“The Last Graduate” by Naomi Novik

The second book in the Scholomance trilogy, The Last Graduate, follows El and her friends as they begin their senior year and preparations for the lethal graduation run. El also has to reckon with a warning she received from her mother, to stay away from Orion Lake, her kind-of-boyfriend.

Our reluctant protagonist has to deal with a terrible class schedule, the discomfort of being popular after years of social ostracism, and a host of other problems. El’s voice remains unique and prickly, the narrative style is one of my favorite things about this series. She’s snarky, and she would love to believe that she doesn’t care about people, but she can’t help it. El is a better person than she wants to be be, despite dire prophesies of her future.

I liked that Aadhya and Liu got a lot of time on the page, because their friendship is at least as important at the El-Orion relationship, and I love their dynamic. In particular, I liked the extra time we got to spend with Aadhya, because I think Liu got more characterization in the first book and this one really fleshed Aadhya out for me more.The new freshmen were pretty decent additions too. I think Orion took a pretty visible backseat in this one, but he still has an arc and it works for the book. He had a lot going on in A Deadly Education and it makes sense to divert focus a little more and really zoom in on some other stuff, like El’s journey.

The thing that most bothered me about the previous book was the first third kind of feeling like an info-dump, but this one didn’t have that problem. El’s voice is pretty chatty, but it comes across naturally and I liked it. The controversy about the first book and potential racial insensitivity made me inclined to read this one a little more closely, but I don’t think there’s anything racist in this book. Overall, I really loved the book, but beware the cliffhanger ending! If the ending of the last book was difficult, just wait until you read this one.

This reviewer was given an advanced readers’ copy in exchange for an honest review. The Last Graduate can be purchased wherever books are sold, or borrowed from your local library.