Friends-turned-enemies Sophie and Agatha have parted ways; now, in this hefty conclusion to The School for Good and Evil trilogy, Evil prevails over Good and villains from the past attempt to change their tales. Chainani's fairy-tale-twisting coming-of-age story feels familiar as the characters subvert fairy-tale tropes to define their true selves. Still, series followers should be satisfied.

Gr 6 Up-The final book in the trilogy opens with Sophie having pledged her hand to an evil true love. Now evil is on the rise, and this time it looks as though there may be no easy solution. Agatha and her prince must journey once more back to a school indelibly altered, this time to convince Sophie to change her mind, or kill her. Through a myriad of twists and turns, the two original protagonists struggle to define their relationships and identities and figure out who they're truly meant to be. This story will be snapped up by fans wanting to know how things wind up for the two friends. New readers will need to backtrack to the earlier titles in order to follow the events of this volume. Even invested readers may find it a challenge to keep track of where the story is headed, given the complicated back and forth of the plot and the overload of themes and characters. With fairy tale schools trending in middle school fiction, readers of Shelby Bach's "The Ever Afters" quartet (S. & S.) and Jen Calonita's Flunked (Sourcebooks, 2015) looking for similar worlds may find this series appealing. VERDICT Purchase where the series has proved popular. Stephanie Whelan, New York Public Library