The last Graduate by Naomi Novik
Dear Books Lovers,
the second volume of Naomi Novik’s Scholomance trilogy published by Mondadori is now out. A dark academia started with A deadly education, which continues with The last duel. I will not spoil anything in this review, but anyway if you have not read A deadly education I refer you to his review.
Dangerous Lessons is one of those books that I liked but that didn’t drive me crazy. I had a few bad moments while reading, and even though second books aren’t usually as good as the first ones, this one has stood up. It wasn’t better than the first but it still kept a nice pace throughout the story so that I got to the end of the reading, with a twist that now makes me want the third book right away.
The first part of the book was quite heavy for me, I must tell the truth. It took me a lot of willpower to get through the first part, but after a certain point in the book the story took on a totally different pace, a bit like it had in the first volume with the flowing moments and the slower moments. I’ll tell you, the story is nice, but if you find yourself in front of slow scenes like me, my advice is to read fast and overcome them.
Perhaps there is a bit more romance in this book compared to A deadly education, Orion is more visible and remains my favorite character in the story. In the first book he was present, but in this volume we see a lot more and also undestand a lot more things about him, especially in terms of romance. Orion is obsessed with El, it is impossible to hide it.
If in the first book a lot of the story revolves around learning some concepts of this school, in the second volume there is a lot more action, a lot more movement which at times make the story even smoother. And there is a lot of character growth, especially El, the protagonist. What remains for us now is to find out what will happen in the third volume and understand how the author will decide to end this story. Let’s hope for the best. For me it was all, from the beginning, a roller coaster, I hope I can change my mind with the final volume.
The dark school of magic has always done its best to devour its students, but now that El has reached her final year — and somehow won herself a handful of allies along the way — it’s suddenly developed a very particular craving . . .
For her.
As the savagery of the school ramps up, El is determined that she will not give in; not to the mals, not to fate, and especially not to the Scholomance. But as the spectre of graduation looms — the deadly final ritual that leaves few students alive — if she and her allies are to make it out, El will need to realise that sometimes winning the game means throwing out all the rules.
