The School for Good and Evil - Review

Title: The School For Good and Evil
Author: Soman Chainani
Publisher: Harper
Release Date: May 14th, 2013
Format: Paperback

"At the School for Good and Evil, failing your fairy tale is not an option.

Welcome to the School for Good and Evil, where best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

With her glass slippers and devotion to good deeds, Sophie knows she'll earn top marks at the School for Good and join the ranks of past students like Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Snow White. Meanwhile, Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks and wicked black cat, seems a natural fit for the villains in the School for Evil.

The two girls soon 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 among 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 and Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one."

The Good: Soman did a wonderful job of creating a world which fairy tales come to life and everyone in them is a fairy tale character and they have a legacy in which to live up to. The reversal of roles was brilliant to me. Agatha who fits the bill of being taken to the School of Evil with her witch like appearance is actually good. While Sophie who everyone believes to be a candidate for the School of Good finds herself in the School of Evil. Soman's ability to break through the stereotypes for the book and show that appearances can be deceiving is spot on. The princes, princesses, and the villains are wonderful characters even the minor characters were intriguing. The descriptions of both Schools painted a wonderful picture in my mind.  

The Evil: Not much was bad about the book. I felt the story drug on a bit in the beginning and was a little slow throughout the thick of it. It was a bit difficult to follow at times with switching back and forth between Sophie and Agatha in the chapters.

Rating: 3.5/5 Swans (I used Swans this time because they wear swans on their uniforms in the book)