The Last Ever After (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (The School for Good and Evil)

I just finished the series and will definitely recommend them. They were extremely entertaining and a fine addition to anyone's library, be they young or older. So, if you have always enjoyed a great fairytale, you should read this series that is a fun twist on the classic fairytale.

The "Audible" version is perfect for a 6 hour car ride. Pretty much elementary school, girl-centric, if the child has a very good vocabulary. Otherwise, the text is appropriate for middle schoolers. In my opinion, the off comments based on philosophical concerns are to be ignored with gusto.

While there are many off beat, silly and humorous distractions in this book, there is also a depth that addresses stereotypes, explores grey areas of what is good/bad, and takes you along for a fun ride. It was a pretty solid first book and while not for everyone, I would recommend it for offbeat summer reading.

What I enjoyed:
-Pretty/ugly dilemma and how that played with the good/evil morality of the world.
-Watching Sophie and Agatha flail about trying to fit in where they didn't believe they belonged.
-The characters in the Never house.
-Oddly, I found I enjoyed the Sophie character since she was just so obstinate and strong in expressing her desires and wishes.

What I wish was explored more:
-The relationships that both girls had with their parents. There seemed like there was some odd foreshadowing here that I felt could have gone further but it might have been me reading too much into some situations.
-In the mid section of the book, Sophie is making her mark on the world (and has a red letter on her chest to prove it) and seems to be making it work. I would have liked to see this strength in Sophie explored more but it seemed that she was torn away from this to 'get back to the fairy tale story'.

What I disliked:
-I didn't like the Ever kids. Most seemed to be torn right from "Mean Girls" and the princes were bland.
-I wish the ending was a bit different. I think there could have been other ways to accomplish the same thing.

This book was so fresh and exciting. I have never read anything like it. The book starts out with two girls, both polar opposites, but they are friends. They live in a village i which children are kidnapped each year. The girls find themselves taken and dropped into seperate schools, one for good fairy tale characters, the other evil. As the plot is revealed there is much more to the schools then you would expect.

It really was such an original story, though it reminded me a bit of Happy Potter bk 4. This book, however has much more of a sense of humor. The humor is almost like the movie, Princess Bride. A sort of slapstick, out loud, catch you off guard kind of a laugh. The action is nonstop! You can't miss a sentence because each paragraph explodes with action. I marveled at the writing. I also wondered why I haven't heard of this series before now. I suspect that most people are not attracted to the fairytale genre. I probably would not have read it either except it was recommended by a friend at the right time. Read this book. It is thoroughly enjoyable.

The book's concept is simple and strong. And that's likely the problem. I simply can't stay interested. I tried reading it to my kids, but the flowery language, and over-descriptive prose left them confused. They made it two chapters before announcing they didn't really understand it. I found myself returning to at more as a chore than an escape. I quit reading my Kindle version at around 50 or 60% my way through the story with no regrets.

If Harry Potter, is your favorite fantasy book ever,it's possible you might enjoy this. I found myself having deja-vu of Potter when I read this. But if you prefer an author like Patrick Rothfuss or George R.R. Martin, the extremely single-minded flatness of Chainini's characters, who never deviate from their archetype is likely to leave you bored.

This book will probably sell millions, and my half-read copy is now among them.

(This review was written by a twelve year old girl, by the way.) I like this book, and the sequel, a lot. I sure wish the fandom was bigger and more people knew about it though! It deserves much more recognition than it has. Also, I will try to state the pro's and con's of this book and series. If you want to buy this book for someone else, it best suits a middle school audience but I read when I was eleven so perhaps late elementary school if the child is mature. Summary: (contains spoilers.) There is a town called Gavaldon that might be in a medieval setting in the middle of Woods Beyondt. No one ever tries to leave because if you do, you either die right away, or walk around in what is seemingly a circle and end up back home. In that town lives a beautiful early teen girl named Sophie with emerald green eyes and blonde hair. She reads fairy tales and adores making beauty potions and the color pink. All the boys chase her, but she feels like she deserves much better than everybody else. She wants to find a Prince Charming. If you happen to walk through the cemetery, you will come across the seemingly abandoned house of Agatha. Agatha prefers to be alone with her cat so she can write poetry in peace and quiet. Every four years something comes and takes two young teenagers, one pure, and one wicked. They are never seen again, except the children claim that they see them in their fairytale books several years later, but the adults reject this idea because it is nonsense. Sophie is finally old enough to get chosen and she is the only person that wants to in all of Gavaldon. In order to compete against all the other good boys and girls Sophie does several things to persuade the thing to choose her, and the main thing she does is make friends with Agatha. Agatha wants to be left alone most of the time, and gets really ticked off by Sophie testing her beauty remedies on her. Originally Sophie's only reason for being nice to Agatha is to get her Happily Ever After, but then she becomes her real friend. One day the thing comes and takes Sophie and Agatha, but they are both confused when Agatha goes to a glass palace with rainbow towers full of fairies, while Sophie gets dumped in a castle that's more of a black wasteland. Sophie sees a handsome boy named Tedros that all the girls admire. Agatha hates him. Sophie takes advantage of poor Agatha. Basically, Tedros ends up thinking that they are both evil until he gets to know Agatha better and then he falls in love with her and she starts to realize she actually likes him, too. Then Sophie becomes very jealous and wreaks havoc on the school, killing some and hurting others. Then, Sophie reveals that though Agatha is her nemesis, she is still her best friend. Sophie tells the Good that they have acted selfish and bad and turns them ugly like their insides at the moment, except for Agatha. Then she addresses the Evil, who have been just and fair and helpful and turns them beautiful, like their insides at the moment. Then after letting them think, Sophie turns them all back. After all this, some things happen that almost kill Sophie. But as we should know, true loves kiss doesn't have to be from your significant other. In this case, it was from Sophie's best friend, Agatha. Then they get to go back home for a while and Book Two begins. Pro's: The book teaches you about inner beauty and there is much more than good being perfectly good and beautiful and evil being completely wrong and ugly. They have backstories, too. Cons: Tedros can be a jerk at times and is very self-absorbed and kind of sexist but Agatha teaches him his lesson. Good alternatives for this are the Ever After High series, The land of Stories, Grimnastic Girls, and Whatever After if your child is into more fluffy Disney-type fairy tales. If they like darker, sometimes creepy, Grimn kind of folklore with a hint of crude humor I would suggest this, Coraline, Percy Jackson, Doll Bones, and The Books Of Elsewhere. Hope this helped!

I just finished the #3rd school of good and evil! Awesome book but I wouldn't require it for boys. I loved it and would require it for younger girls who like love and adventure.

P.S. my favorite character happens to be one of the main characters Sophie.

There is nothing about this book to dislike. Jealousy, envy, loss, friendship, even more to read and experience. Unexpected ending, good and evil balancing out. Life unexpected.
Be ready to suspend your disbelief. All emotion extended as what happens as children try to make sense of the world.

This book had an amazing premise and an interesting "set" of tropes that it tried to tackle and turn on its head... but there were just too many obstacles in its way: from main protagonists that you never really understood (or liked) to side characters and love interests that are similarly anywhere from meh-to-ewwww. It just felt as though it was trying to do too many things at once, and thus never did any of them particularly well. The set-up was always interesting:

1. A girl who thinks she should be recruited as a future-fairy-tale princess despite the fact that her beauty is initially only skin deep.

2. The question of whether we're born/predisposed to be good/evil or what degree of choice we have

3. The idea of challenging and turning normal tropes and cliches on its head...

But none of these really came together for me. There are odd jumps (the girl who's constantly teased seems to suddenly become a master of magic) and twists that didn't feel realistic to me.

I loved the premise, and there are bits of very clever, very funny details strewn throughout... but honestly, it was a bit of a chore to finish, and I was only able to do so with some skimming/skimping because there were chapters and sections that really dragged for me.