I really liked this book; but I think not as much as I liked the series.

Things I loved:

Things I do not love:

…but it all came together in the essential ways to make the end make sense. 

So, I feel like I’m over-scoring slightly, but this book went so much deeper into a well-structured magic system, we got more of most of the characters we loved, and we got a glimpse of the outside world in a really fun globe-trotty way - all to close out a pretty evenly-paced series in a highly satisfying way. 4.5 seems right.

Okay so I was really expecting this book to be like fully mind-blowing and stuff but tbh it didn't really  live up to that expectation. First of, the thing was Liesel was so random, like they didn't even know each other that well and boom they have a thing?? Like? I'm not sure if I missed out something between them in the last books (to be fair I took a long break in between the last book and this one) but I don't actually remember seeing much chemistry between them and just friendship of sorts? And like why was she in a sort of relationship with Liesel when she had Orion and she still had that kind of relationship after knowing Orion was alive like huhh??? The reveal that

El was actually really the one bringing down the enclaves because she had the ability to kill the mawmouths which were actually the foundations for the enclaves

was quite shocking but like it didn't really feel like much after reading the reveals in the past 2 books? The characters didn't really grow that much and the relationship between El and Orion was kind of weird

like the reveal that Orion was literally a mawmouth and that his mother, the next Domina of New York is literally a maleficer because she made him her Mal killing machine that can also extract the mana from them was part of it but still

made this book like kind of not as high stakes? Like the relationship between El and Orion made the ending of the last book so impactful and now in this book it was barely there. The previous 2 books were very high stakes and fast paced but this one is much slower and they're also out of The Scholomance which was part of the reason why the previous books were so engaging. I really loved El's character and I still like her in this book although I missed her usual snarkiness and I guess she really grew to be a bigger person but I miss her insults that are like the funniest comparisons ever but we didn't get to see much of that since El was nicer in this book. Like I really liked being in her head in the past books precisely because of the way she thinks and it wasn't as present in this book. Also I didn't like that El's friends were barely present in this book.. like they were there but for didn't add as much as they used to. I'm also kind of in a book hangover after Iron Flame and this made it worse honestly. Had really high hopes because I loved the other books :(

Ough. ouchie. 

I came into this book wondering how there would be 400 pages of post-graduation, expecting some stuff with Orion maybe bc of the cliff-hanger, but by god, i never expected this. I got 300 pages in and AGAIN, confused how we were gonna keep going. AND IT WAS SO HOT, OMG,,, 

Last chapter was a little underwhelming, but I digress,,

Everything about El coping by (checks notes) (squints) HAVING SEX WITH THE VALEDICTORIAN?? HELLO??? Comedic, almost. ALSO ORION BEING A FUCKING MAW-MOUTH/HUMAN HYBRID CREATURE??? Oh my days, bruv. Smacked the shit out of me. THE WAY MAW-MOUTHS ARE EVEN MADE??? Kys. I was heaving. Liu my bbg,,,

The third book in an original trilogy has a hard task: it has to take the world that’s been established in the first book, the stakes that have been raised in the second, and all of the characters we’ve come to care about and give it all a satisfying conclusion. The Golden Enclaves gives it a pretty good shot, and mostly succeeds. 

The pacing is the main thing dragging the book down. El saves multiple enclaves from collapse, with similar tactics each time, which drags just a bit. We even go to a couple of the locations twice. It’s a way to see the broader world outside of the Scholomance, which is neat, but I would have appreciated more variety. It felt like Novik was starting to run out of plot ideas. That being said, each sequence sets up El learning new information, and each of the big reveals hit with appropriate horror. Especially that

enclaves are built on crushing a child to eternal deathlessness as a maw-mouth

- the adrenaline in this chapter was already racing, and the revelation feels like a punch in the gut. 

It’s evident that Novik knew where this trilogy was going when she started it. Each of the plot threads was sufficiently wrapped up, even El’s relationship with her family. I didn’t even know I needed the scenes with

El’s grandparents in India, but the depth of her grandfather’s love made me cry

.  We get to spend time with many of the characters we met in the Scholomance and a few fun new ones (though I definitely thought Yancy would be coming back later in the book – they spend a lot of time on her for a one-off character). I even started to like Liesel. My last minor complaint, though, is that I still just don’t really buy El’s feelings for Orion. Especially given what we come to find out, he doesn’t really have much of a personality. I fully buy the tragedy of his story, but the romantic part feels a little thin. But I guess the heart wants what it wants. And it did set up a great, emotional conclusion to the trilogy. 

Miscellaneous thoughts: 

-   I started to suspect that

El was behind the destruction of the enclaves

towards the beginning, especially given the prophecy we’ve heard so much about, but I thought it was

related to her using mana at all

. I definitely didn’t call the

maw-mouths

. 

-  I continue to love El’s mom’s Wiccan-esque approach to magic and how different it is from what we see from every other wizard in the world. 

A beautiful end to The Scholomance trilogy with a good balance of adventure, drama, and tenderness. Did not expect the series to end this way when I first began it, but I am pleasantly surprised! I think the pacing could have been a bit slower/more time could have been spent with the conclusion, but overall it was a fun read. A huge highlight of this book and the entire series for me is the focus on female friendships! It was wonderfully executed in a way I found both heartwarming and believable. I think certain aspects of the character relationships could have been addressed a bit better (i.e.

El not telling Orion about her and Liesel’s sexual relations

), but that didn’t take away too much from my general, positive experience! Would read again :)