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The Last Graduate
- A Novel (The Scholomance, Book 2)
- Narrated by: Anisha Dadia
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
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The Last Graduate
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Publisher's Summary
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The specter of graduation looms large as Naomi Novik’s groundbreaking, New York Times bestselling trilogy continues in the stunning sequel to A Deadly Education.
HUGO AWARD FINALIST • LOCUS AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Polygon, Thrillist, She Reads • “The climactic graduation-day battle will bring cheers, tears, and gasps as the second of the Scholomance trilogy closes with a breathtaking cliff-hanger.”—Booklist (starred review)
In Wisdom, Shelter. That’s the official motto of the Scholomance. I suppose you could even argue that it’s true—only the wisdom is hard to come by, so the shelter’s rather scant.
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. 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.
Unless, of course, I finally accept my foretold destiny of dark sorcery and destruction. That would certainly let me sail straight out of here. The course of wisdom, surely.
But I’m not giving in—not to the mals, not to fate, and especially not to the Scholomance. 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.
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.
The magic of the Scholomance trilogy will continue in The Golden Enclaves.
What the critics say
“[The Last Graduate] rips along like a force of nature. In the abstract, this is a story about relying on others—but in the concrete, it is about how to survive when the odds are against you. As she did with [A Deadly Education], Novik changes the game again with the very last line.”—Locus
“[The Last Graduate] is as compulsive a read as [A Deadly Education]. As a warning, it ends on another killer cliffhanger.”—BuzzFeed
“Truly one of the best fantasy series out there right now, and it’s not close.”—Culturess
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What listeners say about The Last Graduate
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- zahava lambert
- 2021-10-19
another evil cliffhanger
we have already met most of the actors, so the fun of getting acquainted is a little less than in book one. but the action going forward is still interesting and full of detailed plotting and involves the cooperation of a surprising ally. But watch out for the ending.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Elizabeth C
- 2021-12-22
I loved this books as much as the first one!!!
I can’t wait for the next one!!! This was so good!! Great writing and plot and the actor preforming it was great!! I love her voice!!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2022-12-24
Absolutely Adore This
Anisha Dadia's voice is absolutely perfect for El. The story is super well done. 👏
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Bree
- 2021-10-16
Fun and delicious fantasy in book 2
I love the clever and creative dystopia where this school exists and the charming characters that survive there. Fast paced story with a noble and multifaceted heroine. Fantastic performance by the narrator in this book and the series. I can’t wait for the next book, I consumed this one much too quickly but I couldn’t stop myself.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Homemade Sushi Lady
- 2022-04-24
An excellent sequel
I picked up the first book without knowing what I was getting into and I haven’t regretted it. The narrator is fantastic. This second book picks up the story one heartbeat after the end of the first book and doesn’t stop. The cliffhanger ending has me waiting restlessly for the third book due in the fall of 2022. You like Harry Potter but understand that it’s a really “nice” school and want something a bit more Hunger Games? Welcome to the Scholomance.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Liffie
- 2023-02-26
Couldn’t stop listening
Enthralling. Great story. Love the narrator. Ends on a cliffhanger. Cannot wait to read the last book.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Jason L
- 2021-10-04
Enjoyed the first book more
This book was good, but seem to lack something that the first book had. Perhaps it was their 'solution' that I thought was poor, perhaps it was because the relationship with Orion. I certainly didn't care for the ending, which seemed like a cheap cliffhanger.
Worth listening to, but didn't satisfy as much as the first book
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- josieposie
- 2022-07-03
Poorly narrated
The narrator did a good “frustrated teenage girl voice” but her inflections and word emphasis were often distractingly off. She couldn’t do most of the foreign accents — or even a posh Londoner accent — and her attempt at Chinese was so bad I physically cringed. Finally — the protagonist was supposed to be raised on a commune in Wales, but the narrator doesn’t even attempt a Welsh accent. Wonderful story narrated in an amateurish way.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Langer MD
- 2022-11-01
Read The Series In Order
The books in this Trilogy flow from one to the next to the next.. if you haven't read 'A Deadly Education', for example, this book will be confusing.
Naomi Novik's worldweaving is complex - involving a mana-based ("good" and "evil" forms) and language-based (English, Middle English, Olde English, French, Mandarin, Hindi, etc.) magic system; an everpresent murderous magic-consuming monster threat (the "Maleficaria"); evil wizards lurking about (unhelpfully termed "Maleficers"); a secretive, duplicitous, highly-political wizarding society in the world at large (divided into competitive elitist/racial/regional "Enclaves"); and a magic school with no instructors ("The Scholomance") that has complicated rules for progression, graduation, and even survival. On top of that incredibly involved scaffold, Novik builds the evolution of fiercely independent misfit misanthropist "with a chip on her shoulder" 'Galadriel "El" Higgins'.. into a dedicated friend/loving girlfriend/generational hero.
If you haven't invested in learning the background, recurring character roles & personality progression, the story would be bewildering.
To be honest, El's persistent hostile angtsy/snarky schtick is getting kind of old.. and is coupled with more frustrated teenaged romantic feelings plus some giggling sexual contact in this episode.. but if you're listening with a 12-16 year-old (drowning in hormones and "I wanna be an adult" fantasies themselves), they'll love it.
Even for me - a 51 year-old conventional Fantasy-SciFi addict - this is overall a more than satisfactory follow-up to the first book.
The vocabulary/prose is decent; the plot is well-paced & intuitive; the characters are realistic & interesting; and the description is mind's-eye vivid. I was left looking forward to Book Three.
The continued outstanding narration from Anisha Dadia doubtless improves my rating of the book, too. Random House Audio did a fantastic job casting the project and lend exemplary technical support to Dadia's praiseworthy diction, timbre, cadence, tone, and voice-acting.
In summary, 'The Last Graduate' rates 8 stars out of 10. It's weaker than Book One - and has little "standalone" merit - but is worth your time if you've invested your time in the series.
[Incidentally: the "woke" stuff - boys kissing boys and girls fascinated with each other's breasts - feels tacked-on (with the "this is normal, kids" message too heavyhanded). Novik isn't good at integrating it. On the other hand, the mouse cockblocker is hilarious]
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Chelsea Patterson
- 2021-10-01
Not good enough
I was hesitant to read this sequel. I hated the first. The idea is interesting. But because of either the way the author speaks and acts the words or because of how it’s actually written. It’s an annoying read. Extreme vocal fry, extreme over use of sarcasm and an annoying amount of detail that gets you no where. It could be a short story if not for all this detail of how the school or magic’s works. I was hopping that would be just the first novel, setting the stages but this was even worse. I don’t see how the main character are together if they even are. The main character talks more about the literal ceiling of the school than she does about Lake. He just appears almost to add enough drama to make you hope maybe soon it will get good.
I returned it. It wasn’t worth it…
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