[A quick note: This was one of my HIGHEST anticipated reads of 2021. No joke. I was bummed when the release got delayed from July to September. I love this series so much and canโt wait for the 3rd book. While the second didnโt quite live up the first, I still really like this one. These are both the UK editions. The top one is standard. The bottom one is the Illumicrate version.]
โ๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ฌ๐งโ๐ญ ๐ ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ซ๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก. ๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ฌ๐งโ๐ญ ๐ ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ซ๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก ๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฅ ๐๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฒ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ.โโNaomi Novik
Slime monsters, thousands of students, and a school that wants to kill you? What more could you want from a dark academia setting? How about a badass female MC whoโs prickly as a cactus? What about a cute teddy bear of a romantic interest whoโs viewed as a hero and wants to hunt monsters all day? The Scholomance is back again! The second installment of this series was so much fun. I really enjoyed diving back in to this increasingly familiar world. While I did experience a few minor disappointments, overall I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
El is aโฆdifferent character. Sheโs imperfect. Sheโs not very friendly. She is completely unapologetic. And until now, sheโs been content to lookout for herself and only herself. Until she realizes that she has the power to save her classmates. Hello internal conflict! My favorite part of the storytelling is all of Elโs asides. It can take ages to get through a sequence of events because El takes so many detours in explaining and offering background information. Some might find this boring. I enjoy it. Plus, it feels like itโs part of Elโs character.
Things have severely changed in the Scholomance this year. Suddenly, monsters arenโt attacking students anymore. Unless youโre El. In which case theyโre out to get you. But why the change? Why is El the new target? Why is the school out to get her? Or is it? Suddenly El is viewed as the necessityโthe only student capable of getting everyone else safely through Graduation. She goes from being a nobody to being extremely important. This is a bit much for her to handle. And she doesnโt handle it all that wellโsheโs prickly, remember? Sheโs always been the reject.
And poor Orion!!! My big doofus of a teddy bear. I love him. Truthfully heโs my favorite character because heโs different from most male romantic interests, so I was bummed that I didnโt see much of him for the first 30% of the book. But he does play an increasingly prevalent role as the book goes on. In the first book, Orion was the hero. Every monster attackโhe was there to defend. But when all the monsters disappear and begin only attacking El, Orion finds himself out of work and out of โmanaโ. Now heโs desperate to do some slaying. He takes to patrolling the halls just in hopes of coming across something. Itโs pretty funny because heโs so obsessed that his grades and performance begins to drop.
The plot went in a direction I was NOT expecting, and Iโm still not entirely sure how I feel about that. Mostly I wish it wouldnโt have. It felt too desperate. I like this story for its dark academia vibes and seeing a school that suddenly isnโt as darkโฆkinda messes with the vibe for me? This was one of my biggest negatives. My other negative is Iโd have liked to see more of Orion + El earlier on. It became a frustration point during the first half of the story. And finally, the BIGGEST frustration point was the cliff hanger. IT DROVE ME NUTS. Really nuts. Iโm still pretty salty about it.
Buuuutttt, I really do love this world and the story. So itโs hard to be too upset over any of my negatives. I will be eagerly awaiting the next book. ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐: ๐/๐โญ๏ธ
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