An epic second book in an intended trilogy from a rich and fantastical world with extremely powerful adolescence characters, their exceptionally dangerous and occasionally deadly school and the wider magical community and the secrets that lie at the heart of it. This novel is woven through with themes of social inequality, the everlasting power of friendship, and the importance in questioning the status quo.

Our main character, El, is gifted with an incredibly deadly and destructive affinity to magic. Even the simplest of spells could twist into something cataclysmic and equally dangerous if she isn’t on her guard. She knows what might happen if she gives into this darker kind of magic. A prophecy claims that she would cause the downfall of the magical society as they know it, and so she has fought against these dark powers all her life.

Outside the walls of the school that is meant to keep them protected, is not as all as it seems. A terrible secret festers at the heart of the magical society and El will have to surround herself with people she can trust and embrace her powers. Maybe even her dark affinity, in an attempt to set things right and save her world. But not everything is as it seems. Sometimes the people we trust will ultimately betray us in the end. This is an epic second book in the series that covers so much intricate world-building, character dynamics and rounded out with a fast past plot line. This is a book you don’t want to miss!

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group for an advanced reader copy via NetGalley of The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

This book is very good. I read it in two days and didn't want to stop reading even for sleep or food. The kind of fantasy Naomi Novik writes is one of my favorite ones. She can build characters and worlds so tangled together and so great that is difficult to walk away from them. The Last Graduate gives us a second book really worth reading after the first one. El is nasty and loving at the same time, and she has grown a lot in this book. It was an amazing journey.

The second book of the Scholomance series lived up to all my expectations, just like the first one did!

In this sequel, we follow El, Orion, and their fellow students as they face their final year at the Scholomance, where graduation is a perilous rite.

I love Novik's writing, I immediately pick this up after finishing the first one. It is impossible to put down.

In "A Deadly Education" and its sequel, Novik has crafted a world where magic, danger, and unconventional heroism collide in the most captivating way. If you were a fan of the first book, you're in for a treat with this second installment. I'm eagerly anticipating what comes next in this series!

I will update with links when review is shared

Holy shit I loved this as much as I loved the first one but maybe even more because I felt like I understood the world so much more now, but also because senior year shows our girl El really growing up! It held my attention down to the very last line and I am champing at the bit to start the last book in the series tomorrow. It’s so good, oh my god. I loved how the characters we knew from book 1 were fleshed out, I loved the new ones and the new insight into El and Orion’s being once-in-a-generation talents, and I just loved El’s trademark sardonic take on… everything. She made me laugh out loud at various points and her friendship with Aadhya and Liu is so beautiful! This series is dark and scary but seeing El find so much happiness and light even amidst the terror and chaos and grim determination, as well as seeing her continue to develop her own moral compass and start taking a real interest in social justice rather than vengeance was so soothing and fun to read. Loving this series sooo much and both wanting to savor and devour book 3 asap!

We find ourselves right back at Scholomance, starting El's senior year, and the School has a whole set of plans in store for her and her unconventional group of wizards. El forms an alliance with Liu and Aadhya, while Orion occupies the not-yet-boyfriend spot with a deal to ignore romance now and explore romance "if we make it out of here alive." Senior year is notorious for being the most perilous, cranking up the danger to prepare students for the treacherous graduation gauntlet. However, this year's schedule springs some surprises on El, and suddenly, she's handed everything she's ever desired, only to discover that maybe she didn't truly want it after all.

El still wrestles with her prickly personality and those maddeningly long inner monologues, but this book had me completely hooked. The groundwork laid in the previous installment, with all its foreshadowing, combined with the faster pacing in most parts of this book, made for a lightning-fast read.

“The Last Graduate” felt swifter because there was less info-dumping through inner monologue to explain the school's intricacies. Don't worry, there were still a few drawn-out moments, but they were far between, and the story's momentum kept me pushing forward to uncover the answers. El's character has become more likable in this second book of the series. It's heartening to see her growth continue, and it carries on throughout the narrative. Despite some people labeling this series as a romance, it plays a minute role, and the book would remain just as compelling without it.

The ending delivers a massive cliffhanger, but it's the kind you see coming from a mile away – not in a negative sense, but in that satisfying, "I love Novik's use of foreshadowing" way. Overall, I found this book even more enjoyable than the first installment, mainly because there was less time spent waxing poetic about the Scholomance's inner workings. I particularly appreciated the character development, not just of El but also her alliance and the rest of the cast. If El's inner voice grated on you in the first book, you might still encounter it here, but rest assured she's grown and is much more relatable now.

I currently have a one week wait at the library for the third book “The Golden Enclaves” and it has already become excruciating. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with this Advanced Reader Copy.

It was a lot easier to read than the first book in the series. It felt more polished. It was a bit exposition heavy, but feels like it works as a standalone bringing us up to speed. I stopped at the end of chapter 1 (8%), but I imagine people might enjoy this more than the first based on polish.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a great sequel and I loved the academia vibes in this book. I look forward to more in the next book.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for a gifted copy to read and review, all thoughts and opinions are my own and given voluntarily.

This is the second book in the Scholomance series, the sequel to A Deadly Education, where we follow El, Orion and their friends through their senior year of the Scholomance. This is expected to be their most deadly year.

An overall 3.75 stars from me!

We start off basically right where we left off in the first book, with El and Orion and friends. Since we got most of the Scholomance world building (with pictures and graphs!) in the first book, we don’t need much more here. We do get a bit of scheduling explanations (which do become important) and we do learn more about the enclave regions outside of the school along with the politics that go with those. Those politics are often reflected in school behavior and so do become important throughout the story. Overall, for me, this was woven in really nicely.

Since we do start off where we left off, the atmosphere is similar to the first book, a very dangerous survivalist type school. Things are high stakes and life threatening for the students but with a touch of humor at times. Since El has made friends in the first book, there are some found family and wholesome elements to the sequel more than I found there to be in the first book. I was pretty surprised at this, and didn’t expect it to take that route! I enjoyed where it went even though I was not expecting it, and look forward to more of that in the third book.

The main premise of the plot is not so different from the first book: survive in school both literally and metaphorically. Do you schoolwork, find useful spells and create useful objects etc to take out with you into the world. However, since the atmosphere and plot blend in this bool, I found that the atmosphere took on some of the found family trope, the plot did the same. As the atmosphere became more wholesome, so did elements of the plot. There were points towards the 60-70% mark that were anticlimactic for me. There was a lot of build up, and no culmination to that build up felt disappointing though it is part of the story. There are times where I find the writing to be too detailed from the MC’s perspective. Those paragraphs of details are interesting and make the MC more unique and thoughtful, however they can feel like a lot to slog through when reading the book.

Overall, I had fun reading this book. It’s a different type that I typically read and it’s a quick read. I found certain parts of the plot to be anticlimactic, so I don't know that this would ever be a re-read for me, but I do plan to find out what happens and how the story ends.

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!