Amazon.ca:Customer reviews: The Golden Enclaves: The Scholomance, Book 3

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on September 28, 2022

Haven’t had a chance to read it yet but the hole in the jacket sort of ruins the look of the three books beside each other.

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Granny Weatherwax

A satisfying conclusion, but falls short of first 2 books

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 4, 2022

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I have kind of mixed feelings about the GE. I pre-ordered the book and was counting down the days to its release. Once I finished the reading, I needed some time to process before writing a review. I guess I must admit that I feel a little disappointed, given how much I had enjoyed DE and LG.

What I enjoyed and thought was done well:

- The story wraps up with a satisfying conclusion for all the main protagonists.
- The Scolomance lore is expanded in an unexpected way and I was genuinely surprised by the revelation around the origin of maw-mouths.
- We get a much more detailed understanding of Orion's background and nature
- The last third of GE was up to par with the earlier books and once the pacing ramps up, it does not let up until the end

Areas that I think did not work as well:

- The first half of the book slows down the narrative considerably, as El tries to regroup from her personal losses and decide on her next steps. The first 2 books had El and her friends fighting for their lives every minute of every day. This tension is pretty much gone, as El becomes an insanely powerful and invulnerable protagonist, that essentially removes any form of jeopardy for her and her friends.
- The scope of GE expands significantly now that El is out of the Scolomance and we are treated to a world tour of the Enclaves. For me the large descriptive sections on the workings of the London Enclave and Sintra to a smaller extent, were big sidetracks to the main story. There are several new characters in London that we spend alot of time with, but do not move the story forward at all and pretty much disappear for the remaining parts of the book
- There was obviously a need for some world building to describe the Enclaves that El was visiting for the first time, but this really does slow down the main action that does not pick-up until the last third of the book
- All the sexual tension (and rom-com interactions) built up between El and Orion in the first 2 books, and which for me made them so enjoyable, were lost
- El is accompanied on her world tour by one of the least likeable characters from the Last Graduate and their romantic entanglements seemed a big stretch to me, given her continued yearning for Orion. El has such a strong moral center that the idea of her succumbing to a few quick tumbles, against her better reason, was out of character.
- We get a brand new "big-bad" villain to explain Orion's nature. So while I understand the need for an antagonist to fill in the gap left by the Scolomance and its mals trying to continually kill El, this big-bad did not really pose any real threat to El or her friends other than a general menace. I was expecting a final one on one showdown that never materialized and we are left at the end of the story with an unsatisfying standoff
- The core interactive dynamic of El, Aadhya and Liu is sidelined for much of the story.

In Summary, due to the nature of the ending of the Last Graduate, El is thrust into the world and as readers, we lose the Scolomance and much of the magic (pun intended) that comprised the first 2 books. Novik has to re-orientate and perform a decent level of world- building before the main thread of the story can resume and there's the rub. The last third of the book has a number of great reveals and finally gets back on track to wrap up all the open threads. I did enjoy the book and understand that given the ending of the LG, this had to be different from DE and LG, but the outside world was not nearly as magical as what had gone before.

10 people found this helpful

TeeMee-Kraftqueen65-Obsessive Reader

The Final We've All Been Waiting For-Library Loan

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 30, 2022

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From the beginning, you're off and running with El, pretty much where the last book in the series ended. It seemed like forever since the last one had been released, so I was anxiously awaiting this, ever since a release date was given.

It was surprisingly easy to remember the characters and plots from the beginning books of the series. Blessedly it didn't require the author feeling the need to nudge you along over and over with the constant reiteration of the previous books, as so many authors are prone to do. Page fillers and fluff I call it.

As usual, Novik's books are packed with fast paced excitement that has you on the edge of your set the whole time you're reading. This one is no different.

There were a few times I was slightly confused with what was going on, and I had to read it over 2 to 3 times before my brain finally comprehended what was happening, or made up my mind that in the grand scheme of it all, it didn't matter and just surrendered to the mind-flogging, or eventually just skipped ahead.

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised when it all began to unravel, and I never saw the true evil for where, why, and who the villainous and nefarious wickedness played out to be.
To make it even better, I was blown flat away with the final wrap-up of the conclusion. Couldn't have asked for more from an ending!!

A few drawbacks to the final were as follows:
At times Noviik appeared as lost as this reader was, and rambled on relentlessly.
She would go into these complex, mechanized, procedural details, over-analyzing for far too long, and you'd lose the Fantasy aspect. It felt like I was back in school myself, expected to learn about a subject that was meaningless in the context of the story. I don't know how else to explain it, but it was jarring and would interrupt the overall flow of the storyline. I get it that Seraphina was half-dragon and that they tended to lack emotions and appeared to love detail, and that all her so-called friends were on the fast track toward brilliance. It just needed to be toned down a bit.
It reminded me of that loud coworker we all seem to have in our lives, that has to spew trivial knowledge and statistics in the middle of a Friday afternoon meeting to be sure we understood they were on a much higher level then the rest of us. We get it-shut up already so we can move on already.

One other drawback was the fact that it took 3 years total for the entire series to be published. As much as I read, it's not always possible to remember every single word, action, or scene from book 1 to book 3. I don't want a history lesson, or a rewrite, but a quick one or two sentence reminder to flush the memory with, would have been appreciated.

Overall, I give this final book 4 stars, and 4 stars for the entire series. Highly recommend for Fantasy lovers everywhere.

2 people found this helpful

Random User No. 42

Dark Revelations... and I might have whiplash.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 2, 2022

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Great book, some progression flaws and a ton of room left in that universe for other series/spinoffs/novels to be written.

Characters:
I can't think of what to say here.
El and her friends are such great characters.
Not going to say anything about Orion because I would definitely end up writing spoilers.

Plot progression:
This book got a lot done, but left a lot of space for a sequel or spinoff.
While this book does serve as a reasonable conclusion, it seems very rushed-to-the-end in how it was written when compared to the previous two.
I will be sorely disappointed if nothing else is written in the Scholomance universe.
The Scholomance deserves a spinoff series for the next generation (and some big catastrophe to progress the plot of course).
Liesel deserves a spinoff series for her revenge.
Nobody can tell me otherwise.

The title:
Some dark revelations about enclaves are sure to surprise you in this book.
The ebook page title puts this right in front of you then kind of tells you that it's meaningless with the whole "tiktok made me read it".
Most people aren't on tiktok and I doubt tiktok paid for that bit of advertising/promotion, so I don't get why it's even there tbh.

Plot vs length:
While book 1 was just over 300 pages, book 2 had over 900.
Book 3 had about the same amount of plot-relevant content as book 2, but it all got jammed into 400 pages.
I will admit that book 2 did stretch on a bit, but if the author was trying to keep the books short, she could have easily made this one into two books.

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Mainer

Weakest book of the series but still good

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 1, 2022

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After the cliffhanger of the second book, I expected to jump right in to see what happens next. But...I found the beginning a little slow, and while El is entitled to some whininess, I thought it went on a bit too long. Once the action picked up, it didn't slow down, but that came at a cost to character development. In some regards, I thought El reverted to her behavior during the first parts of the first book. She can also be impulsive and just a bit too self-righteous at times. While I didn't expect romance to be a main part of the story, I did think relationships have always been a substantial portion of the Scholomance books, not just El with Orion but with her various classmates too. Here she went a bit too far into "chosen one" territory for me.
I also found the ending "mushy" as if Ms. Novik couldn't make up her mind. She's one of my favorite authors and writes fantasy that is not YA but has younger characters with dark overtones. The ending to the Golden Enclaves was unsatisfactory to me, with the idea that everyone together can save the one. A core theme of the books is sacrificing one for the good of many and the struggles therein, but it seemed more like the sacrifice of one WHO IS NOT A MAIN CHARACTER is not viable for what is ultimately a dark fantasy series. I don't want to give spoilers, but the ending was very YA-ish.
It's still a great series, and the lore was interesting. The reader learns much about magic in this last book, not just the mechanics but the overarching systems at play here. I give it 3 1/2 stars rounded up.

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Chouette

Reviewed in France 🇫🇷 on December 22, 2022

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J'avais peur, en ayant lu d'autres avis, d'être déçue mais l'intrigue bien qu'un peu longue était intéressante.
J'aurais aimé un peu plus de profondeur mais j'ai bien aimé tout de même.

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Kay

Trilogy review: Hogwarts meets the Hunger Games

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 18, 2022

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A very easy read, and I've been struggling to read fiction lately.
Plot romps along really swiftly and the whole story plays out over three books without any time gap. It's not descriptive prose, just swift well worked out plot and characters that grow on you.
Imagine a world where wizards get eaten by something nasty before they meet maturity so they get locked in their Hogwarts for their own safety.... But that all went wrong decades ago. Enter this school's version of Hermione and Harry who start helping fellow students (book 1) then save their school (book 2) and set their sights a bit bigger in book 3.

Sophia Lawhead

Satisfying Ending

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 9, 2023

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This series is like Harry Potter for adults in that there’s mature content, but maintains a strong YA voice. It works because it’s true to the narrator’s character and condensed timeline, but I felt it might have benefited this last book to be from omniscient or multiple viewpoints. But a definite page turner!

Connie

What happens when they get out of the school?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 7, 2022

Verified Purchase

Okay, you have to have read the first two Scholomance books first.

Novik is as always wildly imaginative. This book, like the two previous ones, keeps heading off in directions you hadn't expected, yet make sense in retrospect. You learn a whole lot more about maw-mouths, and people like Liesel, who were relatively minor characters in earlier volumes, get fleshed out. The plot hops around geographically a LOT, and I had to wonder if Novik had been on a world tour and decided to put a lot of the places she visited into this book, quite a change from the claustrophobic earlier volumes set in the school.

It's emotionally intense and deals with real moral issues, like should you sacrifice one person to (potentially) save many. Unlike a lot of YA fantasy, where the good guys head off to defeat the bad guys, here the protagonists are always on the verge of becoming bad guys themselves.

My main criticisms are that it's longer than it really needs to be (though always interesting) and that some of the ways the magic and the mals work really challenges the reader's ability to suspend disbelief. And for the whole series, Orion has never measured up to El. But if you've read the first two, you definitely want to read this one.

sammy

Great World Building, Unnecessary Adult Content

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 14, 2022

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Really love the story line, the world-building, the characters and the almost stream of conscious writing style. I flew through all three books and have recommended the first two to tons of people! However, i haven’t recommended #3 to anyone, because I was so taken aback by the descriptive sexual encounter between Liesle and El, especially because it felt like it totally came out of the blue. Truly, it was so sudden and random, and not a continuing thread, that it very much appeared to be a woke box check. It was so unnecessary and out of nowhere (and pretty explicit), that I would have been equally shocked if it had been between El and any other character in the story, boy or girl, besides Orion. It’s like the editor sent the author a message, saying: “Any chance we could get a lesbian love scene in here somewhere?” And then the author just opened to a random page and quickly added it in.

2 people found this helpful

5 star		70%
4 star		23%
3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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