I loved this sequel! I am on tenderhooks waiting for the final book in the trilogy. El's emotional development has been slow-burn and so worth it. She is comically bad at interpersonal relations, but finally realizes the value of her friends and how she can depend on them. Her relationship with Orion develops slowly and realistically. The cliffhanger....

Many thanks to Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group and the author for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Last graduate starts exactly where The Deadly education left off. With the graduation coming upon them, El, her friends and acquaintances have no choice but to prepare so as to save their lives and the one's of kids who will follow them next year. The enclave politics is much more apparent in this book and the magic system of the Scholomance is more clearer, (I still have a 100 questions though). And the race to live is real.

The things I loved about this book is El's Sarcasm, and the tiny character arc of her coming out of her self-exclusion and shell, and that's about it. The supporting characters had way better exposure in this book than the first, even though the whole descriptive inner monologue that haunted me in the first book was still present. Orion was the exact same 'golden retriever' dumb, annoying kid, he was in TDE.

I have the exact same issues I had with TDE with this one as well. EL is a half Indian, half American protagonist. She is said to be fluent in Marathi and Hindi. But not once do we hear her talking or creating a spell in either of these languages. Then we also have the case of the spell at the end of the book which is in Mandarin but we have to imagine it happening in the background, which means there is no atmospheric build up, and it all falls flat. The lack of background research into the multiple cultures, and languages of the different students who grace is story is stark and vivid . Don't even get me started on the one off-chance, words from other languages are mentioned in book and context is just….ughhh…frustrating.

Even with all of these flaws, I will have you know that I will be reading the third book purely for the sake of the cliffhanger (also the reason why I read this one), which was very much in the lines of Ninth House. (iykyk)

The Last Graduate is the second book in Naomi Novik's Scholomance series.
In this book, El is in her senior year. She must find a way to make it out of the school alive, along with her group and Orion. Along the way, she learns more about her abilities and begins to become more comfortable with them.
I found this book very exciting. Novik continued to expand her world building, and develop her characters. I loved seeing El become comfortable with herself, and learn to understand the school.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an interesting new fantasy, with a fun protagonist.

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik, if you haven't started this series yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! Seriously though one of the best series in a long while, can't wait for the third installment.

THE ENDING. THE ENDING?! I AM UNWELL.

the last 30% of this book is where all the action is, and there's a lot. I feel like I want to give it 4 stars because I had such visceral reaction over the way this went (I get it but I was shocked) but it was so incredibly dense it took forever to get through to that point and put me into a major slump. Please for the love of all that is good give us some dialogue. 3.5 🌟 and I can't wait for the next one!

Thank you to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for this digital copy!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I read A Deadly Education early in 2021, so I cannot admit to remembering all of the finer points of the story. the story jumps right in where the first book left off, but then gets a bit repetitive until the last 3 chapters when things really pick up. The story also tends to trail off in random tangents at time that help with world building, but don’t necessarily move the plot along.

The relationship between El and Orion seems almost completely lost in this book. Orion is merely a side character that pops in at random.. Of course there was a lot more for El to think about and do throughout the context of the book than to only think about Orion, but it just seemed to be thrown in as an afterthought. I really enjoyed their growth in the first book and wished that I could have seen them grow more together during this book. It certainly would have set up for the final installment better in my mind.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley. This review contains some mild spoilers.

The Last Graduate leaves off exactly where A Deadly Education left off, but now with the ticking clock of graduation hanging over the heads of our protagonist and her friends. This book is so strong and so enjoyable, and it’s very easy to keep falling in love with Galadriel. In The Last Graduate, she continues her journey from being an ill-fated loner to having a loving group of friends around her while they’re threatened on all sides from the mals living within the school. This year, though, El and Orion team up together to save everyone in the school both from the mals in the classrooms but also the graduation hall. It is very fun to see El go from being grumpy at Orion being a hero, to becoming an extremely begrudging hero herself.

The enclave politics become more compelling in this book, as it becomes evident that something is destroying enclaves outside of the Scholomance, but our protagonists are trying to discover what it is while cut off from the outside world. El also is juggling this mystery during a time when the Scholomance seems determined to attack her specifically.

Other fun things include: The introduction of a magical gymnasium where alliances can train for graduation. The appearance of this gym and its lore was a surprise, but it quickly became a favorite feature of the book for me. I do really enjoy multi-purpose rooms that can change shape depending on who is using it.

I have read some reviews that complain about excessive explanations of world details, and there are times when it can halt the narrative for a little too long. However, the details of the world both inside and out give it a very well fleshed-out feeling, and it becomes much easier to engage in the mystery-solving element and to develop theories. I deeply enjoyed all the details and El’s perspective on them.

The origin story of the Scholomance is addressed in more detail here, but it introduces some notable inconsistencies and mysteries. Namely, why on earth was this school created when it is equally dangerous as being on the outside, and why would (especially) enclavers send their children to this place to be killed rather than protect them in their enclaves? It gives the impression that A Deadly Education came first, and the origin story was created afterward. It is a challenge to see how this inconsistency could be explained or justified in the third book, but I’m still cautiously optimistic!

Also…THAT ENDING. It was incredible, it made me shout out loud. Cannot wait for the next installment!

Honestly, though, this series is fantastic!

I had been in quite the reading slump for a big part of 2021 until I stumbled upon a couple of books which really brought back the joy of reading, among them specifically Leigh Bardugo’s “Ninth House” and Naomi Novik’s “A Deadly Education”. Which meant that I was beyond excited to receive “The Last Graduate” from NetGalley (in exchange for an honest review).

Among the series about schools of magic, aside from Harry Potter, the obvious first choice, I think The Scholomance might be my current favourite. The world of the Scholomance is singularly original, the magic system is completely different from anything else I can remember having read, the rules, the creatures, everything is very… new. Even Harry Potter was reliant on existing magical creatures, for example (basilisks, centaurs, etc.), but the ones in the Scholomance are its own. Also, the system for mana collection, the rules on which the school operates, it’s all very fresh and very fun.

The other great thing are the characters. I couldn’t help but love El and Orion, and their friends, too. El and Orion have many flaws – she, being suspicious and rude to a fault, he – awkward and oblivious to the same degree, but they were also very, very fun to read about.

Last, but not least, the ending was… something. I don’t know how things will get fixed in the next book, but I demand that they do. Seriously, what a cliffhanger!

The only thing which I’m struggling with, still, is how come El and Orion are so much more overpowered than everyone else. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be something I was supposed to have accepted by now, or the questions should remain and be answered in later books (not sure if this is planned as a trilogy), but either way, I want to know. Normally, when a character/characters are so much stronger than the rest, there’s a serious reason behind it (hi, Rand Al’Thor), however, if this is one of those “Just go along with it” scenarios, I think it will diminish my love for the series, so I’m hoping it will all be explained later on.

I have been looking forward to this sequel and I was not disappointed! It brought back all the...charm? of The Scholomance in totally new ways. Though it could be a little slow at times, I was happy to see El really come into her own and some of the pieces for the larger story being told are starting to come together in interesting ways. That being said, this definitely feels like the middle book of the series but still has some interesting twists that make me really excited for the next installment!

Naomi Novik will always be an automatic read for me and The Last Graduate continues to prove why. As the second book in the series, The Last Graduate really expanded the Scholomance world to provide the depth and detail that I feel like the first book needed more of and as the characters developed and their motives came to light, a much more colorful and relatable cast of characters is revealed.

While the first book in the series was interesting and entertaining, the second was what got me truly invested and after that brutal cliff hanger at the end, I can’t wait to get my hands on The Golden Enclaves this fall.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Del Rey and Netgalley for an advance copy of this ebook.

I can't stop thinking about this book, AND IT IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!

This series has been described as a dark Harry Potter and like I guess? Except in this book the students are trapped in the school from ages 14-18 with monsters hiding around every corner trying to kill you, not an adult in sight and friendships don't exist. Can't find any allies? Good luck surviving.

In this sequel to Deadly Education, the attacks from the monsters/mal of the scholomance have become all but non-existent. That is - to everyone but El. Everyday she is using mana trying to defend her self and the gaggle of freshman she gets stuck with every Wednesday. With graduation soon approaching, she worries she won't be able to store enough mana to survive until then much less through graduation.

This series has such an amazing concept and a super riveting plot. The characters are all uniquely fantastic and I love them all - especially El and Orion. Despite the fact this book has been stuck in my head since I finished it, I have to remind myself that this book has some of the most boring and longest tangents every other page. Just so many tangents. Near the end of the book I honestly started to skim & skip the tangents because otherwise I'd get confused. Beyond that though, STELLAR book!

That cliffhanger!!! Noooo!

I loved the way this story twists in unexpected ways, and the broadening cast of characters.

A worthy follow-up to the first Scholomance book - A Deadly Education. This series is about a wizarding school with young wizards battling dark forces as they learn their craft... but this is NOT Harry Potter. El and friends are much more realistic and regularly contend with their school trying to kill them, so there are certainly similarities between the two, but it feels like a shortchange to leave it at that. The characters' bonds were tested even more than the first book - the banter, stakes, and maybe even a little romance is all still there, but packing more of a punch this time around. And, Novik leaves us with yet another painful cliffhanger as we await the final book in the trilogy, The Golden Enclaves. I expect great things from it too!

For some reason I really thought The Scholomance was going to be a dualogy, well one thing that this book made clear was that it is not. There is definitely another book after this one and will that ending I can’t wait to find out what it is.
“I could never afford to look past survival, especially not for anything as insanely expensive as happiness, and I don’t believe in it anyway.”

El once had a prophecy about her that she would be the most powerful dark sorceress and crush enclaves. Well, screw that she doesn’t want to be a dark sorceress and steal the mana out of other living beings. She really is just a girl that wants to graduate and get out of the Scholomance in one piece and if she can bring her small group of friends with her all the better.

It is Orion and El’s last year of school all they need to do is get through this and fight the Mals in the graduation hall and then they can be free of the training ground that is the Scholomance. But a funny thing is happening. There aren’t a lot of Mals to kill since they helped last year’s seniors get out and all of them seem hell bent on annoying El and the group of freshmen she has been stuck with. She is really trying not to learn their names since 2/3 of Freshmen die but it isn’t going well and she feels a bit obligated to protect this group of Freshmen she is stuck with.

Other things are going differently for El this year too. For one thing she has made some friends, talks to some of the other seniors and is maybe kinda sorta dating Orion.
“They’re freaked out about Orion.”
“After you’ve only been dating two months?”
“We’re not dating!”
Aadhya made a dramatic show of rolling her eyes heavenwards.
“After you’ve been doing whatever you’re doing that is not dating but looks like dating to everyone else, for only two months.”
“Thanks ever so,” I said dryly. “As far as I can tell, they’re shocked that he’s talking to another human being at all.”
“To be fair, you’re the only person I’ve ever met who’d come up with the idea of being wildly rude and hostile to the guy who saved your life twenty times,” Aadhya said.
I glared at her. “Thirteen times! And I’ve saved his life at least twice.”
“Catch up already, girl,” she said unrepentantly.”

It is hard to only care about yourself getting out when you have started making friends and caring about some other people. What is going to happen to the kids who come in the grade after you, what is going to happen to your little group of Freshmen when you aren’t there to protect them? Man, it sucks caring about everyone. New plan. Save everyone.

I enjoyed so much about this book. El has really grown as a person and while she has a lot of baggage from growing up with that prophecy over her head, she is learning that not everyone will abandon you in the end. Heck some people might even surprise you and *gasp* help you in your quest. She is over powerful so doing big magic is easy but sweeping a room with a broom using magic, something really simple for most is beyond her. I like that she isn’t all sunshine and rainbows and is a pretty surly girl.
“I’m not some sort of pallid romantic who insists on being loved for my shining inner being. My inner being is exceptionally cranky and I often don’t want her company myself.”

Orion on the other hand is really a pretty nice guy but he is also somewhat of an outcast in that he is great at killing Mals and that is really his only interest in the world besides El the surly girl that was probably the only one in the school not to fawn all over him. Together they are a good Yin/Yang duo. The romance between them is so subdued, since they are busy trying to save everyone in the school and all but it is pretty cute none the less.

I’m going to say that I liked this even more than the first book of the series A Deadly Education, which also got high marks from me. It was a great follow-up building on both the world, the characters and the story. With that ending I’m a little sad I have to wait to find out the status of some of the characters but I can’t wait to see where she takes the story next.

This book was excellent. It is the second book of a (currently) 3 book series. I have not read dark academia before but it's a new fairytale genre for me. The book leaves you not wanting to put it down and had enough twists and turns to keep your attention.

In Wisdom, Shelter. That’s the official motto of the Scholomance. I suppose you could even argue that it’s true—only the wisdom is hard to come by, so the shelter’s rather scant.

Our beloved school does its best to devour all its students—but now that I’ve reached my senior year and have actually won myself a handful of allies, it’s suddenly developed a very particular craving for me. And even if I somehow make it through the endless waves of maleficaria that it keeps throwing at me in between grueling homework assignments, I haven’t any idea how my allies and I are going to make it through the graduation hall alive.

Unless, of course, I finally accept my foretold destiny of dark sorcery and destruction. That would certainly let me sail straight out of here. The course of wisdom, surely.

But I’m not giving in—not to the mals, not to fate, and especially not to the Scholomance. I’m going to get myself and my friends out of this hideous place for good—even if it’s the last thing I do.

The Last Graduate is a fun read, packed from start to finish with unexpected plot developments, great character arcs, and epic magic performed by student mages. I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish it. For a book that has a lot of darker fantasy themes, it really is a delightful read.

I really enjoy El as a character because she is so very sardonic, and she has the potential - and even the prophesied destiny - to be a very powerful evil sorceress, but fights so hard to just be a normal kid. Or at least as normal as you can be when you're attending a the magic school that wants to kill everyone. I like seeing the cracks in her tough outer shell as she makes friendships and alliances, and the strength in her resolve as those relationships begrudgingly foster a spirit of altruism in her.

The world building of the Scholomance, and the magic system therein, is rich and complex and Novik does a wonderful job making it feel tangible. The characters are dynamic and we get some really great insight in this installment.

I always find reviewing middle books of series to be a little difficult, because I don't want to spoil the first book, and also the story is not complete yet. This one definitely ended on a cliffhanger, and I can't wait til September to find out what is going to happen next!

The Last Graduate was absolutely enchanting! Novik wrote a story that was so well written I found myself flying through the pages, unable to put the book down, pondering what would happen next. My favorite piece of this entire story was how believable the characters were.

The writing is clear and clean, and very immersive. The book hums along at a good clip, but the pacing makes sure we're given time to breathe between plot-intensifying moments. The story was absolutely engaging and the work that went into the settings was noticeable and superb. I felt absolutely transported and I'm so incredibly glad I was able to read an arc of this story

Thank you to Penguin Random House - Ballantine, Delrey and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC!

I had to wait until the next morning to write this review because I haven’t been able to think clearly since I finished the book. It was everything I could have hoped for after the first one and I cannot wait for the final installment. The Scholomance is incredible. The character development is divine. The storyline is A+. 5 stars all around. This is the first book I’ve reviewed and I haven’t been able to stop recommending the series since I read the first.

Everyone needs to read this book.


This review is also posted on Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/11659639

I will also be posting about this series on tiktok/instagram closer to when the third book is being released (and have posted about it many times already on tiktok.) tiktok: @readwithnikki instagram: @readwithnikki13

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with this e-book and thank you Random House for granting my wish!

This is the second novel in Naomi Novik's Schoolomance series, and it was just as good as the first if not better! Novik got the dark academia vibe down and her world-building is fantastic. She paced this book well so nothing felt rushed. I absolutely cannot wait for the next book!