The Last Graduate

Naomi Novik

Average Rating 9/10 (1 Review)

Return to the Scholomance - and face an even deadlier graduation - in the stunning sequel to the ground-breaking, Sunday Times bestselling A Deadly Education. The dark school of magic has always done its best to devour its students, but now that El has reached her final year - and somehow won herself a handful of allies along the way - it's suddenly developed a very particular craving...

For her.

As the savagery of the school ramps up, El is determined that she will not give in; not to the mals, not to fate, and especially not to the Scholomance. But as the spectre of graduation looms - the deadly final ritual that leaves few students alive - if she and her allies are to make it out, El will need to realise that sometimes winning the game means throwing out all the rules.

Wry, witty, endlessly inventive, and mordantly funny - yet with a true depth and fierce justice at its heart - this enchanting novel reminds us that there are far more important things than mere survival.

Review by Chrissi (280921) Rating (9/10)

Review by Chrissi
Book Source: Publisher
Rating 9/10
Imagine a world where as a parent, you have to make a choice between having your child at home or sending them away to a school. The choice that you have to make is because as young magic users, they start to attract the mals (evil beasties, can be camouflaged, hard to kill and like to attack and kill people); and to keep them at home with you means that they are more likely to be killed. Or do you send them away? To a place, a Scholomance, where keeping these young magic users together attracts more mals but improves their overall odds of survival by teaching them to use their gifts, but chances are, they are still unlikely to survive.

And imagine, not seeing your child between school years, once they leave, they stay away until they graduate. Or not, as the case may be. The first book in the series ended at the start of El’s last year in school with a cryptic message from her mother, unfortunately her mother’s intuition did not offer a reason, and it was really too late anyway.

The last year at the Scholomance sees El with her friends and Orlando, planning and hoping for a life after school, wondering how they will either return to or enter a community which will offer them lifelong security. The competition to get a place in an enclave is harsh, you need to have skills which are desirable, and being a hard working good friend is not enough. Even enclave superstar Orlando’s relationship with his New York group is somewhat skewed in their favour, which makes you wonder how high a price you should be prepared to pay to get a space in such a community.

The politics of the magical outside world are explored in this book and the historical development of the enclaves which fulfil the requirements of protection and livelihoods for their inhabitants. The rivalries and specialities of the enclaves are fleshed out a bit more and as you read further, you come to appreciate the structure of the magical world that the author is creating.

The relationships between the young people in the school are nicely developed, their fears explored through the lens of the closed community. As friendships become alliances, these alliances become increasingly important as they offer an opportunity to survive graduation, leaving the Scholomance. But the Scholomance has different ideas; almost sentient with the latent magic, it keeps tempting El to get her to go where it wants, but what she finds may not be what she (or we) expected.

I love this series, El is a lovely heroine, her story really draws you in, having started pretty much alone, lots of people will empathise with her feelings of delight in her new relationships, and yet she is suspicious of fitting into a group. It really is compelling and wonderful and the half-rumours of the outside world give enough hints about life beyond the Scholomance that I really don’t want to wait for the next/last in the series... but I will so enjoy going back and re-reading the first two books, so that will be something to look forward to.
Chrissi (28th September 2021)