Review: The School for Wicked Witches
Review by Christopher G. Nuttall
The School for Wicked Witches (Will Taylor)
-The School for Wicked Witches
-Wicked Never Waits
-Wicked on the Wind
The School for Wicked Witches and its sequels (two published one more due in 2026) are set in Oz, something that surprised me when I first saw the books. Or so it says. In many ways, the series is a deconstruction of Oz in the same way that Wicked is, but it might be more accurate to say that Oz flavoured The School for Wicked Witches, in much the same way The Poppy War is flavoured by Imperial China, rather than being directly based in that universe. The differences cannot be explained otherwise.
Magicians in Oz are born with a certain magical gift, as well as a general talent for using magic, and when they reach the right age they are sent to one of the four magical schools to learn how to be a proper witch. However, some magicians are born with inherently wicked gifts (from mind control to fire casting) and are sent to The School for Wicked Witches instead, a reform school intend to keep the dangerous magicians well away from everyone else. Our heroine, Ava Heartstraw, is discovered to possess just such a talent, and is promptly sent to the School for Wicked Witches. Everyone else washes their hands of her.
But when she arrives, Ava is surprised to discover that the school is nowhere near as bad as they claim and her fellow students are not (mostly) wicked. Instead of being a borstal, the school exists to teach students how to use their dangerous gifts safely and eventually prepares them to go out and make lives of their own. This would not be so bad if the students were not stuck there until they graduate, unable to leave the school under any circumstances.
The first plot revolves around Ava and her friends trying to find a way to escape the school – only to discover, as they escape, that they have made a very dangerous enemy in a truly wicked witch who is plotting against the school. Ironically, they discover they don’t fit in very well to the school for good witches and find their way right back to the original school. The next two books involve engagements between the kids and the wicked witch, with treachery and betrayal on both sides and desperate plans to save the school that start veering towards being openly wicked. In the end, they come to realise that the school, for all its bad reputation, is necessary.
It is easy to feel sorry for Ava and most of her peers, condemned for gifts they didn’t ask for and found guilty of crimes they did not commit. The School for Wicked Witches may be a gilded cage, but it is a cage. I can understand precisely why they wanted out, even if their actions threatened to allow the true enemy back into school. Her sort-of friend, a person who befriends her and then betrays her (several times over), also has a very understandable motives for her actions, even if they to run the risk of giving their enemy a clear shot at school. The adults, the headmaster and the enemy, have understandable motives of their own, from the headmaster who wants to save the children to a villain who delights in being wicked.
As the plot develops, the characters develop with it. Ava and her friends not only become better at magic, they start to understand the dangers in casting spells that genuinely do verge upon outright wickedness. It’s fun to see them save the school, overcoming many problems in the process, although some of those problems are caused by the school itself. The defence system alone causes more trouble than it solves.
Overall, I enjoyed these books (although I do think they would have done better if they had been set in their own universe). The plot develops well, the characters develop well, the magic system is very vague (unsurprisingly), and all of the little surprises fit in perfectly well in hindsight. There is no sex, although there is some violence, and I have no hesitation in recommending them to children as well as teenagers and adults.
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