The Last Graduate (The Scholomance #2) by Naomi Novik

 A Deadly Education

I really liked A Deadly Education, so I optimistically picked up the second in the trilogy, The Last Graduate, hoping it would end a somewhat blah period of reading for me. I'm sort of at the point where I'm wondering if there are books I like out there anymore. Do I like reading? Do I just do it because it's a habit?  This is what happens when I get in a book rut.  Anyway. I dove in.

El is trying to finish her last year at the Scholomance. She's made some allies and she's determined that they'll all make it out alive. But then she realizes that the school actually wants to help its students, not create the death trap that it currently is, and all the rules change.

This book. It was fine, I guess? I mean, I'm struggling over here to not be mean. What was so exciting in the first book in terms of a new take on a magical school (it's evil!), El being an independent sort, deadly creatures wandering around at every moment ready to kill just became a bit humdrum and repetitive in this book. Even the whole "we need to get through graduation" thing was exactly the same. El being a bit of a social outcast was the same.

I did like that she has a great mouse pet, though so there was that.

Maybe it's me? This book rut is my fault, not the fault of the books I'm reading? I don't know. I just ordered a slew of non-fiction books in the hopes that perhaps I just need to change my reading strategy and I'll get over it. Let's see. 

2.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

"It's not a complex problem to appear nice to people! You identify the most popular targets in each of your classes, learn what they value about themselves, and give them a minimum of three relevant compliments each week. So long as they think you are agreeable, others will follow their lead." (page 276)

Is this right? Are people this transactional? I am so confused by human behavior. 

"There's no such thing as normal people," I said, a desperate flailing. "There's just people, and some of them are miserable, and some of them are happy, and you've the same right to be happy as any of them - no more and no less." (page 350)

Hm. Food for thought.

Word I looked up:

beldame (page 28) - a malicious and ugly woman, especially old; a witch