The Last Graduate

A Novel (The Scholomance, Book 2)

By: Naomi Novik

Narrated by: Anisha Dadia

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The specter of graduation looms large as Naomi Novik’s groundbreaking, New York Times bestselling trilogy continues in the stunning sequel to A Deadly Education.

HUGO AWARD FINALIST • LOCUS AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Polygon, Thrillist, She Reads • “The climactic graduation-day battle will bring cheers, tears, and gasps as the second of the Scholomance trilogy closes with a breathtaking cliff-hanger.”—Booklist (starred review)

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.

With keen insight and mordant humor, Novik reminds us that sometimes it is not enough to rewrite the rules—sometimes, you need to toss out the entire rulebook.

The magic of the Scholomance trilogy will continue in The Golden Enclaves.

©2021 Naomi Novik (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“[The Last Graduate] rips along like a force of nature. In the abstract, this is a story about relying on others—but in the concrete, it is about how to survive when the odds are against you. As she did with [A Deadly Education], Novik changes the game again with the very last line.”—Locus

“[The Last Graduate] is as compulsive a read as [A Deadly Education]. As a warning, it ends on another killer cliffhanger.”—BuzzFeed

“Truly one of the best fantasy series out there right now, and it’s not close.”—Culturess

Pure fun.

This is one of those incredibly rare examples of a good YA novel. It continues the criticism of capitalism from the first book, with a healthy dose of a coming of age narrative and people coming together in a crisis, all mixed with plenty of powerful mages blowing things up in spectacular ways. So yeah, it’s pure fun.

Continues Nicely From The First Book

Novik has taken the premise set up in the first book and continued the storyline smoothly, creating interesting character and world building development in this second volume. The tangential asides and monologues are stronger here and do become frustrating at times when they break up the action and tension. But El's biting humor, her friends' quirky characters, and Orion's obstinacy are not only better explored but also defined. I listened to the audio version and the narrator was excellent, giving us a variety of American and British accents while also creating narrative personalities.

Story: El is now a senior and has managed to survive the scholomance to this point. But as she becomes more powerful, she also forges new alliances that increase her potential abilities. Suddenly, she no longer just wants to survive with her friends; now, she wants to save the whole school. But the scholomance has a mind of its own: is it hindering her or is it helping her achieve that goal?

I have a lot of respect that Novik didn't just rewrite the first book, with El facing monsters of the week while sporting witty bon mots directed at everyone and especially Orion Lake. Along with El, the other students are also given interesting growth arcs, whether enemy or friend. Relationships develop, further alliances created, and even sex is discussed (and performed). These are not the same characters from the first book and instead have grown into their own unique people. As El's and the students' situations change, so do the characters.

The story ends on quite an abrupt cliffhanger that I think will leave many frustrated since the first book closed on a neat arc. The story is set for three books and it will be interesting to see where the author takes the story from here.

In all, I greatly enjoyed the audio narration and felt it gave it a great spark and personality. I can see where many will find the endless breakaway expositions frustrating, though, and it is an interesting plot device by the author to do so.

Excellently read, fantastically written

Just as good as the first book, I desperately hope there's a third. I love this series!

Great series so far

The world building was amazing. The narrator might have made the book for me. She was utterly fantastic. I adored the characters and the details. It is a YA book, but more along the lines of The Hunger Games, with more satisfying themes and less young romance type stuff than typical YA novels. I’ll be listening to this series again for sure and the third book better come out…like…tomorrow!

really good but...

I love the series and really enjoyed this book. My one complaint is the profanity

Great second installment!

I'm iffy on YA fantasy but this story is satisfying. The narration is fantastic and even the 1st person stream of consciousness POV is forgiveable. The only thing I wish Ms Novik spent a little more time on is descriptions of people because I get all the non main characters confused. But a fun read overall

I loved it all! I can't wait for book 3!

Picks up from book 2 smoothly and the characters grew together in ways I adore.

Love this!

Brilliant stories I’m totally going to reread over and over.

Things I love about these books:

1. The attitude and snark is brilliantly witty. In the first book she comes off as a bit caustic but the personal growth arch of all of the character is awesome.

3. The layers of story. She has some brilliant world building all based on a very simple concept that become layered like a puff pastry. It’s not too much at once so you aren’t slogging through ages of complicated lore.

4. It’s one story spread beautifully through three books BUT each one is a complete story and doesn’t end on a cliff hanger.

5. While romantic interests play a part in the book it’s not the main plot point. Other relationships are equally or more important. She isn’t spending her life wondering if someone likes her / moping over her prospects.

Down sides - I’m a little bit sad that she included some sex in the later stories just because I wanted to read these with my teenagers. It’s not too graphic / detailed but enough I wouldn’t recommend it to people under maybe 15y?

Fantastic story hastily recorded

The second book in the series continues the well-built world with an engaging and enjoyable plotline. But the reading is done with random emphasis on words that leaves the listener responsible for deciphering the meaning of the text. This happens often enough to notably disrupt the flow the story.

Obsessed

This author is a favorite and this performance by Anissa Dadia brings the work to life. I loved the first book and this one was no different. I eagerly await the next installment. The artistry of Novik and Dadia’s performance of it just sings!