City News

Rhian kills Japeth.  
Sophie kills Rhian.  
 
That was what Sophie saw in her crystal of time.  
 
But it wasn’t Rhian who killed Japeth.  
 
Japeth had killed his twin brother, Rhian, and now seeks to take his brother’s throne to become the One True King. The Lion and the Snake had turned on each other, and now, only the Snake prevailed. While Tedros and Agatha attempt to discover the truth behind the Snake’s history and find out how to pass King Arthur’s tests, Sophie remains at Camelot with the Snake, her mind controlled and her body puppeted to the Snake’s whims. Together, they must expose the Snake’s crimes to citizens of the Endless Woods before Man becomes Pen, and their future becomes rewritten forever...  
 
As the sixth and final book in The School for Good and Evil series, One True King did not disappoint. I began reading One True King with a bitter heart, still haunted by Rhian’s death and the fraudulent Snake plotting to take over the Woods, just a day after finishing A Crystal of Time, the previous book in the series. Engrossed in the plot, I had finished this book in less than two days. During breaks in reading, I liked to brainstorm possible paths the story could take and make predictions to the mystery, but I hadn’t made a single correct prediction. Chainani kept finding ways to surprise me.  
 
Though I never fell in love with Japeth, the venomous villain of the story, as I fell in love with Rhian, Chainani had created a sympathetic villain. Japeth hadn’t fought for power; he’d fought for love. He’d fought to become the true king in order to rewrite his fate so he would be together forever with Aric, his one true love. Japeth refused to accept fate’s separation and instead sought to rewrite his ending. Though he was a fraud to the Woods, he was not a fraud to his heart.  
 
I rate the One True King a 10/10. Chainani has always been known to fill his books with twists and turns, but the final book contained the most twists by far. Chainani presents challenges I have no clue how it will be solved, forcing me to zip through the story page after page. Spoiler Alert: many characters die. I would recommend this series to all. The School for Good and Evil is one of my favorite book series of all time, because it forced me to question what is truly Good and Evil and see the world through a variety of colors. I loved the villains as much as I loved the heroes, and I cried for both. I promise you would not regret this read. 

Check out One True King from the Newport Beach Public Library.