Another great fantasy read from the one and only, Naomi Novik! I loved the academic setting in this one -- the perfect read to get you in the back-to-school mode or if you're looking for some classic fall vibes!

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey Books for this eARC

It pains me to admit that I did not finish this book. I gave it my best attempts, but I just could not get into this story.
It did not grab my attention and with over 600 pages (that is a commitment) and one I make often. I've learned after many years of reading that if a story does not grab you within the first 100 pages it is ok to simply close it and walk away. Perhaps I will give it a try again, but I appreciate being a part of NetGalley and will always give my honest opinions.

This title is amazing and I am very upset that I have to continue to wait for its conclusion. I love my grumpy genius and her golden retriever boyfriend.

3 1/2. Maybe not as fantasy-fleshy as I'd like, and definitely to indebted to YA development tactics, but there's promise for future entries if Novik opens up the world a bit and tamps down her more pubescent storytelling instincts.

This was absolutely amazing. I had previously read many of Naomi Novik's books including the Napoleon's Dragon series and her redone fairy tales, but this was one of my favorites. It's like an evil Hogwarts filled with intrigue and danger. The main character is nuanced and interesting. The evil school is freaking cool. I can't wait for more.

Naomi Novik has special talent for writing fantasy with an all consuming world. In a "Deadly Education" we are introduced to Galadriel (El) a powerful and dark magical wizard of the Scholomance school. As she tries to survive a school full of maleficaria, and murderous wizards, El allies with Orion and heroic warrior wizard. It's fast-paced and heavily detailed. Big fans of world-building dark academia will love this novel.

A book about a magical educational facility where the twist is the place is extremely likely to kill you—but only a fraction as likely as the world outside its walls. In this school, there are no teachers and no guardians, and for our bad-aura-radiating main character, El, no friends; nothing to stop her from being offed by some horrible monster or a serial-killing, dark-magic-using fellow student other than her own wits and reflexes. Add in broken monster-cleaning machinery; a handsome, overpowered, monster-death powered classmate; and a prophecy of a future of societal desctruction, and you've got a magical recipe for awesome disaster. The first-person, stream-of-consciousness narration, full of some quite long clauses, will put off some readers, but the story is fantastic.

I love Novik; she is a strong story teller. However, this one took me a lot longer to get hooked by. SO much, in fact, I was considering abandoning it (I usually give it about 3 chapters/15% to decide), and the only thing that stopped me was that it was Novik. I'm glad I continued.

Overall, a good fantasy with urban flare coupled with a timeless feel. The characters are compelling, the world building is on point, and the story is moving. I can't wait for the next one.

It took me a while to finish this book. Significantly longer than usual. Both with reading it and with reviewing it.
Didn't I like it or what was going on?
Yes. No. Difficult.
Rarely had I so many things to "notice".
What did I like?
The world building, the school, the magic system. These elements were extremely exciting and interesting. A school without teachers that is full of monsters that want to kill you? Yes, please! Super cool.
I also liked Orion, the side character. Very much so.
On the other hand, I found the protagonist El, whose perspective the book is from, incredibly annoying. I think some will read her as tough and cool - and they'll have fun with her, too. For me, on the other hand, she was ignorant, conceited, and super self-important. Characters don't always have to be likeable, but this lady? I would have been happy if she would have been eaten directly by the monsters.
If the book would have been from Orion's point of view as the main character, I probably would have really liked the book. Since I really like the world it’s set in.
I think it stands or falls on how you get along with El, the protagonist.
❗️I would like to note that there were a few discussions. The author included some insensitive things in the original, but then apologized and had it changed. However, this topic is also discussed very controversially in the communities concerned.
I think that Scholomance is worth a look at reviews, discussions about the accusations and a reading of the sample. Because basically you can find a lot of great things here, but also things that are not too good. If you don't have a problem with a superficial, ignorant girl who thinks she's all great, you'll like the main protagonist. The world itself is great anyway. It's best to form your own opinion.

I normally love Naomi Novik's work, but I had mixed feelings about this one! Sour, antisocial El makes for an interesting heroine - she reminds me a bit of Katniss from The Hunger Games, actually - but she is the only character who seemed like a real person. The POV is very interior with little dialogue to get to know the other characters except through El's grumpy, suspicious eyes. I think Novik intentionally wanted to create an anxious and adversarial mood in the boarding school-slash-prison known as the Scholomance, where no one can sleep, eat, pee, or shower without putting themselves in mortal danger. However, this results in a world that is... unpleasant to spend much time within. I finished it unsatisfied, desperately wanting the characters to find some measure of contentment and peace and maybe a nice long bath. Perhaps in book two?

Deadly Education was a unique story based in a magic school unlike any I’ve read about before. Everything is out to kill the students, and that’s just the way it goes at the Scholomance. I found this to be an intriguing story that ended leaving me begging for more!

Excuse me while I squeal in delight to rival a sirenspider. Squee~

(Choose one of the following)
This book is:
A.) a dark, socialist-feminist Harry Potter
B.) set in Scholomance, a killer (literally) Hogwarts-esque school populated with ravenous maleficaria (like the aforementioned sirenspider (who paralyze their prey with sirensong in order to slowly suck their blood) that demands its own Wiki,
C.) narrated by a sardonic & sarcastic half-Indian, half-Welsh dark sorceress,
D.) an enemies-to-reluctant-allies-to-allies-to-friends-to-maybe-lovers(-to-maybe-enemies).

Answer:
E.) All of the above and so much more!

CW: for mentions and depictions of attempted filicide, parental death, murder & attempted murder, animal neglect & cruelty, & gore

Very dark but very good. Novik has created a fascinating, if extremely grim, world and characters. I look forward to future books.

I tried to read this book, but was not interested from the first chapter. I also read many reviews from other people describing the problematic and frankly racist depictions of certain characters, and I have no interest in continuing to read this book. At this point, white authors should know it's not their place to write from the point of view of non-white characters, even if they are half white. Doing research does not take the place of lived experiences. And making up bugs that only live in loc'ed hair? How does something clearly that racist get past a team of people into a final book (I know how--this is why there needs to be diversity in every stage of publishing a book).

Novik knows no bounds when it comes to writing great stories. There are so many wonderful aspects to this book, but the relationship between El and Orion made for an interesting pairing, not unlike a certain pair from Harry Potter. Of course, this is understood to be a darker, gender-bent similarity to the that series, but Novik makes the story her own.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novak is a new spin on magic school, with much deadlier consequences. It is a must read for fans of the genre.

This was an AMAZING book. Like, I need the next one right now amazing. I've always enjoyed Naomi Novik's books, but this one takes the cake. It's like if Hogwarts (the school itself) was deadly and students had to make pacts and keeps secrets to survive. All I can say is, well done!

This book was just far too slow and I really struggled to get into it. I also really did not like any of the characters. I wanted to love a book about a magical school that’s trying to kill it’s students, but the pacing just didn’t work! I had the same struggle with Uprooted, if I’m being honest, but the story was interesting enough to keep me engaged.

This book unfortunately was not for me. As much as I wanted to love it (the main character's name is Galadriel! That alone should make me love it), I just didn't connect with the main character. Naomi Novik is clearly a talented writer, but this is different from her past two fantasies (Uprooted & Spinning Silver), which had a more historical tone. This is contemporary, which might contribute to why I had a hard time enjoying it. However, I will still recommend it to patrons looking for fantasy/boarding school novels.

Thank you to NetGalley, Naomi Novik, and Random House Public Group - Ballentine sending me the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very well told story, by a well-rounded and respected author. As the first in a new series, it has phenomenal world-building and character development. I am really looking forward to the next addition as I'm already addicted, but it didn't feel like the traditional cliff-hanger ending, which I and and many patrons find infuriating. Plus in a sea of similar-sounding storylines I found very unique elements that I quite liked in this one. I have already started recommending it, even though I don't usually do that for the first book in a series because I like to make sure it has "legs." However, I do believe after reading other books by this author that it is quite likely this series will take off like an Olympic sprinter. I can't wait to read the next one to see if I'm right..