Book Review: “The Golden Enclaves” by Naomi Novik

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

This story is the third book of The Scholomance series (and possibly the last).

At the end of the second book (The Last Graduate (2021)), all the kids escaped and the deadly school was pushed into the void.  But, right at the end, Orion Lake didn’t come out, and in fact pushed Galadriel (‘El’) out at the last second.

Orion and El are world wide heroes for saving so many lives, but El is inconsolable over the sudden and unexpected loss of her lover.  It all makes no sense.  Why did he do it?  They were safe.  Everyone was safe! Grieving and depressed, even her mom’s healing can’t reach her.

But everyone isn’t safe.  Enclaves are crashing.  Even mighty London (which she hates) is under assault by a maw mouth.  And El is the only one who can actually kill a maw mouth, so she must come out of her funk and help, no matter how undesirable the victims are.

The Golden Enclaves follows El and her friends as they unravel what is behind the attacks, the awful secret that lies (literally) underneath the Enclaves, and, indeed, the even more awful truth about Orion and Galadriel.

Stuff happens.  Magic stuff happens.  Will good hearts prevail?

The jacket indicates that this is “the conclusion” to a trilogy.  But I wouldn’t be terribly surprised to hear more from Galadriel.

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1. Naomi Novik, The Golden Enclaves, New York, Del Rey, 2022.

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