Naomi Novik’s second novel in the Scholomance series is gripping from start to finish. While in A Deadly Education, protagonist El struggled to survive against the monsters (mals) which her school (Scholomance) provided partial protection from, in The Last Graduate, El finds herself grappling directly with the school itself. El and her schoolmates’ feat at the end of A Deadly Education seems to have fundamentally altered the behavior of the school and the mals that are in it. As El soon discovers, the change seems to revolve around her and her alone. In trying to find out what is afoot, El has to develop her powers in ways that she never let herself before. Ultimately, this sets her on a course not only to become a leader of the school (a position El is not at all comfortable with), but also to confront bigger questions about protecting the most vulnerable people in the school and the broader magical world.

Novik is truly a master at world-building, and this novel is no exception. For me, the most fascinating part of the narrative is watching El struggle with her changing status in the school — from a reject to the person that everyone acknowledges has the most sway. Given that El had spent most of her time at Scholomance actively preventing this situation from occurring (even if she didn’t admit it to herself), this change is unsettling, and even disturbing, for El. Novik does a great job exploring the psychological shift El undergoes when El realizes that, within the school, she now plays the role of the enclaves (magical communities who are protected by very powerful wards) outside of the school. In other words, she gets to decide who is safe and who is exposed to the mals — essentially who lives or dies. While, unsurprisingly, El makes different decisions than the enclaves have, it was great to see El fully owning the power she has and the responsibility that comes along with it.

I also thoroughly enjoyed El’s developing friendships with Aadhya and Liu and her grudging (but growing) respect for Liesel. I appreciate that, unlike so many fantasy novelists, Novik gives considerable attention to relationships and interpersonal dynamics that are not romantic. As with the first novel, I have difficulty finding Orion interesting, in part because he is so passive. In general, he seems to be dominated by other people (especially El) or his own instincts, and when he does rebel in small ways, he comes across as a petulant child. Most of the other people in the novel think about their overall situation at Scholomance; Orion seems to just think about whatever is right in front of him or dream about a distant future. That said, I find El’s attraction to him, and her mistaken assumptions about what motivates his behavior, quite persuasive. (Who doesn’t create romanticized versions of their crushes/partners? And isn’t that all the more tempting when one is addled by teenage hormones?) For this reason, and unlike most other people who have read the novel thus far, I don’t find the ending of the book to be an especially troubling or tantalizing cliffhanger. Novik set up the ending so that we saw it coming from a mile away, and it seems fairly clear what El will be up to in the third novel. I was far more riled up about the ending to the first book than the ending to the second. That said, I will, without question, read the third as soon as I get my hands on it. There are very few writers who can match Novik’s ability to create compelling magical worlds and storylines.

A final note about The Last Graduate: I have mixed feelings about some of the explanations given for the overall structure and operation of the school. The idea of Scholomance being semi-sentient/conscious is persuasive to me, but some of the explanations about how the school operates seemed convoluted and far-fetched, even within the logic of the magical world Novik created. To be fair, many of these explanations were El’s early interpretations, which were ultimately proved incorrect. (I don’t have a problem with this — El is an imperfect character who is reacting to the circumstances she finds herself in.) But other explanations which were still in place at the end of the novel felt cobbled together and far too convenient for the storyline: for example, how the school can obtain and use mana from some sources and not others; how the school acted *so* differently last year when the underlying premise of the school (to protect its students) was supposedly the same, etc. There are certainly ways of accounting for these issues, but I found that the ones provided in this novel strained credulity more than those which were found in A Deadly Education. All in all, though, the second novel in the Scholomance series does not disappoint — and I already can’t wait for the third.

Oh I wanted to love this book, and I truly feel I am going to be in the minority when I state that I just don't like the writing style. I liked that the book takes off right after the first book but there is no recap and after a year and a hundred book in between I have forgotten quite a bit of the first book. El's inner monologues are way to wordy and most of it is just repeated over and over again. I also do not care for the time jumps with little action happening sandwiched between super unnecessary long monologues. If you love Orion then you have to wait FOREVER for him to really show up again in the book. So now we wait and see what happens after that crazy ending if you can power through all the annoyances.

Senior year is finally here, and the Scholomance is out to get El. Not only is she placed in seminar, making her a target for the school’s worse resident maleficaria (wizard-eating magical creatures), but her classmates and only support are helpless freshman. Orion isn’t having an easy final year either. Low on mana and finding few mals to hunt, his schoolwork is suffering and he might not make it to fight in the deadly ritual that is graduation. As El’s concern for both Orion and her classmates grows, she must choose her allies wisely as she and Orion prepare for the most important battle of their lives.

This book picked me up and swallowed me as fast as maleficaria devour young wizards. I’ve clamored for the second book in the Scholomance series since I closed A Deadly Education last year. The Scholomance is an original and thrilling addition to the magical boarding school trope. I didn’t want to leave the sarcastic, deadpan characters; the endlessly imaginative deadly creatures; and the breadth of magical spells and incantations in this rich magical world.

The stakes are higher in The Last Graduate and the solution to graduation was more awesome than I anticipated. The action-packed conclusion elicited some strong emotional reactions from me. I exclaimed, sobbed, and cheered along with the characters at their triumphs. Even the audible gasp that escaped my lips at the cliff-hanging last line isn’t strong enough to convince me to recommend any delay in reading this book until book three is available. If you couldn’t already tell, I can’t recommend this fantasy series enough. I’m an overenthusiastic Naomi Novik fangirl for life.

I haven’t been this mad at the ending of a book… possibly since Atonement. Last I had heard, this was the second book in a duology, so when this book ended in the middle of a climatic action scene I almost screamed. Alas, this is now book 2 of a trilogy. The cliffhanger makes more sense but MAN it still left a bitter taste in my mouth.

With that out of the way, I really enjoyed this book and how it worked to dismantle a lot of El’s worldview from the first book now that she has allies and possibly even friends. There is a lot of info-dumping, but I enjoy the world building so much that I don’t really mind. I will definitely read the third book, but you’re on a short leash Novik!

Wow. I think El is one of my favorite narrators of all time. She is so drily hilarious I laugh out loud so often when reading an otherwise quite dark book! This is the dark wizarding school of your dreams. I cannot recommend this series enough and the author sure knows how to write a cliffhanger!

Perhaps not *quite* as excellent as the first book of the series (A Deadly Education), but definitely still deserving of five stars. My biggest regret is that I read this book so early, and have to wait that much longer for the next book!

I guess I might have expected it from the way the first book concluded, but this one should have a warning up front about the cliffhanger ending. It is BRUTAL.

After spending most of her time in the deadly dangerous Scholomance trying to survive all alone, El enters her final year on a positive note. She’s got friends now, as well an offer of a helpful alliance with other powerful student wizards that might allow all of them to make it out alive on graduation day. El even has a boy who likes her, Orion Lake, and she can’t help liking him back, despite her mother’s warning to stay away from him. But then the school gives El terrible course load and allows the monstrous maleficaria to target her rather than the other students, and she starts to wonder whether she’ll make it through the rest of the year, much less survive graduation. The Scholomance seems to have it in for El, but why?

Well, there is a reason, but to find out, you’ll need to read the book. 😉

The worldbuilding in this series is masterful. In my opinion, it blows Harry Potter and Hogwarts out of the water as a fantasy. The Scholomance is absolutely insane, but Novik makes it seem almost plausible. (Why shouldn’t every student’s room have a way for them to fall into a mystical void, really?) The magic system is extremely complicated, but it’s very well thought out and consistent, which makes the fantastical feel more real.

I just love El, too. She fights so hard against her natural bent toward evil magic, but she can’t quite master being (horrors) nice. Grumpy El doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and unfortunately for El, she’s attending the Scholomance with far too many of those. That includes Orion, and El being El, she doesn’t hesitate to let him know when he’s being an utter idiot. She castigates herself just as often, though, because El’s own behavior is growing ever more idiotic, as she finds herself increasingly looking out for others rather than own survival. For a wizard with seemingly unlimited power and a gift for destruction, El might just turn out to be as much of a hero as that numptie Orion.

So, I’m glued to the page through the entire story, entranced by El and her world and her adventures and rooting for her and the others to make it out alive, and then—that final line. WHY??? You had me on the hook for the last book anyway! It’s just wanton cruelty.

Highly recommended, but you should brace yourself for the ending. It’s a doozy.

A copy of this book was provided through NetGalley for me to review; all opinions expressed are my own.

I loved this one so much! The world-building in A Deadly Education was great, but I really loved El’s growth as a character from the first book; how she went from finding her own place in the school to realizing she had more to give. Her relationship with her class of freshmen was so cute! It reminded me of grumpy old Carl’s relationship with Russell in Up.

I also loved how even though she’s the “hero”, she’s not the best at everything. Orion, Liu, even other characters initially introduced as antagonists (e.g. Chloe and Liesl) have their own resources to share.

I knew the author was setting us up for a major tragedy and/or cliffhanger at the end, and I cannot wait until the next book to find out what happens!

Recommended. Reviewed jointly with Jennie on our blog (link below):

Jennie: Janine, Sirius, and I reviewed the first book in the Scholomance series (originally slated as two books; now a trilogy). Sirius gave it a C- and said she wouldn’t be reading this sequel, but Janine and I, though we had some reservations, ended up liking A Deadly Education quite a bit – I gave it an A- and Janine a B+. I was really quite excited to pick this book up and even more excited to review it with Janine.

Janine: Thank you! My grade actually rose after that and I’ve read it multiple times (sometimes in its entirety, sometimes just parts of it). I also put it on my best of 2020 list.

Jennie: The Last Graduate begins with the same scene that A Deadly Education ended with. Our heroine, El, has survived the group attempt to fix the machine that cleanses the graduation hall, giving the year’s seniors a fighting chance at survival. She’s in the cafeteria for the induction of freshmen students, when one unexpectedly gives her a letter from her mother. El had not expected anything because her mother isn’t wealthy or connected, and bringing in letters for students at the Scholomance is a big deal since it reduces the weight allowance that freshmen have; they need every ounce to hope to survive the coming four years.

Anyway, the short letter ends with an ominous declaration: “Keep far away from Orion Lake.” Orion is El’s maybe-sort-of-almost boyfriend, who she spent the year of A Deadly Education getting to know (not without some setbacks; El’s default is sarcastic insults and Orion’s is wide-eyed cluelessness).

El doesn’t know what to make of her mother’s warning, but like any teenage girl being warned off of a teenage boy, she doesn’t like it.

Janine: I really liked the way El came to the decision that she would disregard her mother’s warning. Orion was the first person in the school to like and befriend her, and warning or no warning, she wasn’t going to turn her back on that. I came up with more than one theory for what was behind the warning, but when the reason was finally revealed, it was surprising, not anything I guessed at, and yet it felt inevitable, too. That was masterfully done.

Jennie: The next day, the first of the school term, there’s more not to like (El’s personality and the nature of the Scholomance often conspire to bring about less-than-ideal circumstances). El finds herself assigned to an isolated classroom with a pack of freshmen.

Janine: Another thing I really liked was El’s interactions with the students she starts thinking of as her freshmen. At first, she’s determined not to watch out for them—she reasons that if they don’t learn to do that for themselves, they won’t last a day—and then she ends up playing the white knight after all, but she’s grouchy over it. That was so loveable and so El. She personifies the reluctant hero.

Jennie: Agreed – she’s lovable and also fascinating because we know she has this capacity for darkness but she’s also a better person than many of her classmates (to be fair, the nature of their world and the Scholomance seems to toughen up the young wizards early on).


Our review continues here:

https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-b-reviews/b-plus-reviews/review-the-last-graduate-by-naomi-novik/

Naomi Novik can sit undigested inside the belly of a maw mouth until part 3 comes out.

No thanks to NetGalley for providing a free advanced copy of this book which means I have to wait that much longer, in exchange for this honest review.

Torrrrrrrrrtuuuurrrrrrrrrrre

For those of us who have waited anxiously for the next installment of the Scholomance series, The Last Graduate has arrived at long last. When last we saw El and her schoolmates they were at the end of their junior year and dreading Graduation Day. There are no O.W.L.s to sit for - although they do have to complete senior projects and there are exams at midyear. What they need to fear is fighting their way past all the maleficaria waiting to attack them in the Graduation Hall.

El's situation at the end of the first book seems very similar to that of Spencer Gilpin at the end of "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle." She is heading into her senior year and at long last she has friends, a possible romance, and some hope. "It felt...As if the whole world had become a different place. But it hadn't. I was still in the Scholomance, and all the miracles in here come with price tags."

All the alliances and deal-making that have gone on until now are kicked into high gear by the deadline looming ahead of them. And it is not just the mals waiting at the end of the year that El needs to worry about, because it seems that the school itself is out to get her. Her schedule has her in small class sections with none of her friends, the mals that are making it past the school's wards seem to be seeking her out to the exclusion of all the other students, and she is terribly behind on replacing all the mana she expended last year.

Readers will feel as though they are running the obstacle courses in the school gym along with the seniors as they struggle through the continually mounting difficulties of getting out of the school alive. El still has a bit of the dark Galadriel mystique clinging to her, especially when she casts spells that hang "in the air just long enough to make a fashion statement of the behold your dark goddess variety." And Novik keeps the suspense strung out to the very last sentence, so that we gasp our way to the gates of the Graduation Hall still unsure of what will happen.

Perfect for fans of magical fantasy that includes prickly heroines, peculiar monsters, and incredible world building.

Exceedingly compelling, great follow up. I really like the characters and the world - while this volume very nicely wrapped up the arc of El's Scholamance years, there is a cliff hanger that will have me eagerly awaiting the next one.

If you like the first book, you're going to LOVE The Last Graduate. Its a bit darker and the ending will absolutely break you.

You get much more character development with El in this book, and watching her growth throughout this whole it all is a delight. And then there is Orion. Oh boy... the relationship that blossoms between El and Orion is probably one of the best that I've read in YA. Its somehow sweet and wholesome in the midst of a book that is so dark. I loved the juxtaposition.

The whole plot of the book is great. The stakes keep getting higher and higher as El and her alliance devise a plan to escape the scholomance. Once you think an issue is solved another one pops up. Its a slow creep uphill until you get to the climax of the book which feels more like being thrown off a cliff than a cliffhanger. It was SO good and SO terrible. Its not quite the devastation that I felt at then end of The Traitor Baru but its pretty damn close.

Even if you weren't a huge fan of the first book, I HIGHLY recommend you check out The Last Graduate. I promise it will suck you. You won't be disappointed.

Thank you to Randomhouse for gifting me the sequel to one of my favorites from last year, A Deadly Education. I loved being introduced to this world of magic, killer schools, heroic boys and our absolutely grouchy heart of gold (the universe would disagree) lead El.

This book continues explaining more about the school and what happens next after El helped the former seniors. The school now recognizes the great power El holds and feels the need to stop her in every way it can. I loved how we are shown that the school has developed even more of a personality than before.

El has got to be the grouchiest cinnamon roll I’ve read. Her evolution with these 2 books and the things she puts herself through for the sake of everyone was one thing that fascinated me about her character. She is still opening up to her new friends as she has never had any before but Aadhya, Liu and Orion remind her of all that is good in the world. In Orion’s case after book one’s ending where her mother warned her to stay away from Orion El does not want to admit the depth of her feelings for him. The fact is Orion and El are special and this book further explores what that means for them and their entire world. I need a novella or something on Orion and his past and his thoughts please Naomi!

The themes of classism have not gone away and this book shows how being connected to the enclaves can keep you alive inside and outside of the Scholomance. It is a rigged system but one that has gone on for a long time that everyone just accepts…until now. The Last Graduate shows what happens when you feel alone, when the world seems against you and when people unite and how tenuous or powerful it can be. Always remember in this world magic has a price.

Be warned that this one does have a cliffhanger ending to end all cliffhanger endings. My jaw dropped open and I seriously need Book 3 now. This series just gets better and better and I highly recommend if you enjoyed the 1st one.

I gave this book four stars with a caveat that it really doesn’t pick up the pace until 50% and the sense of urgency and danger from the first book does not return until around 70%. The last 10% is wonderful but that is a lot of hormones and character growth to get there. Lots of angsting over kissing or not kissing. I read that the series was originally two books and then a middle book was added. I see why it was needed for character growth, or the ending would have felt inorganic as versus yes, somewhat expected but still nice to see everyone get there. I know this sounds vague, but I don’t want to give any spoilers. Since it is a second in the series, you miss the joy, or horror if you will, of learning about the new world, and I miss that but can’t avoid that with a series. Also, like every other review, I will note that this end of quite a cliff hanger, even more than the first book. If you really don’t like cliffhangers, I would recommend waiting for the next one to be published first.

Fans of book 1 in the Scholomance series will definitely adore book 2. El and her friends are back, fighting off the mals and trying to just get through the school day. Along for the ride are cast of incoming freshmen, who El begrudgingly and unintentionally protects. Readers will continue to see some growth in El. As a reader who initially didn't care for the character through book one, I was glad to see the environment, friendships, and her actions have an impression on her personal growth. The pacing is still a little slow than I would like, but it is work it for the last part of the book and the cliffhanger at the end. Overall, a solid sophomore book in the series. I'm definitely looking forward to the next in the series.

This was such a fun addition to the series! I had such a good time reuniting with the characters and meeting a few new ones. I can't wait for book three!

I will admit, there are some times when El annoys me. She can get a little whiny sometimes. But, in general, I really enjoyed seeing her journey and development. Plus the rest of the characters were great and entertaining!

The world that Novik has created with these books is so interesting! I really enjoyed being able to dig deeper into the history and aspects of this world. It feels so real and understandable.

If you enjoyed A Deadly Education, I would highly recommend reading The Last Graduate! It was definitely worth reading and just made me really happy.

Fantastic world building. Great anti-hero or rather anti-heroine fighting not to give in to a predisposition for evil. In love with a goody-good character and after a childhood of being bullied and lonely rather than evil, although that for could lead to super-villain status. I loved this book. I thought for sure it couldn't be as good as the first or it would end on a cliff-hanger. While it definitely left more plotline to explore, it had a very satifying conclusion. I highly recommend it (and have) to all.

Best regards,
Amy

The Last Graduate picks up where A Deadly Education leaves off and then accelerates. El finally has a group of her own people and has figured out how to survive in a school that is trying to kill her. She even has a boyfriend in Orion Lake and a couple of close BFF's. I really like this series it is magic with some real world issues of diversity and class (both privilege and grade level) struggles. El realizes that it isn't the other students but the school that is trying to get rid of her. She overcomes some personal struggles and work with other students to unite together to save all the students. I will not drop any spoilers, I will just say Oh My! The ending!!!

I like the writing and the fast pace of the story. These books never last long enough. I am looking forward to book 3.

I flew through The Last Graduate and now regret that I have to wait for book 3! The plot raced by and the ending was a doozy. I love these characters so much, and I appreciated the development of the Scholomance itself as a character of sorts.