Well that book was quite the experience. I liked it more than the first, but I think only because I knew the characters better.
Overall I LOVE her writing and the romance. While slow and sort of sudden at times, El and Orion are such a good depiction of a teen romance. I also liked how El got over her loner behavior and made friends.
Often times in books when the MC tries to step up and overthrow a system it is like they are the hero, but I LOVED that the school wanted them to destroy it and that El COULD NOT do it on her own. She needed other people's powers and Orion.
So far this series is a beautiful mix of teen angst, dark academia, fantasy, and dystopian.

Man, these books are ADDICTIVE.

Going into them I wasn't entirely sure they were going to be my thing, but they're just so readable it's difficult not to get hooked, and this book is a worthy successor to A Deadly Education.

I really appreciate the series' exploration of privilege; El's genuine, furious devotion to making sure everyone gets the same chance at a good life is one of the most compelling parts of the Scholomance for me. I have a huge weakness for characters who've been through horrible things and could so, so easily turn into something rotten, and yet choose again and again to make the right choice, to do something good, even at their own disservice. Wrapping all that up in El's hostile, spiky exterior makes it all the more interesting. Mwah <3

Now, about the things that didn't work as well as they could have.,, Despite my initial expectations, I really like Orion. In theory. Mostly because I think it's VERY funny to present this goldenboy hero character resented by our friendless freak protagonist only to then pull back curtain and reveal he is *also* kind of a friendless freak. But he also feels so... flat? I was hoping for more insight into his character this book, but he's like a cardboard cutout for most of it. I hope book 3 takes him in some bold new direction - it feels like it might! - because I cannot bear another book of this.

Another thing - the first half or so of the book felt a lot like a repeat of A Deadly Education, and while I enjoy the setting and characters a lot, it started feeling a little tired at one point - so I was really glad to see the turn it takes after that. Seeing the school itself as a sentient being take a more active role in the story, with its genuine (if manifested in messed up ways) care for its students, was really fun.

Finally, I'm excited about the huge change to the status quo that the ending makes, and I'm looking forward to seeing what book 3 makes of it!

(Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!)

I loved diving back into the world of the Scholomance with Novik's second of the series. El is a young woman to be reckoned with who finds that she has a lot of heart despite having always believed she was destined for monstrous things. She is amazingly quick witted, courageous and snarky as all hell.

The world building is truly genius and not quite like anything I've read before. I'm very much looking forward to the final book after an utterly explosive ending.

Thank you Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine and Naomi Novik for an e-copy of this book!!!

I thought this book felt slow up until I got to the last 20 percent and then things just spiraled in both good and bad ways. The ending definitely left me with my mouth agape and I still can’t even process it. Can’t wait to read the next one to find out what on earth happens!!

**Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey, and Naomi Novik for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

I'm kinda hooked on this series! After reading book 1, I was sucked into this magical dark academic world with its kill or be killed attitude. This was book 2 of a trilogy of The Scholomance series. Galadriel "El" has survived to her final year at the deadly magical school, Scholomance. I've described the school previously as Hogwarts meets The Hunger Games.

In her senior year, El has finally made friends and a very small alliance. This alliance must work together to survive until the final graduation ceremony. The true test of graduation is the deadly ritual to run the gauntlet in the graduation hall, where they must try their best to protect each other with magic and spells against the hungry magical creatures that will likely try to devour them. Only a small percentage of any given class survives the graduation hall to walk out of the gates of Scholomance. During the last couple of years, El has become close with the annoyingly helpful Orion. She is distressed by her mother's urgent message, "Keep far away from Orion Lake". What can her mother mean?

El's senior year proves to the be the darkest and deadliest, with attacks around every corner. She begins to think the school has a personal vendeta against her. She also struggles with her mother's message. Can she trust Orion? As graduation day fast approaches, El and her alliance must decide if "winning" means sometimes thinking outside of the box.

AUGGGHHHHH!! That cliffhanger is so cruel! Onto book #3......

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!