Ratings232
Average rating4.2
In Wisdom, Shelter. That’s the official motto of the Scholomance. I suppose you could even argue that it’s true—only the wisdom is hard to come by, so the shelter’s rather scant.
Our beloved school does its best to devour all its students—but now that I’ve reached my senior year and have actually won myself a handful of allies, it’s suddenly developed a very particular craving for me. And even if I somehow make it through the endless waves of maleficaria that it keeps throwing at me in between grueling homework assignments, I haven’t any idea how my allies and I are going to make it through the graduation hall alive.
Unless, of course, I finally accept my foretold destiny of dark sorcery and destruction. That would certainly let me sail straight out of here. The course of wisdom, surely.
But I’m not giving in—not to the mals, not to fate, and especially not to the Scholomance. I’m going to get myself and my friends out of this hideous place for good—even if it’s the last thing I do.
Featured Series
3 primary booksThe Scholomance is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2020 with contributions by Naomi Novik.
Reviews with the most likes.
NAOMI NOVIK HOW COULD YOU!?!?!?
It's rare when a book makes me actually physically react. I cried, I was so tense I was shaking at the end. A delightfully truly f'd up masterpiece.
I have no words... This was a freaking disaster.
Likes:
* The 360° that El did in this book. Yeah we always knew you were a softie.
* El is such a damn unreliable narrator. It's more glaringly obvious in this book.
* Also, she keeps going off on tangents every time she starts explaining something. A guy comes up to her to ask her something and she starts telling us about 3 different things that happened in the past and her long-ass thought process
Naomi Novik's Scholomance is the Battle Royale version of Harry Potter. Definitely darker and more violent although the end of book 1 left things looking a bit on the up. The Last Graduate picks up pretty much where book 1 ended - El has helped cleanse the graduation halls and that means the number of evil magical creatures (‘mals') has dropped significantly. Now El and her friends are in their graduate year, working out how to survive the gauntlet.
This is definitely an antidote to the cloying sweetness of typical wizarding school type novels. Harry Potter may have popularized the trend, but this dark and snarky take is much more up my street. The threat in this second book is toned down a bit from the first - the power and alliances of El are better understood and controlled so you know the survival rate is going to be higher. But there is still a delicious darkness, a griminess that permeates everything in this world