Are you freaking kidding me.

I try not to exaggerate when I write these reviews but I am not using hyperbole when I say I nearly threw my Kindle across the room after finishing this. Novik is hands down one of the best fantasy writers out there right now, and the second Scholomance only further showcases her inventiveness when it comes to the genre. This has been an incredible series so far, and I cannot believe I now have to wait for that third one.

The second volume in a series is always the hardest to write and read because it's usually where the action tends to ebb and it's the "darkest before the dawn". However, this book is very clever because it really does solve the main tension of the series while also opening up a whole new world of problems and upcoming issues for our heroine, who is saved from being an overpowered protagonist by 1) having another overpowered protagonist in her sphere who is having an even worse time than she is and 2) resisting the urge to go full Dark Lord with willpower and not much else. There's not a ton to say about the plot because it both goes in the direction that was laid out in the first book, while also going in a some very different avenues. Overall, I enjoyed the fact that the writer did not write the book I thought I was going to read, while also giving me the book I wanted in a lot of ways, while also subverting expectations laid on a reader who grew up on a diet of "magic school" books. I'm looking forward to book 3 because I have no idea how this is going to go for anyone, which is very exciting.

Wow. Naomi Novik is a genius for this book series. I will say that I did not enjoy this one as much as the first, but that's because it just felt like a whole lot of middle.... which it was. I was in the staunch 4-star rating zone for the entire book... until the last 60 pages. That was wild. The character growth for El was fantastic and getting to know Orion a little better was also great, even if our magnificent heroine was put off on him waxing poetic. I loved it. And it made the ending all that more shocking. Cannot wait for the next one.

The Last Graduate is the second book in the Scholomance series. We pick up the story at the beginning of El and Orion's senior year. The specter of graduation is looming and the final ritual involves running the gauntlet past hundreds of maleficaria (malevolent creatures that attack and eat wizards). The only way to survive is by forming alliances with other students. But El doesn't belong to one of the powerful, big-city enclaves and has only developed alliances (almost friendships) with a few other "losers" and outcasts during her junior year. Most of the students don't even know who she is and she certainly hasn't let on at all that she's a powerful maleficer - so why would they want an alliance with her?

On top of that, the school itself seems determined to kill her this year. Her class schedule is brutal and referred to as the single worst senior schedule ever. Worse yet, she has a Wednesday afternoon block, mysteriously named "Work" and with an assigned classroom in the top level of the library and it's full of inexperienced freshmen. It's also the only classroom being actively attacked by maleficaria. How is she going to make it through graduation and escape the school if she can barely even survive her classes? And if the unwritten school rule is everyone for themselves, why has she suddenly adopted Orion's insane need to rescue everyone else?

I absolutely love this series. Action packed and quick paced. A story where the underdogs and weirdos and losers are the heroes. Where there are no grownups and everyone has to sort out their own coming of age issues in a semi-sentient school. So much to love here!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik, El and the rest of her class are seniors, staring down a year of preparation before the desperate sprint through the graduation hall that will determine if they make it out of the Scholomance alive. If practicing to make it through hordes of hungry malificaria wasn’t enough, the school seems to be targeting El specifically, throwing constant attacks that force her to choose between saving the students around her and building enough mana to make it though graduation herself. As the year goes on, it seems clearer that El will have to pit herself against not only the school and her fellow students, but the very systems underpinning magical education, with the lives of the entire graduating class and possibly every magical child in the balance.

After reading the final sentence, I had exactly one reaction to express to the author and it’s this: How DARE you? Having gotten that reaction off my chest, it would be followed by extended and embarrassing begging to find out what happens next because it ends on a massive cliffhanger. As the second book in a trilogy, most of the story feels like a typical bridge book, but I thought I knew where the story was going and was content to spend more time with the characters I loved and Novik’s excellent writing while this book set up the story for the finale. And then around 75% of the way through, Novik ripped the rug right out from under me and the pace of the book kicked into high gear. I absolutely did not see the ending coming (although in retrospect I should have) and am now experiencing extreme frustration over how long it’s going to be before I might conceivably get my hands on the final book and find out where this is going. Beyond telling an amazing fantasy story, The Last Graduate brings in threads of friendship, ethics, privilege, finding your way, and questioning systems of power that keep us focused on individual surviving instead of group thriving. El continues her journey of stubbornly rejecting her prophesied fate to become a dark sorceress and it’s a lot of fun watching her grumpily march through learning to help others, ask for help herself, and accept that other people might care about her. This isn’t a good place to enter the series if you haven’t read the first book, A Deadly Education (it’s great and you should read it if you haven’t), and the slower start of the book makes this 4 stars for me instead of 5, but overall this is an engaging continuation of a story I’m eager to see finished in the third book of the trilogy whenever it comes out.

I will add my review to Goodreads two weeks before publication.

This book, in some ways, was less devastating than I expected.

The first installment was intense. The throat-punch cliffhanger it left off with, plus the massively high stakes of it finally being El's class's GRADUATION YEAR *gasp* has to mean even MORE violence, strategic betrayals, attempted murder, etc. right? They supposedly cleared the graduation hall, but there's no way they're just going to get away with that, right? The other shoe is definitely going to drop, right?

In some ways yes - but in most ways, actually, no.

Last book's cliffhanger is not really addressed other than a few throwaway asides. El has bigger things on her mind, like surviving the rest of the year. There is no tragic destruction of her fragile network of friendships and alliances, which is good because I would have been really sad.

Some more good things we have featured:

• The intensely detailed examination of magical science, magical social strategy, and magical history continues. Some people hate this and I get why, but honestly I really enjoy it. Every time El pauses in the middle of a dialogue passage to dump six paragraphs of explanation to the reader I'm like yeah BUDDY, give me that sweet sweet information.

• El and Orion's dynamic continues to be confusing but fundamentally wholesome in a freakish way.

• El's "special skills" become PUBLIC and there's an odd reversal of roles here. Orion is more in the background for this book, whereas El is the one the whole school is looking to. This is good for me because I really enjoy massive, ridiculous displays of destructive power and that's exactly what El is here for.

• This is all clearly leading up to some real-world reckoning, in which the magical lines of power will be redrawn one way or another after the kids escape the Scholomance. Nothing is really concretely addressed about this, because they're all still trapped in a no-information zone, but the hints we are given are interesting and I'm hype to see what happens outside in book three.

• It's a very funny, nice piece of irony that El creates a sort of kumbaya "all for one, one for all" unity in an otherwise Lord of the Flies environment, when her whole shtick is hating people and being as abrasive as possible.

The bad:

• Like I said, Orion is a little in the background for this whole book. It's fine, honestly, but given how fun their dynamic is and was in book one, it's a little disappointing.

• Cliffhanger AGAIN. I still don't know the meaning of the first cliffhanger!!!! AHHH.

• Sex scene

Special thanks for the ARC!

You have to love an author that leaves you wanting more and Naomi Novik does that in The Last Graduate. This one was fast paced, and the plot never left me bored. I'm loving the YA romance in this book and I absolutely can't wait for the third book.

Just a fair warning -- this books ends on a cliffhanger that will leave you up at night wishing for the next book in the series. Overall, I'm giving the book five stars due to the plot and the writing is beautiful.

That ending tho…but that is all I will say about that.
I was anticipating reading this book and it did not disappoint in the least. I love the fantasy and the magical elements of the story, but also how character-driven this story is. Novik does a good job of advancing the story around the main characters, but also introducing minor characters and making you care about them as well, without the story getting bogged down with too many characters. I love this series and can’t wait to read the final book.

Just as excellent as the first one. Beware! I didn’t realize it was a trilogy and let me tell you that ending is a doozy. Characterizations we’re excellent, mals sufficiently scary, new characters just lovely. Highly recommended.

What a great sequel! The book started right where we left of and we got to see their senior year. And what a year it was! El and Orion are both great train wrecks of characters and I still found myself rooting for them. The ending still has me reeling, I can’t wait for the next book. 🎉

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc.

4.5

First off, that cliffhanger should be illegal. I am drying over here, and this book hasn’t even been published yet. How will I wait.? *cries*.

This book was fantastic. I love El and all that she gets into. The character growth was amazing. The story and language is so descriptive and thorough; it’s easy to picture and imagine what you’re reading. I can’t wait for the next one and for my copy to be in my hands.

This book picks up right where the second ends and takes you wild ride. I loved the evolution of El's character from being selfish and always rude to caring about the other students and what happens to them. I was frustrated by the cliff-hanger at the end, but only because I'll probably have to wait at least another year to find out what happens. I love Naomi Novik's writing and will continue to read everything she writes.

This book starts exactly where the last book ended -- with El receiving the note from her mother. Immediately after, her senior year at the Scholomance begins. I'm not sure which I love most: the school or El. El's character development, growth, and witty sarcasm keep the book moving forward, but the dreary half-sentient Scholomance really makes the book. The book takes a lot of twists and turns, although the cliffhanger ending was somewhat predictable (and excruciating). My only complaint is that El has a lot of long tangents, which was somewhat jarring when they occurred in the middle of a conversation (half the time I forgot what was happening before the tangent happened). That aside, the book was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the next one.

I love a Naomi Novik story and that includes this one (thanks to Netgalley for giving me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review). Starting in the aftermath of Graduation Day and with El and Orion's own Graduation now incoming, we watch as El continues to stretch herself not only forming alliances but by making them work. With the school seeming to bear a grudge of its' own, El spends senior year besieged by ever bigger and badder mal's- not to mention a terrible schedule, bad food and freshmen to babysit. A stunning discovery will change everything for all of the residents of the Scholomance and yet another will change it all again for El and Orion.

Naomi Novik takes the story she built in book 1 and continues to build on her world, layering elements just so to reel us in and (as usual) succeeding. This book links directly to the previous entry- it is not suitable as a stand alone.

Book 2 of The Scholomance and there is so much going on here. Galadriel and her friends have to make a go of it to get out of the Scholomance alive. Galadriel has to prepare for graduation, get through the dangerous day to day menace that is her school, she doesn't have time to worry about her mother's warning about falling in love with Orion Lake. Amazing book, discoveries are made and Galadriel seems to come in more to herself, I love the way her relationships are changing. She and her friends are in a dangerous situation and they know that there lives on the line. Everyone is preparing for a life outside of school and what that actually would mean for their futures. There is a world outside of the Scholomance and Galadriel and her friends have to find a way to make that happen for them.

So the first 80% is a bit boring. Graduation scene started to ramp things up, and then of course the ending was the best part. Ugh, she knows how to get you on a cliff hanger.

The Last Graduate is wild. I’m torn because the story and character development is amazing, but the writing is very dense and hard to keep up with. As with the first book, most of the book is told to the reader, with little dialogue and a lot of world building. As such, the beginning took some time to get through as there was no clear conflict or resolution that the main character must overcome until nearly the end of the book. We’re aware that all students of the Scholomance need to survive the final trials at graduation since the first book, but this isn’t set into motion until the second half of this book. I will say that the climax of the book is explosive and thrilling, and was easily the strongest part of Graduate.

I wish the writing wasn’t so dense. The paragraphs are long and detailed with extensive world-building, to the point where I can only name off a few creatures because none of them seem important to remember anymore. The author spends much of the book describing why something exists or its importance in the world’s history, but most of it isn’t relevant information for the plot. Dialogue is few and far between; although El clearly speaks to her friends, we don’t actually get much conversations apart from a few lines once in a while. I’ve yet to figure out why Novak deemed certain lines important enough to break away from her standard storytelling as the longest conversation I can remember presented in the book is banter between El and her friends.

El goes through a lot of changes. When we first meet her, she is rude and standoffish and only looks out for herself, but by the end, she comes to care for others and is determined to save everyone. The emotional impact is what made the finale so strong to me. The buildup, the characters and their relationships, El’s growth as a character all came together for an intense final battle that left me wanting more. I am pleased to find out that there will be another book in the series as I’m not quite ready to let El go just yet. 3.5 stars for me!

WHAT JUST HAPPENED AAAHHHH!!! I really enjoyed the first book of this series but this book completely blew me away. Novik's writing of El had me laughing constantly, she's such a fun character to follow. This book was impossible to put down! All the different evil creatures, the craziness of the school, the adorableness of Orion... I am going to be going crazy until the 3rd book comes out!

3.5 stars, rounded up.

The Scholomance and its students has returned. As has the stream of consciousness narration that did the first book many, humorous favors. Unfortunately, it did not do the same in the sequel. It dampened some of the more extreme events in the book and made it hard to understand fully what was going on. In a book that is, conceptually, a bit confusing on its own – this wasn’t a great experience.

As a series continuation, I enjoyed this and it answered many questions I had. It also left things open-ended enough that I am curious about what happens next. From an enjoyment reading-only perspective though, I really struggled with this.

Full review on October 8th, 2021.

Well. I honestly thought this was going to be a duology after all, given the trajectory of the story, but that didn't happen. If you've ever wondered if a middle book in a trilogy that when you boil it down really progresses everything very little until the end could be absolutely enthralling, the answer is yes. It's all in the worldbuilding and a perfectly imperfect main character. Once again mad at myself for reading this early, thus making the wait go even longer for the next one.