The one thing you never talk about while you’re in the Scholomance is what you’ll …
A Satisfying Conclusion, Although I Miss the School a Bit
4 stars
The characters continued to be a delight and I enjoyed spending time with them.
The ending was strong and satisfying, although the middle third was a bit of a slog and less enjoyable than the prior two books. It took some time for the book to find its footing outside of the school setting.
The allegory was a little heavy handed and didn't always work, but I enjoyed what it was going for.
Retroactively upgrading Book 2 to five stars, because one book in the series deserves it and 2 was the best.
Return to the Scholomance - and face an even deadlier graduation - in the stunning …
More Complete Than the First One
5 stars
I enjoyed how El continued to develop and grow in a realistic way, and it was great to see her with her friends. Some suspension of disbelief is needed to accept the logic of the Scholomance, but, hey, it's magic.
The only knock was that it dragged a bit in the middle.
This felt like far more of a complete book than the first one, and the story structure worked well to keep me hooked until the conclusion. I'm a bit concerned about how they'll top it being outside of the school in the next one.
There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more …
Excellent Trilogy Starter
No rating
I put a lot of weight on the main character, and El is relatable in a prickly, keep-your-distance kind of way. Thoroughly enjoyable to read.
The magic system was unique and very well thought out. The social commentary was obvious, but enjoyable. I'm interested to see if they expand the worldbuilding beyond the school in the later books.
I desperately want a My Immortal version of this, and it's also sort of like this is a somehow good version of My Immortal.
Drawbacks: El does tend to infodump. It's also painfully obvious that this is the first part of a trilogy rather than a complete story. Not sure I've ever read a book where that was so obvious.
Oliver Park, a young recovering addict from Indiana, finally has everything he ever wanted: sobriety …
Wow, Oliver has Terrible Luck with Men.
3 stars
This was definitely a page turner, and the author knew how to keep me interested and coming back to the book whenever I had free time.
Oliver was sympathetic and I enjoyed his growth throughout the book, particularly his thoughts on learning to free himself from a trap.
It will take some thought, but it was very interesting who Oliver chose to trust and who to conceal from. Especially from the perspective of how that intersects with the history of queerphobia and Oliver's personal history.
Weaknesses here were that it relied a bit too much on coincidence and I thought Nathan's character development was somewhat unearned.
Mira needs to get home for the holidays. Badly. But when an incoming blizzard results …
Good Premise that Fell Short on Execution
2 stars
This was a good premise that needed better characterization or a better twist to elevate it. I didn't feel like I got a very good sense of Mira or Josh's characters. The prose leaned on a handful of descriptive words in a way that became repetitive.
This was a very atmospheric book to listen to on a long drive, and I enjoyed that aspect.
What was the moral here, don't trust your instincts? Is that a good thing to teach young women?
Note on the audiobook edition: At first I felt the reader was overenunciating, but I got used to it quickly.
It's not an entirely original idea, but I really enjoyed the form of a memoir that showed the author's interaction with history and how he was taught it. Most history books are straight history that may briefly make a case in the epilogue, but otherwise don't focus much on how it affects the present. The prose wasn't anything special, but Seidule did speak with his own voice and let his emotion come through. It was interesting how he balanced the shame of having believed white supremacist history with pride in the US and the Army.
He consistently referred to plantations as "enslaved labor farms", which is a good call and something I'll try to remember to do. He also repeatedly emphasized that the Army still wears blue.
Two hangups here: (i) I'm not sure who this book is for. There were some new things I learned, especially about Lee personally, …
It's not an entirely original idea, but I really enjoyed the form of a memoir that showed the author's interaction with history and how he was taught it. Most history books are straight history that may briefly make a case in the epilogue, but otherwise don't focus much on how it affects the present. The prose wasn't anything special, but Seidule did speak with his own voice and let his emotion come through. It was interesting how he balanced the shame of having believed white supremacist history with pride in the US and the Army.
He consistently referred to plantations as "enslaved labor farms", which is a good call and something I'll try to remember to do. He also repeatedly emphasized that the Army still wears blue.
Two hangups here: (i) I'm not sure who this book is for. There were some new things I learned, especially about Lee personally, but I broadly agreed going in and there were new details, but nothing major. I don't know if the people who need to read this ever will. You'd have to be at least half-convinced to pick it up in the first place, so maybe it's function is just the last step for people who previously couldn't admit the war was a white supremacist project, and (ii) every white Southerner experiences white supremacist and lost cause teaching, but I discussed it with my mother and I think Seidule's case, based on his father's profession, the historic towns he lived it, the college he attended, and his military career, was particularly bad. My mom was taught that Lee was a good man, but I don't think her childhood was saturated with it the way Seidule describes.
The chapel at Washington and Lee sounds like a real nightmare, and it's on my list to visit next time I drive down I-81 on a day that it's open.
I don't exactly need anyone to tell me Robert E. Lee was a bad guy, but this got great reviews. I'm interested to see how his experience growing up in an earlier era in the South compares to that.
Distinguished by Tone and Memorable Character Writing
3 stars
The strengths here were the ethereal, fairy tale feeling of the writing, and the characterization of Ash and Uriel. The characters felt ageless, both old and young, which is a tricky thing to pull off. There were some good explorations of identity and the importance of choosing it for oneself rather than being imposed from the outside.
The Ash-Uriel dynamic was strong and Ash's increasing discomfort with Uriel becoming more human had a lot of depth.
It got more creative toward the end, but for a while it seemed like they were solving their problems by just killing people.
A bit rushed toward the end and Sullivan didn't do much for me as a villain. He was kind of just a goon.
