Dark Academia meets Survivor.

Just to start off: I know there is some sort of controversy about this book. I did not research it before I read the book, but I did read a few reviews that gave an overview of what people are offended about.

I received this ARC from NetGalley, and because this book has been out for several years, I’m assuming it went through a revision to address people’s concerns. This is my first time reading it, so not sure if there are any differences from the original text, but I will say that the book was not problematic to me.

Now to the summary: this is a world of magic in which people with magic are under constant attack from mals (magical beings that will kill you in an instant). To protect against mals, most people attempt to join enclaves (think covens) that are in cities all over the world. This is to provide protection and support to all people within that enclave. On the other hand, you have people like Galadriel and her mother who are not part of an enclave, and live separate.

Then the children get thrown into this school, which is actually the lesser of two evils if you can believe that. Before the school was created these children (who happen to be very tasty to the mals) would likely reach adulthood maybe 20% of the time. Inside the school, these children reach adulthood maybe 60% of the time. Better odds, certainly, but still grim as fuck. Murder and death are a very common occurrence in the school.

Our protagonist, Galadriel, has immense power: she could wipe out legions of people (mundanes) and other wizards without breaking a sweat. However, due to her upbringing by her lovely flower child mother, she knows that she should not. It is, however, a natural affinity of her magic, which other people (mundanes and wizards alike) can sense and fear. She is filled with bitterness and seething resentment after being treated with horror and disdain by people her entire life, including complete strangers and family members. She has no friends or allies in the school.

However, it is clear that when she does care about someone, she goes through great lengths to love them and show it… a la her mother. Her mother has a great respect for all living things, and as such has raised Galdriel to be strict mana, Galadriel would not even take the mana (life force) of an ant of beetle because it would upset her mother. At school, where there are no adults and it is always a life-or-death situation, Galadriel treats people like assets, in turn they treat her like one too.

This whole school (and world of magic, for that matter) runs on trades and bargains … tit for tat. My spell for a bit of your artificer work, etc. And as El has little social skills, and has been ostracized since childhood, I think it entirely likely that she would judge people solely on their utility rather than anything else about them. She isn’t going out if her way to befriend people, but they aren’t going out of their way to befriend her either.

Enter Orion! White knight and annoyance to Galadriel. The two become friendly. She gets some perks off of being his friend (although she actively detests the people who attempt to befriend her due to association) and Orion gets a person who doesn’t try to lick his boots all the damn time.

All manner of chaos ensues.

I liked this book. The writing style is a bit unusual in that it reads like train-of-thought with huge info dumps. I'm not certain if this is supposed to be Galadriel's diary or a memoir...at one point she breaks the fourth wall and calls you "Dear Reader".

I plan on reading the next book in the series.

Thank you to #NetGalley for an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I love, love, loved this book! I had such a fun time reading it. I was kind of in a reading slump heading into spooky season and this was the book to get me out of it. I loved the main character and how snarky she was. I liked all the side characters and am interested to see where the trilogy takes them.

This book has everything I wanted: A school of magic filled with creatures (mals) that could kill students at anytime, likeable main characters and dynamics and a solid ending to make me want to continue with the series.

I liked that the main character, El, kept mostly to herself and had a lot of secrets she kept close to her chest. Slowly as she makes meaningful relationships throughout the book, which she was speculative of, she opens up to them and they get small pieces of information about her. By the end she has real friends and even a romantic interest. I can't wait to start the next book.

For a book built on the basis of a magical school in a wizarding world, I found this quite original.

I was so intrigued by the plot that I found myself totally immersed in Naomi’s work, however the constant info dumping (while often not unnecessary) really broke up the flow of the story and left things feeling a little janky. There was just so much internal dialogue thrown in at strange points and perhaps something is wrong with my imagination, but I simply couldn’t comprehend a third of what was going on.

That being said, I enjoyed the story and will happily be reading book 2 of the scholomance trilogy. If you enjoy stories with unique and complex magic systems then this is for you.

Gotta say, I truly enjoyed this book! My favorite trope/subgenre is Magical School and Novik did such a unique twist on that. I know that there are more in the series so I can't wait to read the next!

A magical school with danger and death in store if you fail? I can’t believe I took so long to read this. The book dug its claws into me from page 1 and kept me entertained throughout. Highly recommend!!!

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik is a very different school of magic from Hogwarts. Children from magical families enter the school with a limited amount of belongings and do not leave until graduation. There are no letters from home or care packages. The school is filled with monsters, and students must learn quickly how to protect themselves or die. This engaging fantasy book is told for the perspective of a girl who is completely on her own and avoided by her fellow students due to an expectation that she will level mountains and become dark queen of the world. However, Orion Lake, a popular boy from the New York Enclave wants very much to be close to her. This was a very original tale about a dark school of magic called the Scholomance, and the lengths that students had to go to survive. This book has had some negative feedback due to descriptions which were perceived as racist, but I don’t think that this was intentional. If one read the passages fully with an open mind, the reference was an unfortunate choice of illustration, but there weren’t any other red flags in the book. I absolutely loved this story which was very unique and included the camaraderie of teens developing friendships, the first blush of young love, and teens working together to solve a problem. This was exceptionally well written and fascinating. Readers who enjoy YA Fantasy shouldn’t miss this book! I am voluntarily submitting this review after reading a complementary copy of this book thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey.

This was a really great book for people looking for magical academia that is meant for the NA readers who grew up on Harry Potter. I really enjoyed the premises of the book and the characters were all really interesting! The characters are really funny, clever, and there are some good moments between characters that made me smile at their relationships (and hopefully blooming it into something more?). This was definitely a book that I enjoyed for what it was, a fantasy academia book that is for the adults who loved Harry Potter as kids.

I found this was a slow start for me to get into it, but when the ball really got rolling, I started to enjoy it! Definitely excited to see what comes next in the series!

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC of this book!

There are already so many very thorough and thoughtful reviews of this book, that I'll keep this short. (But, seriously, whether it's before or after you pick up A Deadly Education, you should spend some time reading a few of the wonderful five-star and one-star reviews, many of which address and dissect the novel's controversial themes, characterizations, and subplots.)

What I will say is this—I found the novel very consumable. It kept me engaged. Even though I was put off by the way El initially viewed her classmates as assets rather than whole people, it made sense in the setting and with the way her character was drawn. By the end of the book, her perspective had certainly begun to change toward the few peers who'd gotten closer to her, and I'm hopeful that that expansion will continue in books two and three.

I think that's all for now—I enjoyed the book. I want to read more. To me, that feels like four stars.

This review is made possible via an ARC through NetGalley.

I cannot believe how much I loved the Voice of this. I've heard of A Deadly Education and seen people talk about it, but didn't have the time to read it until now. Novik makes pages of worldbuilding compelling and fascinating because of the incredible use of Voice throughout the work and the way El's melancholy and resilience manifests.

El is a fantastic MC who is tough and sarcastic and cynical but also molded by the difficult life she's lived. You see people change around her as they realize they judged her but you also see her open up and become closer to her peers without sacrificing her principles.

I loved this book. A magical school story with actual danger and feeling. The characters were very real and you loved them because the author didn’t try to make you like them, essentially. A new favorite

An excellent romp into a wholly new fantasy school and the dangers that accompany it. I was missing out by taking so long to read Ms. Novik's work and I am eager to devour more!

The concept held great promise: a school teeming with monsters, a protagonist determined to seek vengeance against her savior. However, what unfolded was an abundance of endless spell descriptions and convoluted magical intrigues within enclaves. While worldbuilding is undeniably crucial, it needn't be so tediously dull. The potentially dark heroine transformed into just another misunderstood teenage girl striving to be good. The only saving grace was her sarcasm and dark humor, which kept me engaged enough to finish the book.

I received this book as an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Truth be told I’ve wanted to read this book for a while and I was so happy to have gotten an ARC. It was actually such a fun read and I sped through it. El was relatable and a great FMC. Even though she is constantly getting saved by someone else, she is anything but a dams in distress. Can’t wait to keep reading the series and find out what happens after that cliffhanger!!

Wow, this was such a unique read - I haven't read any of Naomi Novik's work before and was immediately blown away by the voicey narration. A Deadly Education had an extremely interesting concept, wildly imaginative worldbuilding, and a diverse cast of characters that all contribute to a very dynamic, fully realised world. While I found El as a character a bit difficult to warm up to at first, the author did such an incredible job of showing her character development and inner world. It was masterful how as a reader, I discovered more and more about the protagonist and her true nature over the course of the book. In the end I was rooting for El, and her earnest suitor Orion Lake -- their relationship dynamic was hilariously endearing. I'm a sucker for the grumpy/sunshine trope and this book does that so well!

Thank you Random House Publishing Group for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this book. In the beginning, El and Orion gave me unexplained Yzma and Kronk vibes which I thought was great. The setting is a magical school with monsters that try and eat the students, not to mention the other students trying to do in each other before graduation. Did I mention the only way to graduate is by surviving a room full of aforementioned monsters? The characters I really enjoyed, which isn't surprising, I've enjoyed NN Uprooted standalone as well.

What I didn't care for was amount of information I had to ingest at one time. This is NN first attempt I think at a YA novel and while I liked it, I couldn't say I loved it. I'm going to pick up the sequel, I would like to see how things progress with El's story.
Overall, 3.25/5 Stars.

A huge thank you to Random House Publishing-Ballantine and Netaglley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. This review will be posted on my Good reads account.

This was an enjoyable read as a whole.

The concept was interesting and I liked the main character. I liked that she was a complex character and kind of an outsider. Even though this is not a new concept, it is one I like in fantasy books if it is well done; and it was the case in this one. Orion was also more complex than he appeared at first.
Now that being said, I thought the world was complicated to understand and it took me a while to get into the story.

I will probably read the next in the series to know what happens next.

Mimi

The idea behind A Deadly Education was interesting however I felt it fell short on its delivery.

At times the world building was difficult to get through, however I did find parts of it very interesting.

The characters felt unfinished, I feel like I did not get to know then well enough in the story.

The plot was interesting and the ending has made me want to read the next book.

This is the first book I have read by Novik and it may be that I need to adjust to her writing style. I would definitely read more of this author's work.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with this arc

I got accepted for this book three years after it was published. It was fine, but I didn't enjoy it and did not read the sequels

Naomi Novik tells of the worst possible high school ever. Young wizards are delicious food for monsters, so the Wizard community created the Scholomance to train the wizards to protect themselves til they reach eighteen. It's still A Deadly Education. (paper from Del Rey). Galadriel has always been a loner because her talents tend towards destructive spells. Orion, who has been rescuing other members of her Junior class, which she finds annoying. Unfortunately the Senior class, as a way to save themselves, have found a way to force the monsters coming for them at graduation to attack the rest of the school instead. Galadriel and Orion and their friends have to work together to save the school. Fascinating.

What a lovely take on a magical school. A great gothic read perfect for fall. The characters were intriguing & the plot had me wanting more for the next books. Overall a good read.