The Last Ever After~Soman Chainani | Review

Title: The Last Ever After (The School for Good and Evil #3)
Author: Soman Chainani
Genre: YA Fantasy/Fairytale
Length: 655 Pages (Hardback)
Release: July 2015
My Rating: 2/5 Stars

Review

I had a very hard time with this series, unfortunately. The first book was very enjoyable and had some interesting and different concepts. After that I was really excited for the two books following, expecting more of the same fun and twist on fairy tales. Unfortunately, for me, that was not the case. 

The Last Ever After picks up where book two left off. Agatha and Tedros are constantly fighting, hardly able to stand each other as they share a house with Agatha's mother. Of course they end up going back into the woods to rescue Sophie and all sorts of crazy things ensue. Because the woods are very different now. Even more than they were the last time. 

One thing that really bothers me about this series is the fact that there is almost no character development. Particularly where Sophie is concerned. She's a taker and never a giver. That doesn't change, no matter how many chances she has. All that books two and three in this series do is recycle all of the old issues that were had with these characters, making them cycle back and forth, never really progressing. 

The ending was not particularly satisfying. Some of the characters made sudden decisions that didn't really seem to fit. Some of the revelations made seemed too convenient, too put together. And there was still no hint of development with certain characters. 

Agatha was my favorite throughout the books, but even she became annoying. She was a giver and never a taker, opposite of Sophie. And she just continued to let people walk all over her. 

The Agatha/Tedros relationship had some cute moments, but they were vastly overshadowed by the amount of annoying angst surrounding them. And Tedros, who could have been such an interesting character, was reduced to just another silly boy who wants people to think more of them than they do but never gives them a reason to do so. 

Dot, Anadil, and Hester were the high point in the series. They were more complex than any other characters, with both good and evil in them. And unlike everyone else, there was some development that happened with these three. 

This series is targeted at a middle grade audience, but I wouldn't personally classify it for that age range. It's written as if it's middle grade, as far as conflict resolution and overall structure, but there was too much of a focus on romance for it to really fit that age range. I definitely wouldn't recommend this to my niece and nephew who fall in that age range. 

This is unfortunately a series that I would recommend. It had a few good points but was overall a disappointment.