A great read to add to this series! I didn’t want to put it down! What an interesting and captivating read!!

Wait, wait, wait. So there's more?! I don't believe in spoiler reviews but that ending...I need the next book immediately. For me this book was a bit more of a slow burn than the first but it was everything the series needed to bridge the gap between books. I loved how our characters developed and just again, that ending.

I’m glad I stuck with this series because I much preferred the Last Graduate to the first book (A Deadly Education).

The writing was better and more captivating. The characters really got to shine and had more depth, I enjoyed the interactions and the variety of personalities. The storylines unfolded well with many good moments and interesting directions. The whole book felt a lot more immersive and I can definitely see the hype afterwards.

My only criticism is the slight lengthiness of the book, certain passages did drag on a bit however, overall it was suspenseful and kept you interested throughout.

The Last Graduate is such an interesting take on a school for magic. I was immediately drawn into the worldbuilding and couldn't stop reading to find out what happened. I started the second book the moment I finished the second and now I have to wait what feels like forever for the third book.

At first, I was reluctant to read a book series about kids in a magical school, because figured it would just be a HP remake. Nothing could be further from the truth. This Scholomance series is so much more! It has wonderful world-building, fascinating characters, and action that keeps you on the edge of your seat!

El tries to keep her enormous powers suppressed so she doesn’t have to dedicate so much extra work to rebuild her manna. This school year, as her class is set to graduate, she has finally made a few friends and is able to share their manna. Since the graduation is usually a very deadly event that few survive, El enlists her new friends to work together to help everyone survive. But talking the rest of school into being helped is not an easy task.

THE LAST GRADUATE by Naomi Novik is the second book in the Scholomance series and is just great! I’m anxiously awaiting the next book to be published. 5 huge stars!!! Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballentine for this book in exchange for my honest review.

The second installment of the Scholomance trilogy picks up right where A Deadly Education left off. I loved the first book, and the sequel did not disappoint! El may no longer be a loner, but her problems continue. Although many of the mals (dark spirits/monsters that attack wizards to get their mana, a kind of energy that’s the source of their magic) were destroyed during the events in book one, enough are left that life isn’t exactly safe. The school has also started putting El in extra-dangerous situations, she’s torn between wanting a relationship with Orion and resisting to protect them both, and on top of everything the deadly graduation ceremony is coming. El and her friends have got to figure out a strategy and alliances to increase their odds of surviving the mal-infested graduation hall, but the other students still aren’t keen on allying themselves with someone who has a dark prophecy hanging over her head and scary abilities to boot. I couldn’t put this one down – it’s a true page turner and kept me on the edge of my seat right through the end. And now I’m impatiently waiting for the release of book 3, The Golden Enclaves, on September 27th! If you like darker fantasy/magic set in the modern this one’s for you.
Likes: the world-building is detailed and unique. Novik takes every little horror of school and magnifies it with magic. Horrible dorm room? At least yours doesn’t have one “wall” that’s an opening into a never-ending void. Bad food? This cafeteria will literally kill you. Having trouble making friends? You probably don’t have to worry about a dark wizard killing you. The pacing is fantastic. El’s romance with Orion is sweet without being treacly. And El grows as a character without losing her characteristic cynical worldview and tart inner dialog, which I love.
Dislikes: not much. There’s a lot of explication about the Scholomance and the magical world, which is helpful if you haven’t read the first book in a while and a little repetitive if you have. And the ending is a cliffhanger!!! I don’t dislike it - I just hate having to wait.
FYI: violence, murder, sudden death. A few mild sexual situations.

I did a reread of this book since the 3rd books is coming out soon. I can't wait. This is such a cool world of monsters and a very unique magic systems. Both the 1st and 2nd have lots of suspense and action. I love the main character El and how we have seen her grow from the first book to the second and embrace her friends and start to trust others. The found family trope is always something I look forward to when I read a book and this story is perfect.

The second book didn't disappoint with its own adventures on how El the reluctant hero is going to save not just her class both the whole student body from the school. She had gone from no body to leader and she has to figure out the best way to navigate the politics of the school and the outside world. I did feel the middle lagged a little with all the runs through the gym practicing the escape ( and I did skim these chapters on my reread). There is a lot of set up for the next book which is a normal 2nd book issue. But that ending!!!! It was action packed edge of your seat fantastic. This book left me with a major book hangover and I can't wait to read the 3rd to see where this goes.

Highly recommended for anyone that likes dark academia, found family, unique magic systems.

As a side note, Net Galley let me borrower an E copy but I had previously borrowed an audio copy from my local library and the audio narrations is AMAZING. Anisha Dadia's voice brings the character of El to life.

No spoiler review: You know a book is good when you’re done and immediately start social media stalking the author for clues on when the next book is being released. Naomi Novik did this with The Last Graduate and I have been counting the days until I have Book 3 in my hands.

From the first time I saw the cover of A Deadly Education I was intrigued, and even more so after reading the blurb. I started the first book after the second one was already out, and I'm glad I did.

The first book was good, but I saw a lot of potential not explored, and that's why having the opportunity of starting The Last Graduate soon after finishing A Deadly Education was so important. The first book is good, the second one is great.

The character development was a deciding factor for me while rating The Last Graduate, and I feel like The Golden Enclaves will follow the same pattern and be better than the last book in the trilogy, for the same reason.

The cliff hanger in the very end of The Last Graduate had me feeling breathless and in NEED of the last book, I'm really happy I won't have to wait very long for it.

꧁ℝ𝔼𝕍𝕀𝔼𝕎꧂
The Last Graduate
By: Naomi Novik
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Immediate reaction: AHHHH!!!
The Cliff Hanger on this is going to stick with me for a while. The first half of the book was a little slow but the second half was packed with action and I loved all of the characters!
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The Scholomance is a school for magical children, but it isn’t perfect. There are Mals that attack anyone with magic, and the school can’t keep them all away from the students.
1 in 7 students will die over their 4 years. But those are better odds than being out in the world.
Galadriel has been a loner her entire time at the school. It has something to do with the fact that she is evil, and people can tell just by being close to her that she could murder them with just a thought. Until she met Orion.
If Orion and El team up can they help the entire school? How many other students will have to help to make their plans work?
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Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with a copy.
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Rating: 4/5
Smut: 1/5
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Can we talk about that ending??? We need the next book NOW! Naomi Novik does it again with a spectacular story that draws you in from the very beginning.

I don't really understand the point of this book. There are a lot of info dumps that have zero impact on the story. We don't learn anything new, the characters don't grow, the status quo essentially remains the same.

what a fantastic second book for this series!!
I really enjoy the world-building in this series, its engaging and interestng. The concept of a sentient(ish) school that magic-users have to navigate, all while learning all their lessons, seems quite unique.
The people interactions feel true-to-life (if I was fighting for my life, I'd be trepidatious of forming actual friendships, rather than alliances.
The pace of this book is great, fast and lots of action. Lots of attention is given to small details (what kind of baddies do they need to pick out of their food?).
Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book, maybe even more than the first. But now I need book three!!

I loved this book. The first one was a ton of world building and this one allowed you to just drop back into this wonderful world of dark academia. El is the reluctant hero I was dreaming of when I started this book and I can not wait for the next one!

One of the things I love about a Naomi Novik book is that they're all so different (outside of the series.) I had to re-read Deadly Education to refresh my memory before beginning this one, and I love that the tone of this series is so different from the Tremeraire series, yet they and her other titles are all equally fantastic. Spinning Silver is my favorite, but the Scholomance series is a close second.

The world-building is so complex and vivid I already had a good image of the Scholomance before I even glanced at the accompanying illustration. I love that the heroine, El, is hostile and deliberately repellant but still manages to acquire fans and find a tribe. One of my favorite parts of the story is when El is baffled by another student's ability to appear nice, despite the fact that she's just as abrasive as El. I love a cranky, reluctant heroine! The only part of the book that didn't completely gel for me was El's relationship with Orion. It wasn't really clear why she liked him, other than he was there and she was unable to frighten him off, so the relationship felt a bit shallow. Overall, I loved the book. It was fast-paced, fantastic character development, superb world-building, and just a great story. Naomi Novik's books have become a staple in my DnD book club, and this will be another great title for us. The cliffhanger at the end is brutal! I can't wait for Golden Enclaves.

I enjoyed this title but I find it a little wordy. It's certainly a compelling story line. I look forward to seeing how the series concludes.

Excellent continuation of the series! Excited to pick up the last one as well. Would recommend for people who don't mind lengthy internal monologues.

A very enjoyable sequel. I love the emphasis on real friendship in the middle of the school trying to kill everyone. Also I can’t with that ending!

I’ve loved Naomi Novik’s work since discovering her “Napoleonic Wars With Dragons” series (Temeraire). It seemed to me that with each book, both in that series and more recent publications, she has grown in skill and depth. I read the first two volumes of “Scholomance” back-to-back. It’s fair to say I inhaled them, they were so good.

I’ve been reading a bunch of magical school stories recently, and the Scholomance books redefine the genre. Many of the other books use a boarding school-like setting, whether it’s Hogwarts or the school of magical juvenile delinquents in Promise Me Nothing, by Dawn Vogel or the more troubled environment of D. R. Perry’s Sorrow and Joy. The schools and their teachers are charged with educating (and sometimes reforming) their students. Not so the Scholomance. Created by elite wizards to protect their adolescent offspring from being the prime targets of supernatural nasties (“maleficaria”), the school exists in a pocket carved out of the void, with only a narrow access to the outer world. There are no teachers, mail service or messengers except to a limited degree the incoming freshman classes, and the school may be sentient, trying to do its job regardless of the cost. Students take their classes as seriously as if their lives depended upon them, which they do. At the end of the senior year, the doors of the graduation hall open and all the incoming and resident nasties flood in, forming a gauntlet that only a few students survive. Even so, their odds are better than if the kids had stayed at home.

Into this world comes Galadriel (who hates her name, so she’s “El”), daughter of an unrepentant hippie witch who lives in a yurt in Wales (wrap your mind around that!) and gives away her best spells for free in a world of precisely measured tit-for-tat. A prophecy has marked El as destined for destruction and dark magic, and she’s become a self-isolating pariah noted for her uncensored rudeness. When heroic Orion Lake keeps saving her life, she can’t get rid of him. Gradually, they become friends (and more than friends). Much to her amazements, El gathers together a small team of fellow students, since cooperation and coordination will provide their only hope for surviving the graduation ordeal. At the end of their junior year, El and her friends joined forces with the graduating seniors, with surprising success.

Now it’s their turn, as graduating seniors. El has grown from a grouchy recluse to a young woman of courage and compassion, a born leader. She can inspire, cajole, and persuade the other seniors to work together to save the entire class, but that will leave successive generations of students to face the same heavy mortality. El wants to save them all and put an end to the yearly massacre. She comes up with a plan to graduate every single student, culminating in a mass extinction of the maleficaria. Her scheme will take every scrap of ingenuity, persuasion, and sheer magical power she possesses. To make matters worse, the school itself seems to have turned against her.

Novik combines a different and much grittier take on the “magical school” trope with a compelling central character who changes and grows. El faces her fears and insecurities, as well as the temptation of evil sorcery, to become a passionate and compassionate leader. Her voice drives the movement of the books. I can hardly wait to see what impossible-seeming tasks she tackles next!

What did we do to deserve that ending? Why did Naomi Novik betray us in this way? Oh well, it was worth it. Need the next installment NOW.