The Last Graduate and The Golden Enclaves (The Scholomance, Book 2 and 3)

The Last Graduate and The Golden Enclaves (The Scholomance, Book 2 and 3)
Naomi Novik, 2021, 2022

Premise: Sequels to A Deadly Education. El and her friends cook up an audacious scheme to get out of high school alive, only to discover that life outside the Scholomance is stalked by deadlier dangers. 

(Thematic spoilers for this series below, but no explicit plot spoilers except for the one implied by the title of book two.)

So I liked book one, right? And from the title of the second book, I was pretty sure our heroes were going to find a way around the whole "every group of kids has to run this deadly gauntlet to escape the high school" status quo. 

And they did, and it was awesome. However, it was really in the third book where this series shifted gears and revealed its heart. It isn't just about characters growing up. It isn't just about kids with magic in a dangerous world. There's no big bad guy to fight, although there are dangerous power players. 

It's about how a society that seems easy and special and beautiful is probably built on horror, death, and exploitation. It's about how even people who mean well can look the other way. It's about how godamn hard and heartbreaking it can be to try to make the world better for everyone, not just for a few. 

And that's why it's kids who so often have to try. 

It was incredibly compelling. I loved it. Even if it also made me a little depressed about the real world. 

5 Stars - Fantastic Books