The Golden Enclaves
Author: Naomi Novik
Published by: Del Rey books
Pages: 405
Format: Hardback
My Rating: ★★★★
The one thing you never talk about while you’re in the Scholomance is what you’ll do when you get out – not even the richest enclaver would tempt fate that way.
But that impossible dream has somehow come true for El and her classmates. And what’s more, she didn’t even have to become the monstrous dark witch she’s prophesised to become to make it happen. Instead of killing enclavers, she saved then, and now the world is safe for all wizards. Peace and harmony have enveloped all the enclaves of the world.
Just kidding.
Instead, someone else has picked up the project of destroying enclaves in El’s stead, and everyone she saved is at risk again with a full-scale enclave war on the horizon. And so, the first thing El needs to do after miraculously escaping the Scholomance is to turn straight around a find a way back in.
My thoughts:
A big thank you to author Naomi Novik, and Del Rey books for sending me out a an early editionof the book! I was also lucky enough to speak with Naomi on a zoom session, which was such a lovely surprise.
Naomi Novik’s Scholomance trilogy is a compelling and morally complex saga about a magical school that trains up young witches and wizards by requiring them to fight for their lives from the moment they arrive.
The Golden Enclaves is the third and final book in a rich and fantastical coming-of-age trilogy about powerful students, their dangerous (and occasionally deadly) magic school, and their wider wizarding world woven through with themes of societal inequality, the power of friendship, and the importance of questioning and challenging the status quo.
Students of the Scholomance know it is a school of magic unlike any you have ever encountered. There are no teachers, no holidays and friendships are purely strategic. Once you are inside there are only two ways out: you graduate, or you die. Failure means certain death, and the odds of survival are never equal.
El Higgins has always been uniquely prepared for the school’s many dangers. She and her unlikely group of friends have survived graduation thanks in part to El’s incredibly deadly and destructive gift or ‘affinity’. But El knows what could happen if she ever gave into using the wrong kind of magic. A prophecy claimed she would cause the downfall of wizarding society as they know it, and so she has fought against her dark affinity all her life.
Now free from the school’s walls, El comes to find that not all is as it seems out in the real world. A terrible secret festers at the heart of wizarding society and El will have to find people she can trust to embrace her powers – maybe even her dark affinity – in an attempt to set things right and save her world.
The predecessor to this final instalment, The Last Graduate, ended with a dramatic cliff-hanger, leaving the fate of the male lead, Orion Lake, looking very bleak—so I was invested in finding out what would happen to him and how the protagonist, El, would move forward after her time at the school. I was constantly surprised by the sequence of events that unfold in The Golden Enclaves.
As El travels from enclave to enclave, she uncovers the dark secrets of how these safe havens for wizards are created in the first place. The Golden Enclaves delves deep into the question of sacrificing the few for the greater good of the many.
Everyone is complicit to some degree in the damaging choices that have built the world they’re living in and even the happy endings in this story come with bittersweet sacrifices attached. But the tale is full of clever twists and meaningful resolutions to almost every major character’s arc.
I was relieved that Novik avoids the typical Young Adult pitfalls, confirming once again that this is written for adults, but just with younger characters at the heart of the story. It is also refreshingly lacking in romance. If you expect heart-warming romance, then you will do better walking away from this series. really loved seeing the wizarding world outside of the Scholomance for the first time in The Golden Enclaves. It was enjoyable to see not only inside the Enclaves, but also to witness the ‘ordinary’ life of wizards, with magical cars that allow them to find a parking spot even in the heart of New York City, and everything else we had not glimpsed before when El was at school.
Unlike so many fantasy stories that have come before it, there are no easy answers in The Golden Enclaves. Novik has expertly created a complex world where loose ends are neatly pulled together in the end, which highlights her close attention to detail and the solid plotting that went into this trilogy.
The Golden Enclaves is a rich, fully satisfying conclusion that makes the whole trilogy stronger and more meaningful in retrospect. I have enjoyed reading the Scholomance series very much.
Overall reaction:
A big thank you to author Naomi Novik, and Del Rey books for sending me out a an early editionof the book! I was also lucky enough to speak with Naomi on a zoom session, which was such a lovely surprise.
Naomi Novik’s Scholomance trilogy is a compelling and morally complex saga about a magical school that trains up young witches and wizards by requiring them to fight for their lives from the moment they arrive.
The Golden Enclaves is the third and final book in a rich and fantastical coming-of-age trilogy about powerful students, their dangerous (and occasionally deadly) magic school, and their wider wizarding world woven through with themes of societal inequality, the power of friendship, and the importance of questioning and challenging the status quo.
Students of the Scholomance know it is a school of magic unlike any you have ever encountered. There are no teachers, no holidays and friendships are purely strategic. Once you are inside there are only two ways out: you graduate, or you die. Failure means certain death, and the odds of survival are never equal.
El Higgins has always been uniquely prepared for the school’s many dangers. She and her unlikely group of friends have survived graduation thanks in part to El’s incredibly deadly and destructive gift or ‘affinity’. But El knows what could happen if she ever gave into using the wrong kind of magic. A prophecy claimed she would cause the downfall of wizarding society as they know it, and so she has fought against her dark affinity all her life.
Now free from the school’s walls, El comes to find that not all is as it seems out in the real world. A terrible secret festers at the heart of wizarding society and El will have to find people she can trust to embrace her powers – maybe even her dark affinity – in an attempt to set things right and save her world.
The predecessor to this final instalment, The Last Graduate, ended with a dramatic cliff-hanger, leaving the fate of the male lead, Orion Lake, looking very bleak—so I was invested in finding out what would happen to him and how the protagonist, El, would move forward after her time at the school. I was constantly surprised by the sequence of events that unfold in The Golden Enclaves.
As El travels from enclave to enclave, she uncovers the dark secrets of how these safe havens for wizards are created in the first place. The Golden Enclaves delves deep into the question of sacrificing the few for the greater good of the many.
Everyone is complicit to some degree in the damaging choices that have built the world they’re living in and even the happy endings in this story come with bittersweet sacrifices attached. But the tale is full of clever twists and meaningful resolutions to almost every major character’s arc.
I was relieved that Novik avoids the typical Young Adult pitfalls, confirming once again that this is written for adults, but just with younger characters at the heart of the story. It is also refreshingly lacking in romance. If you expect heart-warming romance, then you will do better walking away from this series. really loved seeing the wizarding world outside of the Scholomance for the first time in The Golden Enclaves. It was enjoyable to see not only inside the Enclaves, but also to witness the ‘ordinary’ life of wizards, with magical cars that allow them to find a parking spot even in the heart of New York City, and everything else we had not glimpsed before when El was at school.
Unlike so many fantasy stories that have come before it, there are no easy answers in The Golden Enclaves. Novik has expertly created a complex world where loose ends are neatly pulled together in the end, which highlights her close attention to detail and the solid plotting that went into this trilogy.
The Golden Enclaves is a rich, fully satisfying conclusion that makes the whole trilogy stronger and more meaningful in retrospect. I have enjoyed reading the Scholomance series very much.
Overall reaction: