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A review by katymul
The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
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
5.0
The middle book of a trilogy is always either the best or clunkiest of a series, and this book is perfection. It takes advantage of the book one set-up and character building to break the world wide open, show you that what you thought is not all there is, and also the advantage of a middle book in a series to end on a gut punch of a cliff hanger .
Seriously, this book is SO GOOD. The moments of incandescent inspiration are thoroughly earned and feel almost painfully real. I read so much fantasy and middle grade that I've gotten used to accepting the occasional "too easy" victory...the sort of thing where you're happy for the people everything worked out for, but it feels like a moment of grace...like everything happened just so and you're glad but...
This book isn't that. It's about building in a realistic, heartlessly practical, suspicious and desperate murder-plot-ridden but somehow therefore all the more realistic and possible avenue toward hope.
And, of course, it's opposite.
But also the story of a protagonist being helped by a loving but somewhat eye-rolling community to realize that she is not born to be the villain...but the heroine. All she has to do is come out of the shadows, where she has been hiding too long.
Seriously, this book is SO GOOD. The moments of incandescent inspiration are thoroughly earned and feel almost painfully real. I read so much fantasy and middle grade that I've gotten used to accepting the occasional "too easy" victory...the sort of thing where you're happy for the people everything worked out for, but it feels like a moment of grace...like everything happened just so and you're glad but...
This book isn't that. It's about building in a realistic, heartlessly practical, suspicious and desperate murder-plot-ridden but somehow therefore all the more realistic and possible avenue toward hope.
And, of course, it's opposite.
But also the story of a protagonist being helped by a loving but somewhat eye-rolling community to realize that she is not born to be the villain...but the heroine. All she has to do is come out of the shadows, where she has been hiding too long.