The Last Graduate

The 49th book I read this year was The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik, the second book in the Scholomance series.

A summary attempt

So, it’s really hard to talk about the events of this books without spoiling the ending of the first book in the series but I’m going to do my best.

The scholomance is a school for magical children, created to try to give them the best odds against Mals, which are magic eating monsters. In the first book El makes reluctant friends with the odd but excellent Mal hunter Orion, and alongside that year’s graduating seniors, they attempt to fix the machinery designed to kill Mals.

This book follows the consequences of that attempt (not telling you what happened) but their actions change the way the school works at a fundamental level. The magic system in this book is heavily influenced by intent and the school was imbued with intent of saving as many wizard children as possible. When El’s actions change how the school has learned to care for its students, it thoroughly blames her and makes her senior year extremely difficult. El quickly realises that graduation as everyone has known it for the last one hundred years, which consisted of a mass exodus through graduation hall into a hoard of murdering mals, has changed. Pushed by the school, El realises she has to convince everyone of what she’s learned (being vague to ensure no spoilers) and make them work together, something that goes against everything they’ve learned to do to survive at the scholomance.

My thoughts

I really enjoyed this book, the magic system is so different to most books out there. I love how flawed the main character is as she fights her inner dark nature and how her friends rally around her, accepting those parts of her. My only complaint with this book is how much of the narration monologues about the politics and alliances but it is all somewhat necessary to the plot, it just wasn’t that enjoyable for me. It didn’t put me off though, as I bought the next book in the series straight away!

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