The Last Graduate is the second book in Naomi Novik's new YA fantasy trilogy, The Scholomance, which began with last year's "A Deadly Education". I liked A Deadly Education thanks to its really fun sardonic narration courtesy of its heroine El, who made even the novels' frequent infodumps enjoyable to read. Add in a story that featured themes of class, race, and privilege, a school for teenage magic users that was constantly trying to kill them, and a fun little romance between the mass-destroying El and heroic evil-slaying Orion, and you had a story that was very enjoyable....even if it had some issues trading in national stereotypes at times.* The book ended on not quite a cliffhanger, but a hell of a sequel hook, which threatened to cause some big trouble for the trilogy's central romance.

*This is an issue in other Novik works as well, such as the Temeraire series.

Unfortunately, The Last Graduate features the worst traits of its predecessor - the national stereotypes, the persistent info-dumping - getting notably worse, and the book's character work being overwhelmed by the info-dumping. The book does nothing with the tantalizing sequel hook and its central romance is basically forgotten for long stretches, and the final quarter of the book depends upon so much infodumping and plot elements pulled out of almost nowhere, that it just drags and disappoints. There are still some solid work with the themes of class and privilege here, and the dialogue is often very quotable and fun, but this is a very disappointing second novel in what looked like a promising new trilogy.

Spoilers for book 1 below are inevitable:

-----------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------------
El has seemingly achieved the impossible - survived the seniors' graduation and maybe fixed the machinery to clean out Mals for her own graduation. She's entering senior year in the Scholomance even more impossibly with....allies? friends? And then there's hero Orion Lake, the privileged enclave boy who kept foiling her plans.....who turned to be more than he seemed....and who she started falling for. With all this, El was surely prepared for whatever the Scholomance could throw at her for senior year, right?

Wrong.

First, there's El's mother's message, telling her to stay away from Orion. Then there's the fact that the school has reacted to El's antics by pulling out all the stops in trying to either kill El...or to make El give-in and turn Maleficer after all. Which El could avoid if she didn't suddenly find it impossible not to follow Orion's example herself in becoming a hero and saving others....a decision that threatens her own chances of surviving graduation.

To make it out of it all with this new mindset, El will need the last thing she's comfortable seeking - more help from other students. But with her powers of destruction, her attitude, and her not being one of the privileged Enclavers, will they really be willing to help her more than they already have?
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The Last Graduate starts strong, continuing the story as a new year begins for El - her senior year - in the Scholomance. El's voice remains incredibly fun for much of the book, with her sardonic and antisocial personality being highly relatable (to me at least), and her internal character struggles both make sense and are handled well. She's gone from being an utter loner, figuring to never have friends and fooling herself into thinking she's going to use her powers to impress an Enclave to have a peaceful happy life to suddenly realizing: a) she has friends who like her for her; b) she has no real interest in joining the cushy privileged life of an enclave (and still resents those Enclavers, even if some of them aren't so bad) and c) she suddenly really likes a boy romantically in Orion and is having some real heroic instincts as a result....instincts she once regarded as utterly foolish. And her default reaction to these things being pointed out is to talk back and be abrasive, which only gets worse when the very school starts trying very hard to specifically kill her, making it impossible for her to deny these things that much longer.

And so El's transformation from loner looking to survive, in denial about her own beliefs, into a girl who has decided to be a hero despite her best efforts, and who reacts even further towards heroism when pushed....and has to deal with the consequence of that, is the best part of the book, especially for the first half - because to make that transformation and survive, El is forced to realize that she needs to ask for help and reveal her true abilities, even as she has to do more and more by herself. And the people El has to ask for help includes the people who once shunned her, the privileged enclavers, and those she otherwise resents....and who might now resent her. El has to deal with people who respond to her revealing her abilities either by going into full on lobbying campaigns for her to support their group or by assuming she's already made an alliance with another group that makes her untrustworthy and necessary to kill.

The result of this is a book that very much is anti-Lord of the Flies, to use a classic example, in which El has to bring everyone together despite distrust and massive paranoia in order for everyone to survive, and in some ways this works.

It's too bad about everything else though, because the farther the book gets, the more it loses its way and has more and more problems that made it difficult to get through and enjoy. I mentioned in my review of A Deadly Education that I didn't think the info-dumping by El hurt the pacing, because El's sardonic voice made it fun and all the info dumping was necessary. Well, that's absolutely not the case here, where El's info-dumping gets WORSE, and keeps happening for topics and ideas that are absolutely not necessary - for example, it isn't just El info-dumping about how her spells will do horrible horrible things to people (which still happens and is still a treat), but we have El 2/3 of the way through the book info dumping about magical preparation of food for no reason for three whole pages and we have a side character infodumping about minor Mals that essentially cause magical rust for a page and many many more examples. I started skimming/skipping through these segments, because it would go on and on and I just....did....not......care. And as the book gets into its final act, there is basically nothing but info-dumping, because the book stops caring about character dynamics at that point, with everything resolved at the 3/4 mark, and instead about problem solving the situation....except the book has basically not setup things in a way that allow the problem solving to be an interesting combination of already existing pieces.

Speaking of character dynamics, the book drops the ball quite a lot with those, most notably with the central romance of El with Orion - who basically has no part/dialogue in like the first 50 pages and disappears entirely for large stretches of the time. And so when the time comes to culminate their romance, and the romance results in another major part of the ending, these things just basically come from nowhere - and as a result, the last book's cliffhanger goes absolutely NOWHERE. And other character dynamics, especially for characters not part of the main grouping are informed entirely by those characters' nationalities, which is just unfortunate: so of course the Shanghai Enclave is against the New York Enclave (because magical politics must be the same as normal ones!) and everyone in there is basically aligned together and a massive group, the Japanese Enclave has its own ethos that is basically stereotypical (and subject of another infodump), etc. Even more annoyingly, the two minor characters that wind up in same-sex relationships - the only queer relationships in the books as far as I can tell - both feel like they either have to hide those interests or that those interests are going to cause them problems in the real world. It's due to the nationalities involved, not due to homophobia, but when those are the only such relationships, it's really noticeable and a problem.

So yeah, The Last Graduate is a bit of a miss, there's a lot of promise with the setup, and the ending takes a theme that I've seen a lot these days and kind of makes it work, but is just held back by Novik getting obsessed with info-dumping about the setting at the expense of the characters and her continued usage of stereotypes. I might check out the conclusion because I do care about El....but it won't be high on my list if I do.

The first book in this series was a rough start because the author really just threw us into this world head first and it was hard to really wrap my brain around everything. However, Novik really took all of that to heart when writing the second book in the series. She has remedied every issue and created this incredible dark academia meets harry potter story that is so well done! HIGHLY RECCOMMEND! However, that cliff hanger was mean and unnecessary Naomi... LETS TALK haha

This was one of my most anticipated reads of this year and it did not disappoint. The sequel to a deadly education is just as detail rich and suspenseful as the first.

We’re back in the scholomance, the school made to protect the magical children of the world from deadly monsters…the only catch is..the monsters sneak in. The magical kids know from day one of their 4 year term that the could get eaten at any time so they strategize and fight to stay alive all while maintaining their grade point average. Sounds stressful, right? Well it is. The whole book keeps you on your toes!

Our two heroes from the last book, El and Orion are back and they are trying to find their place in the school and with each other, as well as trying NOT to turn evil, die, fall in love or messily make out while fighting back to back. They are the most awkward enemies to lovebirds couple ever. I love them!

Overall, I think his book is really vibrant and detail rich. I did get a little lost with El’s narration at times but the overall effect was still really entertaining. That ending tho! 🤭 I can’t wait for the final book of this series. I would have been happy with a little epilogue on this one to tell us how it turned out. Damn you, cliffhangers! I look forward to reading more! 4.5

Just like Deadly Education by Naomi Novik, The Last Graduate keeps you wanting more.

The Last Graduate picks ups where Deadly Education left off where Galadriel continues her studies for her final year in the Scholamance and is still getting used to her friends sticking around. While finding herself in trouble left and right, El comes up with a plan for the Graduation and it’ll take everybody's cooperation for it to work.

With excellent world building and a gripping story, you’ll feel like you’re in the Scholomance yourself.

I think I liked this even more than the first book in the series. I liked seeing El maintain her friendships and build new relationships and just generally realize that she doesn't have to be so alone. She also really comes into her power in a way that was really satisfying - she's an incredibly powerful magician who has always held back because her very nature is constantly trying to force her to be a maleficer (the bad kind of magician who basically uses the life force of others as power and is very involved in lots of destruction). As the novel goes on, El learns more about herself, her power, and her ability to form relationships in a way that I found very satisfying. She ultimately decides that she can use her power to save everyone in the school, and spends most of the book formulating and refining a plan for that, along with a growing cast of characters who are willing to collaborate with her. This ended on a big cliffhanger, and I can't wait for the final book in the trilogy!

I loved the first book and this sequel did not disappoint. I love El, Orion, and all of the rest. We see much more interaction with the various groups that exist in the school. It's action packed, sarcastic, and entertaining. I couldn't put it down!

The Last Graduate gave me everything I was hoping for in A Deadly Education and more. Dripping with sweat from the long, slow haul of the previous book in the series, I entered into this book in a belabored state of mind. I wasn't sure how much more of Galadriel's driveling lack of self-esteem and social skills I could take, but fortunately for me, her luck had finally turned. No longer was she suffering in pain alone, now she was suffering with much more well-adjusted friends for company. No longer are readers desperately grasping at straws as we struggle to wrap our heads around a world where the Scholomance is a school designed to take young magic students and turn them into fully capable adults, but where hundreds of those students die each and every year at the hands of these grotesque and widely varied Maleficaria, but instead we can see what Novik and Galadriel herself can do with such a world.
The tides turn in El's romance with Orion as well, finally building up some steam as they develop the means of communicating their feelings for one another. Albeit not the healthiest relationship under the sun, they are learning how to be in love and how to turn that love into something more unconditional and positive for themselves and each other.
Precious, El's sassy little mouse, develops quite the personality in this book. It would seem as though her character is destined for greater plot points in the future, as she develops quite the sense of autonomy from El, which Liu points out is unusual for a familiar and may have as much to say about El's affinities as it does for Precious herself.
Finally, the epic battle scenes we have all been waiting for are indeed quite epic. There is lots of planning to pull it all off, lots of blood sweat and tears, backstabbing and gossip. All said and done, it is quite something to look forward to, which is great because it unfolds over the entire last fifth of the book, after spending the entire book leading up to the precipice of graduation, the fight for their lives.

The review will be published September 28, 2021 on ShowThisBookSomeLove

Fans of A Deadly Education, do not despair — Naomi Novik has done it again. The second in the Scholomance series, The Last Graduate picks up almost exactly where A Deadly Education left off, both in terms of plot and intensity.

This book is a grab on and don’t let go until the end sort of ride, a grimdark setting filled to bursting with “friendship IS magic” moments, moments that could feel trite if written by someone else, but under Novik’s expert care instead feel wholly earned and extremely poignant. There is also a lot of monster killing and a delightful heist vibe throughout this excellent sequel. Come for the magic boarding school gone dark, stay for the maddening cliffhanger — you won’t be sorry.

Thank you to Del Rey Books and NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I am blown away by this book! I didn’t think I could love El and her motley crew anymore but I appreciate them so much more now. El and the others grow so much throughout the book. Plus, the school is so cool! I wouldn’t want to go there but it’s still cool! I have some feelings about the ending though; it ends on a huge cliffhanger!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy.

The second novel in the Scholomance trilogy; The Last Graduate has one of the most outrageous cliffhangers ever! Thank goodness it's not a duology as it was originally premised.
El is in her last year at her deadly magical school, and now the Scholomance seems to have her personally in its cross-hairs. Instead of working toward graduation, she's fighting maleficaria (magical creatures that feast on wizard youth) that all seem to be focused exclusively on eating her, and maybe the new, hapless freshmen that the school has thrown El in with in one of her classes.
As El battles to save herself and her friends, the scope of her concern for others starts to grow in a way that's unprecedented in Scholomance history. And that's all I'm going to say about that, at least for now, except AAAAHHHH WHAT EVEN IS THAT ENDING!?!

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for and early e-arc of this novel.*

Novik’s second book about the Scholomance, the wizard school that embodies the principle of “survival of the fittest” – or does it? Perhaps survival might be about cooperation, instead? This title is less about the prophecy of the main character’s ultimate wickedness (which she has learned to channel in book 1) and more about what you can do if you have friends and pool talents, with the challenge (not the least one for our Galadriel, nicknamed El) to let your friends in (now that she's got them) and trust each other. Can the seniors not only to survive against the mals to graduate but also to save the other students behind them? The school becomes more of a character than a villain in this book and other characters are fleshed out. We still wonder what Orion Lake sees in El since she treats him (mostly) badly, except for some hot moments, though we learn more to love about him. Subsidiary characters' economic diversity is strongly portrayed. And the cliffhanger ending sent me to make absolutely sure that there would be a book three – perhaps to take the characters we have grown to care about into the real world? Looking forward to it.

It’s El’s final year at the Scholomance, and she’s got a lot to do: build up her mana, strengthen her alliances, and prepare for Graduation Day. Because even though she’s pretty certain that the fixing of the gears worked, the seniors still have to face off against Patience and Fortitude, the two mega monsters lurking at the gates. But in the Scholomance, the only certainty is uncertainty, and El realizes there are more things at stake than just a Dark Sorceress in Waiting like herself.

Somehow, I went through an entire book without a single highlighted quote.

Yes, I’m not sure how that happened either.

Anywho, this will be a short one, because not only do I want to avoid too many spoilers, but also because if you read The Novice and weren’t fond of El’s sarcastic angst or info drops, then you are probably not going to like this one, because there is sarcasm, angst and info drops aplenty. And this time, much of the angst comes from Orion Lake, in ways that I won’t really mention.

The Novice had quite a bit of much justified criticism for racist stereotypes, and I don’t know that these issues were fixed in the second book so much as…ignored entirely? The way characters of color were portrayed seemed better and a little more rounded out, but also…in some cases given less page time as if the author was actively focusing on not misstepping by omitting characters of color entirely (not entirely, they make up a good chunk of the student population), or by at least omitting many descriptions of what people look like, if that makes sense. Although…there is a confusing line that I interpreted as a little biphobic, but also not sure entirely about it because bisexuality isn’t cut and dry and one-size-fits-all (I am bi) and also it was entirely in El’s character to say it and not be biphobic about it? I dunno.

I quite enjoyed this one, even if it got a touch repetitive in some of the events that happened in the training and preparation for graduation, but I did love seeing how El’s small band of people and what she cared about began to expand and grow as she slowly realized the humanity in others and that others were deserving of life in actuality instead of just hypothetically, and her determination to do something to make things better now instead of in the near-distant future when she is able to graduate.

The commentary on society and equity was also solid and entertaining, and it was fascinating to see speculation on how a society faced with such horrific monstrosities determined to devour their children (and themselves) with relentless hunger and determination would craft solutions to both preserve their power and protect their children and future generations (and also, who gets left behind in those scenarios). I also enjoyed the more subtle-ish commentary on heroes and heroing, and what courage looks like in a world built around a dog-eat-dog, every-person-for-themself mentality.

Anywho, like I said, if you enjoyed The Novice, you’ll sure to love this one, even though like me you will be absolutely gutted (hah, gallows humor) by that ending and dying for book 2!

Trigger Warnings: harm against children, gruesome death, violent injury

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

By the second installment, you know what you’re in for with this series: a put-upon (genuinely) protagonist who’s prickly as she is hardworking, trying to figure out how to be a person in relationships with other people while also staying alive in their incredibly dangerous school. In this book, El gets better a friendship, magic & having a boyfriend, while also doing the most when it comes to figuring out how to keep them all safe(r). Come for the friendships, stay for the cliffhanger ending!

This follow-up to A Deadly Education picks up right where the first book left off and the characters never stop running. I described ADE as monster-killing video game meets British boarding school and that's true here too. It's a genre-blending, fast and humorous romp through monsters and mysteries that also provides keen insights into privilege and power, human nature vs nurture, and individual morality in a biased system. I was delighted by the direction this story took and can't wait to see where it goes next.

The Last Graduate starts off almost right after the ending of A Deadly Education. No summer vacation for these kids. Its right on into their senior year!

El is being seen as a commodity now and special. Instead of being the odd one out she is the odd one in. Which is quite the shock to the system to our El who isn't sure she likes it. Even more so she doesn't know if she likes all these feelings that are going through her, towards her friends, towards the end of the school year, towards her future but mainly towards a certain boy called Orion. Which was both entertaining and frustrating in different parts.

The writing is very much similar to the start of A Deadly Education. There is a lot of continued world building going on and we spend a lot (and maybe too much) in El's head completely which is one of the reasons this series won't ever be a 5 star read for me. The plot trudges on at the start as the school seems to want something from them. But why now? For me the explanation was a little on the weak side.

The ending also seemed so very easy and I had so many questions leading up to it. And nothing went wrong and then it did right at the end and Novik slams us with it right at the very last paragraph and I just wanted to throw the book. Fortunately I held myself in since I was reading an e arc at the time.

It made me realize that I had gotten quite attached to the characters in these books. El wants to be that dark girl but when it comes down to it she is helping out so many others. And while she needs an alliance, that alliance is made up out of friendship. As the book continues they ally themselves with other students and other alliances. And then there is Orion who is such a cinnamon roll. He has such heart eyes for El and she has no idea why. And it is so cute. But he also has his own deepening in this book regarding his character. About his past and his worries and his fears.

Which is to say that this book isn't perfect in anyway. But I still enjoyed reading it for the characters and the school setting.

I just can't.

The Last Graduate</em> starts where we left off in <em>A Deadly Education</em>. El has surprisingly to most of all herself, gotten some friends and allies, including a potential boyfriend and now they're in their senior year and trying really really really hard not to get killed. They're prepping for graduation, where all of the evil monsters who inhabit the school come out for one last feast and well, you get the idea.

>I basically would read a Target list if Naomi Novik wrote it.

<em>The Last Graduate</em> is no exception, continuing Novik's well written and darkly funny hero El as she grows into the leader she was born to be, all the while avoiding her prophecy of becoming one of the most powerful evil sorceresses alive. I mean, you know. Everyone is working on their own thing.

Orion Lake is as wonderful as ever, confused by El's behavior and throwing himself into his hero role every chance he gets. I love how the supporting characters really shine in this second book. We get a wonderful sense of community and friendship between El as her network and friends grow, as well as the growing danger they are facing as graduation approaches. And let me tell you that ending was well worth it.

OMG Novik are you trying to KILL ME?

It's such a solid and beautifully written sequel, filled with the complexities of identity, adolescent and figuring out who you are in relationship to who you're expected to be, <em>The Last Graduate </em>propels this trilogy forward into my favorite top ten. I cannot wait for the last book. Until then, I'm going back to re-read <em>A Deadly Education</em> and start again.

This series is unbelievably good. Thanks to Netgalley and Random House/Del Rey who provided an e-copy of this book in return for a fair and honest review. This book picks up right after "A Deadly Education", and if you liked that, which I did, you will love this one. The world has been set up in the first book, but this does a better job than most 2nd books of continuing to flesh out this amazing world in terms of backstory. While the first book ended up with a sort of cliffhanger, this one ended in what I'd consider to be a classic cliffhanger. I imagine fans of this series will be tweeting and begging the author to get the next book out quickly. The characters develop more deeply, and I I fell in love with them as much as the setting, which, for lack of a better term is kind of a Goth Wizard school. The heroine is better able to use her amazing abilities without it changing her fundamentally, and has to do so with friends, which is something she really hasn't had an opportunity to do before. In this way, the author is examining social dynamics, particularly when an outsider is brought into a social network. I study social networks of doctors and researchers for a living and the author truly presents a believable matrix of human interaction. Which, even though this is a fantasy world, is ultimately what will suck a reader in. Everyone can relate to high school-or feeling like an outcast, or learning how to be better at a skill. I think everyone from fans who grew up on Harry Potter to jaded readers who typically only read the grimmest of grimdark will like this series and recommend it highly. Put it on your to read lists!

I’m torn between a four and five star for this book and decided I’m rounding up because the last few chapters kept me up past my bedtime. I do want to keep this a spoiler free review because it’s a book two. El isn’t a super charming person but in her defense pretty much everything and everyone except her mother has been actively trying to kill her her entire life. Add to that being locked into a slaughterhouse of a school for four year as the option most likely to let her grow up, hungry, dirty and terrified most of the time and you’d need to be pretty saintly not to be a suspicious grouchy jerk. She’s just nice enough that you want her and as many kids as possible to survive because what sort of person cheers on the slaughter of frightened teens?
The first is a little slow to keep tension as high as it should be but in the second half of the book things ramp up and keep the pages turning, That initial slowness really is my only complaint about the book and it wasn’t a boring slowness- more just a little too leisurely a pace of descriptions for a book about trapped and frighted kids.

As graduation approaches, senior year becomes much more interesting for Galadriel and all of her friends that are left from A Deadly Education. This sequel sees more Mals being thrown at her, as she is tasked again and again with keeping others alive and trying to figure out how to get them all through the graduation gates alive. The ending is a pure bridge to the third in the series and we'll all just have to wait with baited breath.....

Naomi Novik is just an amazing writer. I love the story of Galadriel so, so much. It doesn't feel like much happens in this novel beyond lengthy training scenes, but it was great to see El get some of the respect she finally deserves. I absolutely cannot wait to see what comes next for her.