Warning: This review contains MANY comparisons to Harry Potter. This cannot be helped, as it draws many parallels to HP, so excuse me if you think that the two simply cannot be compared as I am doing right here. It's my opinion, and my opinion is that you simply cannot avoid comparing this book to Harry Potter. Because they are very similar, that's why. 
 I went into this book not expecting much. All I expected was a Harry Potter-like story of wonder and magic and fantasy and stories and all of that. I thought it would be more childish, less violent, and, as I stated before, Harry Potter-turned fairy tale. 
 When I finished, I found many of these expectations to be wrong. The Harry Potter part was true. It was wonderful. There was magic, and it was very fantastical. The fairy tales were a beautiful aspect of the story. But it was clearly not at all meant for very little kids. It's actually quite violent in a few parts, especially toward the end. I had hoped that it would be geared toward more of an older audience, and I was not disappointed. 
 My friend Katie had recommended this to me a few months ago. I was a bit unwilling to add more books to my already-long-enough TBR, but after buying it at the bookstore on a whim, I decided to add it for good. And when I read it, I was not disappointed in the least bit. 
 It actually got me out of my reading slump some, and encouraged me to read and finish up some books I was meaning to finish. Now I have gotten quite a lot of progress on Redwall and Inheritance, two books I've been meaning to finish but just didn't have the willingness to. 
 This book was phenomenal. I would give it a 4.5 if that was possible, due to a few minor issues I had with the book, but I rounded up. Why? Because of my sheer enjoyment of the book. 
 You know that one book out of a sea of "meh" books? You know, that one book that's just so amazing and enjoyable that you are SUPPOSED to be criticizing the issues as you come across them, but you just enjoy the book too much to care. That book? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. 
 For me, this book was one of those precious ones. A jewel in the rough, so to speak. 
 I had only two issues with this book. 
 The first one was that when the teachers think either Sophie or Agatha are lying, I was just thinking: couldn't they just whip up a truth potion and see the truth then? I don't know why this doesn't exist in their world, because they seem to have spells for less important things. But whatever. I guess they didn't think about it at the time, which is fine with me. Otherwise, this space would probably be filled with how all of the characters knew exactly what to do at just the right moment. 
 The second is that towards the end, when Agatha actually starts acting like an "Ever", is that she also becomes a tad helpless. She doesn't cast any counterspells for anything, all she does is try to make people see sense. And that, to me, is also fine. It does show character development. But at the same time, I do wish that she could hold her own in a fight without needing princes to save her or something else to save her. 
 I also love how this book is BASED OFF of fairy tales, makes a few parodies/references to fairy tales, and actually doesn't really have a clear damsel in distress. There is no damsel in distress in this book, or a princess who needs saving, really. And I love it. 
 So now we can talk about what's good about the book, can't we? 
 The plot was extremely Harry Potter-like. However, in the first book of Harry Potter, it was mostly just wizards jerking off and doing whatever they so please. I feel like this book, the first book of the School for Good and Evil trilogy (that's a mouthful), actually had more of an advanced plot. The characters had a purpose. They were trying to achieve their main goal, but things were blocking them from achieving said goal. I feel like this is what set it apart from Harry Potter and is actually just one way it's superior. 
 The plot twists at the end are also very interesting, and they leap out at you from the blue. You don't see them coming. You can't even guess anything. But what you do know is that you're in for one heck of a ride. 
 The characters are strongly developed, especially Sophie and Agatha. It is thought that Agatha is the villain, but soon the book makes her out to be the hero, while Sophie is the villain. I used to hate Sophie at first. I hated how she was literally the embodiment of a girl stereotype. But I began to warm up to her. Her little quest compared to Agatha's is actually kind of amusing. Although I did kind of hate her again at the end. But that's for different reasons. 
 Agatha I liked from the start, and loved by the end. I have a thing for black-haired characters in MG/YA novels. They are just spectacular, and they're usually the loners of the group, which just makes for another plus. This description almost fits Agatha perfectly, as she is put into the School for Good, which she doesn't fit into at all. Which made me love her even more. She was fantastic and her goal to get her and Sophie back home really helped build her character and she went through a lot of character development to make her character what it is by the end of the book. 
 I apologize if you were cringing at that extreme run-on sentence. 
 The other supporting characters were great as well. They all had a certain pizzazz and were very dynamic. 
 The writing is very...different. It uses a lot of dashes and while I thought this strange at first, I eventually warmed up to it and thought it interesting. I found it great how Chainani used the dashes to break up sentences and add more suspense. It also makes you feel like you're right there, and makes for better picturing. 
 The pacing is superb, and nothing moved too quickly or too slowly. The humor was well-placed, there were a lot of things I could laugh at and did. The worldbuilding as well is fantastic and I loved how well the world was built. It wasn't dumped all on top of you, nor was it an unsatisfying amount. Just enough. 
 Overall, I can't say enough praise about this book. There was so much in this book. So much being said, so much being done. It was honestly quite difficult to take it all in. 
 I would reread this any time soon, honestly. And maybe I would love just flipping through it if I hadn't spilled avocado on a few pages. 
 ... 
 But seriously, this book is amazing. Read it.