It's no surprise that Novik delivers a satisfying sequel that raises the stakes and delivers a gut-wrenching ending that keeps you on the very edge of your seat. This book returns as El and her fellow classmates are entering their final year at the Scholomance. Fraught with dread and anxiety, the second book deals with the preparations for life after school, the necessary alliances, and delves into the elite enclaves that El has disdainfully looked upon since her freshman year. It also deals with the ramifications of the cliff-hanger in a tantalizing and exciting way.

The main character, Galadriel, finally shows some character growth in the second book of the Scholomance series. Although I found Galadriel's ironic and cynical tone quite humorous in the first book, Galadriel's decision to become a social recluse despite the disadvantages of doing so seemed illogical and absurd to me. Although Galadriel did finally decide to open up to making friends near the end of the first book, the second book provided much-needed details about her relationship with her newfound alliance and her love interest Orion.

When Galadriel finally started utilizing her overpowered abilities, her shift to a leadership role seemed natural and exciting. The progress the senior group made with Galadriel at the helm felt quite invigorating; however, the author's twist near the end of the novel threw all that plot momentum down the drain. Although it is quite a cliche for a significant twist being added near the end of novels, I enjoy twists when they are truly unexpected and bring forth interesting challenges for the characters. The twist in this book felt really unnatural since it made all of Galadriel and her minion's progress seem vain and the direction the story went was completely changed in a bizarre way. The previously cutthroat student body just suddenly becomes compassionate towards others out of nowhere. Although Galadriel's development of compassion was slowly unraveled throughout the story, the sudden change of the students around her just seemed unrealistic.

The Last Graduate picks up right where A Deadly Education leaves off. El, Orion, and the rest of their year are now seniors, and it is their turn to graduate from the scholomance.

I could not wait to read this book and it was just as fun, sarcastic, and surprising as I had hoped it would be. I don’t want to give anything away so I will just reiterate that it was really really good! El grows as a person and grows into her power. The scholomance becomes a character in it’s own right. And the ending! just wow, what an ending.

For some reason I had thought this was a two book series, but it’s a trilogy. I'm excited for even more scholomance and I can’t wait to read what happens next!

Hogwarts meets Deadly Class with Anakin Skywalker’s transition to Darth Vader vibes : this action packed, dark, extremely sarcastic, entertaining second book of the series absolutely hooks you from the first chapter and you wish not to finish in one sit: you hit your head so hard against the wall and keep cursing why you didn’t you go slower, savoring each chapter and enjoy every reading moment!

Especially that ending! That freaking ending! I literally howled like a crying wolf!

The impressive world building, action packed, heart pounding adventures, sarcastic , balanced pace, extremely witty tone of El and her evolving characterization by learning how to control her power and her complicated love story with Orion ( yes, her mother wrote a letter to her to warm El about Orion: but could she stay away from him by listening her mother advise: hell no! ) make your fingers glued to this reading.

I can say this new adventure is more about with will happen to our characters when they eventually graduate after their survival at the final year of Scholomance! What kind of future awaiting for them? Could El and Orion share a dreamy path at the outside world even though it seems more threatening they’ve been through recent years.

I’m not gonna give away more! You gotta read this book and after reaching to jaw dropping, truly heart wrenching, WTH ending, I advise you to scream at the top of your lungs. And start raising your hands to the air, praying for early release of third book!

I’m giving five magical, clever, mind blowing, wizard world, mana-full, happy graduation stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/ Ballantine/ Del Rey for sharing the most anticipated book’s arc copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

OMG! I need the next book now! I was eagerly waiting for this book and it did not disappoint. There is no filler here. It’s mostly nonstop action with a brief pause for romance. I’m not complaining about the ending but I really need to know what happens next as soon as possible.

The Last Graduate picks up exactly where the first book left off and continues our heroines journey to graduate... without turning evil and fulfilling her prophecy. The stakes are higher this time as the school itself seems to have fully turned against her. I finished this book in two sittings, though I could have finished it in one if I didn't have to work in the morning. It was extremely readable and left me wanting more. More to come closer to publication. 5 out of 5!

OVERALL:
An excellent continuation of the Scholomance series with fantastic character growth, a high-stakes plot, a begrudging dash of romance, and a soul-crushing cliffhanger ending. Highly recommended.
SUMMARY:
In A Deadly Education, book one of the Scholomance series, main character Galadriel (El) survives her junior year in the Scholomance and ends up in a better position than she ever thought possible. She’s secured an alliance, is totally not dating invincible maleficaria-slaying machine Orion Lake, and hasn’t turned maleficer despite ample temptation. At the end of the year, El receives a note from her mother warning her to stay away from Orion, something she of course is going to completely ignore.
In The Last Graduate, El and the other seniors spend their last year in the Scholomance preparing to fight their way out of the graduation hall. The school seems to have it out for El, however, putting more and more difficult tasks in front of her until she realizes that something has to change. They might have fixed the cleansing machinery in the graduation hall temporarily, giving this year’s seniors a fighting chance, but what about next year’s class, and the years after? It takes a radical plan and the cooperation of the entire student body, but El and Orion might just be able to save them all. But as any Scholomance student will tell you—there is always a cost.
CHARACTERS:
The main character, El, comes into her own in The Last Graduate, finally allowing her fellow students to know the full scope of her power. As graduation marches closer, she dares to dream of her path outside of the Scholomance, and whether it might be shared with Orion. She’s forced to reevaluate her priorities and assumptions and embraces an empathy (and hope) the harsh years spent in the Scholomance had nearly wrung out of her.
In contrast, El’s partner? love interest? Orion does not grow much as a character in this book. El got to know him in the previous book and he stays mostly static throughout the events of this one. His presence is one that El nearly takes for granted, which is sure to spell disaster eventually.
WORLDBUILDING:
I continue to be in awe of the fantastic worldbuilding Novik has accomplished in this series. The more the reader learns about the Scholomance, wizard society, and the maleficaria that plague it, the more engaging the world becomes. The magic system has clear and defined limits that make it easy for the reader to understand how the wizard children will or could use magic to solve their problems. As El grows in power and becomes more adept in her spellcasting, her problems center more on dealing with the people around her in what feels like a logical progression of obstacles.
PLOT/PACING
The pacing of this novel is immaculate. It feels as if an entire school year passed without months or weeks being skipped. Each moment presented to the reader was given the appropriate amount of time and felt necessary for El’s journey (especially once the Scholomance’s influence is revealed). There was plenty of action to move the plot along, but it was also balanced by a healthy amount of introspection, and a dash of romance. The cliffhanger ending is sure to leave readers screaming into the void in anticipation of the third book.

Like the book it follows, The Last Graduate is a pretty quick read. Whether that's a good or a bad thing depends on whether you're one to race through a book as quickly as possible to find out what outcome awaits the characters you've grown to love, or if you prefer to go slowly, savoring the moments and allowing your anticipation to build. Neither approach is right or wrong, but this book goes by so quickly and is so engrossing that unless you're very careful, you'll find yourself racing through it almost without meaning to, until you get to the end and find that -- contrary to what Naomi Novik previously said -- the story doesn't end here.

Somehow I missed the announcement that rather than a two-book series, Novik was writing a third Schoolomance novel. Which meant that when I got to the end of The Last Graduate, which I expected to be the end of the series...wow, what a cliffhanger!

For the most part, if you're considering reading this book, you know what you're going to get. Naomi Novik is a fantastic author, and although I wouldn't quite rank this with Spinning Silver, Empire of Ivory, or Uprooted, this book is quite good. Personally, I plan to use this series to introduce several friends to Novik's writing, and given what I've read through the first two books, I think they'll quickly be as much a fan of hers as I am!

An excellent continuation of the story began in A Deadly Education. My only only only complaint is the straight drop off the edge of the earth cliffhanger at the end of the story. I'm eagerly awaiting the third but the cliffhanger was so abrupt it was almost jarring. The final 15% of the story is high action and full of tension that ends so abruptly it actually left me slightly physically uncomfortable.

*review based on ARC provided by NetGalley

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Considered my most anticipated book of 2021, I have been blessed with copious amounts of Mana to receive an ARC of this book. And I have to say, it lived up to my Maw-Mouth sized expectations and more.
While I have a decidedly lack of knack at writing reviews, I dare say I do have the power of critical thinking. This book here, as well as its predecessor, is completely one of a kind. I mean, from the shadowy plot to the Jane Eyre-esq breaking of the 4th wall, it’s completely in a league of its own (as we know this to be true about Novik’s writing). And it’s these quirks if you will, and the sheer ingenuity of the narrative, that make me want to stop every single passerby and say, “READ THIS BOOK.” So, without further ado, may I present my LOVES of The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik.

1. The plot is shadowy.
We think we know what the overarching mission for El and Co. is by the end of ADE. But I can assure you, the plot is a living breathing thing and it evolves with us as readers. There aren’t plot twists per say, but what we know are just aromatics. What the characters want are aromatics. What the school wants, hmm… now that might be something.

2. El is an unreliable narrator.
It’s not her fault, she’s doing the best she can. She just wants to chase her dreams, and she’s got a mountain in front of her at every turn. She’s 17 and doing her best. She’s an ambitious, (secretly) kind weapon of mass destruction. She’s afraid to admit what she wants, and instead of being readers following her tale, we’re her peers and she’s gotta be strong even for us.

3. The World-building is phenomenal.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, this is Harry Potter level of fantasticness. We know the info dumps are frequent and large, but personally it is fascinating. All the different breed of monsters, the enclave system, the power struggle? Love it, can’t get enough. And because of the CONTINUED world building, I am strongly convinced that there will be more than 3 books. World building that is still happening in the last third of book 2? Unheard of. This is a complete universe Novik is creating for us. I love it all.

Excuse my mass amounts of excited-ness, but there was really nothing I found wrong with this book and will still be sitting on the edge of my seat for its release in September of 2021.

It's been a few days since I finished this and I still can't muster any thoughts other than: W O W.

I was wild about A DEADLY EDUCATION but THE LAST GRADUATE was even better! The complex relationships that El makes and maintains were so gripping, the stakes were so high, the twists were so unexpected -- I couldn't put it down!

I can't wait for the third installment after that cliffhanger ending!

Now that El has formed alliances, even made a few friends, and caught the eye of a mal-slaying nutter (*meant affectionately) with a hero complex who wouldn't mind holding her hand in public, how will that bleed into her senior year at the Scholomance?

Did the magical cleansing of the graduation hall work? Will she heed her mother's note and "stay away from Orion Lake?"

How, if at all, will she have to alter her tactics to survive the school's big Graduation Day Purge now? What's up with the maleficaria, anyway? And why...why does it seem like the school wants to usher in a new era of change?

These are all questions The Last Graduate tackles in book two of the series, which picks up right where the first one concluded. And can you believe it? The stakes are higher. The motivations are different. The scope of the world is changing, and so are the characters.

Again, Novik excels in both preserving and expanding upon the atmosphere in this newest installment, which has always been one of my favorite things about her writing. She knows just how to topple readers into an environment. Into a fantastical world of her creation. The Scholomance is as darkly imbibed with magic, with consciousness, as ever, making the school itself feel like a Sentient Stranger Things creature that has monsters tucked away beneath the staircases and bogeymans lurking in every shadowed dusty corner just waiting for an opportunity to entrap its students in another tentacled fight for survival. Except, you know--between class periods.

Not only are the dark academia vibes catching in this school but they're intrinsic. They vine their way through the floor of the place, tangle into the walls, shucking the hallways full of macabre sinister things that make you want to expel your latest meal anytime you encounter a new one. The Scholomance is an Enigmatic Edifice with its own mind as well as its own on-the-fly rules and I appreciate the creepy-crawley agency it possesses. I applaud the author's inventiveness in that regard. It's my favorite element of the whole series.

The stream of consciousness narration didn't work for me as well in this one, though. I found it to be distracting. Deflating in places. The expository nature of the POV-style stole thunder from the action at times. The big moments weren't able to land as hard, which was regrettable because, jaw-dropping, feels-inducing cliffhanger aside, there were some other good ones that could've shined more under different circumstances.

That said, I thought the characters developed nicely.

El is still peevish and rude, though with a less mean-spirited bite now. She's become more of a disgruntled participant in this book rather than the raging sideline observer she was before. It was nice to see her branch out and talk to people. I also liked the representation of her making alliances with others, not because they liked each other, but because they were all desperate to find a way to survive. There is no "I" in team, after all. (A good message to reverberate outwards in this selfish, out-for-myself world we're currently inhabiting.)

Orion's still a bit of a clumsy, can't-do-people dork at heart but he ended up having more depth than I'd anticipated. I liked gleaning more about his past, about his history with fighting mals. Also, he and El both got to ruminate over what an "after" for them could mean or look like.

I was also glad to learn more about Liu and Aadhya. However, it's Precious who was the real MVF (Most Valuable Familiar) in my eyes.

Despite some minor things that I didn't care for in the mode of storytelling, I thought this was a decent follow-up. Novik is a wizard at aesthetic immersion, and she pulled me into the world of the Scholomance--homework, magic, near death escapes, and all. It could not be helped. Like a maw mouth, I'm already chomping to know how that final cliffhanger will resolve...

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

5 stars. What a fantastic sequel to A Deadly Education. Book Three cannot come fast enough.

High school is difficult, especially when the school tries its best to kill you. The Scholomance is a boarding school for magical students. Think of it like and an evil Hogwarts or even better if Machiavelli (The Prince) and Sun Tzu (Art of War) invented a school. The students face evil spirits that try to kill them while trying to form alliances so they have the best chance of graduating. They do a lot of trading amongst each other for safety and basic necessities. A significant percentage of the student body do not survive to graduation.

I love El and her friends. El has the power to become a major evil witch and most students are scared of her. However, El has a huge heart. Naomi Novik does such an incredible job of building this world, both in the school and what life is like at home. Orion is a bit of a once sided character but El shares a major epiphany about him that makes you see him in a different light.

Lots of action and plenty of chuckles to be found. This is a book you can't put down.

So good. SO GOOD. Everything I wanted in a sequel, and now I ***desperately*** need the final book in the series! Gimme more El!

This was a fabulous second installment to a (I believe) trilogy. It was awesome to watch the MC learn and grow and embrace her role as the hero. I think there has been some criticism about how the MC doesn't embrace her multicultural roots (she is half Indian). That logic doesn't fly however, because she was raised by her white, Welsh mother. She had no positive contact with her Indian relations and in fact was traumatized by the contact she did have. Why would she want to connect with the side of her as an angry 12 year old? Anyway, rant over. Strong female characters, magic, girls kickin' butt. What more do you need? read it!!

Naomi Novik, you are a cruel, cruel person for torturing your poor readers like this.
I’m not going to spoil what it but, be warned, this cliffhanger is a whole lot worse than the one at the end of A Deadly Education. I felt like I was going to start bawling my eyes out, while at the same time trying to get myself to see reason.
Pros:
- Relationship development— we get some great El/Orion moments :)
This was done really well because, while it wasn’t the main focus of the book, it allowed the readers to become further emotionally invested in the characters, while also adding a little bit of spice to an already well seasoned meal.
- It starts off with the same sentence that TLG ends with (so no time jump)
- We still get the same amazingly sarcastic El
Cons:
- THE ENDING! Yup, the cliffhanger is EVEN WORSE


Would I Read it Again?
Absolutely.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Writing: 4/5 Plot: 3/5 Characters: 4/5

Book two of the Scholomance series (which I previously labeled “Harry Potter meets Hunger Games with the ironic style of The Name of the Wind”). Galadriel (“El”) is finally a senior at the Scholomance — a school for the magically gifted that operates without staff of any sort and typically graduates (i.e. allows to survive) only a quarter of the class. But this year, even the school itself is looking for a change, and if El and the invincible fighter Orion Lake have their way, this may be the last graduating class ever…

Very similar to book one — good writing, fun to read, likable characters — perhaps a little more detail on innovative monsters than I needed but it made for some very impressive “magical” world building. Strong messaging about the benefits of working together to ensure everyone does well, rather than desperation leading to selfish and ultimately self-destructive strategies.

I still have a preference for her earlier works — Spinning Silver and Uprooted but I always enjoy reading anything she writes. Is this the last book in the series? Hard to say — once again there was no real cliffhanger but … I do feel a little more needs to be explained! This could be read without reading book one but if you plan to do that, go online and get a quick plot summary for book one just to gain familiarity with the characters.

This series is addictively readable. I really enjoyed this book although the scope is very different from the first book in the series (because, of course, this book includes a whole year of action). I loved the cliffhanger ending and can't wait to see what happens next.

This book picks up right where the last book left off and covers the next year of El's life at the Scholomance. It is hard to say much without giving away too many spoilers, but this book is less dark than the previous, because El has friends now. Though she isn't really willing to believe it yet. Also, because the book covers a year instead of three weeks, there is less of a close, day-to-day pace. But there are still many near-death experiences and many snarky El reflections. I wish I was still reading it, and I was ecstatic to learn there will be a third book. (With that ending, how could there not be??)

Naomi you are killing me with that ending! All the feels there at the end, no doubt about it. I'm loving this series so much, and there are so many laugh out loud moments and descriptions once again in this one, her sarcasm is so on point, and Galadriel's arc is once again perfect - we go from "Even my most aggressive snappishness wasn't discouraging them sufficiently any more" to "Of course, nobody else even noticed my grand and noble decision to save all their lives".

Our second venture into the Scholomance picks up pretty much where the first one left off, with more of her witty and sarcastic observations and revelations about life at this magical school. The first half was a little slow and lacking much Orion Lake screen time (he's one of my favorite characters so definitely missed him having a major role in the first half), but the second half really picked up in terms of both danger/action/intrigue, and the romance subplot...and then that ending....oofta...definitely one of those cases where I hate the idea that I'm going to have to wait so long to find out what happens next.

Needless to say I CANNOT wait for the third book. The stakes are ramping and ramping...