sneaks out that night with Sophie to ask him to send them home. There, they find a sentient quill called the Storian writing a brand new fairy tale involving them as the main characters—a very unusual thing as most fairy tales do not begin until after their protagonists have graduated. The School Master explains that he is unable to send them home because of this, but he does give them a riddle to solve if they want to prove they were sent to the wrong schools; he promises to let them leave as soon as they act out the ending to their tale.
When the girls figure out the answer to the riddle - True Love's Kiss — Agatha sets out with a plan to help Sophie rise in status enough to get in league with Tedros. As Sophie advances in rank, she finds herself embracing Evil life more and more, to the extent that she becomes domineering towards even her fellow schoolmates.
Agatha makes various attempts to help her friend use her newfound skills to get Tedros' kiss but soon finds out that Sophie is only using Agatha to make Tedros fall for her. That way, she would never have to leave, as she believes Tedros is destined to be her true love in her fairy tale. Finally, Tedros promises to kiss Sophie if they emerge as the last two survivors in the Trial by Tale, an event in which the top Evers and Nevers enter the Woods, aiming to survive the night by avoiding teachers' traps and the opposite side. By having an Ever and a Never come out together alive, they could prove that both sides can be victorious at once in a fight for a happy ending - a big upset to the laws that have always governed the fairy tale world.