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A review by embrightreads
The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik
4.0
What a wonderful ending to this trilogy.
While I wish I had more time with Orion and El together and would have loved an Orion POV just because what happened to him seemed like it would have been really interesting to read about. I really liked seeing El meet her potential, find her place in the world and among her friends and really was able to make some good. Even if she was seething the entire time.
UPDATE (10/7/22)
Ok. I have a few feelings about The Golden Enclaves.
I don't know if it was just me (and it could very well been), but I didn't love this installment nearly as much as I loved the first two.
I usually adore El and her inner monologue. But she went from delightful grouchy to downright pessimistic and the humor was lost in this book. It was a more serious novel compared to the first and second books. While I think that the content was far more adult (especially considering they were OUT of Scholomance), part of what I loved so much about A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate was the bone dry humor that El had. The Golden Enclaves was missing that acerbic wit.
It was also missing a lot of the characters that I really grew to love. I missed Orion and his interactions with El, I missed her friends and I missed the Mals! El on her own is strong and interesting, but what this book lacked was the emotions that her little scholomance found family brought out in her.
That said, I think this book was a great way to end the trilogy. I wasn't expecting the solution that was ultimately given to the reader and I thought it was really clever. I liked that it was a win/win-ish for everybody. It was an happy ending with a side of gloom alá El. The readers got the closure we needed and the characters are moving on to bigger and better things.
This series is one of my favorites.
While I wish I had more time with Orion and El together and would have loved an Orion POV just because what happened to him seemed like it would have been really interesting to read about. I really liked seeing El meet her potential, find her place in the world and among her friends and really was able to make some good. Even if she was seething the entire time.
UPDATE (10/7/22)
Ok. I have a few feelings about The Golden Enclaves.
I don't know if it was just me (and it could very well been), but I didn't love this installment nearly as much as I loved the first two.
I usually adore El and her inner monologue. But she went from delightful grouchy to downright pessimistic and the humor was lost in this book. It was a more serious novel compared to the first and second books. While I think that the content was far more adult (especially considering they were OUT of Scholomance), part of what I loved so much about A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate was the bone dry humor that El had. The Golden Enclaves was missing that acerbic wit.
It was also missing a lot of the characters that I really grew to love. I missed Orion and his interactions with El, I missed her friends and I missed the Mals! El on her own is strong and interesting, but what this book lacked was the emotions that her little scholomance found family brought out in her.
That said, I think this book was a great way to end the trilogy. I wasn't expecting the solution that was ultimately given to the reader and I thought it was really clever. I liked that it was a win/win-ish for everybody. It was an happy ending with a side of gloom alá El. The readers got the closure we needed and the characters are moving on to bigger and better things.
This series is one of my favorites.