58 pages 1 hour read

A World Without Princes

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2014

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Background

Series Context: The School for Good and Evil

In the series’ first installment, readers are introduced to the village of Gavaldon and the nearby School for Good and Evil, run by an enigmatic and seemingly immoral Evil School Master. Every four years, the School Master kidnaps two unenchanted children from Gavaldon: one to attend the School for Good and one to attend the School for Evil. Ironically, he deposits the beautiful, blonde, pink-loving Sophie at the School for Evil and Agatha, her black-haired, cemetery-dwelling best friend, at the School for Good. Despite the girls’ many attempts to escape, they are forced to stay, and the School Master grows to believe that Sophie is his one true love. Agatha’s mother once sang a song about the school that included the lines, “Try to escape and you’ll always fail / The only way out is / Through a fairy tale…,” foreshadowing the girls’ predicament (The School for Good and Evil). The girls confront the School Master, but he will not allow them to go home until the Storian, a magical pen, finishes their fairy tale. He gives them a riddle.