I am a huge fan of Naomi Novik's YA fantasy novels, especially Spinning Silver and Uprooted. Her Scholomance series is a little bit different, set at a dark school for magic. Unlike Hogwarts, this school seems to actively want to kill off its students!
The Last Graduate is the second book in the Scholomance series. It's like a cross between those witch/wizard school stories, like Harry Potter and The Worst Witch, with a hefty dose of The Hunger Games thrown in, and is both brutal and a little bit gruesome at times. Sure, the students at this school are here to learn magic, but they are also here to survive at any cost, which encourages an every-student-for-themselves mentality.
El and her friends are now seniors with the prospect of graduation looming ahead of them. You'd think they'd be delighted to leave the school far behind, except the graduation ceremony is the most deadly of all, with every mal (monster) waiting to devour them as soon as they enter the graduation hall. The practise runs are getting deadlier and deadlier, El can see no way for the students to survive unless they do something really radical... Like, work together?
This series is completely thrilling, edge-of-your-seat stuff, with El battling monsters and spells hurtling at her from every direction. The finale is amazing but (be warned) ends on a humongous cliff-hanger. The amount of work Naomi has put into creating this world, with no detail overlooked, is awe-inspiring. It reminded me a little of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. With that book the backstories were dropped into footnotes, and I did sometimes feel that all the detail (fabulous as it was) slowed down The Last Graduate just when I wanted to race ahead.
I loved the attitude of El (Student most like to say: 'Get lost, I can rescue myself'), who has spent most of her life being viewed with suspicion (thanks to her great-great grandmother's prophecy predicting she's going to cause death and destruction wherever she goes), and is unused to taking a hero's role. Orion, who has spent most of his life training to be a hero, is adorably confused. And El's familiar, Precious the mouse, is sooo cute!
One of my favourite reads this year! I can't wait for the next one!
Thank you to Naomi Novik and Del Ray/Cornerstone/Random House for my copy of this book, which I requested via NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.
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