Is The School for Good and Evil Movie Better Than the Book?

If you follow the Literati Medium YouTube channel, then you would know that I love book adaptations. I like to watch the adaptation, then read the book and decide which is better based on the plot, characters, and relationships.

So let’s talk about The School for Good and Evil.

There will be spoilers for both the movie and the first book in this post, so please be aware of that.

Summary

Sophie and Agatha are best friends, even though Sophie is the quintessential beautiful princess and Agatha is shunned as an evil witch. When one night they are whisked away to the School for Good and Evil, they each find themselves enrolled in the wrong side.

Plot

Okay, let me start off by saying I actually feel really conflicted about this one. There is a LOT to unpack with these two stories. So while I normally give one point for the plot overall, I feel like I may have to break this up a bit more because there were things I liked better in the book and things I liked better in the movie.

First, I found it interesting in the book how everyone in Gavaldon knew about the students being taken to a school and it was a big event. It felt very reminiscent of old Halloween traditions, where you wear masks and make scary jack-o-lanterns as a way to ward off evil. I thought this was a bit more interesting than the mystery or “rumor” of the school in the movie.

Current Score

Book: 1

Adaptation: 0

The concept of a “reader” is explained much better in the book. The movie doesn’t mention the Reader Prophecy at all, and I really liked that aspect of the book.

Current Score

Book: 2

Adaptation: 0

The book also gives us a much better idea on the curriculum of the school and that the general concept is just to survive. One of the major points of the book is that if you fail, you get turned into something to help either the villains or heroes in their stories. We do see this in the movie, but it's a much bigger part of the book and an ever-present threat. That being said, I do like that we get to know Gregor as a student before he is turned into a creature that is killed by Tedros in the movie. It makes the scene much more emotional. So for this, I think I have to give a point to both.

Current Score

Book: 3

Adaptation: 1

Next comes the Trial. In the movie, the Trial is specifically for Sophie and Tedros to prove their love. The idea is there for this in the book, but it’s not just about that, it’s more of a non-lethal Hunger Games and I think the stakes are higher for Sophie and Tedros in the movie, so I’m going to give the point to the movie.

Current Score

Book: 3

Adaptation: 2

When talking about setting, I think the movie did a great job with the two schools, but I definitely liked the forest better in the book. The scarecrows are so much more terrifying because of the whole talking to you with the voice of a loved one thing. In the movie, the flowers were scarier than the scarecrow.

Current Score

Book: 4

Adaptation: 2

I think the movie may have won when it comes to the climax of the story. In the book, we get hints at what might be going on, but it’s just not very well developed. The movie definitely improves upon this with the addition of blood magic and some additional scenes with Raval. It’s an ever-present threat that builds instead of just suddenly appearing.

Current Score

Book: 4

Adaptation: 3

I don’t normally talk about themes so much in my comparisons, but I feel like it was really important to do so in this instance. The movie very lightly goes over the theme of how the school for Good has become vapid and shallow, which is very true in the book as well. But what the movie doesn’t go over is how the “outcasts'' often become villains. I honestly can’t say many of the Nevers would be what I call “evil”. They just had something that excluded them from being what society sees as “good”.

What makes Agatha and Sophie unique (at least for the most part) is that Sophie is truly evil and Agatha is truly good. The movie doesn’t address this other than to queer-code the appearance of a lot of the School for Evil characters, which becomes problematic because they didn’t embrace that message, so it just becomes another instance of Hollywood queer-coding villains. So I’m giving another point to the book.

Current Score

Book: 5

Adaptation: 3

Characters

The characters are really interesting to look at between the book and the adaptation. I won’t go over all the characters since there are so many, but I will go over the characters that are notably different between the two or incredibly important characters.

Dot

I have very strong feelings about Dot in the book. The book is…honestly...really fat phobic, and as a fat person, I can say that just like with any other type of representation, the depiction of fat people matters. Dot is one of the sweetest (no pun intended) characters in the entire book and she gets absolutely massacred by both the Evers and Nevers simply because she’s fat.

I wish there was some greater realization in the book about this, and maybe there is in later books, but I didn’t see it in this one. The movie subverts the fatphobia by making Dot a straight-size character and there is a plus size (though Hollywood plus size, which isn’t really plus size at all) princess. So the point will go to the movie.

Current Score

Book: 5

Adaptation: 4

Hort

Hort is…interesting in the movie. He’s obviously there as comic relief, but I actually think it doesn’t do his character any justice. He just becomes an outrageous simp. Hort in the book is also a simp for Sophie, but at the end of the day he’s just this nerdy, actually nice guy. So I’m giving the point to the book.

Current Score

Book: 6

Adaptation: 4

Raval

I’m so glad we saw more of the twins in the movie than in the book, and the School Master in general, because who doesn’t love Laurence Fishburne or Kit Young? Making the School Master be around more was a much more practical option than including Castor and Pollux from the book, plus it adds this layer of insidiousness that Raval was masquerading as his twin the entire time while weakening the school for Good.

Kit was properly enigmatic and the addition of the scenes that show his obvious fascination with Sophie made that part of the plot’s pacing so much better instead of just coming completely out of left field. I’ll talk about what else it does when I talk about Sophie, so the point will go to the Adaptation.

Current Score

Book: 6

Adaptation: 5

Professor Anemone

Michelle Yeoh is hilarious as Anemone. I honestly don’t have much to say other than I love the scene where she’s talking about how she’s a history teacher and doesn’t give a shit about beauty. It’s amazing.

Current Score

Book: 6

Adaptation: 6

Lady Lesso

Charlize Theron is also amazing as Lady Lesso. I really liked seeing more of her in the story. The book has a lot of Professor Dovey, but a lot less Lady Lesso, and the addition of her being Raval’s “failed” love just makes Raval that much more…evil.

Current Score

Book: 6

Adaptation: 7

Professor Dovey

Okay, so really all the professors in the movie are fantastically portrayed and Kerry Washington doesn’t disappoint. The uber-fake happiness with glimpses of “realness” is hilarious and points out just how fake the School for Good is. However, the character itself is not as well developed as she is in the book and I love the fact that Dovey is the actual fairy godmother in the book.

Current Score

Book: 7

Adaptation: 7

Tedros

I am so conflicted about Tedros. When I watched the movie, I thought Tedros was a bit of a himbo, but at least seemed like a nice guy. Tedros in the books is…not. He’s really toxic masculinity and white privilege personified. Normally, I would say that would mean that I like the adaptation better, but I think the change actually made the character…boring. I hate Tedros in the book, but at least he seems like a three-dimensional character.

Current Score

Book: 8

Adaptation: 7

Sophie

I kept having to remind myself that Sophie is supposed to be annoying when I was watching the movie. But that’s all that she was…annoying. I never bought that she was truly evil. In the book, she comes off as truly evil. I mean, she flat out murders someone. Now…that someone was a torturer, but still…murder. Sophie never murdered anyone in the movie. The manipulation of Raval also makes her actions more understandable. The changes the movie made to the character made Sophie a lot more sympathetic, which makes her redemption at the end feel earned. Her redemption in the book doesn’t feel earned at all.

Current Score

Book: 8

Adaptation: 8

Agatha

Agatha is another character I feel pretty torn about. I love how confident Aggie is in the movie. She knows who she is and never doubts herself. This, like Tedros, is a much healthier depiction.

However, I actually really enjoyed Agatha’s journey from someone who doubts her worth because society has always told her she was evil, to someone who realizes their unique beauty, both inside and out.

Current Score

Book: 9

Adaptation: 8

Relationships

Raval and Sophie

For relationships, I’ll start off with Raval and Sophie. As I mentioned in my earlier section about Raval, this relationship is a lot more fleshed out in the movie. Maybe a lot is the wrong word, but it’s definitely more established than just the very end of the book. Raval makes obvious attempts to manipulate Sophie in the movie as opposed to just sitting by and watching the madness unfold. Because it’s better developed, I’m giving the point to the movie.

Current Score

Book: 9

Adaptation: 9

Sophie and Hort

Sophie and Hort have a much better relationship in the book. Or at least a closer one. Is it one based on Sophie's manipulation of him so that she can share his dorm room when her roommates kick her out? Yes. But that’s still better than the simping we got in the movie.

Current Score

Book: 10

Adaptation: 9

Sophie and Tedros

I absolutely hated this relationship in the movie. It felt like Tedros was just going after her because she was hot, which is the exact opposite of what happens in the movie. Yes, there’s the whole “convincing him she’s good scene”, but that’s so different from the long drawn out build of the relationship in the book. There’s a part of me that thinks that Sophie and Tedros deserve each other in the book, but I still don’t think it was a good relationship. That being said, because it was more than superficial, I’m giving the point to the book.

Current Score

Book: 11

Adaptation: 9

Agatha and Tedros

In contrast to Sophie and Tedros the relationship between Agatha and Tedros in the movie is much healthier than what we see in the book. I know the book was going for the true enemies to lovers with them but the relationship in the movie seemed to be based on their personalities leading to them liking each other as people. In the book Tedros didn’t really have a choice but be drawn to Agatha’s goodness and fall for the fairytale “love at first sight”, whereas in the movie Tedros has a choice. He never saw Agatha as a villain like he did in the book.

Current Score

Book: 11

Adaptation: 10

Sophie and Agatha

Finally, the relationship at the cornerstone of this story: Sophie and Agatha. I have to say, I never really felt like Sophie viewed Agatha as a true friend in the book. She always puts her down and constantly gaslights her. In contrast, the movie shows how close these two characters are meant to be. Again, this made all the difference for the ending to feel deserved.

Final Score

Book: 11

Adaptation: 11

So in this instance, it’s a tie. Overall, I would probably rate the movie and the adaptation as three stars for my personal level of enjoyment. They both had their problems, but they both had their strengths as well.

Have you read the book or watched the movie? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!