Book Review: The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

Book #322 of 2021:

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance #2)

An improvement on A Deadly Education, which I already enjoyed quite a lot. This sequel returns us to the Scholomance, that magic boarding school / honeypot in a pocket dimension of Lovecraftian space where the students are prey to all manner of hungry monsters and everyone is subtly encouraged to look out only for themselves. Our prickly protagonist, however, is even more exasperatedly determined to resist her natural talent for evil works and help any classmates that she can. (The title refers to her plan to be the final senior to cross the graduation threshold back into the real world, when the normal approach is an every-person-for-themself scramble past the slavering guardians.) I love the disconnect between the selfless heroism of El’s outward actions and her own gloomy interior monologue and clear discomfort with any praise or signs of affection from others.

If I have one small critique, it’s that the cliffhanger from the first novel is dismissed with a shrug and never really brought up again, although I suppose it might yet inform the last book of the trilogy, which will also have to deal with the diabolical ending to this volume. But the diversity of the setting reads less like tokenism the second time around, the character dynamics continue to delight, and the plot feels far more momentous. If the former story was primarily about finding the strength for survival, this one concerns taking that newfound power to rip apart an unjust system at the roots. Since I gave the series debut four stars and this one is so much better, I basically have to award it my top rating.

★★★★★

Like this review?
–Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
–Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
–Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6288479-joe-kessler
–Or click here to browse through all my previous reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog