The Last Graduate is the second book in the Lessons of the Scholomance series.
Format: Net Galley Advanced Reader Copy
Genre: Fantasy
Page Length: 400 pages
Publisher: Del Ray (September 28, 2021)
Star Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mr. Darcy‘s Rating: “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
A Chasing Mr. Darcy Review
I was completely fascinated by the tale Naomi Novik wove in A Deadly Education. I know the book received some pushback for a couple issues re: racial insensitivity and stereotypes, but I really appreciated Naomi's response to the issue. I was really impressed with how she handled the criticism, especially considering some authors (ahem, Jay Kristoff and Emily Duncan) have not responded with the same efforts.
Here’s a plot synopsis from GoodReads: At the Scholomance, El, Orion, and the other students are faced with their final year—and the looming specter of graduation, a deadly ritual that leaves few students alive in its wake. El is determined that her chosen group will survive, but it is a prospect that is looking harder by the day as the savagery of the school ramps up. Until El realizes that sometimes winning the game means throwing out all the rules.
First and foremost, I just think this book is cool. I am really fascinated by the lore surrounding the Scholomance, and I think this whole series is a unique spin on a fantasy tale. I've never read a fantasy book with characters quit like El and Orion, and the setting is just wicked cool when you consider the school itself teaches the lessons.I would have loved to be inside Naomi Novik's mind when this story was being crafted because it is just so creative.
I also really like El. El is dark and twisty, but has a heart of pure gold...she just doesn't know it yet. Her whole life, she's been fighting against a prophecy about her future and how she's destined to be a great evil sorceress basically. She doesn't want that, and it takes just the right mix of friends to bring that out her in this story. I love that The Last Graduate explores the meaningfulness of both friendship love and romantic love; El has never experienced either until basically her junior year of school. She really doesn't know what to do with the feelings that are all bottled up inside of her, but she knows she doesn't want to be bad. Sometimes her feelings manifest as snarky and sarcastic comments to Orion, but she always shows up for him. He, also, always shows up for her and everyone else in the Scholomance because he is just wired to defeat the demons/creatures that attack the students. We learn a lot more in this book about the "why" behind his motivations, and we also learn that he hasn't had such a sunny life before the Scholomance. He does love El, though, and I really enjoy their connection. It's an intense connection, but is still at times very reflective of how teenagers in love would act.
El's friends are surprisingly enjoyable in this book. They weren't super memorable from the first book IMO, but I really enjoyed the support network they built for her and each other in this book. They spent time together outside of lessons, they bonded the way sisters do, and one of them even counts El as a sister...a part of the book that had me tearing up, not going to lie. There were many aspects of this book that were way more emotional than A Deadly Education because the relationships in the story are so strong. El is overcome by her love for her friends and her compassion for human life in this story, and there are several times where she nearly breaks down from the pressure in her heart to save everyone. She's the most powerful student in the Scholomance, and she's the only one, with Orion's help, that has a chance to save everyone...or so she thinks until the students band together in a true show of camaraderie that I would love to see translated on the big screen.
This book ends in a major cliffhanger, just like book one did, and I am dying to get my hands on the conclusion to the trilogy...unfortunately I have to wait on Naomi Novik to write it. :) My one complaint about this book is the chapters are really long, and that sometimes made it hard not to want to skip over important details because I was frustrated with the chapter length. I would have preferred shorter chapters and just had more of them than just fourteen really long chapters. That's just a personal preference, though. This book really had it all, even a little steam, and I couldn't put it down.
Overall, this book was a solid four star fantasy for me, and I promptly ordered the Waterstones special edition when I finished this book.
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