The Last Ever After (The School for Good and Evil #3)

Author: Soman Chainani

Rating: 2/5

It’s Good versus Evil, there are lots of high stakes, a huge war and a somewhat satisfying ending.

Spoilers ahead.

Detailed Summary

So our two couples, Rafal (the School Master) and Sophie, Tedros and Agatha, are not enjoying themselves. Sophie is reluctant to be with Rafal because she’s all like, “Oh my god, what if I’m wrong?” but then she agrees to marry him and takes his ring. Tedros and Agatha are in Gavaldon, hiding in Callis’ (Agatha’s mother) house and the two are not getting along and keep fighting. Agatha doesn’t want to be the queen of Camelot but since Tedros is about to turn sixteen, that’s kinda inevitable. Callis gets caught stealing eggs and the house is stormed. Tedros and Agatha are found and they both, along with Callis, are taken to be burnt. Stefan lets Tedros and Agatha escape but Callis dies when she saves the two children using magic. She directs them to the graveyard. They go to Sophie’s mother’s grave (her name’s Vanessa) and there’s a tunnel underneath. They meet Professor Uma, the teacher who could speak to animals, and she takes them to the League of Thirteen. There’s Cinderella, Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Pinocchio, Yuba the gnome (I think he’s a gnome), Hansel and Gretel. And they’re all pretty annoyed with Agatha and Tedros for always arguing. Merlin comes and tells them how Sophie’s ring has to be destroyed by her and using Excalibur. Rafal has Excalibur which sucks. Also, Rafal has brought back the Old villains and Evil is winning in every fairytale. They head to the School. Sophie has been made a teacher but everyone hates her. Also, the ring given to her by Rafal tattoos Tedros’ name on her finger. And Hort has become a really good looking lad.  Lady Lesso tells her to look out for a spy in the school. Agatha and Tedros swap genders and enter the school with Dot, Hester and Anadil’s help. Agatha gets Excalibur and Tedros convinces Sophie to come with them. She goes with them and so does Hort. Merlin takes them to the Lady of the Lake.

The Lady of the Lake has been sheltering Guinevere and Lancelot and the reunion is a bit awkward. Sophie asks to have a chance with Tedros so they try being around each other. Tedros and Guinevere learn to get along well though he doesn’t like Lancelot who keeps beating him at sword fighting. Tedros kisses Sophie but it’s not right and neither one feels anything. Sophie returns to Rafal while Tedros kisses Agatha and makes her his queen. Merlin had partnered New with Old so Agatha trains with Cinderella but can’t make the wand work. Then it’s time for the final battle. On the way, Agatha snaps at Cinderella so Cinderella explains how she used to love her stepsisters and didn’t want the prince or anything. The battle takes place. The School’s students are fighting on Tedros and Agatha’s side. Lady Lesso is revealed to be the spy. She tells Sophie that she can relate a lot to her and that she did what she did for her friend, Dean Dovey. She goes to the School for Old Evil to save the other teachers. Sophie and Agatha end up in this crypt because Aric, Lady Lesso’s son, trapped them in there. Professor Sader’s hologram explains their history. Vanessa’s body is there. Callis had been a professor at the School for Evil and had gotten the attention of the School Master because she was so pretty. She escaped and went to Gavaldon and met Vanessa. Vanessa was an ugly woman and wanted Stefan who was in love with Honora. She convinced Callis to make a love potion to give to Stefan and has a child with him. Stefan accuses Callis of witchcraft and she’s almost sentenced to death but he agrees to marry Callis to save her. Their first two kids die so Vanessa forces Callis to make a potion to have a healthy kid. Vanessa gives birth to twins–Agatha and Sophie. Callis took Agatha because Vanessa thought she was ugly and Callis changed her features to look more like her. Sophie still doesn’t want to abandon Rafal because she thinks she’ll end up alone.

Evil is about to win the battle when Rafal gives Sophie the chance to kill Stefan. At the last minute, she hacks off her ring and destroys Rafal. Lady Lesso dies after her grapple with her son. The barrier between Gavaldon and the Schools is restored. Dovey becomes the Dean for the School for Good. Lady Lesso had left a will for Sophie to become the Dean for the School of Evil. Agatha and Tedros go to Camelot with Merlin. Sophie rejects Hort saying that she’s happy to be herself.

Plot and Pacing: It’s been a few days since I finished this book but I’ve just been too lazy to write a review. I’m going to try and keep this short because honestly, I didn’t enjoy it much so why bother? Also, stupid exams are annoying and in the way. So, this was the final showdown between Good and Evil and I think I spent the majority of my time shaking my head. I just don’t like the story. And I really wish I did! I knew Good was going to win because duh, right? I guess what really ruined the story for me was the whole back and forth thing between Tedros, Agatha and Sophie. I’ll be honest, for a second, I was sure that Chainani was going to put Tedros and Sophie together. And that Agatha would end up with Rafal because Good has to balance Evil and all that. I guess the ending was a bit more satisfying? I’m glad Sophie became the Dean but she’s only SIXTEEN! How is it that all these characters are so young??? I thought the pacing was really slow. There were a lot of info-dumps and by the end of the book, I hated almost all the characters. The only part that I really, truly liked was the explanation of Vanessa and Callis. That was quite interesting and answered all the questions that had been plaguing me throughout the series. I loved the detail of Callis changing her beautiful features to make her eyes more insect-like to look like Agatha. That was really sweet. So, that’s it for the plot. I could go into more detail, analysing some themes and stuff but I’m not going to bother.

Characters: I really loved Professor Sader’s bit. I love Professor Sader full-stop. He was my favourite character from the start and it sucked that he died in the first book. Still, I was glad to have him come back even though it felt a tiny bit far-fetched. Merlin was an absolute gem although his magical wizarding hat is also a bit of stretch. I mean, where is all that magical food coming from? Tedros and Agatha and Sophie all continued to annoy me. I really liked the relationship between Tedros and his mother though. I’m glad, in this book at least, that Guinevere went off with Lancelot. Her explanation made a lot of sense–where she didn’t want Tedros to feel guilty of an unhappy marriage. I don’t think I would have done the same if I were in her shoes but then again, I have the brain of a five-year-old so perhaps I’m not the best judge of that. Hmmm, what else? Oooh, the relationship between Lady Lesso and Professor Dovey was also really nice. I was sad that Lady Lesso died (and revealed her first name to be Leonora) because I was hoping for a nice ending for the two best friends.

Oh and HORT! Damn, that kid really grew up, didn’t he? I really wonder whether his handsome demeanour was a natural thing or whether he drank a gazillion different potions to make him look better? I don’t know. I liked that he was so loyal to Sophie but she was a horrid witch to him. I do hope that the two of them end up together. I’m pretty sure that Sophie does marry Hort because the Wish Fish revealed that to him. So, who knows?

Writing Style: Meh. I was bored for most of this book and was looking forward to the end. I think this has been one of my shortest reviews but I’m so braindead right now, so sorry about that! I will say that some of the dialogue was really funny and witty but I just didn’t enjoy the majority of this book.

There is a fourth and fifth book to this series which are kind of unrelated. The library had them a week back but I can’t find them now. So, I’m going to take that as a sign to move on. 🙂