5/5

For fans of: magical schools, rivals-to-lovers, found families

The Big Questions:

• What genre is this in? young adult fantasy

• Are there any swoon-worthy characters? Silver-haired, hero complex, golden boy monster killer extraordinaire Orion Lake and El Higgins, English Desi girl prophesied to destroy the world, can’t help but learn massively deadly spells, but has a heart of gold and deeply loves her found family

• Is it spicy? Fade to black

• Is it violent or gory? Yes, lots and lots of monster killing

• Should I buy, borrow, or pass on this book? BUY

Synopsis: The one thing you never talk about while you’re in the Scholomance is what you’ll do when you get out. Not even the richest enclaver would tempt fate that way. But it’s all we dream about: the hideously slim chance we’ll survive to make it out the gates and improbably find ourselves with a life ahead of us, a life outside the Scholomance halls.

And now the impossible dream has come true. I’m out, we’re all out—and I didn’t even have to turn into a monstrous dark witch to make it happen. So much for my great-grandmother’s prophecy of doom and destruction. I didn’t kill enclavers, I saved them. Me and Orion and our allies. Our graduation plan worked to perfection: We saved everyone and made the world safe for all wizards and brought peace and harmony to all the enclaves everywhere.

Ha, only joking! Actually, it’s gone all wrong. Someone else has picked up the project of destroying enclaves in my stead, and probably everyone we saved is about to get killed in the brewing enclave war. And the first thing I’ve got to do now, having miraculously gotten out of the Scholomance, is turn straight around and find a way back in.

Review: My poor El, the last graduate of the Scholomance and savior of the magical community’s children, can’t just catch a break. She isn’t even home a month and her former classmates come calling as problems become uncontrollable in the world’s most powerful enclaves. All the world’s magical children thought they escaped the hell of the Scholomance only to encounter a new kind of hell at home. I really enjoyed the brisk pace the book sets from the get-go. El is thrown into airplanes, trains, and cars traipsing around the world solving enclave problems all the while dying inside as she refuses to deal with her feelings over Orion. You know what this reminded me of, The Mockingjay and how much that book made me mad at my clearly meant-to-be-together couple was forced apart all while having to solve the world’s many problems. I hated it then and I hate it now. But the tension is EXQUISITE.

El’s return to the Scholomance to bring about peace for the thousands who have died in the belly of Patience, including Orion, adds to the tension that is ready to boil over and I am here for it. The twists and turns of this story really got me staying up late into the night and missing my train stops multiple times. I could not put the book down! Political intrigue, the characters coming into their full power and political might as they carve their own world out of the remains of the old, refusing to accept what had always been had the ultimate grip on me. I love the themes of revolution, writing societal wrongs, and finding your place in a broken world. The ending is not at all where I expected this story to go and I really appreciate an author who can use an unreliable narrator to weave such a memorable story.