I finally get the hype behind this book, I understand why it’s not for everyone. Her writing style is very odd. I hated uprooted, but I can’t wait to see how this series continues.

I admit that when I first heard the plot description for this series, I sighed. "What if Hogwarts, but evil" is a pretty tired concept, much less in 2020, when the first volume in the trilogy, A Deadly Education, was published. And with a heroine whose description seemed to suggest a genderbent Kylo Ren, the whole thing seemed very aggressively Not For Me. It was a lucky break, then, that Novik included the entire trilogy in this year's Hugo voter packet, because this series turns out be both delightful and clever. The setting—a self-sustaining, self-contained school for wizards designed to protect them from the perils of the outside world, but which becomes its own death trap which only a small percentage of students manage to survive—is elaborately worked through, and the psychological cost of attending this school, in which students scramble for survival, make desperate alliances, and weigh the consequences of surrendering to the dark side for some extra power, are explored with a refreshing lack of sentimentality. Also refreshing is the series's heroine, who resists the pull of the dark less out of an innate desire to to do good as out of a furiously annoyed sense of ethics. By the time we get to the third volume, the elaborate worldbuilding has revealed a society that has locked itself, through technological choices made centuries ago, into a series of increasingly bad options, which makes for both a powerful environmental metaphor, and a satisfying villain for the heroine and her friends to tilt against.

If Hogwarts resided in Hell....

I definitely enjoyed this book. I am REALLY glad that I grabbed the audio because I am 99% certain that (like Ninth House) if I had read it, I would not have rated it so highly. The dialogue between characters feels more like a treat than an actual part of the novel. The main course is served directly from the thought process and detailed explanations coming from El, the MC. There is a LOT of details, a LOT of rules and a LOT of badass creatures that make for some pretty deadly situations. The school itself is like a lurking death trap for the kids inside. Basically be happy if you graduate and don't get caught alone. El is down to earth, sarcastic and carries a sadistically dark power. Her dry sense of humor actually had me chuckling more than I realized and her relationship with Orion is probably my favorite part (because thank god for dialogue moments).

The world building includes aspects of covens all over the world but the main setting is the school and I could see myself in the hallways as I read. Simplistic overall, but the informational aspects is where the lulls come flying in. The magic system is almost an easy to follow process but be ready to have it overshadowed by the mass amount of descriptives and rules that follow. It is pretty intense. Yet again, another reason I was thankful for audio. Characters are where the strong part of the novel existed for me (and monsters). In a place where the term 'friend' is a luxury, I enjoyed each connection that El unknowingly and in some cases unwantingly made. I think this is why the final 35% of the book is my favorite.

I am looking forward to book two more than I originally thought possible. I will be grabbing the audio for that as well. It really helped with the intricacies of words, spells and details. I also liked the narrator. While she came off a bit dry at first, I noticed the deeper I got into El's persona that the narrative voice just fit her.

If you are not into stream of consciousness narratives or an onslaught of detail dumps, this may not be for you. If you're on the fence I recommend grabbing the audio like I did. It's full of dark academia, covens, monsters and the underdog rising.

The way that I devoured this and immediately needed to get my hands on the next installment!

Dark academia & magic - sign me up. I really enjoyed this, and cannot wait to jump into the next installment.

Our protagonist is snarky and sarcastic which was so much fun, but at times it was a little over to the top.

There was also a lot of info-dumping for the world-building, which was thorough and I loved those details, but the extended exposition did get to be a lot after a while.

"I love having existential crises at bedtime, it's so restful"

It took me quite a while to read this book but it was AMAZING. It is a great introduction to the series with great characters and very extensive world building in less than 400 pages. The ending is also so abrupt and left on such a cliffhanger that it will leave you yearning for more. My only overall con about it is that sometimes it can get too dense due to the amount of world building it has and the way it is narrated.

A great series opener. I can see this as a teen and even a middle school novel if it weren't for the intermittent swearing. I love the intermittent swearing, just making a casual observation.

This series was recommended by a friend and I’m so glad I listened! It’s like dark academia meets a very twisted Harry Potter (think magical school) and I can’t read the rest of the books. The story follows El, attending Scholomance which is a school for the magically gifted, following in her parents’ footsteps. But every day is a lesson in survival because without teachers and friendships, every move is strategic and calculated as you try to make it to graduation before the school finds a way to kill you. El is powerful but what could save her classmates could also easily kill them but with the help of her new ally Orion, maybe both will make it out of there alive. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and can’t wait to see what’s next.
Thank you to Random House - Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A decent start to a dark academia fantasy trilogy. Our female lead is SUCH a hoot, she’s so unapologetically herself, and terrible at that. She made for a fun perspective to be in, but her constant inability to trust in others intentions slightly hurt the chances of what I believe is going to be the romantic pairing in the upcoming books. I can’t wait to see where the story takes me next.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

I received a free copy of A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fun read!
It was also low effort so the time flew by, I read this in a couple of days and then the second in the series in just a day so very digestible and easy to binge
(If only gaining mana could be done like this)

El is a student at a magic school where barely anyone makes it out alive, and being a bratty rude peer is unsurprisingly not making her any friends, until it does.
Her character is a bit different from other heroine's/mcs in that she really does speak her mind and it does make for some funny reading. She's not saving anyone, nor does she want saving and you will get a elbow to the gut for it (luckily not one of her numerous death to all spells)
“So he had actually come to my rescue. That was even worse.”

Enter Orion -
The knight in shining armour of the school. And the object of El's resentment.
What could be a better recipe for a (light) enemies to lovers

Joining El and her friends on their journey of just surviving school where any number of monsters are trying to eat them at any time and everyone also thinking El's an evil witch seconds away from eating them was a pretty fun time

Overall I would rec this if you're looking for a YA magic school novel, while not being an entirely original idea this was done in an original way and it's worth the read, I would say this is definitely a foundation for the rest of the books and it can be a bit info dump-y. The narrative is quite conversational so keep that in mind if it isn't your thing

Relatable
“I love having existential crises at bedtime, it’s so restful”

I’m obsessed with this series. Dark and densely built fantasy world that turns its premise on its head more than once. I’m a sucker for a golden retriever boy x moody grumpy girl combo, and for fantasy worlds that are fully built out. This first one is exposition heavy, and at times it feels like the author is more interested in explaining her fantasy world than the actual plot, but I don’t even mind it because it’s so cleverly written and fascinating that I’m just along for the ride.

I enjoyed this book so much. What's not to love when you have a magical school that is trying to kill it's students. El is such a great character to read about and her interactions with Orion were so entertaining.

I am a big fan of Naomi Novik's other works but this quickly became one of my favorite's by this author. I just love the way she writes. You can tell that Novik put in a lot of time and thought into the story. I immediately wanted to read the next book in the series.

I would recommend this book to everyone I know

"A Deadly Education" by Naomi Novik offers a dark and thrilling take on the magic school genre, set in the perilous Scholomance. The protagonist, El Higgins, is a refreshingly unconventional character, navigating a world filled with dangerous creatures and treacherous alliances. Novik masterfully blends fantasy and horror elements, creating a gripping narrative, although the pacing sometimes falters. It's an engaging read for fans of fantasy who enjoy a darker, more survivalist twist.

This started out so good, and I bet it finishes well, but all the infodumping made it really hard to get through it. The premise is nice, there is lots of potential, but I need something to actually happen, and the infodumping turned me off, I really struggled to get through it, even though the actual story was pretty good. I will not continue this series.

I can not say enough good things about this book. I was on the edge of my seat. She eas an unlikable heroine that I didn't know I needed. This is a reread book.

I've heard so much about this book and have had this on my tbr for ever and I'm so glad to have received a review copy it was amazing. I loved it so much.

This is not for me. I wasn’t interested in the magic or monsters and someone dying every hour is more boring than it sounds.

3.75 stars I would have bumped this up to a solid 4 stars if I was not a bit confused about the magic system and school system. At first, I didn't care for how the story was shoving information at the readers, and still think it was a bit fast in giving out info but all the info was important. My main dislink is how long the chapters were, and that is something that may only affect me, I prefer shorter chapters to have more stopping points, but not a huge factor in the long run. By the end of the novel I was invested and now and have the next book in my TBR.

This is one my favorite reads of 2023. No, I'm not kidding. This book was sooo good. The villain gets the guy, enemies to lovers, trapped in a school that's literally out to kill you and you only expect around half of your graduating class to graduate alive vibes are perfect.

The Scholomance is a school for those with magic. Contrary to many wholesome depictions of magical schools, the Scholomance could possibly be one of the worst schools ever, given that there's the constant threat of death. El, the protagonist, is preparing for her graduation that is coming up after her next school year and which is perhaps the most dangerous event after years of enduring constant threats. With no allies, her task is quite daunting. That doesn't stop her from expressing herself, perhaps a little too frankly. All together, El's chances aren't large of making it out alive, even with her dark powers that could endanger others however. Still, El is determined to succeed.

I really liked the characters’ developments throughout the story, particularly El’s.

At first she appeared quite bitter and rude, arguably due to understandable reasons, but later on she kind of lost that. Even though she could technically still come across as rude, it wasn’t with bad intentions anymore and as a joke. Due to the threats and competition in the Scholomance, El often acted only for her own gain initially, but became more selfless the more allies and better relationships she had with her peers. I really like how El began to trust and rely on others.

Orion was pretty naive at first, but it was also understandable due to his sheltered life in the New York enclave. The other enclave students, particularly New York, were no better. However, he started to become more aware, especially due to El’s comments, of the issues the other students experienced and that the world wasn’t as simple as he thought. He didn’t let these bad news change his character and his inherent kindness though, so it was good to see him grow, but not turn into a completely different person.

Aadhya and Liu were great characters as well. It was interesting to read about them, especially when El got to know them better and more of their personality started to show.

The presentation of the enclave children was also well done. As they grew up in their sheltered enclaves, they never had to truly experience the fear of being devoured by the maleficaria. Because of that, it was understandable why they did not understand the privilege they had and also why El disliked it so much. Especially in a situation where less privileged students have to fear for their lives, the ignorance of the enclavers must’ve been frustrating.

The plot moved quickly which I loved. It made the book more addictive and fun to read. Even when I had some issues with the book throughout, it was still too much fun to really stop.

One of the biggest issues perhaps was the descriptions of the Scholomance for me. Some descriptions seemed a bit convoluted and not clear. However, the clearer Scholomance descriptions were interesting to read about due to the fascinating and sinister nature of the school.

While I was reading “A Deadly Education”, I was often debating on whether I should continue reading this trilogy and had actually already decided on “no”, however, about the last 20% convinced me to read the remaining books. Now I can’t wait to pick those up and see how El’s journey in the Scholomance and outside of it proceeds.