She was an unexpected new favourite! Go team! There was also more LGBTQ+ and specifically bi content that was a nice surprise! Due to sheer numbers, some side characters did unfortunately blend together and I couldn’t always remember the character relationships. The character arcs with El and (my beloved!! deserves the world!!) Orion continue with fairly life-changing developments, and I loved getting to know side characters like Liesel more. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Katherine Arden also made a very salient observation during her conversation with Novik about the literal dark underbelly of powerful wizarding institutions like enclaves…but you’ll have to read TGE to find out what Arden was talking about! In the book’s launch party, Novik touched on the debts inherited by children who did not choose to make those harsh bargains and might not even be able to pay – or the foisting of said debts onto others. This time, I was particularly put in mind of toxic waste dumping and the unequal costs of climate change. This trilogy has always had strong themes problematising the inequitable power structures in the wizarding world that ring true for our real ‘mundane’ world too, and TGE continues this sharp-eyed appraisal. Taylor Swift with a mind-blown expression and hand gestures Novik’s lateral thinking abilities are astonishing – to be able to imagine such a complex yet believable magic system is awe-inspiring. There are so many jaw-dropping revelations in TGE, not just about El (and Orion, and Liesel, and El and Orion’s parents…), the massive modern enclaves, prophecies – even the entire foundation of how maleficaria come to be. (I mean, I pretty much did, with very detailed recaps to prep for Book 3! Thanks to The Bibliofile for their invaluable resources!)
This is the sort of series conclusion that makes you want to reread the whole lot of them again.
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