The Last Graduate, by Naomi Novik

Lesson Two of the Scholomance takes up where Lesson One ended in A Deadly Education, with El and her allies starting their final year at the magical and deadly boarding school. They have no idea how successful their repair of the cleansing machinery was and therefore whether or not last year’s Senior graduating class made it out. El receives a warning message from her mother that poses a dilemma, but she is soon more preoccupied with the uniquely challenging curriculum the school has imposed on her. Stretched to her limits, El finds new reserves and new allies in the fight against the maleficent creatures who are out to devour all wizards and especially the vulnerable young ones. But can she expand her abilities to help all those who need her protection and what will be the cost? Novik’s wryly funny dark fantasy holds such interesting parallels to political and cultural divides in the real world, with equally interesting solutions. A sense of foreboding underpins the story, which pays off as expected in a slightly unexpected way. The ending makes it difficult to imagine how Lesson Three will go, but it will be great fun to find out.