Reviews with content warning for Gore - The Golden Enclaves

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 stars. I thought this was such a good ending for this series. I was already in love with this series because it's twisty and sarcastic af and Godess knows I love a reluctant heroine. The conclusion to El's story felt good and still surprised me a lot. I think it was really clever and gave me ALMSOT everything that I loved so much about the first two books.

I think it's interesting because the structure of this trilogy made me think a LOT about The Hunger Games where both the first two books were both games and the third was totally not and therefore I didn't like it as much. This series was very much the same for me in that part of the reason I loved the first two so much was the school itself and that the magic around it was fascinating. So this third book being outside the school took away some of that magic and therefore the whole vibe was a bit different. It wasn't bad but it also was something that I missed.

I recommend this for people who liked Kylo Ren's redemption arc, for those who support women's wrongs, and for those who loved the weird octopus monsters in the Matrix.

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rinku's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

The Golden Enclaves is yet another series finale that disappointed me this year. Almost everything that made the first two books great is gone now, and the finale itself was just not satisfying and barely gave any conclusion. I lowered my rating a bit to 2 stars since there’s nothing really that I enjoyed about it.

Of course, the main conflict is just as dramatic as ever. Orion was left behind at the Scholomance and El wants to get him out of it, while also finding a way to end the attacks on the enclaves. This sounds great on paper, but the execution wasn’t great. One of the reasons his that El just has no plans for everything and just vegetates for most of the story which became boring and annoying quite fast. It takes them a fourth of the book until they make a plan to save Orion and half of the book until they finally return to Scholomance. I really liked the atmosphere there and I wish that our character would’ve spend more time there. Most of the time though, I wasn’t really understanding what was happening which made it extra boring for me. I was especially irritated by the enclaves and didn’t really understand who fighting whom for what reasons.

Another thing I just didn’t like about the plot was the focus on the maw mouths. I find them so disgusting and hated them from the beginning, so I wasn’t happy with this. Learning their origin was extra terrifying. In general, there is just nothing positive about being a wizard or living in this world. This is of course okay and not every book needs to be positive, but for me personally, it was just a bit too much. I recently had an idea for a novel where humans have to fight for their survival just like animals do, and I think that this is maybe the vibe Novik wanted to achieve with the series.

Additionally, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the ending itself. It was nice to see the graduates working together but I hated that

Orion is apparently a maw mouth which was just so weird, his mother is so evil. Furthermore, like I’ve said above, there’s just no sense of closure. There’s nothing good about the ending, and El even says that she thinks that nothing will change in the end since new enclaves will be created anyways which is just so unsatisfying. Why was I even following the characters then

Still, the novel had some great emotional moments, like El returning to her home or her getting angry at Orion’s dad. I also still like how she tries to fight the classism of the enclave system. I furthermore always love to see how novels integrate magic into our world, and it was nice that they were travelling around the world for different missions.

Another problem I had is that because Orion is not with El for most of the story and not himself, their amazing dynamic is just gone. I generally hated how weird Orion behaved throughout this novel but compared to many other reviewers,

I didn’t have a problem with El and Liesel

. Besides this though, I still liked to be in El’s head, and she felt much like a real person.

Yeah, the Scholomance is a series that I won’t be re-reading in the future; it was just too negative even for me. I believe that it should’ve been a duology, ending with our main characters destroying Scholomance and fleeing from it, maybe undermining the enclave system by doing so, or something. But it seems to me that Novik just didn’t want this kind of happy ending and extended on this whole enclave conflict that was just not too interesting, sadly.

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takarakei's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Minus 1/4 star for the very slow start, I honestly think they could have seriously condensed down the first ~150 pages to half of that. I literally read the first 25-30% and it was so slow that I put it down and didn't pick it back up for over another month.

But then I read the rest in like 2 days - and honestly as the rest of this story unfolds I was in awe at the intricacy of the storytelling. This third and final book is definitely the one where all the little pieces of the puzzle come together so masterfully to tie everything together. You know when you get to that point in a series where everything just starts clicking, and things are being revealed that are just blowing your mind? I was screaming and squealing and just having such a good time. I also just absolutely adore El - I think she is honestly one of my favorite main characters ever. I love this series so much!

I am kinda mad Ophelia is just like... still there??? but otherwise, I loved the ending.

3/5 🌶️

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wickedgrumpy's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

It's been a while since I read book 2 in the series and I contemplated re-reading before picking this volume up because when I initially tried to read it I was overwhelmed. Book 2 leaves on a cliffhanger and book 3 starts right after and so you see the immediate events and it was a little difficult to jump right it.

I thought that the series was quite solid. Book 3 really tied it all together and bits that were resolved were introduced in book 1 so it was quite good closure to see actions that have consequences and a resolution all together.

Some of the reveals were also top notch, since there's (in hindsight) a lot of foreshadowing but to be able to put it all together wasn't something I managed. I don't know if it was because of the gap between the books and it would have been obvious if I read them in closer succession but I was satisfied with how it came together.

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blissofalife's review

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Could hardly put it down! Unlike the previous two books in the series, the stakes remain per high for the entire book. It doesn’t really feel like there’s a climax so much as several climaxes as El grows and gains an understanding of the nature of the enclaves. Lots of time spent on explanations. Ties the whole series up very nicely, and doesn’t leave any loose ends. Naomi clearly did a very thorough mapping of the series before beginning!

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allyareads's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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the_crooked_neighbor's review

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

A great finale to a great series. I loved the book. It was a satisfying conclusion that matched the tone of the series. I could write a million words on how amazing this was without fully getting it across. Suffice it to say this is a series I will happily revisit and find new things each time. Mind the trigger warnings but I highly recommend it.

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herasrevenge88's review

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adventurous challenging emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I’m honestly kind of sad that I had to give this only three stars because I had such high hopes for this book. The first 50% of this book I was bored out of my mind but I just kept hoping that it was going to get better. It did get better. It really picked up and was really really good and made me laugh out loud a couple of times….for the last 50% of it. I feel like the first 50%. might’ve been better summarized in a paragraph or two so that way we could just jump into the story. It might’ve made for a really short book but at least I would not have had to sit through 200 pages of awful.

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