A review by abby_gail_noel
The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

5.0

YES!! This is what I’ve been waiting for. I forgot what good YA was like I swear. I decided to reread this series because I was feeling nostalgic and then I realized that a lot of the YA I’ve read in the past few years has not even come close to being on this level.

It’s well written and it doesn’t treat the audience like it’s stupid. The content is appropriate for the age group while still having an amazing story and compelling characters and holding nothing back. It’s an actual fresh take on fairy tales and all that nonsense. It has all the basics of love and action but it has a PLOT. Like a REAL PLOT and useful messages.

I feel like everything I’ve been reading has been so shallow. Here we get a story of friendship and love and redemption. Of good and evil. You get immersed in this story and realize by the end that there were a lot of really good lessons being taught. i.e. …

Evil isn’t always ugly. Sometimes it’s attractive and that’s what makes it so tempting.
There’s really no such thing as good and evil. Life isn’t that simple and it’s more of a spectrum than two distinct sides.
It’s not hard to cross the line between good and evil.
Oftentimes evil thinks that it is good because it has deceived itself into thinking it’s motives are pure and good, even though they aren’t. In the end, evil can be blind to itself.
Our futures are not set in stone, and our circumstances don’t dictate the outcome of our lives.
Sometimes a fairy tale happy ending isn’t in the cards but it’s important to hold on to the things and the people you care about because that’s what really matters.
Beauty isn’t just what’s on the outside, and ugliness on the inside can eventually rot you on the outside. Your face or your body isn’t what makes you valuable as a person.
It’s not what you are, it’s what you choose to do.

Cheesy, yes. But they’re good lessons for young adults. And I found them to be a useful reminders as an adult.

This book has everything. Literally everything, especially for young readers. This is great YA in its purest form and I will die on that hill