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Got busy at work and slowed down a bit in the middle.

On to the conclusion!

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.

Straight on to the next one.

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.

Recommended by a friend.

Justify yourself, another book about wizard school!

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.

Quick read that kept the pages turning.

Book club pick.

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.