Reviews

Spoiler free:
Genuinely loved this book series. It was easy to sink my teeth into and cruise through. Great cast of characters, interesting magic system, and I loved the way the romance was written, I only wish there was more of it.

My only gripe truly comes from what I believe is just the writing style. I haven’t read anything else by her yet (I definitely will after this), but just based on this series alone, I would say she’s definitely a “teller” and not a “show-er.” This happened a lot in the other books in this series as well, but something will happen in the plot, whether that’s a revelation, something discovered, etc., and she will take the next couple paragraphs or pages to talk about the main character’s thoughts and/or add world building. There were points it got to be so frustrating, I couldn’t stand it. There was a big reveal in this last book and she took 5 - YES, FIVE - pages of thinking detour before she got back to the plot! Like I said, not enough to deter me from reading more, but definitely enough to bother me to mention it haha.
That being said, a solid series and I have a lot of love for it.

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4.0

The Last Graduate picks up right where A Deadly Education left off: with our protagonist El in the Scholomance, staring down at a message from her mother which warns her to stay far away from Orion Lake, a heroic fellow student whom she somewhat begrudgingly calls a friend (and whom, according to everyone but El herself, she is currently dating.)

Novik excels at creating interesting and fully-formed, three-dimensional characters. One of the most compelling things about El is that she’s constantly struggling against her darker impulses. She has a natural affinity for destruction and the use of malia, but she resists because – though at first she may claim otherwise - she genuinely wants to be a good person, and she finds the strength to do what’s right instead of what’s easy. The peripheral characters are also well fleshed out. I really adored the friendship between El, Aadhya and Liu, seeing how well they complement each other and how much that relationship means to them after so long fending for themselves.

I think I liked this better than the first installment. I did listen to the audio of the first one, though, so maybe that has something to do with why I liked it less, even though I don’t remember having any specific problem with the narrator when I read book one. Or it could be because there was a little less time spent on infodumps. The pacing was a bit uneven in this one, but I appreciated the character and relationship development, and the worldbuilding felt more solid (I found it a little wobbly in the first book, less so in this one. I’m not sure why.)

This book ends on a hell of a cliffhanger, so if that’s not something you can stomach, maybe wait for book three before you continue the trilogy.

Representation: Many people of color, and strong women. A number of the major characters are kick-ass women of color, and I’m HERE FOR IT. Also, queer relationships between minor characters.

TW: consensual sex (nothing too spicy, but slightly above standard YA content)

I received an ebook copy of this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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