Six novels about two best friends who are kidnapped into a school that trains fairy-tale heroes and villains, and are each sorted into the wrong half. Then there are the prequels, which were published years later, are set generations earlier, and are numbered from one again — so a store page will happily show you Rise of the School for Good and Evil as though it were the beginning.
It is not. Here is the order that works.
The short answer
Start with The School for Good and Evil and read the six novels in order. Read the two prequels afterward, if at all.
Do you have to read them in order?
Yes. Sophie and Agatha’s story is continuous across all six and the series changes shape twice — books one to three are the school years, four to six move outside it into Camelot. Each of the first three also ends on a reversal that rewrites what came before, so reading them out of sequence removes the only thing the books are really built around.
Every School for Good and Evil book in order
- Now a Netflix Originals Movie
- #2: A World without Princes
- #3: The Last Ever After
- #4: Quests for Glory
- #5: A Crystal of Time
- #6: One True King
The prequels
Two books telling the origin of the school itself, published after the main series finished:
They are a duology, read in the order above, and they are genuinely prequels — different characters, an earlier era, no Sophie or Agatha. Starting here is a mistake even though the numbering invites it: the whole point of the prequels is that you already know what the school became. Save them for after book six.
The handbook
The Ever Never Handbook is a guide to the school rather than a story — rules, classes, character files. It is best after book three, which is when a reader is most invested in the institution and least likely to be spoiled by it.
A note on reading age
This one runs older than its shelf placement. The later books get long, the romantic material is more prominent than in most middle grade, and there is real violence. Around eleven to fourteen is the usual sweet spot. The Netflix film covers roughly the first book, so a child who has seen it has not spoiled much.
Keep browsing
Every book above has a page in our catalog. If the magic-school setup is the draw, our books like Harry Potter list sorts eight more series by exactly that. For the same readers, see the Keeper of the Lost Cities reading order and fantasy books for tweens.