I very much enjoyed 'A Deadly Education' at the time of reading it, so I was eager to get my hands on a copy of 'The Last Graduate' (particularly because of that clifffhanger!). One thing I find particularly charming is the way El's narration works in these novels—it feels very stream-of-consciousness and leaves the reader somewhat grasping for footing in an unfamiliar world, but it also does a great job of introducing the setting of the Scholomance. This book in particular is full of twists and turns that had me looking forward to the next book!

This book is part of a series. It is much faster paced than book one. I love the world that the story is in. The ending was so good. Can’t wait for the next book.

I was obsessed with this book! The characters are incredible, and I could feel the tension throughout. I loved the development of the plotline, and don't even get me started on the cliffhanger ending! Luckily for me, the last book is out, I imagine people were very unhappy if they had had to wait!
5 stars, obsessed, loved it.

It's Senior year at the Scholomance for El and her friends, and the fight to survive graduation has begun. But El has changed in the past year as her friendships and blossoming romance has made her think differently about the students around her, and now she's determined to do whatever she can to make sure everyone makes it out safely - even if she has to face off the biggest monsters that live inside the school.

Another really fun read that I thoroughly enjoyed. I thought this book was much faster paced than the first book, as we really flew through the year as El figures out why the school is challenging her the way it is, and then everything really ramps up once the gym runs begins and El comes up with her master plan (save everyone).

I really liked how the plot in this book meant we got to know some of the other students besides El's core group of friends and some of the New York enclave. I really liked getting to know Alfie and Liesel, as well as some of the first years that end up under El's protective wing. One of the things I love about this world is how multi-cultural this book is - the students in the school are from all over the world and various different cultures and languages are studied and used throughout the book. However, in this book we see how this wasn't always the case and there is an unfair system of privilege attached to the Scholomance that needs to change.

The Graduation Day chapter was really great in this one, with so many things happening and so much depending on El and her friends. I'm glad I had the third book ready to go when I finished this one, as it really is a devastating cliff hanger and I just needed to continue asap.

I'm looking forward to the third and final book and seeing what the outside world has in store for our students!

For 95% of this book I was so done with this series, because I couldn't take any more of the inner monologues or the extensive description of every little thing around the heroine, but then the last 5% came and you know what? It was such a serve and that cliffhanger? THAT FREAKING CLIFFHANGER? The only reason why I'm going to pick up the last book next year. I hate it here.
Well played, Noami Novik,

3 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for this arc.

Full disclosure I did listen to the audiobook via the library though.

So I liked book one of the Scholomance series but I Loved book two.

In this one we see El is just as grumpy and hilarious as ever but that having friends has clearly rubbed off on her because now she's actively trying to save people and look out for them.

I think part of why I liked this book more than the first one was because the first one just explains in great detail how awful, oppressive, deadly, gruesome etc the Scholomance is and I felt constantly one edge, whereas this one had a very different vibe. I won't go into details because of spoilers but it's a much more optimistic book than the first!

I loved seeing El grow as a character and watch how her friendships blossomed. She was still the same spiky, sarcastic cow who I fell in love with in book one but in being allowed that breathing space, she's really expanded into herself and her powers.

Very much here for ElOrion romance, although they're maybe not the healthiest of examples... 😅

And that ending!?

I'm even more annoyed because the library copy of book three currently has a 6 week wait 😭 but I will be reading The Golden Enclaves as soon as I can get my hands on it!

Also, the audio narrator was absolutely fantastic and embodied El *perfectly*. I need to find more books narrated by Anisha Dadia asap.

CW: Cursing, Violence, Gore, Injury, Blood, Death, Child Death, Child Abuse (?)

This is the second novel in the Scholomance series and I have to admit that I found this hard going until the end (and what an ending. I am looking forward to the third novel where I'm hoping more of the story will be wrapped up.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

I thoroughly enjoy the idea of this trilogy. Is it ridiculous at times? Absolutely! But the way it is done feels so amusingly fun and enjoyable - to me! I feel like it is mocking dark academia in a way that I gravitate towards but is not necessarily something other people might see this way. It is written seriously enough not to really *be* mocking - it is just how I experience it. This book reads to me as the kind of satire that does at times forget that it is satire - and some readers might never read as satire to begin with.

While I personally love that, I also understand that this is a very specific type of writing that is not everybody's cup of tea. Same goes for the conversational writing style.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of the book in exchange for this honest review.

The follow-up to Novik's A Deadly Education isn't as strong as the first book in the series, but remains a solid entry in the series. You have to really love the characters and the setting (fortunately, I do) in order to be interested in this one because it's quite light on plot. I'm looking forward to finishing up the trilogy and finding out what happens next!

I loved Deadly Education but the sequel unfortunately did not quite live upto all my expectations. It was not a bad book, in fact it was really good but my insanely high expectation were unfortunately not met. I found the first half to be kind of slow and I missed the El-Orion snarky banter. It was still there but it failed to engross me as it did before. I loved the second half better in terms of the plot and the planning and the kids against all odd trope in it. But the cliffhanger at the end has left me yearning for more now even though I could kind of see it coming a mile away. So I am definitely planning to continue the series even though this particular instalment failed to impress.
Rating - 3.5 stars

Unfortunately this book was not for me, it was a bit slower than I would like and it just didn't hold my attention. I am sure other people will love it!

I have absolutely adored every book in this series so far! El is a delightfully sour protagonist with a heart of gold and the Scholomance only becomes more enigmatic with each novel. Themes of friendship and solidarity form the backbone of this book providing moments of wholesome relief amongst the darkness. Novik's writing is deeply absorbing and this was a fully immersive read for me. I eagerly await the next book!

Perfect for fans of Katherine Addison and Patrick Rothfuss

An excellent continuation of the series, expanding upon the characters, world building and premise. My main qualm was that it has delayed my reading of the final book.

Ugh what a fantastic sequel! What a cliffhanger ending! I am completely obsessed with El, with the Scholomance, and with this series - can't wait for book 3!

We begin this book right after the ending of A Deadly Education. El and her friends are now the seniors of the school, thus beginning her graduation year. The school has decided to give El extra course load and also pair her with eight freshmen in her home room. On her first day with the younger students, they are attacked by a mal, her instincts kicking in tells her that she cannot leave them behind and so she kills the mal with the mana (power) that she has left. Over the next coming weeks, they are constantly attacked by mals and El decides that she must look after them one way or another.
In doing so, El finds that her Mana supply is quickly dwindling and so she reluctantly asks for help from a girl called Chloe. Chloe happens to be in the same Enclave as Orion and as such El believes that she might be more susceptible to helping her out because of that. Chloe agrees and even wants to be apart of her alliance that she has made which is great news because nobody makes an alliance without believing that they actually could make it out with them. El becomes closer with Chloe and eventually all of the New York Enclave. Her classmates start to exchange favours from one another to help each other make it through the ceremony.

As the year progresses, the school will prepare a magic assault course that will eventually help the graduating seniors throughout their ceremony. But it becomes increasingly apparent that the only two that can survive what the School is preparing them for is Orion and El. Orion takes Mana from the killing of mals and El who has her destructive spells can make it through but not the rest of the year and this is definitely starting to be noticed and thus creating a major problem. El has a realisation that if the whole year is going to make it through, they must work together and run the courses as a team. Her and Orion cannot do this alone, they need everybody to commit and work to this goal. Everybody agrees as this is their best way out of the school.

But just as she starts to think this plan may actually work, she talks to her homeroom classmates and they all start to think that they may never survive graduation meaning that if she leaves with her current year, they will not be here for very long and something must be done about that. So she goes to the graduation hall and finds out that the repairs they did to the machine actually worked and that there are no mals in the hall anymore. She thus begins to realise what the school wanted her to do all along, the school cannot do what it was designed to do anymore and so she must lead the students of the school out of it and to their homes.

She rallies the students around and try to come up with plans, as it is simply not feasible for the students to fix the machine each year. So when Liu suggests that they send the mals to school, a plan starts to form. Rather than keeping the school aged kids away from the mals, let the mals come to them and build a trap so that the students can escape and go home whilst the mals are being destroyed. On graduation day, the students enter the hall and El and her friends start casting a luring spell to lure the mals their way. Mals pour into the school through the portals that allow the students to go home. Orion and the rest of the students start forming queues to head the portals whilst protecting one another. Once the scholomance is filled with mals, El is supposed to trigger a spell that will cause destruction for all those inside. But when it’s just El and Orion left, they are suddenly attacked by an enormous mal that they cannot fight. Orion tells her that he loves her and pushes her through the portal, and this ends our story.

This ending was a huge shocker for me and I was flabbergasted by that ending. Like how can you just leave us on that huge cliffhanger. I simply cannot. As this series goes on, I simply cannot see where it is heading and I am so glad of that because it means that I can actually enjoy the series and take it all in rather than just expecting something to happen and it actually does. The writing style in the sequel has significantly got better though I will say at times it does drone on purely because it was setting up for the masterpiece that was the ending. I still loved it though.

4 out of 5 stars.

Well, first of all, I am thoroughly hooked on this series! This book was just the same as the last in that respect, as once I had turned the first page, I simply kept turning – ignoring all other responsibilities – until I reached the end. I am definitely addicted.

That said, I also found aspects of this book intensely irritating.

The plot, for example, was excitingly unexpected and twisty. I was thrilled to finally understand the role and purpose of the school, as I had been wondering about that since the very beginning of Book 1. But the intriguing storyline is somewhat undermined by such an endless rotation of battles that they became anti-climactic, for El as well as for the reader!

And El, our main character and anti-heroine, is quite frustrating in this instalment too. She spends most of the book constantly sniping and whining, and always looking on the negative side, although to be fair to her, she does shake it off and manage some interesting character development by the end of the story.

The overall series story arc, writing style and concept are fantastic though and will definitely keep me coming back for more. The first book set up the world and characters and introduced how it all works; this second book subverted a few more expectations and offered us a neatly cyclical pattern that even El struggles to circumvent and then leaves us on the mother of all cliffhangers. So, regardless of any minor quibbles I may have, I will be waiting for the next instalment with bated breath!

Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

What a horrible time to realise that the sequel to this won't be out for another 4 months! What an ending!

I am a MASSIVE fan of a grumpy MC and El fits that role perfectly. It makes me super happy to see her character developing as the story progresses, and even happier to see that the crankiness doesn't dissipate.

I was a little disappointed with a certain relationship between two individuals, which seemed very underdeveloped, and kinda went from 0 to 100 and back again more than once, so was frustrating to follow and even more difficult to root for.

Other than that, I loved all the same things that I did in the first book and can't wait for the next one!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review

This one was so good!! I liked it better than the first installment. I'm really impressed with the world building and the character development. AND THAT ENDING!! Truly worth your time!

The adventures in the scholomance continue - and if it's fun, deepening romance and teenage angst mixed with magic then look no further!

The style of this series is exposition heavy and the large information dumps about the scholomance can be distracting - however El's voice is also clingy - so you'll find you absolutely can't wait to find out what happens next!

The second in a series set in a school of magic. A new term has started almost before the old one finished and El (Galadriel) finds herself in a home room with all new students, the timetable from hell and abilities nor previously apparent. A note from her mother telling her to stay away from Orion Lake is too late to achieve it's aim - El very definitely not keeping her distance from the American enclave's chief protector who seems to have lost some of super protective abilities due to a lack of mana. The narrative explores why El is in this position, what she is supposed to do about and how Orion fits into the picture. It also develops some of the other characters from the previous book. It is difficult to say more about the plot line without giving away important factors.

At timesi found it a difficult read - so much going on, so much to hold onto - but I do think it is better than the first book which emphasised scene serttingand I am looking forward to the next in the series