This was an odd one, since it wasn’t actually set in the Scholomance for the most part, but in the wider wizard world. I’m not sure I liked the change. Part of me wishes that we’d had a first trilogy set in the Scholomance, and then a second set in the world outside, but admittedly I don’t think Novik could have told the story she was aiming to tell with that structure. I thought El went back to being a somewhat one-note character (she is ALWAYS ANGRY), and also I started to get seriously frustrated with the pages-long internal monologues as El sorted through her feelings, ruminated on Orion, or tried to figure out (usually incorrectly) what other people were thinking or planning. I think my favourite character was the no-nonsense and practical Liesel, who could figure out the most efficient path forward, nod, and get on with it, in a way most of the other characters in the book could not. For all my quibbles with El, the wizard world is evocative, I enjoyed seeing the various enclaves, and I appreciated how everything pulled together in the ending.