The Golden Enclaves (The Scholomance, #3) by Naomi Novik

The Golden Enclaves (The Scholomance, #3) Reviews

• 
  Meag

  Firstly, all of these likes are from before this book even came out.
  
  Okay, i'm super late but I finally got the time to read this book and it was okay!
  
  The first two books felt like they had much higher stakes, and I got so used to the world inside the scholomance that it felt odd when they got out. Everything in this book occurs within a short period of time and it's pacing is nothing like what we're used to.
  
  Loose ends are tied up but it just feels like the characters were stagnant. Yes one of them had a really great reason but everyone else??
  
  3 stars because it really was a well-written book that had parts I genuinely enjoyed reading but by the end of the book I just felt like damn...is this it?
  
  I want a fourth book. I want this series to keep going because no way this is the ending I get.
• 
  Cassie (Star-Crossed Book Blog)

  Well…I’ve finished it and I have A LOT of thoughts. Will try to piece them together for a proper review soon.
  
  ***
  
  I know nothing about this book, but I am DESPERATE for it thanks to THAT ending. How dare we get left on such a cliffhanger?!?
  
  
• 
  Nataliya

  Ask yourself: is it worth to sacrifice one person for the benefit of many? If you say yes, chances are you’re not the one being sacrificed. But it seems the people are willing to recognize that for some things a huge price needs to be paid — as long as someone else pays that price and they get to look the other way, justifying to themselves that someone needs to pay it after all.
  
  Ursula K. Le Guin addressed this in her fable
  The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, and Naomi Novik does it here as well. And it makes this book dark and angry, and uncomfortable. Anger and resentment are well-earned, in this world that we discover hinges on pain belonging to someone else but those reaping the rewards, and even moments of friendship are often bittersweet, and there’s not a distraction of a budding love story full of sweet interactions.
  
  

  “They pretended they saw a noble hero, because he’d tried so hard to fit himself into that picture, and they loved the picture: that made his power something for them, something that would help them. The same way everyone looked at me and my power and saw a monster, because I wouldn’t play along with what they wanted. But they’d loved Orion only in exactly the same way they’d hated me. Neither one of us were ever people to them. He just made himself useful, and I refused to.”

  
  
  Nope, it’s more intense than its predecessors as we leave the suffocating and yet insulating Scholomance walls for the world outside. Traumatized young adults, especially El who’s hopelessly trying to keep it together — since as we know, “anyone who’s made it out of the Scholomance knows how to keep their screaming on the inside.”
  
  

  “These strangers who were trying to murder my friend, these strangers who agreed with Ophelia in New York, with Christopher Martel in London, with Sir Alfred Fucking Cooper Browning and the rulers and founders of every other enclave in the world, that it was worth doing this one horrible thing to someone else, to avoid all the other horrible things that might happen to them.”

  
  Image credit to
  https://jmaddalina.myportfolio.com/il...)

  
  And yet after all the consuming desperate well-deserved anger it ended up a book about redemption and acceptance, love and cooperation. And a road to healing that cannot fix all the wrongs in one neat step, but at least puts a few paving stones on the road there. Because without that sort of ending this book would have been a well of depression, and I need my hope at the end of a journey like this, dammit!
  
  (And I still maintain that El is basically Murderbot, feared by others but never even questioning self-sacrificing to save others. Reluctant grumpy hero full of pessimistic realism).
  
  What I like about this series is subtlety when you need it. Amplified from the first two books, there’s not a neat good/bad division, and even the supposed “villains” don’t come with a big speech and a neat solution that leads to their erasure and ensuing happiness. Progress is not taking out the bad guys but rather working on the system that enables exploitation and suffering in the first place. It takes more than one or two heroic figures to bring about change — it takes work by many. And it takes sharing to power and responsibility as well.
  
  Novik created a complex world where loose ends are neatly pulled together in the end, showing quite solid plotting that went into this trilogy. And despite having characters deeply scarred by their experiences and their actual nature, she avoids the entire melodrama that could have ensured, and I’m very thankful to her for that. And — thanks to all literary deities — there’s no lovestruck gazing and longing; El and Orion have more serious issues to face here; and if you expect heart-warming romance then you will do better walking away from this series, it’s NOT a romance story no matter how much people may want it to become one. Novik avoids the Young Adult pitfalls, confirming to me once again that this is written for adults, but just with younger characters.
  
  All in all, this book ended up even better than I expected, and that’s a tricky thing to accomplish for any series conclusion.
  
  4.5 stars. This is definitely one of my favorite series I’ve read in the last decade.
  
  

  “I didn’t want to get up and go on in the world, agreeing that it was in any way acceptable for the world to keep going itself.”

  
  
  
  My review of the first book, A Deadly Education
  
  My review of the second book, The Last Graduate
  
  ——————
  
  Also posted on
  my blog.
• 
  myo (myonna reads)

  all of my 2022 anticipated releases being terrible is my villain origin story 😭😭
  
  this read like a second book in a sequel, i hate when characters are split up for majority of the book. i just feel like the series should’ve been a duology because this was… certainly a choice. Orion was barely in this book. i also loved El in the first book, even the second but i feel like the third she was just so different. i think characters don’t always need character development, the don’t need to be liked. i liked her just fine before.
  
  this book just feels like such a slap in the face because it feels completely different than the first two. and what was that weird cheating plotline? idk chile… just very sad, wasn’t expecting to give this two stars i love the series so much but this was such a disappointment.
  
  and this read like literally harry potter fan fiction, i know that it technically is but it was never so blatantly obvious before. i felt like i was rereading deathly hollows.
• 
  Shima

  Pre-publication:
  I'm gonna keep the tradition going,
  read
  The Last Graduate today,
  and somehow come to terms with having to wait a whole year for the next book.
  
  Because I'm just mean like that.
  
  Update: I just finished reading
  The Last Graduate. Condoning myself to a whole year of waiting was crueller than I could have anticipated.
  
  Post-publication:
  There were some darker themes lurking beneath the previous Scholomance books, but this book was much less Harry potter and much more "Those who walk away from Omelas". Inequality, privilege, the costs of capitalism and trauma were at the forefront and cute dialogue and fun world-building were way back in the background. And the romance, well, almost non-existent.
  Now, as much as I liked the magic school settings and the El-Orion relationship, I would have been all for the shift, if the book didn't feel a little .... underedited.
  All the wat material was there, the plot twists were good and it would have been a satisfying ending to the series if it was just better executed.
• 
  carol.

  This isn't your childhood Harry Potter.
  
  "I didn’t want to get up and go on in the world, agreeing that it was in any way acceptable for the world to keep going itself."
  
  This is not a comfortable read. A friend noted that I had shown a lot of enthusiasm for this series, and it's true, I have. Novik blends intense emotion with unremitting danger, and the combination makes for an intoxicating, immersive read. Book three in the series is no different.
  
  "But they’d loved Orion only in exactly the same way they’d hated me. Neither one of us were ever people to them. He just made himself useful, and I refused to."
  
  But not always a fun one, as El is processing a lot of difficult emotions, and of the trilogy, this one will cut the deepest. Also of the three, this one felt like it had the most filler material. My thoughts on this are subject to change, as I discuss further with my buddies and as I go through a second, more leisurely read.
  
  From here on out, there will be general/thematic spoilers. You have been warned.
  
  
  I'll be honest--big surprise, I know--there's a lot of filler here. I can't even tell you what all of it is about, but much is about pocket dimensions. Some of it is how the Scholomance is hidden. Another chunk is El running her personal gerbil wheel of emotions and events relating to Orion. I think the repetitiveness around that is part of what provides the emotional intensity and frustration of the book. El's always been single-minded--they all have, to survive Scholomance--so although this should probably be no surprise to the reader, it does make for a more jarring experience witnessing her being unable and unwilling to fit into the outside world. 
  
  On the positive side, Novik has done something amazing, and woven LeGuin's Omelas story into her book. I'm still a little stunned at how well it was accomplished. 
  
  It's also--and this is really fascinating--one of the most female centric books I've read in a long time, notwithstanding Orion's role (which still manages to be more thoughtful than the gender-traditional
  Senlin Ascends). Male characters are quite adjacent. Really quite impressive.
  
  On the meta level, Novik is kick-ass. No snark here. I don't want to spoil anything, but she has beautifully looped in the themes we have been reading all along in unexpected but completely story-congruent ways. It makes me a little crazy when authors think they are being clever by pulling in an element that hasn't been hinted at or developed within the story. That is not the case here. It's the reading equivalent of looking at the picture of the young woman and suddenly seeing a wrinkled old one with a stole. It's brilliant and wrenching.
  
  Without becoming overly preachy, although I felt that it was repetitive enough to venture into 'filler,' the themes of who we become and choices, and choices we make as a community and survival come to fruition here. This is where the Omelas connection comes in, and this is where people note things like climate change and fossil fuels. Truly remarkable.
  
  
  Thankfully, this time there's no cliffhanger ending.
  
  
  Four golden stars.
  
  thanks to Jennifer, Nataliya, Samuel for the buddy read! And Emily and Emma for all the discussion!
• 
  Phuong ✯

  after i had a couple of nights to think, i can finally talk about this book. spoiler warning: i’m about to go on a mini rant and it will have spoiler for The Last Graduate and The Golden Enclaves.
  
  – SPOILERS –
  
  the fact that this series is a ya fantasy, but i’m giving this book 1 star for the romance is pretty much everything you need to know that i might be focusing on the wrong things here, but i’m still so salty about this that i really don’t care.
  
  initially, what drew me to this series was the whole dark academia magical school setting. while the magic system is pretty cool, i quickly lost interest in this series because i don’t like Naomi Novik’s writing style, specifically the endless monologues of the heroine El. the only saving grace for me was the romance between El and Orion and i’m blaming that on my obsesssion with male Heroes named Orion (sue me 🤡). when Orion sacrificed himself at the end of The Last Graduate to save El by pushing her outside scholomance while he stays inside with the monsters.. my heart was invested!!
  
  it doesn’t even make sense that i’m so invested in the romance since the romance in this series doesn’t even come in 2nd or 3rd place. i’d prob even rank the romance between 5th-Orion hunting mals and 6th-El’s vast descriptions of all things like doors of the school. and still I HAD HOPES. 🤡
  
  now onto my actual rant:
  
  The Golden Enclaves starts right where The Last Graduate left off: El is outside and angry. She thinks Orion is pretty much dead and that he’s suffering inside the school. she’s grieving and in her grief she think it’s a good idea to hook up with Liesel (another girl from scholomance). That El had sex with someone else is not great, but i could understand it a little bit, cause she wanted to stop thinking about Orion for a couple of minutes and she thought he was dead. Liesel was the fastest rebound, but okay. at the halfway mark of this book El goes back to scholomance and finds out that Orion is still alive and saves him and takes him outside the school. Orion and El have sex outside the wood (honestly the best scene of this school book, don’t even argue with me). and then not even two chapters later El has sex with Liesel AGAIN on a fucking airplane bathroom!!! yikes. 🧍‍♀️ WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THIS?! I DON’T UNDERSTAND!!! 😭😭😭 El and Orion were never a couple so it technically wasn’t cheating, but for me it 100% was cheating. El and Orion romance was build from the first book and there is no doubt in my mind that they were the main couple. Liesel wasn’t even really relevant for the story in the first place so i don’t understand what was the point of El sleeping with her again when Orion was alive…  Noami was super sneaky with how she handled that 2nd hook up scene with Liesel as if we wouldn’t get it duh. y’all 🙂 don’t 🙂 understand 🙂 how 🙂 mad 🙂 i 🙂 am. 🙂
  
  

  That was much too sensible and kind, when what I wanted was to shriek at Orion in fury and claw his entire face off for having put me through all of this and having the gall to-not be okay. As he clearly wasn’t.

  
  
  Orion deserves so much better than how he was treated in this book. not only did his not-girlfriend-but-still-girlfriend cheated on him, but he was was barely in this book. and the time he was on page … no we’re not even talking about that. idk who that boy was, but that was not my Orion. #justicefororionlake
  
  last but not least, what in the Crash-Landing-On-You was that ending?? Orion stays at the scholomance to protect the children and guarding the gates, while El is travelling the world to keep fighting monsters and they only see each other only for a certain short period of time a year… that ending took a Seri/Captain Ri & Elizabeth/Will Turner kind of turn i didn’t ask for. while i hated the ending it didn’t ruin my mood, cause that was already ruined after El randomly decided to cheat on my baby Orion. 🙂
  
  Conclusion
  
  the best part of this all is that i never have to read one of El’s inner monologues ever again. i’m free <3
  
  ┍━━━━━━━━━━━━━┑
  THE SCHOLOMANCE SERIES
  
  #1 A Deadly Education – 3 stars
  #2 The Last Graduate – 2.25 stars (the extra 0.25 is for that cliffhanger)
  #3 The Golden Enclaves – 1.25 (0.25 for that fade to black El x Orion smut)
  ┕━━━━━━━━━━━━━┙
• 
  Rafaela Camilo

  Update: Apparently this is going to be called The Golden Enclaves, I'm................pls send help
  
  *Gollum voice* GIVE IT TO ME
  
  Actual review:
  2.5 stars
  Trust me, no one is more shocked than I am by this rating. The Scholomance was (is, idk, I'm CONFUSED) favorite series, I had a countdown for release day on my lock screen, I was SO anxious, and when I finally got my hands on it, it was... that.
  Firstly, I want to say that I do not mind El's entanglement with Liesel, which is what most of the lower-rating reviews I saw were focusing on. I was honestly happy with the crumbs of sapphic representation. What I did mind was that every single emotional aspect of this book felt flat and underdeveloped, which, unfortunately, includes them.
  I was so happy we were going to meet Gwen officially in this last installment, just to have her contribution be minimal. She spills one important plot point, is absent for several chapters, helps with another plot point (Orion's "recovery"), and vanishes again. I get that El had stuff to do and wasn't about to take her mother as she paraded around continents the entire book, but I guess I expected more of their relationship by the way El talked about her during the other books.
  I also missed El's friends! Her friendships were one of my favorite parts of this series and her allies felt more like plot devices than characters in this one. She has like one actual conversation with Aad in this, Liu faded into the background most of the time (when she was even there), and Chloe was present for all of two scenes where she barely spoke.
  I also felt like Ophelia was such a weak villain (in character development, not actual power)! She was one-dimensional and I had a hard time buying her level of absolute evil. I think it's a hazard of introducing the main villain (aside from, you know, magical capitalism) in the last book.
  And Orion... oh, Orion.
  I loved his character in the first book, I loved his dynamic with El. Some of it got lost in TLG as he became less human due to the lack of mana, but I hoped he would be further developed in this one. I was wrong. I mean, there's a bit of existential crisis and emotional damage that comes with being turned into a monster by your own mother but most of it was all tell no show. I usually don't mind the telling, because sometimes telling does the trick, but in this case, it very much did not. I wanted to be sobbing and I was just "oh, well, that's tough buddy" because I never felt the urgency of it (and that's coming from someone who is absolutely obsessed with these characters).
  And lastly, some of the scenes in the book literally put me to sleep. I know that the info-dumps are a big source of criticism in this series, but I never minded it because I loved everything, I reveled in the details, they were all so interesting. Idk what happened in this one but I did not feel the same way about the world-building. The scene with El, Liesel, and Yancey as they left the London enclave was such a slog, it was way too long and convoluted IMO.
  There is other stuff, but I'm tired and I'm sad so I'll stop now. I still recommend the series overall because the first book is honestly one of my most beloved reads ever.
• 
  ELLIAS (elliasreads)

  obviously.
  
  
  
  (naomi thinks she's funny or something after pulling that ending.....)
• 
  Namera [The Literary Invertebrate]

  
  
  ⤅ Don't you HATE it when the finale of an amazing series doesn't live up to your expectations???
  
  (Looking at you, Folk of the Air. But this is actually WORSE THAN THAT ONE).
  
  So yeah, considering I gave raving 5-star reviews to the first two books, something has clearly changed. And it's to do with El and Orion. All specific details are in the spoiler tag, but there are some general spoilers throughout.
  
  Sorry, but WTF happened to their relationship???? They were adorable and amazing together. Of course, El is mourning because she thinks he's dead, and she ends up having sex with her friend Liesel. I wasn't a fan of this but I tried to get over it because after all - she thinks he's dead. So yeah, crazy rebound (less than a week), but whatever.
  
  But. Then. He comes back, they have sex... and THEN EL HAS SEX WITH LIESEL AGAIN!!! In a plane toilet, no less. I'm sorry, but that's perilously close to cheating for me, particularly since a) Orion doesn't know about Liesel, El never even f*cking tells him and b) she has sex with Liesel again AFTER she's been with Orion, which I find baffling and infuriating.
  
  I know this is YA but if any book has romance, I'm going to have thoughts about it, and those thoughts are pretty consistent no matter what genre the book is. While I wouldn't call Liesel another 'love' interest because it's about lust, this is NOT what I want to see in the final book of a trilogy while the real love interest doesn't even know about it.
  
  Even with that aside, the relationship between El and Orion takes an absolute nosedive. They barely speak for the entire book - he's physically on the page for maybe 1/5 of the book, he says something on even fewer pages than that - and it just feels like once he's actually back, El hardly ever thinks of him. My God, she lets him go to his mum and barely spares him a thought after that!!!!! The ending clears up absolutely nothing, if anything IMO it makes things worse. I'm actually really upset by this, because I own the first two books in hard copy pretty much solely because the romance/fantasy combo was amazing. I'm definitely not buying this one. Orion's character has been gutted, as has the romance.
  
  The worldbuilding is still amazing, but the grand climax was over way too quickly and easily. I mourn the lost magic of the first two books.
  
  Romance means a lot to me, and the rating reflects this, but obviously (as with anything) YMMV.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Ellen ✵

  This comment section consist of people who are dying after the Last Graduate- and I'm one of them.
• 
  Emily

  I need this. I finished The Last Graduate about 3 minutes ago, and I NEED this.
• 
  Nastassja

  Well, it wasn’t what I expected from this book. Though in some instances it was quite a twist. Still, I feel a little bit let down by the whole maw mouth horde. You could have done bettet, guys.
  
  
  

  So, judging by the annotation, she is going on a quest to save her one true love (i was hoping for that, yay), and in the process turning into darker El, I hope. I love my characters to be served morally grey.
  
  ~~~~~~~~
  I am ready to turn into a maw-mouth and devour Naomi Novik if she does not deliver a happy ending after the shit she's thrown at us at the end of the previous book.
  

  
• 
  mimi (taylor’s version)

  REVIEW WITH (partial) SPOILER
  
  It's no secret that Naomi Novik and I don't really get along.
  But, unfortunately, El and Orion's story was interesting enough to make me stay and now here I am, with the same exact issues of a year ago or so, and very less will to deal with it.
  
  To be completely honest, the first book was about finding out if Orion was really evil and the second book was about how is it possible that Orion killed himself - kind of.
  The third one, the one right here, is about knowing he's not dead and waiting for him to show up, for El to finally stop angrily speaking at people and instead do something about it, and for the answers that were promised to us.
  But what you're looking at is a lot of pages with a very little story.
  
  Were Novik’s writing skills a problem two books ago? Yes.
  Were they a problem a book ago? Sadly, yes.
  Are they a very big big issue here? Definitely.
  
  Some of you may think I'm happy about it, that I'm hate-reading her books or whatever, but I'm not. I didn't expect to like the story in the first place and she hooked me with the sequel. I thought this could have been the grand finale of a pretty good trilogy.
  But it's not. And it's her fault, no one else’s.
  
  From the very first page, you can predict everything is gonna happen. Orion is not dead, something is wrong with him, El wasn't the bad guy all along, big - disgusting - plot twist, the evil witch is gonna come out clean from all of this and happily ever after.
  It's annoying, but it's what we all know it’d have happened. In the meantime, you have to deal with pages and pages of enclaves descriptions, spell lessons, facts nobody cares about and El’s long reflections about herself, the guy she loves, the prophecy, her mom and every damn thing that has ever happened to her.
  And do you wanna talk about the desperate attempt to include every single character of the previous books?
  
  If you incredibly don't care about any of this, the story is nice. Too much El and Orion don't really behave like himself, but they are together and this is all that matters.
  We have our happily ever after, now you can go read well-written books.
  
  ↠ 3 stars
  
  Thanks to Del Rey Books, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.
• 
  Jennifer

  This...was not the third book I was hoping for. In the immediate aftermath of the evil cliffhanger of book 2, I imagined that The Golden Enclaves was going to consist mostly of El kicking enclave ass / righting all the injustices of the System with Orion at her back. Post-dramatic rescue, of course, and with lots of snarky exchanges between El and the people she's come to love and depend on.
  
  Yeah, no. This story is a lot darker and heavier than that, and the stakes are so much higher outside the Scholomance than El and her friends could have guessed. All the secrets that Novik has been hinting at throughout the first two books - about the school, the maw-mouths, the enclaves, El, and Orion - come slowly to light, and the truth is worse than expected.
  
  And of course all the kids have PTSD after their experiences in (and getting out of) the Scholomance. El's anger and grief loom over the entire story, and it's kind of a hard and weird step back after she found friends, love, purpose, and some level of happiness in The Last Graduate. Her friends from school make appearances, but they live all over the world now and are dealing with their own traumas, and the close chumminess of boarding school friendships is gone. Orion is barely present in this book! Agghh! Also, what was that thing with Liesel? Casual sex seems pretty out of character for El, who has never seemed particularly attracted to her, plus Liesel is so calculating and methodical that an encounter with her sounds as sexy as an optometrist visit - "Is A better, or B? A, or B?"
  
  I'm still digesting this story. The third book makes it clear how deliberately the first two books were plotted, and I appreciate that, yet it was noticeably not fun to read. I need to reread parts to understand the mechanics of the plot, which I admit I skimmed over because I am more of a character than a plot reader (and they went on a bit, no?), but I'd really rather reread the first two books.
  
  Hmmm...3.5 stars for now, subject to change.
• 
  Jenny Lawson

  This is an amazing series that I really loved. Some parts were a bit heavy and I'm not sure the end was *quite* what I wanted, but it was still overall incredibly worthwhile.
• 
  Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship

  This is hands-down my favorite series of the last decade, possibly my entire adult life. And I enjoyed this final volume a lot. Not quite as much as the first book, which isn’t unexpected, and I have some quibbles, but I had a ton of fun bingeing it, and expect to enjoy lots of discussion and probably re-reading in the future.
  
  El is finally out of the Scholomance, so we get to see the rest of the wizarding world here and deal with the larger issues that have been percolating throughout the series. The book gets off to a bit of a slow start—I was impatient with the London enclave episode early on, about which I didn’t care that much—but ultimately adopts a frantic pace, full of globetrotting action and with most of the novel taking place over the course of about a week. So it’s fun and addictive, though personally I’d rather it had slowed down a bit to explore how the characters will adjust to being out in the real world and to adult relationships and how they’ll deal with their trauma, instead of simply plot plot plot. El also doesn’t seem to me to experience nearly as much growth or change here as in previous books, which may be because she’s already undergone the growth appropriate to her character and can’t keep changing and still be herself, which is a hazard with series.
  
  But with that out of the way, El is still a fantastic character with a strong and occasionally humorous voice, and it really is a fun and exciting and satisfying plot, with a lot of big, expert reveals that make complete sense and were clearly set up all along, but which for the most part I had not guessed. The reveal about how the enclaves are made was appropriately shocking and horrifying, even though I’d been expecting something like that. The reveal that El had been inadvertently destroying them all along was great—so clearly set up and so perfect, and I had never guessed! The reveal about the prophecy was exactly what I’d always expected—minus the part where Deepthi knew the truth all along and chose not to share—but really well-done, from the reactions of the other relatives to El’s embracing her true heroic identity. The reveal about Orion is the one I’m most confused about, in terms of logistics, but it had also clearly been set up and made sense of who he was.
  
  I also appreciate what a mature story this is, not going the easy route of Big Bads whose defeat will automatically fix the world, but instead targeting the system that encourages the haves to exploit the have-nots. Throughout the trilogy, Novik has refused to place the blame on individuals, instead looking at the way everyone is operating within a system, and within the flaws of human nature, and people generally will do right and help others when given the chance. And at the same time, almost everyone will also participate in an exploitative system when it suits their interests; opting out often isn’t realistic. Making a better world isn’t a matter of killing bad people, but of creating an environment in which our better natures can thrive. It’s such a biting indictment of capitalism, without ever taking the easy way out. Some commentary on the ending: I definitely expected a bigger, more comprehensive solution than this to the problems of the enclaves and the mals. My pet theory was that they’d have to get rid of magic entirely because in the end it’s just making their lives worse—I mean, sure, magic is cool and all, but would you take in exchange a 75% adolescent mortality rate, and being forced to spend your entire life watching your back? That’s a terrible deal.
  
  But I figured if not that, they’d at least do something to root out the source of mals and to stop people building enclaves—it seemed to me that the thrust of the first two books was about not accepting partial solutions that only saved some people, but inspiring people to work together to find one that will help everybody. And El’s power is so massive that this seemed to me within her grasp. But in the end, the only thing she really defeats is the evil within Orion. And sure, she’s working on the maw-mouth problem. But nothing else has changed—some form of enclaves is still necessary, and even the Scholomance is going back into use, which seems to me a terrible outcome even if its hellishness will be reduced. And it’s a mature and realistic ending, for sure. I was impressed that Novik just lets Ophelia continue on her merry way, consolidating power. A lesser author would’ve had her pointlessly attack El so that El could kill her off. (Ophelia, by the way, is the most realistic psychopath I’ve ever seen in fantasy. She can read a room, she’s never pointlessly antagonistic—you can actually believe her as a political leader—which makes her far more chilling than those clueless mustache-twirlers. Novik even avoids giving her one of those silly villain monologues, by having her archrival deliver it instead and explain his knowledge with “well, I have spies”! That was clever, if a bit anticlimactic.) But with seemingly unlimited power to change the world in El’s grasp, realism was less satisfying to me here than it is elsewhere.
  
  Otherwise, I really like the way this volume gives the ladies time to shine; much of the book consists of El running around with her girl posse, without gender ever being an issue. But I would have liked a little more depth from these characters and their relationships. Aadhya has always seemed to me a somewhat hollow sidekick type: I want to like her, but it’s never felt like she personally has much going on, and her friendship with El is almost too straightforward to be interesting. Liu is more interesting and has always had her own arcs, but there the friendship doesn’t seem to have much substance. Chloe and Liesel are strong characters, and El’s relationships with each of them do have complexity, but they aren’t what I’d call close. El just happens to intersect with each of them for a brief moment in her life (although she’s perhaps getting there with Liesel). And Gwen, of course, is fabulous but totally sidelined! We don’t even learn whether El is repeatedly running off without telling her or whether Gwen made the decision to stay behind. Though, I should round off these complaints by noting that El and Orion’s relationship is also somewhat lacking in substance in this book; even when physically present, he’s mostly absent here. Perhaps complex interpersonal relationships were never what Novik was trying for, and overall the characters are enjoyable and believable, even those with small roles. And I was pleased with the romantic resolution: El and Orion finally seem poised to make a go of their relationship, but Novik doesn’t overdo it by having them make a firm commitment or giving us some awful Babies Ever After epilogue. They’re 18, lifelong commitment should not be on the agenda right now! And as a reader, you get to imagine whatever long-term outcome you want.
  
  At any rate, I’m sorry it’s over, but it did have to end, and it ended strongly enough that I’d have no hesitation recommending the trilogy to new readers. This was a fabulous experience all around, and my heartfelt thanks to Novik for writing it.
• 
  r.

  orion lake is harrowhark nonagesimus for people whose homestuck was harry potter
• 
  ailish &#x1f327;️

  Woooooooow... in a shocking turn of events I hated this.
  
  I don't think it entirely came out of nowhere, but this last book truly felt so far removed from everything I adored about the first book that they could have been two entirely different stories. I am just stewing in disappointment.
  
  I feel like The Scholomance story really ended in the second book. Already I liked that book a lot less than the first, it had the "final book" feeling where it doesn't really focus on character development or relationships, but on fixing the problem of the series to end the story. Not only that but I really felt like El's character arc concluded there. She saves all the children in The Scholomance, proving to herself that she's not the evil Sorceress she was always destined to be.
  
  So then why did the story keep going? (To ruin my life lol.) The Golden Enclaves felt like a conclusion to the world The Scholomance is set in, not a conclusion the story or character arcs we were given in A Deadly Education. El, our main character, didn't really get any solid closing arc or detrimental character development, because she already achieved that in the last book. If anything, El just felt like a tool to further move along the plot and fix the problems that had been going on beyond the story of the school, but this all felt so new because all this story has even been up until this point has been the school. And I know, it's a weak argument given El's dream about setting up her own enclaves, but the story given for her to get to that point just felt so distant from the original Scholomance story.
  
  My absolute biggest beef, without a goddamn doubt, is how DIRTY Orion was done in these last two books. My hero boy was the literal star of A Deadly Education, and I just want to know where the hell that guy went????? Orion's originally soft character was so absent from the second book, granted it gets explained because of his lack of mana, but it truly just felt like he was a different, blander character entirely. And in The Golden Enclaves , my heart was just broken, that man was a shell of his former self. I really was tuning in to read about him these last two books and it was such a let down.
  
  Not to even mention the romance. I am so sour and bitter about the cheating, which added absolutely nothing to the plot and didn't even get addressed in the end?? I feel like the romance peaked in the first book with the slow burn and yearning, and the obvious cliff-hanger of the second book (exhibit A of Orion being the character El and this story didn't deserve), so for the sake of my own suffering I'm going to pretend they ended things there.
  
  In terms of the actual writing, I feel like this more than other books over-did it with the internal monologue. Normally this doesn't bother me in the slightest as the world and magic system is so interesting that I'm always happy to learn more, and I love the cynical and pessimistic way that El thinks, but this book just took it to a whole new level of over-explaining a lot of things the reader already knew.
  
  Overall this just felt like a spin-off to the original story where everything is boring and romance is dead. I know I'm being a big cry-baby about it, but I run purely on emotions, not logic. It should have been a duology.
• 
  Bec

  debating whether this should be a 4 of 5 star read, will have a re-read later on and may bump up. my book store had the books on the shelf early so i was able to read it a bit before release - i did not receive an arc, i have the published wide-release copy.
  
  i wanted to address the issue that seems to very contentious with this book in spoiler section below, but non-spoilery; please don't decide to not read this book just because people have stated they weren't happy with their understanding of events that happened. These events are complex, and in order to understand why they happen, you need to read the book! And if afterwards you're still angry, then maybe try reading the below. please don't read if you don't want to be spoiled for the entire book! please !!!:
  
  SPOILERS !!
  
  some people have reacted very negatively to El sleeping with Liesel during this book, especially stating that it is offensive as it is a bi stereotype. Firstly, i am bi, and i think part of the issue here is that we are applying rules to relationships etc that we could feasibly be in in real life, as opposed to the situation which El and Orion are both dealing with in this fantasy book.
  
  Before i go into the specific times, it should be noted that it has never been established that El and Orion are in an exclusive relationship. El did her best the entire second book to NOT get in a relationship with Orion, and only succumbed to having sex with him because she thought she was going to die the next day. She barely wanted to say that he could come meet her on the outside! Yes, she clearly loves him, but she is too practical to be in a relationship at that point. Then on the outside, she reflects on her previous assumption that they would both have to date around a bit because they're young and they should do so before determining that they want to be with each other. She states that now she just wants to stay with Orion, but this is before we learn more about Orion's situation.
  
  1. the first time, El thinks Orion is dead! This intimacy is described as a coping mechanism, NOT a romantic interest. A way to centre herself into her body because she is clearly spiraling out of control. She acknowledges that she is attracted to Liesel but never indicates that she is another romantic interest as people are stating.
  
  2. i'll be honest the second time caught me by surprise initially as i also thought it was odd, given Orion was "back", but, again, that's not the full story! At this stage:
  - El has been shown evidence that Orion is essentially a mawmouth in human form
  - El's mother has said there is nothing more that she can do for him. Only (maybe) his mother could do anything, and El is very confident she will not fix him!
  - Orion literally asks El to kill him, as she is the only person who could. And then when she essentially implies she can't, he leaves. Literally runs away.
  - El is ruthlessly pessimistic when it comes to her personal life and relationships (romantic or otherwise), so of course when faced with the above information - where she (at least subconsciously) thinks that she'll have to kill Orion, or at the very least, they can no longer be together - remember, he has LEFT her because he is having a gd crisis of humanity, he is not the same upon returning!!! This is devastating to El of course, it's like losing him all over again. This, to me, reads as what would be understood to be a break up in this context IF they were in a relationship. Orion has said that he can't do this (life), and that his only option at continuing to be alive (!!!) is to get his mum to reverse what she did, which El knows isn't going to happen.
  With this context in mind, i don't think you can say El is cheating. a) they were never exclusive (yes Orion clearly was never going to want anyone but El, but that is not the same thing!), and b) contextually, within El and Orion's understanding of the world they couldn't keep being together at that point.
  I think it's important to not apply rules about dating and relationships to a situation that is very different to life that we know.
  Also, re: people saying that El never told Orion - first of all, we don't know that! El does not have an inner monologue where she states that she will keep this from Orion. We do not see their entire lives - it's evident that they have conversations off page, and how do we know that wasn't brought up in casual conversation? I honestly can't see Orion having an issue with it.
  
  I don't think its perpetuating a stereotype that bi people cheat - i think canonically there is an overall less heteronormative monogamous approach to relationships, but that doesn't mean that there is cheating.
  
  Anyway that was a rambling rant, but it's such a shame to see 2 star ratings and people saying they're not even going to bother reading the book because of this, despite not knowing the full situation.
  
  
• 
  lisa (lewis hamilton's version)

  if i had a nickel every time one of my most anticipated sequels this year turns out to be shit and ruins the wonderful characterization of the previous books, i would have two nickels, which is not a lot but it's weird that it happened twice, right???
• 
  ☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣

  DD Jan 10, 2021 OMG, YES! I was actually scared to look at the series page to see whether #3 would be coming! It would've been totally evil to leave us hanging in the void for all eternity after that cliffy! Thankfully, it will be so now I'm all hot and bothered for it to happen to my reading list!!!!!
  
  As always, I expect it to be something crazy & spectacular! One love, Schoolomance series! Hope it will be much, MUCH longer than a mere trilogy!
  
  Patience that ate Fortitude? Seriously? Uh-huh.
  
  I need my HEA, HE or ELSE!
• 
  Maria

  No matter how old I get, magic schools will always pull me in. Maybe because Im still hoping to get recruited?
  
  Anyway I enjoyed this series and its particular spin on a magical world. I thought the pacing in this book was better than the first two in the series.
  
  Two of my favorite things about this series?
  1. The villains make sense. No one is bad for no reason. These evil creatures have a relatable end game.
  2. The Mundane ( or this series muggles) World paralleled our current political climate and makeup. The way the British enclaves built themselves on the unwilling backs of other countries was exactly what i would have expected. Would have loved to see more South American and Eastern European witches, but with African and multiple kinds of Asian witches there was better representation than a lot of books.
  
  I listened to the audiobook and aside from needing to work on her American accents thought the narrator did a really good job.
• 
  NAT.orious reads ☾

  This book is for… those moments when your neurodiversity just won’t let you not finish a series.

  
  ⤐ Additionally.
  All of Naomi’s good writing and El’s witty lines will not make up for the fact that I do feel somewhat let down by this book. I almost feel bad typing this out, especially because I have a bit of a hard time pinpointing my criticism.
  
  While I could appreciate El as a whole – if you do not love her you are seriously not my kind of person, bye – and empathize with her struggles, I had a hard time enjoying myself and not feeling like my biggest win reading The Golden Enclaves would be finishing a series and adding another read to my Halloween-themed reading mission (Yes, I AM NEURODIVERSE; HOW COULD YOU TELLLL???). While there are many reasons to read, I must say ‘getting it over with’ is not the best one and actually robs you of great experiences you could have had doing other things instead.
  
  I suspect the significant lack of Scholomance played a part in my disappointment. I always loved the "Hogwarts but make it deadly" - it fed into the thrill of the books and always kept me at the edge of my seat, literally expecting a mal behind every corner. I was positively surprised by all the threads coming together in the way they did - I did not expect such a big picture.
  
  ⤐ What’s happening.
  

  ‘You don’t even like her!’ I grimaced. ‘She grows on you. A bit.’ ‘Like a rashling?’

  
  spoiler alert: You won’t believe who ‘her’ is but I’m here for the bisexuality ❤.
  _____________________
  3 STARS. Decent read that I have neither strongly positive nor negative feelings about. Some things irked me and thus it does not qualify as exceptional.