In A Deadly Education, we learned that the world of the Scholomance is inhabited by wizards and Muggles (okay, I'm not even bothering to avoid HP references this time, sue me), and also approximately a million slavering wizard-eating demons (called Maleficaria).

Snark aside, I actually liked the second book better than the first. I'm sure she ran The Last Graduate through a gauntlet of sensitivity readers this time. The first book of the Scholomance trilogy introduced us to a carefully woke-approved protagonist who nonetheless got Naomi Novik in some hot water for a few unwoke sentences. With keen insight and mordant humor, Novik reminds us that sometimes it is not enough to rewrite the rules - sometimes, you need to toss out the entire rulebook. I’m going to get myself and my friends out of this hideous place for good - even if it’s the last thing I do. The course of wisdom, surely.īut I’m not giving in - not to the mals, not to fate, and especially not to the Scholomance. That would certainly let me sail straight out of here. Unless, of course, I finally accept my foretold destiny of dark sorcery and destruction. And even if I somehow make it through the endless waves of maleficaria that it keeps throwing at me in between grueling homework assignments, I haven’t any idea how my allies and I are going to make it through the graduation hall alive. Our beloved school does its best to devour all its students - but now that I’ve reached my senior year and have actually won myself a handful of allies, it’s suddenly developed a very particular craving for me. I suppose you could even argue that it’s true - only the wisdom is hard to come by, so the shelter’s rather scant. That’s the official motto of the Scholomance.

The graduate book naomi