The School For Good and Evil: A World Without Princes


Reviewer: Miriam A 

 Soman Chainani’s second book in the School For Good and Evil series, A World Without Princes, revolves around Sophie and Agatha, two girls who thought their fairy tale was over. In the first book, Sophie and Agatha are taken to the School For Good and Evil. Blonde-haired Sophie, who has wanted for her whole life to become a princess, is taken to the school with Agatha, her homely friend, but Sophie is unexpectedly placed in the Evil half of the school to learn witchcraft while Agatha must learn how to become the heroine of a fairy tale. Sophie wants desperately to transfer schools in the beginning, but she is later convinced by Agatha that returning home is where they can have a truly “Happily Ever After.” At the end of this book, Agatha chooses to leave with Sophie instead of staying with her prince, which allows the reader to infer this is the end of their story. This bliss ends a few months later at the opening of Book 2, when Agatha secretly wishes for her prince instead of having to spend the rest of her life with Sophie. However, when she and Sophie return to the school, they realize the disastrous effects their reopened fairy tale has caused.
In A World Without Princes, Sophie and Agatha quickly realize that major changes have been made to their school, transforming it into a barrier against rioting knights who are trying to invade the girls’ castle and kill Sophie, seeking revenge for writing them out of all the happy endings. Tedros, Agatha’s would-be prince, is leading this quest in the hopes that if he can kill Sophie, Agatha would become his queen. However, this plan falters when Sophie successfully tricks Tedros into thinking that Agatha tried to kill him, and vice versa. Sophie’s deceptions appear especially cruel given that both she and Agatha had crushes on Tedros in the first book of the series. Not only is Sophie deceiving her best friend, but she is also deceiving a boy that she loves. To make things worse, her deceptions spring from purely selfish motives. After this twist, Tedros’s efforts to kill Sophie are doubled, and now he also wishes Agatha dead. Throughout the course of the book, Agatha must uncover Dean Sader’s secrets, convince Tedros what really happened, stop Sophie from turning into a witch again, and prevent the coming war between knights and princesses. Sophie, meanwhile, is only focused on repairing her teetering friendship with Agatha. 
Due to Agatha’s many challenges, it would seem appropriate for Agatha to be featured more prominently than Sophie. However, a larger portion of the book is written from Sophie’s perspective. Although this imbalance is probably due to her character’s greater interior conflicts (in Book 1, Sophie began her fairy tale hoping to be a princess, but instead ended up as a witch, and is now trying to overcome her evil nature and save her friendship), I would have preferred to read more of the story from Agatha’s perspective. 
Although I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, A World Without Princes was slightly less satisfying for me. In the first book, Sophie and Agatha’s viewpoints alternated every other chapter, and both characters were equally developed. However, in A World Without Princes, Agatha’s character is much less complex, and many of her decisions to help Sophie aren’t fully explained. The book was also interspersed with random passages that weren’t interesting and didn’t contribute to the overall plot. Finally, some aspects of the book don’t make sense. For example, Dean Sader brings the old School Master back to life, but no one else is able to revive their allies. 
Although I felt several places in the plot could have been improved, my overall experience was positive. I found the structure of the book interesting: each of the three parts is like a mini book, but every part relates to the others. The plotline of the first two sections is somewhat cliched, but the last section of the book is surprising and much more enjoyable. Overall, I would give A World Without Princes a 3 out of 5. 

Comments

  1. Mikayla BlankeJanuary 18, 2020 at 10:07 AM

    Good job! I actually read the first book of this series this year and enjoyed it, so your review is helpful for me. I found your comments about the point of view interesting, since I also liked the constantly switching point of view in the first book. I found that it made the book more understandable and suspenseful. Despite your criticism, I would still like to try reading the second book of the series. Great review!

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  2. Kate AJanuary 24, 2020 at 1:20 PM

    Great review! I found this review helpful because I usually don't enjoy fantasy books much, but this series sounds interesting, so I might check it out. One thing that I found unusual about your summary of the book is that in the beginning of the first book, Sophie and Agatha were friends, but it seems like they start to become more like enemies at the beginning of the second book. I also think it's interesting that they show the point of both Sophie and Agatha even though it seems like (at least to my understanding) Sophie becomes more like the antagonist in the second book rather than Agatha's friend/ally.

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  3. Olivia ThompsonJanuary 31, 2020 at 12:23 PM

    This book certainly sounds like the type of book I would be interested in. I think you did really well at presenting the issues you had with the story without making it too confusing for someone who has not read the book. I also think you summarize the plot well enough that I understand the concept well even though I have not read the first book either. I think I would definitely be interested in reading this book.

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  4. JeanaFebruary 1, 2020 at 10:22 PM

    I remember reading the first book of this series when I was younger, so I was excited when I saw your blog post to read what you thought about the second book (although I haven't actually read it). Your blog post was satisfying and thorough in its explanations about the book. You summarized the entirety of the first book and most of the second book very nicely, giving an overhead view of what happened without actually give away what really specifically happened, if you get what I mean.
    Your review of the book was sincere and you gave your honest opinion on what you thought about the book. I definitely understand the frustration of reading a book where not everything fits together super well or makes sense!
    One thing I might suggest is mentioning that there are slight spoilers in your review. Other than that, this was a great, interesting review to read!

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