A review by e_haubz
The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

I really liked this book; but I think not as much as I liked the series.

Things I loved:
  • The ending
  • The importance of balance throughout - this gets introduced very early in Book 1, but the payoff isn’t until Book 3
  • Liesel, the absolute MVP of multiple crises 
  • The magic system, and its consistency - and again, balance is key to it, I friggin’ LOVE that El’s mom literally gets around in the world on the strength of her incredible karma, and it works! It’s like the rules by which we want our world to function, but with, you know, monsters too 

Things I do not love:
  • Honestly… still a little confused about Ophelia’s motivations and backstory
  • And I had a hard time, at times, following the logic of some plot points, because El herself is making logical leaps in real time

…but it all came together in the essential ways to make the end make sense. 

So, I feel like I’m over-scoring slightly, but this book went so much deeper into a well-structured magic system, we got more of most of the characters we loved, and we got a glimpse of the outside world in a really fun globe-trotty way - all to close out a pretty evenly-paced series in a highly satisfying way. 4.5 seems right.
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