I am so invested in the lives of these characters. Every book ends on a cliffhanger and I wouldn't have it any other way!

This story is written by Naomi Novik and is about a school of magic, where there are no teachers, no holidays, friendships are purely strategic, and the odds of survival are never equal. Once you're inside, there are only two ways out: you graduate or you die. El Higgins is uniquely prepared for the school's many dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out untold millions - never mind easily destroy the countless monsters that prowl the school.

Except, she might accidentally kill all the other students, too. So El is trying her hardest not to use it . . . that is, unless she has no other choice.

These books are absolutely brilliant and written in such a smart way, I just loved everything about them. Novik is a genius with storytelling and world creating and it is just a pleasure to read her books. Definitely recommended!

I think I may have liked the second instalment event better than the first. I like all of the kids working together and forming a plan and the tension level felt high and believable

This was a great continuation of the series. I loved how we got to see El develop into a powerful sorceress and her developing relationships with not just Orion but her friends at the Scholomance as well. The first book felt very bleak because the school was so grim and dark and El was so alone but this book felt so much lighter in comparison. El finally has a chance to really unleash her powers and she's not alone anymore. I loved her reluctant hero journey. She is such a grump but such a good person and I love that combo, it's not something I've seen often and especially not for a woman character.

But oh my gosh, that ending, wow I cried a lot and had to just stop and process it for awhile. But very excited to see where the next book will go.

Would recommend this for people that like:
- grumpy woman, sunshine man
- badass women
- dark atmosphere
- found family

Before I begin this review, I want to thank Net Galley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for allowing me to access The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik. This is book two to Novik's story of a teen girl named El, who is preoccupied with fighting monsters and dealing with the ups and downs of being a teenager while trapped inside a school meant to protect young wizard students.

I enjoyed this book slightly less than the previous one for several reasons. One of the main reasons is that there is a lot of information dumping. This was also present in the first book, but it seemed to get a bit more annoying this time around. It was especially annoying when El was in the middle of something, like talking with her friends or Orion, and then would start rambling in her head about something magical or about the school for pages on end before returning to what she was doing in the first place. With that said, I still really enjoyed this book a lot, and I feel like Novik did a fantastic job of revealing more about the other characters in this book.

What I liked most about this book is that the characters shine a bit more than they did in the last one. Readers learn much more about Liu and Aadhya and see their friendships blossom with El. Readers also know more about Orion, which I really loved.

There is more plot to the book this time around. Instead of purely surviving, they hatch up plans and practice for graduation. I liked how the story progressed and how El pieces everything together, but even the plot wasn't necessarily specular. It was a bit predictable, but there were some nice surprises along the way.

Novik did a great job of maintaining the worldbuilding and even adding layers to it to show just how complex this world is. There are still some things that I did not fully understand about this world, but I suppose most of it makes sense as long as I remember that the chances of them surviving on the outside are far less than if they attend the school.

The writing style as a whole is pretty good when keeping in mind that this is a YA book where the focus is primarily inside of the head of the protagonist, El, but there is a lot of info dumping that at times takes away from the story and sometimes isn't even all that important to the plot of the story.

Overall, this book is engaging enough to keep one's interest, though it is not for everyone who doesn't enjoy some unnecessary details here and there. I will definitely recommend this book and series to anyone who likes YA books with a strong female lead who has a particular magical skill for destruction.

I will post this entire review on my blog on September 29, 2023.

Thank you to Naomi Novik, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey, and Netgalley for this free, advanced reader copy of "The Last Graduate: A Novel" for an honest review.

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I flew through this entire series in the space of 6 days, two years after my best friend started requesting of me to read it — Because of that, though, this whole series is a giant blur in my head, and I'm only going to do one review across all three of them together and drop this in all of them. <B>If you happen to be reading this and haven't read Books 2 and 3, avert your eyes!</B>

SPOILERS:

I have so very many feelings about these books.

- About my love of how El had to go through all the struggles of her childhood and of rejecting her nature (due to her mother's love and her own true moral fortitude that is all HER OWN) to be strong enough to do the work that needed doing (and how the prophecy was the only way her grandmother could make sure she was strong enough and would make the right choices not just for herself, but for the whole world)

- About Orion and his creation, what he is and how he is, and that so much that we realize he's missing from book one, and especially in book two, finally makes sense in the end, when we discover what is at the true root of that problem. How he handles it and the choices El makes at the end still make me tear up.

- I do wish we'd gotten to know more about Scholomance. How and why, an what. It's the one thing I went in with my best friend telling me I'd learn more of, but never as much as I'd want to know about it. I do feel the book lacked in shoring that up.

- But I also felt that book 3 foundered for purchase with the Scholomance no longer as the focus of where everyone was and what was happening. My hat is off to the creations of the enclaves and how things piece together. </spoiler>

Thank you Net Galley for sending me a copy in exchange for my honest review!

If there's one thing I've come to slowly love is Naomi's way of world-building and unique writing. I'm especially glad that it sort of picks up RIGHT where you leave off in book one because a lot of series don't do that anymore. It was easy to get back into it. I'd say if you liked the first book, run and pick this one up because it just gets better the more you go on.

3.75 stars out of 5!

More than anything in these books I love the world Naomi Novik has built. This takes place during the final year at the Scholomance for El, Orion, and her new friends and alliances we met in A Deadly Education. It picks up right where it left off. We see El grow as a person and in her studies. She is still prickly, but we see she has a reluctantly kind heart. There is more history about the Scholomance, and you see the students studying and training to get through the Mals for graduation ceremony. Along the way we have secrets revealed and spells discovered along with more alliances coming together. The last half of this was especially action packed. Make sure you have the third book ready because the end has a cliffhanger.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for my honest review.

"The Last Graduate" is the second installment of "The Scholomance," a ya fantasy trilogy, with dark academia overtones, written by Naomi Novik and concluded.

The story picks up exactly from the conclusion of "A Deadly Education," following Galadriel "El" Higgins and companions as they grapple with their senior year at Scholomance, the devious and evil school for magically gifted, who enjoy tormenting and destroying its students. Amid complicated lessons, inhospitable classrooms, threats lurking everywhere, alliances and rivalries, El must also prepare for the infamous graduation hall. The last step to reach the exit doors. A desperate race amidst a bedlam of ravenous monsters. A potential bloodbath.

I loved this book! After enjoying "A Deadly Education" so much, I approached "The Last Graduate" with confidence. And I came out fully satisfied! I may have preferred the first volume in some respects, but this is still a fantastic sequel!

The Scholomance reconfirms itself as a truly amazing setting for me! I have already talked extensively about this infamous and complex institution in the review of the first book, so I avoid going into too much detail. I only say that in "The Last Graduate" some new information about Scholomance is provided, new pitfalls appear, and new perspectives are added. Seriously, the Scholomance is one of the most interesting places I have read about in recent times. A place that has deeply fascinated me and that I think is excellently managed, with wonderful ideas. I can express nothing but compliments!

Novik's writing keeps along the same lines as in the first volume. The narration is always in the first person, through the protagonist El, in this sort of endless stream of consciousness. The narrative jumps from scenes inside the school, to personal stories of the protagonist, to anecdotes of any kind. Without a definite pattern, depending on what comes to El's mind at that precise moment. It is an extremely peculiar style, disconcerting at times, not easy and immediate to follow. I personally had already appreciated it in "A Deadly Education" and here I loved it again. I don't know, I was intrigued by the whole chaotic skein of El's thoughts and followed her numerous digressions with pleasure and curiosity. Otherwise I found the prose always evocative and lyrical, with vivid descriptions and incisive dialogue.

The plot follows Galadriel "El" Higgins and the other students during their fourth and final year at Scholomance, showing their days, the arduous tasks to be done, the difficult lessons to be followed, the constant dangers to be faced, and the alliances and rivalries that snake among them. Basically a sort of repeat of the first book, at least for most of the story, with similar situations being repeated again and again. A choice that could be boring, but which I enjoyed a lot. I was absorbed by the daily routine of El and her companions, with no moments of boredom or heaviness. What really sets this sequel apart is the fateful and dreaded graduation, with the possible carnage that could result! I loved following the preparation for the race into the graduation hall, with the bedlam of hungry monsters waiting to feast! Just as I loved all the complex relationships that are gradually established among the various students in order to have a better chance of survival. The last 80% or so, with the actual confrontation in the graduation hall, was a concentration of crazy action!  The ending then is something highly illegal! Gosh you can't end a book like that! I really need to know!

Galadriel "El" Higgins,protagonist and only first-person pov, reconfirms herself as a character I loved so much! Grumpy, gruff, cynical, sarcastic and refractory to human bonds, she won me over! El is a walking pile of contradictions, a living set of contrasts, a girl in search of her place in the world. A gray character with dubious morality, constantly working to avoid becoming a powerful dark witch, the bringer of death and destruction on a global scale. Mistrustful, reserved, dismissive and independent, she claims to be better off alone but at the same time cannot help but long for friends. Selfish and devious, she claims to think only of herself, yet she finds herself concerned about others. El has never had an easy life, isolated and frowned upon by everything and everyone, except her mother. An oppressive, distressing situation that has driven her to be what she is now. El is afraid to open up, to become attached to people, to show her weaknesses, because she is afraid of being hurt, disappointed, screwed over. I liked her evolution in this book so much, her realization seemed consistent with everything she has experienced.

Orion is confirmed as a character I love! The hero in shining armor, ready to save everything and everyone! A boy sometimes silly and naive, lost in his own world, so much so that he often does not notice how reality works around him or simply does not notice what is around him. A character only seemingly pure and perfect, who in reality hides his demons and frailties. I loved how, in this second book, the dynamic is rather reversed: it is no longer Orion who saves El, but it is the other way around. The ship between these two sends me into juices! Okay, maybe it's a little absurd, but then again, they are two characters off the charts! Their interactions made me roll with laughter, with El first helping Orion and then insulting him (or doing both together)!

The rest of the secondary characters continue to fail to impress me with depth. I like them, I find them efficient, yet they seem rather superficial. The division between the privileged circles, with their mostly spoiled and haughty members, as opposed to the independents who have to struggle and perhaps bend to perform menial tasks to gain advantages, continues to fascinate me. The games of alliances, rivalries, and betrayals have kept me gripped, as has the evolution of these not at all stable dynamics.

All in all, this was a great sequel and I can't wait to continue with the third and final book!

Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Last Graduate is the second book of The Scholomance series. If you liked the first book you will probably like the second one. El is still the viewpoint character and again you spend a lot of time with her thoughts. You will also read much about magic rules and worldbuilding. Just like the first book. If you expected that to be less you will be disappointed.

This book suffers a bit from the middle book syndrome. Many questions are left unanswered or don’t have a satisfying answer. I hope that the third book addresses those issues. For example, in my review of the first book I mentioned that I thought there should be better ways to protect your children from mals. Right now, it seems that if people would work more together instead of the current enclave rivalries a lot of suffering would be prevented. The big cliffhanger at the end of this book contributes as well to the feeling that this book doesn’t have its own story.
I wish Novik would have spent more time on character development. All students except Orion and El kept being the same. They all had some skill that’s useful for the plot and they don’t have any depth behind their personality. I knew which skills they possessed but I couldn’t tell you anything about their character. I also felt that too little time was spent on Orion and El’s relationship. Their relationship was mainly about keeping up with the schools’ challenges. It was weird that talking about the future past graduation was taboo because it was made clear in the first book that they both are very talented and special enough to survive graduation.

Despite the problems I believe that if the first book grabbed your attention this one will keep you hooked.

3,75/5 Stars
In my review of the first book in the series I wrote something along the lines of ‘oh this was fun, but not that much actually happened, I hope there’ll be more action and less worldbuilding’. And don’t get me wrong, this second book wasn’t not exciting, I really enjoyed it, but for the most part this book was again just day to day life at the school (which is really fun, but a lot like the first book).
The last third was really exciting though, and the ending made me itch to instantly pick up the next book. I’m really excited to finish this series, because with the way this book ended, oh boy, there’ll be a lot going on in the next one.

This was such an amazing read! I flew through this book in one afternoon because I could not stop! The characters were so unique and gripping that I really adored them. The author did a great job with keeping the plot moving and avoiding any stale moments. I will be recommending this book to everyone I know!

I don’t like to come into a series anywhere other than with Book #1. However, since my goal was to read all the books nominated for the Hugo Awards, I read The Last Graduate without having read A Deadly Education, the first book in the Scholomance series, first.

Probably the best recommendation that I could provide for The Last Graduate is that I want to go back and read A Deadly Education, and I intend to find out what happens after the events of this novel. This series is a good example of the burgeoning genre known as “Harry Potter”replacement, although direct comparisons to that series would be unfair. For one, the Scholomance series is much more adult in tone and peril than the HP series. For another, the school narrative predates HP by, oh, a century or so—which is to say that The Last Graduate participates in a much older literary tradition.

The system of magic and the norms of the school narrative are both solidly applied without overburdening the narrative. Readers who likes these kinds of novels don’t need heavy exposition, which Novik knows. What is interesting that Novik gives the reader is a perspective on how what goes on in the school could affect life outside of the school, which is an effective way of building suspense. I also particularly appreciated the sense that Novik gives the reader of “life isn’t fair.”

The Last Graduate feels like a book that isn’t going to take it easy on its reader, and I think that is something that readers will genuinely appreciate.

One of the most popular fantasy subgenres in recent years has been Magic Schools. Whether it is a middle grade book, like the early “Harry Potter” books or one intended for teens or adults, the trend is extremely popular. Within that category there are a lot of Dark Academia series. Although These books can be realistic or Fantasy, they are always a school setting with a deadly twist. The Scholamance trilogy is one of the best of these series in recent years. I have enjoyed many of author Naomi Novik’s works and she doesn’t disappoint here. In the first book, “A Deadly Education”, Novik created a magic school for wizards that was quite different from the ones we all know and love. In the world that she has created there are entities that sense emerging magic and feed upon adolescent wizards. The scholamance is built in a crack in reality, a respite for all young wizards lucky enough to attend. There is still immense danger, but survival rates at school are much greater than out in the world without the support of several wizards. The main character, Galadriel Higgins, or El, starts off a lonely outcast who eventually makes friends and creates a found family. The world building and the large variety of main characters in that first book are excellent. In this second book, “

The Last Graduate” Novik continues El’s story as she spends her senior year preparing for the deadly graduation ceremony. The setting remains the same, so there the work of world building is already done, but the characters continue to grow and evolve. This is not a standalone book, but the middle of a much larger story. Be aware that this book ends with a shocking cliffhanger. Readers who enjoyed this book when it was first published waited on tender hooks for about a year to read the end of the story. Fortunately for today’s reader, you can grab all three books at the same time. This will definitely be one of your favorite binge reads.

This story does address, danger, death and grief, but there is no foul language or sex scenes. Although this is a young adult series with teenage protagonists, the books can be enjoyed by middle-grade through adult. If you enjoy magic schools and/ or dark academia, you will love this series. I rated each of these books five stars the first time I read them. I received a review copy from Random House Publishing Group through NetGalley and I enjoyed his book just as much the second time.

A fantastic second book in this series as we return to the Scholomance to be introduced to the next wave of incoming students and learn more about the wizarding world and how people view their magical offspring.

Be warned that last page is emotionally destroying and you'll want to have book 3 ready to roll before starting this book.

🗺️ The world building is easy to follow - we're still based in the world of the Scholomance.

🌶️ The spice level is 0. Remember this is highschool aged characters here.

📚 This book is for you if you loved the young adult fantasty with a dark twist.

✈️ An easy read that's perfect for travel. Just don't forget to grab book 3 before you leave home!

What a wild ride, and what a cliffhanger! Purchased all editions for my library and extra copies to make it a book club book. Warning: cliffhanger!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ if you love Harry Potter and are an adult read this. Loved. Thank you NetGalley! Highly recommend

There is nowhere I can begin but with the ending, and to that I can only say that I am so glad that I did not read this when it first came out having to wait another year until the next book was published. That was no mere cliff-hanger, it is like being led to the top of Mount Everest and then getting shoved off the edge with only a fishing line to hold you in suspension. But really it was brilliant, and for anyone who has waited to read this book or has only heard about it, you are in luck since the last book of the series is already available and will reel you back to the top of the cliff's edge as soon as you get there.
And, before the ending, this book provided everything that I had enjoyed from A Deadly Education but tuned up, bolder, more intense. The solid first-person narrative seeing the world thru El's eyes, the friends' group which grows larger and about whom we learn more, the relationship with Orion deepens, dangers escalate and the adventure of The Last Graduate really provides a read as exciting as climbing a steep mountain slope.
I've rarely seen someone pick up a sequel who did not enjoy the first book in the series, so I will say that if you liked A Deadly Education, you should read The Last Graduate. Fair warning though, if you fling your e-reader out of your hands at the ending, it makes it that much harder to read the next book.
I received advanced digital access to this book thru NetGalley (for which I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey) for an honest review. The opinion expressed here is my own.

What an incredible sophomore book in The Scholomance trilogy!

The writing was so good, and I love how in book one we're seeing a lonely El who starts to make real friends and then book two has those relationships blossoming even more. I love the politics inside the Scholomance. The way all these teens have to navigate all of these interpersonal relationships is so fun and interesting to read.

I'm so glad this book is just as good as the first book. Like the first book, it has a lot of moments of levity but also some really sad, heartbreaking moments. Also? That cliffhanger that I did NOT see coming. Such a rare and surprising thing, but I love when it happens.

This series makes me want to read every single sentence that Naomi Novik has ever written.

Thanks to Netgalley and Del Rey for this ARC!!! I hope we have something special coming about The Scholomance trilogy and that's why these are back on Netgalley!!! 👀

CLIFFHANGER WHY?!

I love the way everything that was started or alluded to in the first book was continued and expanded on in book two. The school itself was such a major player and I absolutely loved that.