🎧 The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik @naominovik ‏#AnishaDadia ‏@PRHAudio ‏@DelReyBooks #LoveAudiobooks

Posted September 30, 2021 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Book Review / 8 Comments

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


🎧 The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik @naominovik ‏#AnishaDadia ‏@PRHAudio ‏@DelReyBooks #LoveAudiobooksThe Last Graduate by Naomi Novik
Series: Scholomance #2
Published by Del Rey Books on September 28, 2021
Genres: Science Fiction Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 336
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads
AmazonBarnes & NobleApple
three-flames
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star

At the Scholomance, El, Orion, and the other students are faced with their final year—and the looming specter of graduation, a deadly ritual that leaves few students alive in its wake. El is determined that her chosen group will survive, but it is a prospect that is looking harder by the day as the savagery of the school ramps up. Until El realizes that sometimes winning the game means throwing out all the rules

I love this author and I’m enjoying the Scholomance series.  I’ve always loved this author but I’m not usually a fan of young adult and this is a high school setting.  We do get some of the pettiness and cliques.   The Last Graduate is the second book and thank goodness I just saw this week it will be at least a trilogy.   The ending is abrupt and I would have had so many questions.

In A Deadly Education, we met El.  She has always been a bit of an outcast because of her type of magic.  He mother is a famous healer but she doesn’t share that as she wants to make it on her own.  Somehow she ends up friends? with Orion Lake who is from the huge New York enclave and everyone wants to be his friend.  The enclaves are groups who come to the school together and plan to help each other survive.  Eventually, she manages to make a small group of friends.

The Last Graduate moves on to their senior year which is typically a run through a hall of monsters to get back out to the real world again.  Students spend their entire 4 years learning magic to help them survive. But El and Orion are able to fight any monsters together, even the worst ones.  El tries not to become more attached to Orion as she doesn’t want him to give up his dreams and place in an enclave for her.

The story is kind of different because it is almost all a flow of El telling us what happens in the senior year.  Showing is supposed to be better than telling.  There was some limited showing.  I really loved the book anyway. We see a very different senior year preparation than has been made over the last hundred years because of El’s philosophies and choices, and Orion’s devotion to her. I really liked El and how she had compassion and integrity.

Wow with that ending, I am so thrilled to know there will be another book!   I think now we will get to see the world beyond the school and I can’t wait!


Review copy was received from Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


🎧 The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik @naominovik ‏#AnishaDadia ‏@PRHAudio ‏@DelReyBooks #LoveAudiobooksThe Last Graduate by Naomi Novik
Narrator: Anisha Dadia
Series: Scholomance #2
Published by Penguin Audio on September 28, 2021
Genres: Science Fiction Fantasy, Young Adult
Length: 13 hours, 27 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
AudibleLibro.fm
three-flames
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star

 

 

 

 

 

 

Narration:

This narrator was new to me with the series but she is El to me now.  Since the point of view was El and mostly her thoughts, a female narrator was appropriate. I don’t know if the accents were accurate but I was comfortable with them. I enjoyed the performance.   I listened at my usual 1.5x speed.

Listen to a clip: HERE

Rating Breakdown
Plot
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Writing
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star
Characters
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Narration (Audio)
One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Overall: One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star

About Naomi Novik

An avid reader of fantasy literature since age six, when she first made her way through The Lord of the Rings, Naomi Novik is also a history buff with a particular interest in the Napoleonic era and a fondness for the work of Patrick O’Brian and Jane Austen. She studied English literature at Brown University, and did graduate work in computer science at Columbia University before leaving to participate in the design and development of the computer game Neverwinter Nights: Shadow of Undrentide. Over the course of a brief winter sojourn spent working on the game in Edmonton, Canada (accompanied by a truly alarming coat that now lives brooding in the depths of her closet), she realized she preferred writing to programming, and on returning to New York, decided to try her hand at novels.

Naomi lives in New York City with her husband and six computers.

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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

  • C21-Summer

Posted September 30, 2021 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Book Review / 8 Comments


8 responses to “🎧 The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

    • It’s different than any school with magic I have read. The characters are young so their “politics” and emotions lean towards less mature. But they are in a life and death situation and El and Orion really step up.