So I Started Reading... The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

Goodreads

"Agatha hunched into her dress. "It's just, um... I—I'm, uh... not used to friends."
Sophie smiled and took her hand. "Well, now we'll be friends at our new school."
Agatha groaned and pulled away. "Say I sink to your intelligence level and pretend to believe all this. Why am I going to villain school? Why has everyone elected me the Mistress of Evil?
"No one says you're evil, Agatha," Sophie sighed. "You're just different."
Agatha narrowed her eyes. "Different how?"
"Well, for starters, you only wear black."
"Because it doesn't get dirty."
You don't ever leave your house."
"People don't look at me there."
"For the Crete-A-Tale Competition, your story ended with Snow White eaten by vultures and Cinderella drowning herself in a tub."
"I thought it was a better ending."
"You gave me a dead frog for my birthday!"
"To remind you we all die and end up rotting underground eaten by maggots so we should enjoy our birthdays while we have them. I found it thoughtful."
"Agatha, you dressed as a bride for Halloween."
"Wedding are scary."
Sophie gaped at her."

This fantastical middle grade read is delightful in that it makes you question what is pure evil and pure good, while playing with all the old archaic rules of fairy tales. It is witty and funny, and it has a little of that Harry Potter charm. Agatha and Sophie are friends, though it started for all the wrong reasons. Sophie believes in fairy tales, and she is sure if she makes friends with the local "witch" she will be a shoe in for the School of Good, where they train all the fairy tale princesses on how to get their happily ever afters. Agatha on the other hand doesn't believe in the fairy tale nonsense and is just glad to have a friend for once. She isn't a witch, she just likes to wear black, a lot, and hang out by herself in her house on the cemetery. On the night the kidnapping is set to occur Agatha tries to save her only friend, Sophie, from being taken away forever to this fantastical school, only to be dragged along to it. Now somehow Agatha ended up in the School for Good while Sophie ended up in the School for Evil, and there seems to be no mix up. How are these two very different girls to survive their respective schools? And how can they possible maintain their friendship alive?

 It is a great twist on the old. I of course love Agatha, she is twisted and dark, yet not evil. It is a tale I would have my younger siblings read just so they know that being different, eccentric, is good and not something undesirable. Sophie on the other hand is good in all the wrong ways, she is good because she wants something not because it comes from the heart. Which is the whole point, but it also makes you wonder why all the other princesses made it to the Good school since they all seem to be exactly like her. So some decisions are questionable in the tale, but it doesn't take away from the overall enjoyment. One thing that is undeniable is that the voices of both girls manage to capture the reader from page one, and the weird in world mythology is enough to get you invested in the plot. Sophie is set to be a great villain, in my mind, but how will Agatha turn into a princess of good? It's like reading the part of the Princess Diaries (the movie) where they turn Anna Hathaway into a glowing princess (and who didn't enjoy THAT transformation, am I right?)

She was so young here! Now she is Cat Woman and an oscar winner.

Currently on page: 127

So far: Enjoying it, and would recommend it.