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.

✨ The Title/Cover Draw:
I had recently read the book that comes first in this series. I enjoyed it and was excited to read this one. Thanks to @netgalley and Del Rey Books for allowing me to read this ahead of publication.

💜 What I liked:
The story continues with El and Orion leading the senior class to prepare for graduation while denying that they have feelings for eachother. The community of characters continues to grow. If you like fantasy and creepy creature fighting, this book is for you.

😱 What I didn’t like:
Unfortunately, this book suffers a bit from the “second book” slump. There is aso much explaining that it lags and the action scenes are semi-repetitive. But stay to the end for a monster (see what I did there) cliff hanger.


🚦 My face at the end: 🙀

💭 5 Reasons to Read:
1. Fantasy Sequel
2. Rich characters
3. Grotesque monsters
4. Academic setting
5. Pet Mice



🕧 Mini-Summary:
El and Orion are back to fight some monsters just to survive until graduation where they need to make one final kill with their classmates in order to make it out of school.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Received from Netgalley.

Such an exciting follow up and leaves me breathless for the next installment! El continues to be tormented by the school, but with a twist--it may be goading her into helping her fellow students. Unheard of in the history Scholomance, it would be just El's luck. Of course, this is all while craving / avoiding her boyfriend, maintaining ties with her friend alliance, and oh yeah--devising a plan to change the world as they know it.

Amazing book! Love this series, it's epic and the author writes beautifully. That ending though will leave you wanting more and anxiously waiting for the next book! This book has some impressive world-building along with action packed adventures! This is a book that has clever magic and one of the most shocking endings! The author does a beautiful job of weaving a creative and adventurous story! Can't wait for the next book is an understatement!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

First line: Keep far away from Orion Lake.

Summary: El, Orion and their friends have entered their final year at the Scholomance. With one year until graduation, a “ceremony” where less than half the students leave alive, they are forced to make alliances and plan their escape. But as the threats inside the school get stronger El begins to worry about how Graduation Day will end.

My Thoughts: Once again Naomi Novik proved her genius. The story is exciting, inventive and dark. Her world building is fantastic with new pieces being revealed throughout the book. At the end I had to remind myself to relax. I was very tense during the final scenes waiting for the cliffhanger. And of course it was a big one! I was so excited to read this early but I knew that I would have to wait another year for the finale which is excruciating.

This one took me longer to read but not because it was boring. The chapters are long which made it harder for me to commit to more than one a night. And I found that the cliffhanger from book one did not seem to play too much of a part in this book. At least not as much as I expected it to or in the way I thought it would. But maybe in the final book it will become clearer.

I would highly recommend this series to fans of Harry Potter, The Mortal Instruments and Game of Thrones. It is a complex world filled with dangerous creatures, magic, alliances and backstabbing.

FYI: Book 2 in a trilogy. Lots of mals (monsters/creatures), death, language.

Excuse me, but I'm going to need the third book ASAP because that ending had me up at night! I enjoyed this book even more than the first. The world has been shown to us and its rules established so it was a lot easier this time around to just enjoy the story.

Holey moley, this book has a cliffhanger of an ending and I loved it! The romance, the tension, the action all just so perfect in The Last Graduate, which is the second installment of the Scholomance series, by Naomi Novik. It was wickedly delicious and I gobbled it up!
The story picks up right were A Deadly Education leaves off. El and her fellow students at the Scholomance now have to prepare for graduation. It is a graduation ceremony like no other and few will survive it. Yet the school seems to be making things harder for EL, leaving her to wonder if she will even make it to graduation. She is spending all her hard earned mana (kind of like magical energy) in battling the maleficria (the magical creatures that eat young magicians).
Then there is the note from her mother with the words,”Keep away from Orion Lake.” Yet, she is immensely attracted to him and maybe she will need his help if her plan to survive graduation is to work.
This book is just as good as the first and I was super excited to return to this world and cast of characters. El still has that biting personality with the soft underside, and though we don’t hear much about Orion at first, I was delighted to find him just as adorable as I remember and head over heels for El. Novik continues to grow the characters and add to the fabulous world building she laid out in book one.
The plot is well done and there was lots of tension, both with the action and the budding romance, leading up to the finale. The only skeleton in the closet is the cliffhanger, and as mentioned earlier, it is a monumental one. Normally not a big fan of these types of cliffhangers but the book is just so good and the ending so perfect I cannot complain too much. I just don’t know how I will make it until book three.
If fantasy is your genre this is a must read series. However, you really do need to read them in order. If you haven’t started reading this series, I can’t imagine what you are waiting on. Go get a copy of book one, A Deadly Education, now.
I received a free copy from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review. For more of my reviews, and author interviews, see my book blog at www.thespineview.com.

What a banger. Despite some issues addressed by the author for the first book, I continue to adore this series for so many reasons.

El is an absolutely delightful protagonist with her rough edges, sarcasm, dour nature, and heart of gold.

I've been in a bit of a slump lately and I only actually realized it when this book reminded me what it was like to have to force myself to put a book DOWN in the middle instead of forcing myself to keep going.

I love how Novik plays around with ideas about common decency, heroism, authenticity, self-interest, and the way all of the Scholomance kids have to navigate and negotiate the lines between these things for themselves. I feel like the hierarchy in the school is just such a perfect metaphor for social anxiety in the real world.

Anyway, the ending left me in an agonized puddle of "NOOOOOOOO" and now I will be quietly dying inside until book three comes out.