Review

This is Book #2 of The Scholomance series (sequel to A Deadly Education), so contains a few spoilers for Book #1. If that’s a problem, please turn back now!

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Snarky El, prophesied to become a powerful maleficer but actually very (if grumpily) ethical, has survived her junior year of the Scholomance. So have her allies, Liu and Aadiyah, and her… sort of boyfriend?… Orion, mal-slayer extraordinaire and all round good guy. And lots of other students, thanks to the prodigious talents of both El and Orion.

But now they face the deadly perils of graduation… if El can get there, despite the Scholomance throwing every mal at her, some assassination attempts from other students, and her mum’s weird message telling her to avoid Orion. For some reason, the training is especially brutal this year, and El will have to come up with something truly special if she and her allies want to get out alive.

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Another wonderful book. I love this series. This instalment is just as good as the first, maybe even better? It has lots of great action and Novik’s themes of privilege and exploitation, and the dilemmas of whether to be selfish or selfless. El’s snark is just as funny as always. Excellent world building. Highly recommend!

> Click here for content info – spoilers, enter at own risk!

A few swear words, including f-words; lots of YA fantasy violence; main characters in peril; extremely brief and not detailed sexual encounter towards end of book; a few, very mild sexual references.

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Novik, N. (2021). The last graduate (A. Dadia, Narr.) [Audiobook]. Random House Audio.

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