The Last Graduate (Naomi Novik) - ★★★★★

Me before reading this:

Ohmigod ohmigod ohmigooooooood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me after reading this:

That ending!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so, here's a little context. A Deadly Education was one of the funniest books I've ever read. It was just so addictive, with its witty banter, sarcasm galore, and stream-of-consciousness narration. I was so hooked that every few days, I would compulsively check NetGalley for an arc of The Last Graduate (I know this makes me sound like an obsessive fangirl, but sorry not sorry).

So when I went into this book, I had sky-high expectations. And oh, did it deliver!

I loved Orion's character development, mostly centered in the last, action-filled chapters of the book. I really got to learn what made him tick. But as much as he was a hero and saved all those lives, I couldn't help but get Anakin-Skywalker-just-about-to-turn-Darth-Vader vibes. I mean, seriously. Orion was able to pull mana (or maybe it's more like malia) from mals, a thing that no one else had ever done (just like a maleficer, only with mals). But he was literally addicted to it, as shown by his withdrawal symptoms when he was unable to and his single, unrelenting desire to hunt mals. All he cared about was hunting (or should I say, draining) mals, and it wasn't for the heroism. Sure, Orion liked it when people called him a hero, but that was never his motivation. Deep down, he knew that being a hero was a lie. When the seniors from Shanghai tried to kill El, Orion wanted to murder them. And he didn't just want to murder them, he would've done it had El not stopped him. 

But El was oblivious to this. Or maybe she was selectively ignoring it because she cared about him and didn't want to see it. Either way, it came back to bite her. Even after they dreamed about their futures together, even after they started to hope that maybe there would be an after, Orion chose to kill one last maw-mouth instead of escaping with El. He knew he was going to die, and instead of choosing to survive, he stayed to get just one more fix, to kill just one more mal. He could've escaped with El and killed plenty of mals later, but no. He couldn't - or wouldn't - fight the compulsion. 

In the next book, El will probably be devastated by Orion's, well, I can't say sacrifice, because he wasn't saving anyone, nor can I say suicide, because if he could've killed the mal AND survived, he would've done so. I can see some big changes in her character caused by both her escape from the Scholomance (she'll be in a different environment, where she doesn't need to constantly be looking over her shoulder) and the loss of Orion (through her grief and the trust issues that will probably result from finding love and then being burned). I'm looking forward to reading the next book, which I, sadly, (as a consequence of reading this arc) will have to wait a long time for.