The Last Ever After (The School for Good and Evil, #3)
by Soman Chainani

Sophie and Agatha seem to have found their happy endings, but they are both dissatisfied with their results, and the truth is… they miss each other. How can they find a happy ending when they are apart? Agatha and Tedros fight their way back into the School for Good and Evil, hoping to rescue Sophie and find a new happy ending together, but Sophie has other plans with the evil Schoolmaster.

I liked this semi-conclusion to the first trilogy group in the series. It wraps up nicely, so you could stop reading here if you wanted to, but it still leaves room for further adventures. I plan to continue reading the rest of the series for sure!

There is a lot of really interesting character development in this book for many of the characters. Hort has grown out of his gangly child stage and is now a strong young man, but inside he is still that hurt little boy, and he has to mature and grow stronger in other ways than just building muscle.

I really loved the conflict between Agatha and Sophie in this book. They both have to realize who they themselves really are in order to appreciate the other person for who they are. And I especially loved the plot twists regarding their family past, and all the secrets that were kept from them by their parents.

Tedros has to confront his mother, Guinevere, who abandoned him years before. I liked that mother and son are reconciled, but I did not like that Guinevere excuses her actions by saying how she found true love with Lancelot and she never really loved Arthur. She gives this long four-page excuse for her poor moral choices.

There is a lot of moral ambiguity throughout the book, especially at the end when the Good and Evil sides realize that they aren’t all bad, they are just different, and they need each other to be in balance. The philosophy is very ying/yang moral dualism, like manichaeism. I love that this series explores a lot of moral questions, but I don’t always like the answers that the characters arrive at.

I loved all the magic and fairy tale characters! The plot is really exciting in this book as they are gearing up for a big battle between good and evil.

I partly read this book with my eyes and partly listened to the audiobook narrated by Polly Lee. The narration was okay, but not great.

This book has been screened for sensitive content on the Screen It First website: https://screenitfirst.com/book/the-last-ever-after-the-school-for-good-and-evil-3-1575123