The Last Ever After

The Last Ever After
Cover art of The Last Ever After
Attribution information
Author	Soman Chainani
Illustrator	Iacopo Bruno
Cover artist	Iacopo Bruno
Publication information
Publisher	HarperCollins
Release date	July 21, 2015
Page count	704
Chronology
Story arc	The School Years
← Previous	A World Without Princes
Next →	The Ever Never Handbook

‘‘ In the riveting third installment of the New York Times bestselling School for Good and Evil series, everything old is new again, as Sophie and Agatha fight the past as well as the present to find the perfect end to their fairy tale. ’’

—Summary

The Last Ever After is a 2015 fantasy, fairy tale novel written by Soman Chainani. It is the third and last book in The School Years trilogy and the the third book overall in The School for Good and Evil series.

Synopsis

In the stunning conclusion to the New York Times bestselling School for Good and Evil trilogy, everything old is new again, as Sophie and Agatha fight the past as well as the present to find the perfect end to their fairy tale.

Former best friends Sophie and Agatha thought their ending was sealed when they went their separate ways, but their storybook is about to be rewritten—and this time theirs isn’t the only one. With the girls apart, Evil has taken over and the forces of Good are in deathly peril. Will Agatha and Sophie be able to work together to save them? Will they find their way to being friends again? And will their new ending be the last Ever After they’ve been searching for?

Soman Chainani delivers action, adventure, laughter, romance, and more twists than ever before in this extraordinary end to his epic series.

Plot

At the story's beginning, we see the two couples, each in different worlds, Rafal and Sophie & Agatha and Tedros. We discover that, upon returning home to Gavaldon, Agatha realizes that her prince is in mortal danger, and she is too. After traveling up Graves Hill, Agatha's mother treats Tedros' wounds from book 2, and reveals to Agatha that she has been branded a witch, with a bounty on her head. After enduring each others presence in the cramped house for a while, Agatha and Tedros get caught by an elder guard, who realized that Callis was stealing eggs for them. On the way to the execution pyre, Agatha understands that Callis and Stefan were made guards by the elders, as a punishment for their children. The Elders forced Stefan to be a guard by making him choose between Sophie and his new family. Right before the flames ignite beneath Agatha, Callis stabs out a glowing green finger an repels the fire into a glowing green ring around the guards, and she frees Agatha and Tedros, instructing them to flee to a swan marked gravestone.

They obey, although Agatha turns around and sees guards kill her mother. Pursued by the same men, Agatha and Tedros find the right grave at the last moment and are snatched into it. In the grave is Princess Uma, who tells of their predicament. Old villains raised from the dead, Sophie accepting Rafal's love, and the mysterious League of Thirteen. We also see the grave of Vanessa, Sophie's mother, oin Necro ridge. After saving them from a wolf and giant with her animal talents, Uma leads Agatha and her prince to the "league of 13." On the way, they pass through Foxwood, and Snow White's cottage, where the group of 3 finds Snow White and her dwarves brutally murdered by the reincarnated Evil Queen. After venturing alone into the cottage to find the princess, Agatha is attacked by the Evil Queen, barely escaping with her life before Tedros found her, bloody and bruised. However, as Tedros yells ate her, the couple hear a scream from outside, the screams of princess Uma, being petrified by the Evil queen. Picking her up and following a rabbit, the ragtag group entered the headquarters of the League of 13, located in a dark cave. There they find Yuba the gnome- berating them for their rashness- as well as a group of old, wrinkled strangers. Yuba continues the surprises by telling that the real help would come from the 13th member- Merlin. Seeing Merlin, Tedros passes out and, upon waking, is enraged that Merlin left him, but quickly forgives the queer sorcerer. Later Tedros asks Merlin where he had been the entire time he was gone.

Meanwhile, Sophie is appointed to teach Curses and Death Traps, suggested by Lady Lesso. When meeting with her, she finds out all the Good teachers (Dovey included) have been imprisoned and there is a spy in the school. During her first class, she is being criticized by her fellow students, both Evers and Nevers alike.Sophie and Castor teach the students to kill Agatha and Tedros since they knew they were coming back.

(tbc)

Rafal's army marches to Gavaldon, and Agatha realised that they had the whole story wrong, as Rafal was planning for Sophie to kill her father, as opposed to Rafal murdering his brother. Agatha convinced Sophie that they need one another, but Sophie didn't falter. Rafal had his axe, ready to murder Agatha the moment Sophie murders her father. However, in the last moment, Sophie destroyed the ring instead, and Rafal crumbled to dust and was defeated.

Chapter list

1. PART I
   1. The Master and the Queen
   2. After Ever After
   3. The New or the Old
   4. Death at an Execution
   5. A Princess Returns
   6. A Forest No Longer Blue
   7. Evil Is the New Good
   8. When Good Rescues Go Bad
   9. The Worst Evers Ever
   10. The Missing Thirteenth
   11. Appointment with the Deans
   12. Find the Spy
   13. Too Many Boys
   14. Where Wizard Go to Think
   15. The Magician's Plan
   16. Edgar and Essa
   17. Missions Impossible
   18. Tedros in the Sky with Chocolate
   19. Old School Reunions
   20. Last Stop on the Fairy Dust Express
2. PART II
   21. Peer Pressure
   22. Everything Old Is New Again
   23. Two Queens
   24. Who Do You Belong With?
   25. The Scorpion and the Frog
3. PART III
   26. In Darkness Comes a Queen
   27. Rebel Hearts
   28. Who's Helping Who
   29. Failed Assignments
   30. Apologies and Confessions
   31. Spies in the Stymph Forest
   32. The Meaning of Evil
   33. An Unexpected History Lesson
   34. The War of All Things
   35. Never Ever After

Gallery

Quotes

‘‘ "A princess and witch can never be friends. Our story will forever prove that."

"No, our story proves a princess and a witch have to be friends. Because each of us has played both parts, and we'll always play both parts. That's who we are. That why we are us."'' ’’

—Sophie and Agatha

Trivia

• There is a Target Exclusive version featuring a deleted scene from Book 1, and an excerpt from The Never Ever Handbook

SGE 3 THE LAST EVER AFTER Official Book Trailer