In exchange for immortality

In exchange for eternal youth

I choose you.

Two brothers.

One for Good.

One for Evil.

Your loyalty to your blood greater than the loyalty

to your side.

As long as you love each other, the world stays in

balance.

Good and Evil.

Brother and brother.

But every School Master faces a test.

Yours is love.

But when is love not enough for a restless soul?

The two brothers, twin School Masters have been keeping guard over the Storian for hundreds of years but as the pen continues to write stories of heros overcoming evil, the School Masters begin to wonder, has the pen chosen to favor one side over the other? Then the pen begins to write a new story where they’re the main characters!

Has the balance been tilting towards goods. What starts as an innocent question seeds the ripples of doubt that will lead to the events of the original SoG&E trilogy where history repeats itself as a boy drives a wedge between the two brothers.

The book is split into four stories, some will be familiar as the boy who initially divides the brothers is Aladdin whom they both believe was meant for the School for Evil only to be dropped into the School for Good. Believing this to be their big test, Rhian thinks he can reform him and Rafael believes his selfish heart will prevail but as Chainani has made clear for most of the series, the lines between good and evil are blurred with assumptions.

Each story parallels and forshadows the internal battle of the brothers who are sticking to their true natures but each has a little good and evil inside them as the balance requires where Rafael shows affection and desperation to be with his brother despite the prophacies of betrayal, while Rhian becomes more desperate to ensure that Good wins no matter the cost.

Even the students reflect that as wily Aladdin seems perfectly fit for evil with his selfish desire to gain respect just because he deserves it, and James Hook who believes he is destined for the good while holding disdain for everyone under him.

Readers will be eager to see the origins for several staples of the series like the choice for the school’s crests, the school design, the blue forests, the Trial of Tale and Circus of Talents among others as well as see what the schools had been like in their primitive stages.

The power and pain of love is in full view as Chainani shows the nuances of the intense bond of friendship and romantic love as well as the love that comes from a dark desire to emulate someone else.

This reflects Rhian’s dangerous attraction to villainous characters like the Pirate Captain and Vulcan who touch a repressed part of him that wants the power evil has in how they do anything they want, they reveal in their authority and ruthlessness. Rafael bears no such attraction because he is evil, but he is able to recognize different kinds of evil-the crafty, the ruthless yet unthinking and much more, extolling his views that evil is true power as they embrace who they are.

It’s an exciting origin story that will leave readers questioning the nature of good and evil as not being as black and white as one thinks.

4 stars.