A World Without Princes

A World Without Princes (2014) is the second book in Soman Chainani’s The School for Good and Evil series of six novels. The first installment won the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize for Best Fiction for ages 5-12 in 2014 and was adapted into a film by Netflix in 2022. Chainani grew up in Florida, becoming very familiar with Disney films as a child. In college, he became fascinated by the differences between the original Grimm fairy tales and the reimagined Disney versions. In an article from the Miami New Times, Chainani says, “What I loved about [Grimms’ stories] was how unsafe the characters were. You could […] end up with an Ever After—or […] be baked into a pie […]. Somewhere in that gap between the Disney stories and the retellings, The School for Good and Evil was born” (Rolland, David. “Soman Chainani on The School for Good and Evil, the Dangers of Disney, and South Florida Kids.” Miami New Times, 22 Nov. 2013). Through its exploration of what it means to be good or evil, the text demonstrates the fictional nature of traditional fairy tale happy endings and argues that gender is a social construct rather than something natural or innate.

This guide refers to the HarperCollins Children’s Books paperback edition published in 2014.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of bullying, gender discrimination, antigay bias, and child death.

Plot Summary

Sophie and Agatha escaped from the School for Good and Evil nine months ago, and interest in them declined. This deeply upsets Sophie, who is also bitter about her father’s remarrying. Her mother died years ago, and Sophie misses her terribly. At the wedding, Sophie remembers the School Master saying she would never be Good, and Agatha wishes for her prince. Suddenly, someone begins shooting arrows from the woods at Sophie. She goes into hiding, but the attacks continue, and Agatha feels that her wish for her prince is the cause. One night, the Elders say they’re moving Sophie for her safety, but they are actually surrendering her. Agatha follows and rescues her, though men fire more arrows at them. A blue butterfly appears, showing the girls which way to go. They fear the School Master has returned, though they watched him die. When they reach the school, they see that his tower has moved to the School for Evil, which has become a School for Boys, while the former School for Good is now a School for Girls.

Some of their former teachers explain that Agatha made the wrong choice when she kissed Sophie instead of Tedros, and it upset the balance between boys and girls in the magical world. Princesses everywhere are ejecting princes and taking power, so boys have turned to a new leader—Tedros—to restore traditional gender roles. One teacher shows Sophie and Agatha their story book, and they ask why it doesn’t say “The End.” One of them wished for a new ending, and now their tale has been reopened; Tedros controls the Storian, a magical pen that writes these stories. The girls meet Evelyn Sader, the new dean of the School for Girls. She wears a dress of blue butterflies.

The dean shows Sophie and Agatha their female “army,” most of whom love the new social order that gives them more choices and minimizes pressure to fit into traditional roles. They meet Yara, a beautiful new girl who doesn’t speak. Sophie is thrilled, though Agatha thinks it is Evil to stay, because it will lead to war. Agatha sneaks away to speak with some of the witches, hopeful they can help her think. Hester and Anadil want Agatha to kiss Tedros and return life to normal, but Dot disagrees. Sader tells Sophie she’ll have to kill Tedros to keep her happy ending, but Sophie wants to be Good.

Sader designs a series of challenges to rank the girls and prepare them for battle. During the first challenge, a beast emerges from Sophie’s heart, wounding Agatha. A black storm rises from Agatha’s chest, and she hears Tedros tell her to cross the bridge that night. Agatha sees a wart under Sophie’s collar—a sign she’s turning into a witch—and Agatha lies about seeing Tedros. Hester and Anadil advise Agatha to fail the challenges so she can be on guard duty tonight, giving her a chance to visit Tedros. Agatha is disappointed to learn that Sophie can watch her from their window. However, Agatha and Dot set up a dummy to trick Sophie into thinking Agatha is still there, but when the head falls off, Sophie realizes she’s been tricked, mogrifies into a bird, and flies to the School for Boys. Agatha must fool the bridge into thinking she’s a boy in order to cross. At the castle, Agatha and Tedros reunite and are about to kiss when Sophie, invisible in a cloak made of snakeskins, unleashes a spell; Agatha blames Tedros and vice versa, though the spell was pink, Sophie’s signature color. Agatha escapes, and Tedros examines her story book; that’s where he sees Sophie, who was hiding under the table.

Sophie feels guilty for ruining Agatha’s wish, but she hopes she can convince Agatha that Sophie is all she needs. The boys launch an attack on the girls’ school, challenging them to a Trial: 10 boys versus 10 girls. Sader forces Sophie and Agatha to take two spots, and others will compete for the remaining eight. Agatha blames Tedros, though Dot points out how odd it is that he would attack Agatha. Despite her growing suspicion, Agatha convinces herself to trust Sophie. In Sader’s class, the girls learn about Merlin’s lost spell and how Arthur caught Guinevere cheating on him. The spell temporarily changed him into a woman so he could trick Lancelot. Later, Agatha realizes their male gnome teacher, Yuba, is masquerading as Helga, a female, and she wants to use the spell to access the boys’ school.

The boys wake up their teachers, who have been in an enchanted sleep. Most boys are furious with Tedros for proposing the Trial, because they want war. Agatha and the witches confront Yuba and learn that gnomes are best known for two things: peaceful natures during war and the ability to change sex in their youth. Merlin believed these qualities to be related and thus created his spell. Yuba has enough potion to turn one girl into a boy for three days, and he will choose the girl based on a new challenge. As Helga, he teaches the Five Rules that purport to describe boys and girls, and Sophie inadvertently exploits them, winning the challenge. Yuba delivers her to the boys’ side, and she presents herself as Prince Filip of Mount Honora. The teachers have relegated Tedros to the dungeon, and Filip is forced to become his roommate.

Agatha finds Sophie’s invisibility cape under their roommate’s bed, and two teachers tell her that Sader was evicted from school 10 years ago. They believe she may have conjured Sophie’s witch symptoms, and Agatha must learn why. Filip overhears a teacher interrogating Tedros about the Storian’s location, and Filip is shocked by Tedros’s lean, ragged appearance. During Trial tryouts, Filip must fight Tedros, and the other boys help Filip win. Agatha learns that Sader had a half-brother who also taught at the school, and Sader was evicted for committing crimes against students.

Sophie, as Filip, spends the night hunting for the Storian and brings Tedros an apple, but he rejects the offer. Filip continues to win challenges with others’ help and tries to bring Tedros more food. When a guard catches Tedros, Filip defends him and won’t let the guard beat him. At the girls’ school, Agatha sees Yara sneaking out of the dean’s office, and she sneaks in; she finds a marked map, the Trial rules, and Merlin’s spell. Tedros and Filip become friends, and Agatha realizes the dean tricked her and knows everything the girls have done. In class, Agatha accesses the dean’s memories and learns that Sader tried to convince the School Master that she was his true love. When the School Master evicted her, he pulled a blue wisp from his heart and put it in hers, ensuring she could return to the school if he was wrong in placing his faith in her brother. This turned her red butterflies blue. When Agatha returns to the present, Sader knocks her out.

Tedros and Filip grow closer. Filip wins the Trial tryouts and is permitted to choose one boy to accompany him; he picks Tedros. Agatha wakes up to learn the Trial already started. She realizes that Sophie is Filip and that the spell will wear off any minute. Filip tries to convince Tedros not to kill the girls and suggests they hide under the bridge. Agatha goes directly to the bridge, believing Sophie will attempt to hide there. She realizes that Sader is trying to revive the School Master, and she starts to question Sophie’s loyalty. Filip and Tedros find Yara with her throat cut, and she changes into a boy, Tristan. Filip asks Tedros to promise that he won’t kill Sophie and Agatha, and Tedros asks Filip to promise that he won’t go home after the Trial. They lean in for a kiss, which Agatha sees.

When Agatha confronts Filip, Tedros is confused. Then Filip changes back to Sophie, one of their teachers interrupts the Trial, and Sader arrives with the Storian. She allowed Tristan to become Yara and stay in the girls’ school as long as he hid the Storian. Agatha kisses Tedros amid Sophie’s cries, and Sophie returns to her witch form. However, when Sader stops the Storian from writing “The End” in their book, Sophie’s beauty returns, and Sader tells her she can make her own wish come true. Sophie repeats her wish for her mother, whose ghost materializes. The ghost says it’s Sophie’s turn for love, and when Sophie kisses her, the ghost changes into the School Master. Sophie feels momentary regret, but she reasons that the School Master chose her while Agatha chose Tedros. The School Master kills Sader, the entire school turns Evil, and Agatha begins to fade away. As the School Master is about to kill Tedros, Agatha grabs his hand, and they vanish together. Finally, Sophie and the School Master float up to his tower together.