Member Reviews
A heroic fantasy novel with a YA slant from the author of Spinning Silver and Uprooted. Think Harry Potter meets Hunger Games with the ironic style of The Name of the Wind.
The action takes place at Scholomance — a school for the magically gifted. Unlike Hogwarts, however, there are no kindly Dumbledores anxious to help you survive and master your skills. Indeed, there are no teachers, or adults, or even any communication with the outside. Induction into the Scholomance is sudden and permanent. The only way out is to graduate, and there a lot of malevolent beasties that will do their best to ensure you make a tasty magic meal rather than a full wizard.
El (short for Galadriel — don’t ask) has an affinity for mass destruction — not what you want if you desire to be a “good witch”! She is roundly shunned by most — but is this because of her affinity for evil or because she is rude, off putting, and endlessly defensive? And the local hero, Orion Lake, keeps saving her life. How annoying!
The world building is complete and awesome — crawling with outlandish and execrable monsters, arcane rules and physics that doesn’t work in any way that I’ve experienced. Full of action (which normally bores me but somehow the sarcasm and wit and characters that I cared about in spite of myself carried me along quickly). Some not-so-thinly disguised political commentary on the haves and have-nots, but well-done and not completely one-sided. Overall enjoyable. I admit to liking Spinning Silver and Uprooted a little bit more but found this eminently consumable. Looks like it may be a series based on the last line of this book (not a cliff hanger in any sense but a promise of more to come).
Naomi Novik has quickly become one of my favorite authors and this book just cements that. I can't wait to recommend her newest novel to my patrons!
YES! I kind every page of this book. What an absolute dream. This author is quickly becoming a personal auto-buy.
Fantastic. As a first book, it was mostly focused on world and character development. But OH the characters. Diverse, interesting, and they change in realistic ways. Super fascinating world and the reviews that call this a dark, feminist Harry Potter are right in only good ways. Excited to read what’s next.
What a ride! I loved both Uprooted and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, so I was very excited to have the opportunity to read A Deadly Education. I was not disappointed. El (full name Galadriel) is an engaging narrator, battling her affinity for monstrous destruction due to her completely wholesome upbringing. Novik incorporated the nature vs. nurture debate as well as issues with white privilege into this fantasy story that turns our usual ideas about a magic school sideways. I appreciated the thorny main character who has been so rejected and isolated all her life that she has started pushing everyone else away in order to keep herself from getting hurt. But with graduation looming, she knows that she can't really go it alone. And I love that even with her flaws and frustrations, she can't help but be good after the way her mum raised her, despite knowing that it would be so much easier to go bad.
I loved watching El develop actual friendships, and watching her marvel at how that happened. It felt completely real and in character for her to be totally baffled by Orion and his attitudes as well as actions, but I appreciated the way that we all gained understanding about his backstory. I can imagine all the characters in this story in real life, even the ones I loved to hate. And the ending absolutely hooked me for the next book. What is El going to do?
3.75/5 - While A Deadly Education is a dark and deadly take on a magic school story, it is weighed down by excessive exposition and info-dumping that takes away from an otherwise awesome premise. We follow El - short for Galadriel, don’t ask - a junior at The Scholomance, an underground magical school that’s vaguely reminiscent of Hogwarts, if everyone was a Slytherin, the school was filled with monsters, and the building routinely tried to kill all its students.
El is a loner with an affinity for dark magic, and despite her attempts to stay good, she draws the suspicion of the school’s kid with a savior complex, Orion. El and Orion form an unlikely friendship - she’s the first person he’s come across who doesn’t worship the ground he walks on - and El gets a taste of all the perks and benefits being a kid from a powerful faction comes with. Orion has thrown off the balance of energy in the school by saving so many students slated for death, and the monsters lurking in the corners are hungry. When seriously bad ones start cropping up across the school, El and her new friends band together to try to fix the mess Orion has created.
Despite the creepy atmosphere and characters with a lot of potential, this book spends most of its time telling, not showing. The prose is bogged down by lengthy excerpts explaining how the school works, or the political situation outside the school, or some anecdote from El’s childhood. Instead of a dark, magical adventure, we spend over half this novel listening to El talk at us. Unfortunately, the infodumping doesn’t die off after the first part of the book - we get large asides of exposition well into the last chapter. I wish we’d gotten to see more of this dark and bizarre magical world in action rather than just hearing about it.
Overall, I still enjoyed the story despite the infodumping and slow pacing. When the action picked up, it was thrilling and dark and twisty. Using a magic school that operates under the illusion of meritocracy to examine privilege was so well executed. While the writing didn’t quite live up to my expectations for Naomi Novik, it was still a creative world with interesting concepts and characters I grew to love. Readers looking for the grimdark response to Harry Potter will eat this up. While this is an adult title, I can see it having crossover appeal for edgy, older teens looking for blood and guts and existential dread.
I've never read a fantasy that made me feel completely relieved to not have magic. In A DEADLY EDUCATION, Naomi Novik has conjured a brutal world and pit it against a cunning protagonist determined to survive. Imagine if you will that Hermione Granger and Katniss Everdeen adopted a daughter, she would be Galadriel, "El" for short. In El, Novik combines all the smarts and radical thinking of Hermione with Katniss's grit and determination to create a truly marvelous protagonist that I couldn't stop thinking about.
The Earth that El lives in is terrifying and savage, with monsters constantly popping out trying to eat her and her schoolmates. You can't even shower in peace without some ghouly beast slithering out of a drainpipe and slurping you up! The Scholomance makes Hogwarts and The Hungers Games look like baby-proofed playgrounds. It's been over a week since I read it and I still won't walk into unlit rooms and check under my bed *just in case.* You never know what might have cropped up under there...
I don't know how she does it, but Novik just keeps getting better and better - I hope she's not using malia!
I have to admit, Naomi Novik surprised me with this one. Based on genre alone, A Deadly Education is different from anything she's published so far. It pains me to say that I found myself a bit confused when the book first kicks off. The novel talks about how the kids are put in the school to keep them safe from the horrible monsters in the real world that would kill/eat/turn them evil, yet every other sentence has them fending off said monsters that have gotten inside the school anyway. Either they've been lied to or the school has really dropped the ball.
That aside, I did enjoy our female lead. El had the kind of snark and attitude that I found extremely enjoyable. Her ultimate frustration with the campus 'good-guy' type, Orion, reminded me a bit of the novel The Rest Of Us Just Live Here, wherein a group of normal students has to deal with the fallout from what the 'chosen ones' wreak on the school year. El is done with Orion almost before we even meet him. I thought her internal tone was well balanced for the darkness of the world around them, giving a sense of humor to the crazy things they were going through. I also enjoyed the side characters. I do have to say that it felt the plot didn't really pick up right away, there were at least 5-6 chapters of exposition and minor conflict before anything really started pointing toward a higher plotline. Other than that, this novel was really enjoyable. I personally prefer her fairy tale series because I'm weak to dark fairy tales, but this was not a let-down in any way.
Rating: 3.8/5 Stars
Novik is an impressively versatile writer. A Deadly Education is certainly a tonal shift from her previous work, but she rocks it, as usual! Scary world and appealing characters.
This was SO GOOD. Wow. Talk about a "dark feminist Harry Potter" blurb actually living up to its title!! This was excellent. I can't wait for more from Galadriel and Orion. I'll be recommending this one up and down in 2020.
A staggeringly impressive start to a new series, Naomi Novik sets the "magical school" genre of fantasy fiction ablaze with a dark, amusing, and irreverent novel that will have both Adult and YA fantasy readers eagerly awaiting the second entry. I found myself continually delighted and appalled at the macabre school depicted in these pages, and quickly recognized that the school itself is as much a character as any named individual in the book. Highly recommended for its cross-age group appeal and the strength of the characters, setting, and writing. Practically a must-have for any fantasy collection.
I was excited to get into Naomi Novik's new book, and now I'm excited to see where this story goes forth in the book(s) to follow. Harry Potter for adults? Hell yes. As this is book one, it does a lot of world building and character presentation. El is such a funny and badass heroine and she's almost unstoppable in how she functions. The entire premise of the book is so interesting and I did love the Novik didn't do certain conventional things like for example, the romance aspect between El and Orion. They're a set of two different types of people and the flirtation between them is almost something that you can pass by. It's a unique read, but I did get the feel that this was more YA than adult, and I feel like that made the book not be as great as it could've been.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.
El, née Galadriel, is a junior at Scholomance, a magic school where graduating literally means surviving four years of education. El is misunderstood, grumpy, defensive, and secretly very powerful. Because El wants to be a good wizard, (as opposed to evil) she struggles more than most students to navigate the obstacles that the school throws her way. At any given time or place, mals (malicious monster-ish things) attack students, particularly her. Her frustrations are made worse by one heroic do-gooder who keeps saving her life unnecessarily.
Words cannot express how much I LOVE this book. NN is a wizard of an author and I’ve always been a little sad that Uprooted and Spinning Silver are stand alone novels. I’m ecstatic that this one will not be. El is such a kick-ass heroine. I really cannot get enough of her. (She reminds me of Princess Cimorene from the Enchanted Forest series, anyone remember those?) Her interactions with her classmates, and Orion are hilarious. My favorite line—“Don’t even open your mouth in my direction, you overgrown lemming,”
Please don’t ever compare this to Harry Potter. Sure they both feature wizarding schools, but the resemblance ends there. This is so much better. It’s Teuscher Truffles next to Hershey’s.
Deadly Education by Naomi Novik is a stark departure from her last two books Spinning Silver and Uprooted. What would it look like if the magical world of wizards and witches was full of Slytherins and they were forced to compete to the death in a graduation ceremony full of creatures that wanted to eat them? Novik's newest fantasy is a dark and twisted magical world where magic users are locked into a school together to be eaten by monsters before graduation. Only alliances with other enclaves and students will give them a fighting chance of getting out on graduation day.
Young Adult Audience will definitely jump on this title. It reminded me in some degree to Wilder Girls by Rory Power . It is extremely dark and different than what I am used to from Novik. I also felt like there was a lot of telling and not showing from a first point of view character that I did not like. This is why i can only give it three stars. It had an interesting premise and I am curious to see what happens in the second book. But the pacing for me was off putting and I felt like I was slugging through it. This is by far one of the most interesting worlds I have seen in a while and I do believe there is an audience out there for this book. As a librarian this will be an easy sell to teens in my community. But as a huge fan of Uprooted and Spinning Silver I was missing my lyrical beautiful language that Novik is so amazing at. The language that makes me reread entire paragraphs because it is so amazing.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review
“Reader, I ran the fuck away.”
A Deadly Education was an interesting read. It took me a while to get into, which didn’t exactly surprise me since Uprooted and Spinning Silver, also by Novik, both were the same for me. The world building was different and well fleshed out, but it was a lot to take in in the beginning. The magic system was well explained as well.
El, our narrator, is quite prickly and not the easiest person to like. She does eventually grow on you though, and you understand where’s she’s coming from. Her enemies turned friends relationship with Orion was actually very cute. I enjoyed their dynamic a lot.
A Deadly Education was being marketed as a darker, female-led Harry Potter, and I think that description would be pretty accurate for the most part. But I actually wish this book was even darker. The monsters are there, but it seemed a little tame at times. And it read pretty YA to be honest. Also at times, it seemed like not a lot was happening plot wise, but I was never bored. The ending has me intrigued enough that I will definitely pick up the sequel.
You guys. YOU GUYS. She's done it again, that absolute maniac, she's written a scathing critique of capitalism and the lie of meritocracy and then wrapped it up in an adventure narrative. I enjoyed this book so much that I finished it and then the very next morning read the whole thing all over again. I've been reflecting on what exactly it is about Naomi Novik's narratives that I enjoy so much and it partly boils down to the relationship dynamic which I classify as "The One Who Loves Truth & Justice/The One Who Read The Art Of War Seventeen Times In Preschool", and it is SO GREAT here. El (short for Galadriel, DON'T ASK HER ABOUT IT) is a keen observer of social dynamics, because as a poor kid with no useful connections and an overpowering case of Resting Bitch Attitude at a school that's constantly trying to kill the students, her life literally depends on knowing what other people want. When the class hero (Orion Lake, and if you're into Transformers, I'm fairly sure the joke is exactly what you think it is) starts following her around because he thinks she's killed one of their classmates, it's El's one big chance: everyone else at school thinks he has a crush on her, and they're suddenly willing to do her all kinds of favors in order to get his attention. If she plays it right, she might even be able to leverage the situation into surviving graduation (which is what they call the entire class of seniors being dumped into a hall crawling with monsters and making a break for the door: whoever makes it out alive has graduated). Orion, who's from a well-connected family and has never needed anything he doesn't already have without asking, finds El baffling and paranoid, but throughout the book, she's RIGHT. She's been on the outskirts looking in her whole life, and she understands the system, which is designed to help the rich and force the poor to cooperate with their own subjugation in the hopes of survival. Most importantly, the people who benefit from the system (like Orion) get to not notice it. Orion is not a bad person! He genuinely wants to dedicate his life to helping others! And he is completely oblivious to everything that's happening beneath the surface, because his survival has never depended on playing the game successfully.
People are going to compare this book to Harry Potter, and I think that's fair. It's hard to evaluate just from the first book of a series, but I think the Scholomance is a much more thoughtful take on what a truly international wizard school would look like, and I love the magic system and worldbuilding. The slow build of alliances into genuine friendships is a delight, especially from such a cynical POV -- El is so surprised to love and be loved! And of course the hook, namely the fact that El is destined to be a world-destroying dark sorceress except she was lovingly raised to be the magical equivalent of a vegan and doesn't actually want to hurt a fly, is a phenomenal launching point for the book. This isn't being billed as YA, but I'm not sure why aside from Novik's past publishing history and possibly plans for the following books in the trilogy. It's a great YA novel, and I think it would really appeal to fans of Sarah Rees Brennan's In Other Lands.
Long story short: strongly recommend, can't wait for the next book!
I have such mixed feelings about this one! On one hand, I loved El and her arc; she was such an interesting character and I felt for her throughout the entire story. I also really adored the other characters and the world in general. It was all so intriguing and really captured me.
However, this writing style just was not for me. I felt like the entire story—all 300 and some pages—was just constant info dumping. Paragraphs felt long, there wasn’t a ton of dialogue, and new information was constantly being thrown at me to the point of overwhelming. I just don’t think I meshed well with how it was written, even though I did love everything else about it.
Overall, super good read! And that ending really has me yearning for the next book.
Electronic ARC provided by NetGalley.
This is a very weird but very good YA fantasy from Naomi Novik. Imagine Harry Potter, except there are no teachers, you can't ever leave the school, and Hogwarts is actively trying to murder you at all times. El (short for Galadriel) lives in a world where mages are under constant danger from "mals"--magical monsters who want nothing more then to destroy them. The worst part is that mals disproporionately go for adolescent or teenage mages. In a desperate bid to save some of their children, mages created the Scholomance, a school that is basically shunted off into another dimension. The survival rate within the school is higher then the outside, but students still have to use every bit of intelligence and initiative to make it out alive.
El's mother is liked by everyone. El, however, is pretty universally hated. She has a strong affinity for dark magic, and a prickly personality that she has developed to keep people away before they can reject her. She's in her second to last year at the Scholomance, and all she wants is to make it out the other side without resorting to too much dark magic.
The characters and world building in this book are great. In the beginning some things feel like they might be too simple or illogical, but everything has a reason, and characters are always acting in very understandable ways. El is a great narrator, especially as the narrative slowly starts to pick apart her many issues. The school is full of diverse students, with many acknowledgments of the fact that people are learning magic in different languages, and using different methods from all over the world. There are some illusions to potential romance but there is no actual romance in this book.
This is the first book in a series, but is worth reading alone anyways since there is a lot here. The last line of the book is a big surprise, and really makes you wonder about a ton of things that I assume will be explored later on. I'm excited about this series and will definitely be following along.
This book was absolutely phenomenal! I devoured it in one sitting, I could not put it down. For the first time in over a month I forgot to worry about current events and fell completely into Naomi Novik's new world. This is not a book to be missed!
I went into this book completely unprepared for the genius I was about to discover. I loved Uprooted so I assumed I’d love this, but I really had no idea what it was about; I just jumped in. I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve read the last line of a book, gasped, then laughed out loud at the absolute brilliance of it.
The main character, El, is just perfect. She’s wicked smart, snarky, and so funny! She’s the loner teen forced to develop razor sharp survival skills to make it through boarding school. Anyone who’s struggled with making friends will relate to her - I adored her immediately.
I got lost in El’s world at Scholomance and did not want this book to end. Now I’m impatiently waiting for the next book in the series! So good!