The School for Good and Evil
#2814.06 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 6 books Status Complete 2013–2020 Reading commitment Medium Soman Chainani Last reviewed 2026-08-25
Overview
A fairy-tale-inflected fantasy following two childhood friends, Sophie and Agatha, kidnapped every four years from their village of Gavaldon to a magical school in the Endless Woods that trains the next generation of storybook heroes and villains, told across two direct-continuation trilogies plus a later prequel. Beautiful Sophie expects to join the School for Good but is placed in Evil, while withdrawn Agatha expects Evil but is placed in Good, and both must come to terms with where they truly belong as a deeper conspiracy involving the school's own headmaster unfolds. Soman Chainani, who began the series in 2013, deliberately wrote the fairy-tale material with the moral complexity and darkness of the original Brothers Grimm stories rather than their more sanitized modern versions. The books have sold over 3.5 million copies in more than 32 languages, and a Netflix film adaptation directed by Paul Feig was released in October 2022, debuting at number one in more than 80 countries.
Fairy-tale retelling · For Middle grade
Core Canon: Reading Order (6 works) counts toward ranking
The School Years Soman Chainani
| Work | Year | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The School for Good and Evil | 2013 | core | 3.99 (140,059 ratings) |
 | A World Without Princes | 2014 | core | 3.93 (51,529 ratings) |
 | The Last Ever After | 2015 | core | 4.23 (49,710 ratings) |
The original trilogy; a complete story.
The Camelot Years Soman Chainani
| Work | Year | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Quests for Glory | 2018 | core | 4.08 (29,975 ratings) |
 | A Crystal of Time | 2019 | core | 4.24 (18,535 ratings) |
 | One True King | 2020 | core | 4.34 (15,262 ratings) |
A second, direct-continuation trilogy following the same characters; Core Canon by the same credited-authorship rule as the original trilogy.
Library / Expanded (2 works)
The School for Good and Evil: Prequel Duology Soman Chainani
| Work | Year | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Rise of the School for Good and Evil | 2022 | N/A | |
 | Fall of the School for Good and Evil | 2023 | N/A |
A two-book prequel set generations before the main story; Expanded Canon.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The School for Good and Evil? The School for Good and Evil's Core Canon is 6 books, plus 2 more in the wider Library/Expanded material.
- What is the reading order for The School for Good and Evil? Publication order, starting with The School for Good and Evil. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The School for Good and Evil finished? Complete (2013–2020).
- How much reading does The School for Good and Evil take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 6 Core Canon books · ~1,673 pages).
- How is The School for Good and Evil ranked? #281 in this site's official ranking, based on 305,070 reader ratings across 6 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #281?
Ranked #281 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.06 across 6 core books.
- Backed by 305k reader ratings.
- Uneven reception: its books range from 3.93 to 4.34.
- 0.01 behind #280, The Song of the Shattered Sands.
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 6 books · Complete · 305k ratings · Ranks #281 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length fairy-tale retelling fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (6 Core Canon books)
- The School for Good and Evil (2013)
- A World Without Princes (2014)
- The Last Ever After (2015)
- Quests for Glory (2018)
- A Crystal of Time (2019)
- One True King (2020)
Awards (verified)
- The debut novel was a finalist for a children's-book award; no other confirmed major juried award win found after a genuine search.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.06 across 305,070 ratings on 6 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: The School for Good and Evil admitted (Soman Chainani) accepted 2026-08-25
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-08-25
Rule: Core Canon = the two direct-continuation trilogies telling one continuous story: The School Years (The School for Good and Evil, 2013; A World Without Princes, 2014; The Last Ever After, 2015) and The Camelot Years (Quests for Glory, 2018; A Crystal of Time, 2019; One True King, 2020), six novels total. Expanded Canon = the two-book prequel duology set generations earlier (Rise of the School for Good and Evil, 2022; Fall of the School for Good and Evil, 2023).