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The Golden Enclaves, by Naomi Novik
Oct. 20th, 2022 02:46 pmRemember how I was unmoved by the first two books in the Scholmance series? Well joke's on me, this is the third and final book and I was moved! I nearly gave up on it multiple times ("why am I reading this book when I didn't like the last two in the series?" I thought to myself, as I rolled my eyes over the opening section that was basically nothing but extended nothing-happens-but-mourning-Orion scenes) and only persevered because a friend of mine really wanted to talk about it with me, and I'm glad I did!
The first two books in the series were, ultimately, a) school stories, and b) monster-fighting stories, and I was bored. This one is about what you do with yourself when you survive past a point you never thought you'd survive, how you figure out who you are and what you want to do with yourself, and making it happen. I was into it!
Also now that we're out of the school, we got to explore some of the worldbuilding in more detail, and some of it was genuinely interesting. And I got more into the female friendships that were portrayed. And the main character, El, turns out to be bisexual and had a very interesting thing going on with another girl who she had complicated feelings about, which I loved. And we got to see more of El's complicated family dynamics!
HOWEVER. I loved all this.......which means that I'm even more frustrated about the things that I feel the book fell down on. I was invested! You had me, Novik! And I was let down!
( yeah, significant spoilers follow )
The first two books in the series were, ultimately, a) school stories, and b) monster-fighting stories, and I was bored. This one is about what you do with yourself when you survive past a point you never thought you'd survive, how you figure out who you are and what you want to do with yourself, and making it happen. I was into it!
Also now that we're out of the school, we got to explore some of the worldbuilding in more detail, and some of it was genuinely interesting. And I got more into the female friendships that were portrayed. And the main character, El, turns out to be bisexual and had a very interesting thing going on with another girl who she had complicated feelings about, which I loved. And we got to see more of El's complicated family dynamics!
HOWEVER. I loved all this.......which means that I'm even more frustrated about the things that I feel the book fell down on. I was invested! You had me, Novik! And I was let down!
( yeah, significant spoilers follow )
