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whynotreadwithalex's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
- This is the 2nd book in the series…so you’ve got a bit of a slower pace at the beginning, which I think stumps some people. However, the cliffhanger at the end of the first book is immediately addressed (which I really appreciated because oh my word that shook me the first time I read A Deadly Education).
- And then we see El really struggling with the concept of no longer being completely on her own — she has to overcome a lot of fear, as well as her natural inclination to think only of her own survival. This makes the pacing of this book a bit slower right at the beginning because El hasn’t quite decided what kind of person she wants to be.
- But once El decides, oh my word the action picks up like crazy! And it is definitely worth it! We see lots of character development, not just in El but across the board. Everyone is challenged — including the Scholomance, which makes for a really engaging story of struggle, sacrifice, and personal growth.
- Remember, Novik is a world builder! And El isn’t necessarily a reliable narrator, which leaves the reader, well, reading between the lines to get at the truth. This creates a lot of suspense, and had me hanging on to the edge of my seat up until the final page.
- And finally, that ending…I mean, we all knew there would be drama and heartbreak and probably some destruction…I think I just didn’t expect that it would be my own! Ahhh! I will be grabbing the final installation of this series ASAP. Send actual help.
But seriously, this book is easily 5/5 ⭐️s
Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
dcdc's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Child death, Death, and Violence
Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, and War
aleclikesbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Classism
Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Gore, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Death of parent, and Murder
torturedreadersdept's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Dysphoria, and War
danicakvcs's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Child death, Genocide, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Murder, and War
oliverreeds's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
storykath's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
First of all, the whole premise of this series is the perfect mix of thrilling and dark and ingenious. The attention to detail and the immersive storytelling create a fantastic atmosphere. Even though this is the second book, there's still a decent amount of time spent on explanations/worldbuilding, and one of my few criticisms would be that these explanatory snippets, though interesting and relevant, sometimes interrupted the plot in an awkward place. We'd stop in the middle of a conversation to dissect some interesting tidbit, and by the time the conversation went on I'd forgotten what was going on. It was all still interesting to read and I didn't mind it much.
The character growth in this book, especially compared to the first book, is fairly slow and subtle, but it comes through like a punch to the gut at the best moments. Especially towards the end, there were many moments where I audibly gasped or made other incredulous gestures as the threads all tied together. Sometimes it was painful to see the characters apparently not growing or changing for most of the novel, but in retrospect it was an intentional choice to portray them that way, especially since the story is from El's perspective, who doesn't always pick up on what's going on behind the scenes in other people's lives.
It had been over a year since I read ADE, so I was a bit lost at the start of this book - there's not much of a recap or handy reminders to jog your memory, but a quick Google search solved that for me.
The writing style is amazing. There are vivid (and sometimes appropriately disturbing) descriptions, and El's voice as a teenager with the world on her shoulders was authentic, exciting, and often hilarious! Despite the darker contents of the book, El's narration and quick wit provided some great laugh-out-loud comic relief.
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Sexual content, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Child death, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy
nutm3g's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
bluejayreads's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
- El is even more absurdly powerful than she was in the last book, but doesn’t seem to be surprised by or even notice it, and it doesn’t even cross her mind to question why. I don’t even know if the story wants that question asked, but I want to know why she’s so powerful.
- There’s apparently a whole enchanted gymnasium where many students exercise that somehow never got brought up in book one.
- Neither did a bunch of framed news articles that are apparently all over the school and are critical to the plot now.
- I never got the sense in book one that the school was fantastically big and yet there’s apparently a thousand graduating seniors.
- There’s supposed to be a thing about lingering trauma from El’s experience with the mormouth last book, but the climactic moment of that plot thread ended up very anti-climactic.
- Several threads from book one that either get dropped entirely or get shoved to the background with no warning or mention.
Most of these problems are continuity issues from the previous book, and none of these are “you only notice if you think about it too hard” issues – they were all glaringly obvious to me while reading. And yet with all those obvious issues, I’m going to come back and say that I loved this book.
The main reason for this is that I absolutely adore the trope of the protagonist being so much more powerful than everyone else and all the people around them being repeatedly astonished as they discover bit-by-bit how absurdly powerful the protagonist is. The Last Graduate is that trope incarnate. In book one El by herself kills a monster that previously had only been killed by a group of ten of the world’s top magicians. In this book she is stronger. I cannot put into words how much fun it was to watch her go from being an overlooked non-Enclave kid to the absolute most powerful kid in school and probably the only way most of them are getting out alive.
I can’t say I entirely enjoyed El’s kinda-romance thing with Orion Lake, but I didn’t hate it and it was brief enough that it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the story. There were also some interesting questions raised about Orion and how his magic works. I’m wondering if there’s some underlying reason that there are two absurdly powerful magical teenagers the same age that will get explained in book three.
Yeah, the book has problems. I won’t deny that, and those will probably be detrimental to your enjoyment if you don’t love the overpowered character trope. But I do love that trope and so I still thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I’m very much looking forward to book three.
Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Bullying, Gore, and Sexual content
Minor: Animal death and Vomit
stephernay's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Moderate: Sexual content and Violence
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, and Vomit