“In the forest primeval
A school for good and evil
Twin towers like two heads
One for the pure
One for the wicked
Try to escape you’ll always fail
The only way out
Is through a fairytale”
-Soman Chainani, The School for Good and Evil
The School for Good and Evil series by Soman Chainani is a work of incredible writing and an inspiring story with just a touch of magic. The series of six books follows a pair of unlikely friends named Sophie and Agatha as they learn and grow from lessons at the School for Good and Evil.
Soman Chainani is a forty-one-year-old author who fostered this magical franchise. His books have been printed in thirty languages, are sold in six continents, have all been on the New York Times Bestseller list, and have sold 2.5 million copies. His sixth book, One True King, recently came out in June 2020, completing the series.
To accompany the series, Chainani has also written an extra book called The Ever Never Handbook. This companion is perfect for fans of the books. It’s just the guide you need to learn about the world and school that Soman created. It covers topics from the required school supplies to its history and alumni. The book is split into six sections: Welcoming, History & Lineage, Student Life, The Graduating Class, Admissions, and FAQs. If you’ve read the series and loved it, The Ever Never Handbook is definitely a must read for you. It’s is a fantastic addition to the franchise. A captivating backstory always makes literary works layered and engaging.
The actual series follows Sophie and Agatha of the Woods Beyond as they are thrown into the world of dark fairytales. One night, much to Sophie’s delight and Agatha’s despair, they are kidnapped and taken to the infamous School for Good and Evil. Every year in their village, two children are taken away to this school, one to the school of good, and one to the school of evil. Sophie has been dying to be chosen so she could become what she always thought she was meant to be, a princess, and she wanted to take her best friend Agatha with her. You would think it’s perfect. Sophie is a beautiful young girl while Agatha is unsightly, Sophie likes to dress up and dance, Agatha has poor hygiene and is a loner. Sophie would be the princess and Agatha the witch, but the two are in for a surprise when Agatha is dropped off at the School for Good instead of Sophie. The series countless twists, turns, and drops. It’s exciting, well written, and it has a meaningful message of friendship entwined within it.
One of my personal favorite parts about this story is that it doesn’t hide the ugly stuff. The message Soman Chainani was trying to send to his readers was that life doesn’t necessarily always have a happy ending. His goal was to make his world unstable where bad things can and will happen, good doesn’t always conquer evil like some believe. He wanted to make his stories unpredictable, and he certainly succeeded. The books are as complex as real, everyday life. Sophie and Agatha face tough challenges, and not just the fairytale kind: fighting dragons, going on quests, etc. There is an aspect of adventure, witches and magic, fights and quests, but there is so much more. There are some of the more realistic challenges included. A bumpy friendship, boy troubles, family stories, lies and betrayals, which are in my opinion, the scariest kind of obstacles. All of his readers, including myself, can connect to the books on a deeper level because of this. Though there is (spoiler alert!) a happy ending, as you are reading it you cannot possibly guess how everything’s going to come together and that is what enchants me about the series.
So how did Chainani come up with this? Simple: he grew up loving Disney. He was obsessed and had probably seen all the movies multiple times. He says that he learned everything he knows about story structure from those films. But then he took a course about fairytales and he came to realize that Disney changed the originals so much to make them kid-friendly. Ask yourself; do you know how The Little Mermaid really ended? Chances are you probably don’t, because the Disney movie where the red haired mermaid Ariel marries Prince Eric and gets her happy ending is the story most kids grow up watching. In reality, the little mermaid dies and the prince marries another woman (dark, I know). It was then that Soman really started to get inspiration for his books.
He started to notice the plot holes in Disney and this sparked his desire to “reclaim fairy tales” and make a sort of anti-Disney series where the dark, hard stuff isn’t hidden for the children’s benefit. He believes that it is important the children aren’t taught to have unrealistic expectations of life, but he still wants them to have that sense of wonder that kids always have. He did a really good job of that. The books slightly modify familiar stories so that the reader has no idea what will happen next.
Soman Chainani is a man with an incredible mind. He graduated from Harvard University and Columbia University’s MFA program. Before he was a writer, he was a film screenwriter and director. He was named one of the Out100 in 2016, a list of the year’s most influential LGBTQ+ people. On Twitter he mentions that he grew up reading this particular magazine so he was truly honored to be a part of it. He has also been awarded the Sasha Grant and the Sun Valley Writers Fellowship as a debut writer.
As a further addition to this franchise, a movie is coming out! This is very exciting news for all fans of the series and has been in the works for many years. Shooting will start in the spring with Sophia Anne Caruso playing Sophie and Sofia Wylie playing Agatha, and the film will be released on Netflix in 2022. The movie is being directed by Paul Feig and Soman himself is serving as an executive producer so we can have high hopes for it!
This series has grown so much since the first book was published in 2013. I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy, especially fairytales. Every book is so original and awe-inspiring. I have no doubt you will fall in love with them just as I did. Go check out The School for Good and Evil series! You will not regret it!
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