Review Detail

The Collector’s edition of The School for Good and Evil and the new Netflix movie bring new audiences to this story. The prequel duology books are wildly different with their strong LBGTQ+ inclusion of the definition of love and the use of established fairytale characters. This book has original characters, Sophie and Agatha, which I preferred. However, the prequels gave us readers insights into the school and this world that prepared us to dive into this tale.
I like the idea that beauty does not translate into goodness. Sophie’s actions are self-centered but due to her beauty, everyone thinks she must have been mistakenly put in the school for evil. Agatha’s looks are described unkindly and her noble actions are often overlooked until she starts to realize her worth. There are so many children bullied due to looks that reading this may help readers start to look deeper. Agatha shines brightly throughout as a paragon of good and I applaud her strong character and force of will.
The evil students were some of the nicest and most loyal and the good students were vain and vacuous putting forth old notions of gender roles that are outdated. The Netflix movie helped make the distinction clearer that the School Master has been undermining good to the point that they aren’t really good anymore. I wish the book helped emphasize that point better.
I find it problematic that this book is geared toward Middle-Grade audiences who may not see the nuanced details and buy further into the poor values being shown by the good students. The length and complexity of the words and ideas seem better suited for young YA audiences. My daughter loved the movie watching it over and over so I thought reading the book was an easy choice. It took her so long to read the book with me and she had so many questions about word meaning that my 12-year-old did not struggle with.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and the movie but suggest it is better for YA rather than Middle Grade readers.