The narrative style of this book was enjoyable! El’s character shone through with everything she tells the reader, and it was very clear that she was the one telling the story. There was one moment in the book where she acknowledged that she was telling the story to a ‘reader’ and I loved it.

This book doesn’t have much of a concrete plot, and not enough happens that I could properly describe the plot without explaining the events of the last 10%. A lot of the word count is dedicated to infodumps about either the world or El’s backstory. Other than that we follow El over the course of the last few weeks of her second to last year at the Scholomance. She nearly dies many times, is unphased when other people die because that’s a regular occurance, and she gradually forms some actual friendships. Usually I enjoy stories that are more character driven than plot driven, where less happens in favour of us seeing more of the characters interacting and developing, but unfortunately I think that Novik missed the mark here. This wasn’t so much character driven as it was exposition driven.

It had its moments though. At the start of the book, El doesn’t have any friends, and she’s never had any friends. She’s on speaking terms with some people but that’s about as far as it goes. She’s lonely. When her association with the most popular boy in her year means that the rest of the rich and privileged kids suddenly want her around, she regards them with suspicion at the very least. And when she’s forced to acknowledge that she has somehow gained friends who want to spend time with her for her, and who accept her for who she is, she struggles to believe it and has to fight the urge to cry. Novik did do well with this, and I saw myself in El’s reactions. I’ve been there. I’m still surprised sometimes that people actually like me. These passages were worth reading, and I’m glad that I did.

But. The representation is abysmal. El is half Indian, but the only connection she has with that is when a family member declared her to be irredeemably evil as a child and tried to have her killed. There’s a lot of references to people treating her badly and not liking her as she grew up, but it’s all attributed to a ~bad feeling~ that she gives off, and not because people were racist. The one time she does say something about that possibility, she doesn’t say that people were wrong to be saying that, leaving the ‘weak tea’ comparison as the only physical description of her that we get. El somehow knows everybody’s country of origin on sight, even if she’s never seen or spoken to someone before, leading me to almost believe they must be wearing badges or something that declares where they’re from. The throwaway statement about it being hard to trade spells in Hindi because all the Hindi speakers also speak English only makes sense if you assume that English is inherently more valuable and more versatile than Hindi, which is simply untrue. Yi Liu is Cho Chang all over again. The magic system relies on ‘mana’, and while El does say that this is only called that because it’s what’s currently trendy in-universe, there isn’t even the briefest mention about how mana is rooted in Polynesian culture, and so appropriating it like this is pretty shitty, actually.

It was also very obvious to me as a British reader that Novik is an American trying to write a British character and not doing a particularly good job of it. Some American English managed to sneak through, and some of what El had to say sounded unnatural to me. This is a much more minor issue in comparison to everything else that was going on, however.

I didn’t hate my time reading this, and there were a couple of good ideas in here! But I can’t in good faith recommend this book to anyone, and its problems are so deeply baked into the narrative that it would take a lot more than simply removing one paragraph (as Novik has recently said will be happening) to fix it.

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*

Galadriel -- El -- is a Welsh/Indian girl attending a very Gothic and extremely dangerous school for wizards. She's prophesied to be a dangerous and evil sorceress which is why her Indian relatives wanted to kill her. But El just wants to survive school, she doesn't even try to make friends. But when Orion Lake, the heroic chosen one who can fight the mals like no other, befriends her, her life is turned upside down.

This was fun, not super deep, like Hogwarts but dangerous (more dangerous), I think the story was ok, the world building as well, but it was entertaining most of all. Almost all areas could've been fleshed out a bit more, but as I was entertained and am interested in reading the sequel (the last sentence was LIT).

Edit: I have since learned that many BPoC are angry for the shitty representation in this one. Many scenes felt awkward to me as well, but of course I entirely lack the background. Novik could've avoided many stereotypes and should work on thorough and well-researched representation without diminishing or reducing a culture or several cultures to one. Overall, the novel felt unfinished in many ways.

3.5 Stars

Naomi Novik is one of my favourite authors, and this book sounded written just for me - I've always loved stories featuring schools or universities where magic is learned or taught. And it turns out the distinction is important in this novel - the magic school here is devoid of teachers as instead the school itself has a sort of consciousness which provides answers to questions asked by extremely internally-motivated students (it's their best chance at survival!) Our main character is Galadriel (El for short) and she has an innate affinity for mass destruction - she's a hugely appealing character, and I look forward to reading more of her adventures. This is a really engaging, well-paced novel, full of interesting characters and brilliant worldbuilding. It would also work well as crossover Teen/YA, with its mostly teenage cast of characters and school setting.

I was really looking forward to reading this, as I really loved Novik's previous books. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed. Maybe it's because I'm officially Old and have grown out of reading books set in schools/magic schools/He Who Shall Not Be Named was never really a book series that I gravitated towards, but something that is pitched as Dark Feminist HP really should have made me not even want to pick up this book. I should definitely just steer clear of dark academia books in general, because I do not enjoy them and why do I keep thinking that this time will be different?

ANYWAY.

I enjoyed the writing and some of the characters, El was a really fun protagonist, wry and stubborn and headstrong, kind of annoying at times, but all in all a good narrator.

But other than that, this book was just Not For Me. I do think it will appeal to MANY people for the sheer FEMINIST HP and DARK ACADEMIA vibes, but unfortunately, this wasn't a winner for me.

A Deadly Education is the first in an all new series from acclaimed author Naomi Novik, and follows a young girl called El as she attempts to survive her years in the Scholomance – a school for children with magicial abilities. The only trouble is the school is not a typical boarding school – monsters hide in every corner and the only way to escape is to graduate at the end of your time there, or to die.

This book ended up being on my most anticipated releases of 2020, I was so intrigued by the school setting with a deadly twist. A Deadly Education is an action packed read, full of fighting and dangerous beasties. It was a quick paced story that I devoured in a few days and one I’d highly recommend. The world building is pretty fascinating in this story and while it took me a little while to get my head around the different terms I soon settled into this gripping and compelling story. There are a few moments that felt a bit like info-dumps, but generally the magic system were well explained in the story.

The main protagonist El is a fascinating character, she’s stubborn and sarcastic and at times she’s quite unlikeable. Despite all that I really found myself rooting for her as she attempts to survive another year in the school. I liked watching her develop friendships with her classmates and the way she stuck to her beliefs even when letting go would get her everything she wanted. I did feel some of the side characters could have been a little more fleshed out – I wanted to know more about boy wonder Orion Lake and why he’s so desperate to save everyone.

The story focuses on a lot of topics, particularly wealth and class inequalities which was something I did not expect. A Deadly Education is a gripping tale and ends on a pretty big cliffhanger. If you’ve been curious about this one I’d recommend giving it a try and hopefully the wait for book two won’t be too long!

4.5 stars
A magical school that’s full of creatures trying to kill the students. And the students have to ‘earn’ their magic? I was ALL IN from the second I heard about this book.
The story is told from the perspective of our female protagonist, El (Galadriel). Being the first book in a series there’s a lot of world building and character introductions etc and I’m really looking forward to continuing the series.
There’s lots of tactics, fighting creatures, cliques and the ever impending doom of Graduation. When the seniors will take on the creatures down in the basement as it’s the only way out of the school. El and her friends aren’t seniors until the next school year

Ooooof. Okay. How to even begin this one. Pegged as feminist, dark Harry Potter, A Deadly Education is the first in a new trilogy from Naomi Novik. While I'd read some of her Temeraire books in the dawn of my university years and then never finished them, I had read and enjoyed both Uprooted and Spinning Silver and I would be lying if I said this one wasn't high on my list of hyped books for the year. I was excited to be given an opportunity to read the book prior to release and as the cold, dark autumn nights rolled in, I felt this was an appropriate time to try and see what this book was actually like.

On paper, trying to do another magical school book (especially one set in the UK) following the success of Harry Potter seems like a rather daft idea. But as issues with Rowling's growing transphobia and the problems inherent in the Potter books themselves have become more of a talking point, it seems like everyone is ready for a new protagonist and story to sweep us off our feet. And hey, if she happens to be a mixed race, female protagonist who's actually potentially on her way to being the prophesied destruction of the magical world, then so much the better right? Except... that's not quite what happens here. And what's left is instead much messier and so much more disappointing, considering that those of us who have read Novik's other work have seen how good she can be.

Galadriel (yes, really) Higgins, or El for short, is a half-British/half-Indian witch trying to survive in the Scholomance, the magical school that will gleefully kill its students. You see, there are no teachers in the Scholomance, nor even quite structured classes, the rooms are pokey and open up into a void you absolutely don't want to fall into and the school itself is infested with maleficaria, or mal for short, horrors and monsters that are dying to eat you up. El herself is trying to make her way through the school year without falling into the temptation of using dark magic, because once she starts, she's not so sure she can stop, plus her great-grandmother prophesied that she would be the most powerful dark sorceress ever, the one to bring down all the magical enclaves of the world. Enter Orion Lake, who basically is some sort of boy wonder, taking it upon himself to save his fellow students from the maleficaria that are out to get them. In this sort-of rivals to lovers story, El and Orion find themselves unwittingly on the same team as they struggle to stay alive and make it to their final year. But there are dark powers at work in the Scholomance and in a school where every friendship is strategic and nothing is without a cost, El must decide if she's willing to use her deadly powers to ensure her survival, or if she can avoid the temptation.

From that synopsis alone, I was so ready for something more than just Harry Potter. El is a sarcastic loner, someone who doesn't make friends easily and pushes people away. She's abrasive, she's constantly trying to figure out if people have it in for her and oh yeah, if she gives into the temptation to become a maleficer, she could just about level the school and kill all the kids in it. But even though the book has a bit of a slow start (nothing I minded too much, not even with the excessive infodumping that counts towards worlbuilding), once I got invested, I was interested in seeing where it all went. Would El go to the dark side or could she maintain her commitment to not murdering everyone in sight? Even though her voice is relatively grating and her personality about as soft as sandpaper, I could have forgiven El: she's a teenager in a brutal school where everything is out to get her, so why expect her to be fun and cheery? But what really ended up bothering me is just how... colonialist this whole piece of fiction is.

El's mixed race background barely counts as anything, other than to mention that she sometimes got bullied when going to "mundane" school. She knows Marathi, among other languages (one of her special skills), but there is little in the way of cultural background here. We learn a lot more about her childhood growing up in a yurt in Wales than we do about anything that her mum does to try and keep her link to India alive (other than visiting relatives, the whole prophecy thing and that's that). To all intents and purposes, she could be a white character, because there is nothing here to address that cultural link, nothing to really make her actually sound like a mixed race character. Even her interactions with other students (and credit to Novik, she does try to make the school a hell of a lot more diverse than Hogwarts was) all boil down to the language they speak and whether they're of any use whatsoever to El. They have next to no personalities of their own and while it’s nice to see Black and brown and East Asian characters take a much more prominent role in the story, it’s not great when they’re basically defined in such broad strokes as to be meaningless. Arguably, this is an issue with El’s point of view and how she perceives everyone in the school (and how useful they are to her), but it’s a weak argument. Why bother even having a whole Baghdad enclave when their entire role is to provide El with some people who know Arabic when she conveniently needs it?

The other issue here is how often El mentions she needs a shower. Again, Scholomance is a deadly place, it’s dangerous to go alone, take a buddy with you, I get that. But to have your mixed race character (pathetically described as “the colour of weak tea”, like really?) go on and on about being unclean… that’s just really poor optics. And I mean really poor. There is an entire passage dedicated to how locs are a bad idea in Scholomance because a deadly monster might nest in them, like locs (particularly on Black people) are not already a source of derision and comments about things living in them, in a book where there are apparently no major Black characters (we have a couple of mentions of Western Africans but that's it really). All of it just comes across as tone deaf, like no editor really picked up on it, there were no sensitivity readers to point out how this is such a bad idea. There are other examples: El mentions that all the languages of India can apparently fit on a shelf in the Scholomance library, despite there being over 800 of languages spoken in the Indian subcontinent. There are mentions of djinn (a decidedly Islamic concept) used as servants by Hindu wizards (and seriously, is she not aware of what the India-Pakistan conflict looks like, or does she not care?). We have another 'Cho Chang' situation on our hands, except this time it's a character whose name is Liu and we have no idea if it's her first or last name, nor does the narrative seem to particularly care about it. I even saw someone mention that it looks like Novik straightwashed some Harry/Draco fanfic she once wrote which if that's actually true, then absolute yikes.

But the story itself also leaves a lot to be desired. It's boring at times, it's full of long segues where nothing happens, it doesn't seem to really hit its stride until about 60% of the way through, it ends on a cliffhanger so monumental I wanted to hurt my Kindle against the wall. El treats languages like they're some download into her brain and she can apparently just pick up stuff like Latin, Sanskrit and Old English, like it's nothing (also really, two of the languages are dead and one very much isn't, let's not pretend they're remotely the same) and she does the same with Arabic when she encounters a book of spells she desperately wants to learn. She can pick up spells like they're nothing too, apparently, which obviously makes even not just evil (or potentially evil) but also wickedly powerful and this is without even getting into the whole prophecy schtick.

It feels like a disappointment. It reads like one too, because I wanted so much more out of it. Novik shouldn't have had this published in its current format. It continues to perpetuate colonialist and racist beliefs (also, please don't use bullshit like "freshman" and "sophomore" in a book set in a magical school in the damn UK), it's overhyped and has some really lazy tropes in it and I just... I wanted and expected better from her. If this is what's meant to be the next Harry Potter cultural phenomenon, then hard pass and no thank you.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book.

Set in a school that is quite literally a death trap, this book proved to be a super interesting concept where teenagers deal with not just your standard levels of social hierarchy, but the most intense kind, with monsters and magic thrown in the mix. Of course, our main character seems to be a siphon for destruction, and mere survival is a challenge of restraint for her. Add in the difficulties of friendships and schoolwork, and you have yourself a fun read about the most chaotic teenage life.

As dark as this book sounds with all its claims of monsters and destruction, it is the word "fun" I keep coming back to. This book is categorised as adult here in the UK, which honestly baffles me a tad. If you take out the few instances of swearing, this book really does read on the younger side of Young Adult/Teen fiction. Which isn't a criticism in itself - just something to note. That being said, I really did struggle with imagining these characters because their voices just didn't align smoothly. One minute our main character would be hurling rude insults around, the next, she would say something that immediately had the voice of a 14 year old. It was slightly jarring, and I had to keep reminding myself what year of school she was in just to be able to conjure up an image of her in my head.

It's worth noting too that this is entirely different to Naomi Novik's usual writing style. Novik attempts a teenage, slightly angsty "I-don't-care-about-anything" voice on our main character, throwing around lots of "Etcetera etceteras" to show just how much she didn't care to explain. I have to admit, I didn't love it. I'm much more of a fan of Novik's adult folkloric fantasy. That being said, it was engaging to read and still had the charm I expected from Novik. Despite to caring all too much for the characters, I had my moments of emotion when reading the backstory scenes, or when everything about our main characters defensive attitude suddenly made sense. It takes a lot, to invoke that kind of emotion and understanding in a reader, and yet Novik manages it every time.

The world building - or rather, school building - was by far the most intriguing part of the book. Granted, we were given quite the disjointed info-dump at the beginning about how it worked, but it doesn't take too long to just go along with it. The school was another character in and of itself, almost a sentient being that would adapt to whatever was happening in the book. Not only that, but the sense of danger surrounding every corner of this book...oof did I feel the intensity. I didn't even begin to fathom the level of alertness needed to survive in this school until Naomi Novik laid it all out on a plate to me. Assessing which table to sit at while eating lunch, how to shower, walking down corridors - even deadlines somehow became more scary. Novik really did think everything through, and it was a wonder to read.

That being said, this did end up being a middling book for me. I love the concept, the world, the social systems and magic. But the writing was just...not for me. I had too many niggling issues with the book to be able to fully sink into the story. Which is such a shame! I had high expectations going into this one, after my love for Uprooted. Still, it was a fun one to read and give a go, and I'm more than eager to give the rest of her books a read if I haven't already.

I was really looking forward to this book. There has been a lot of hype about it in the bookish community. When I received the email, saying that I had been approved to read it, from the publisher it made me even more excited as it read like an acceptance letter to the school featured in the book.

However, I found that the book fell completely flat. The first few chapters felt like the protagonist was just reeling off everything that you needed to know about the story with no particular structure to it. It was like being in a teenager's head. Or someone that feels the need to tell you every single one of their thoughts without pausing or taking a breath. I'm not sure if this was suppose to be a character trait, but it really did not make me want to keep reading.

I understand that there needs to be some world building in a new story, but it could have been done so much better. I had to put the book down. I was hoping I would come back to it in order to review it further, having read it all, but truthfully I just didn't want to read it. So it was a DNF for me...

I really hope everyone that has got special editions think it's worth the hype. For me it wasn't.

DNF at 34%. Let me be straight forward, I honestly thought A Deadly Education was going to be what I never knew I always wanted. Dark academy, deadly magic and a sassy main character? I signed up as soon as I read the synopsis. This was my very first time reading a book by Naomi Novik so I didn’t know what to expect in terms of her writing style, but after hearing so much praise for her novels Uprooted and Spinning Silver, my expectations were quite high. But after reading just a few pages, I knew this book wasn’t for me. I tried to push myself to finish it, but then I decided to DNF it.

This YA fantasy story starts off with the mail character, Galadriel (better known as El), being saved from a soul-eater by the golden boy at Scholomance. El is a biracial sorcerer (Indian and Welsh) with an affinity for destruction who just wants to survive her academic time at the school and get in an enclave. But surviving in a setting with dangers in every corner and without teachers, can be a little bit challenging. Nevertheless, she is willing to try her best by her own. That’s it, until Orion saves her.

In this school, sorcerers can either use mana or malia. Mana is an arcane energy, a life force. While malia is dark magic. Also, there are three academic tracks in this school: alchemy, incantations and artifice. That sounds interesting, right? Except that it seems no one told the author that she should show, not tell. This was just more info-damping that anything else. There is barely a solid plot because the author is more focused on the continuous exposition of information. That, added to the childish tone of the book and that I wasn’t impressed by El’s attitude at all, made me loss any interest in the story.

Summing up, A Deadly Education wasn’t what I was expecting. The 34% I read is just full of info-dumping, the main character being saved by the golden boy and being rude to him, and demons attacking them every few seconds. This wasn’t the dark and twisty book I thought I would find here. I guess if you like school settings, overly childish humor and a kind-of-sassy main character, this may be for you.

I was so excited to read A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik.

A Deadly Education is the first book in the Scholomance series. It was supposed to be everything I love – magic, magical school, a bit of romance. And it left me so disappointed and just empty within. I have no words of how sad I am to be writing this review. I am crushed, but I have to be honest to myself and to the people reading my reviews.

Synopsis:

A Deadly Education is indeed a story about a deadly magical school. This school, Scholomance, is a school for students that are magically gifted. There are no teachers and students are left alone to master skills and attend lessons. They are also forbidden to walk the halls at night, because deadly monsters are lurking from every corner. And the ultimate graduation test is a deadly game of survival by fighting these monsters.

The students’ magic works based on either mana (the good magic) or malia (the bad magic).

El is our main character in this book, who can use malia to defeat all the monsters, but that would involve killing the other students. Survival also means working on strategies and making allies with other people.

And then we also have Orion Lake. He has many friends and admirers and he keeps saving El’s life. And she’s not impressed and hates him.

My Thoughts:

I feel like A Deadly Education was a great idea about a magical school that has a “Hunger Games” type of graduation, but somewhere in the middle the plot got lost and we got a weak story.

First of all, I hated El. I don’t usually hate characters, but God, I really despised her. Not only was she incredibly rude all the time, but she was very entitled, self-centered and very selfish. I hated the fact that she always thought the world revolved about her. Furthermore, she kept pushing people away, especially her so-called friends and Orion.

Then we have Orion Lake, who is portrayed as the hero, saving so many lives. Which he is. But he also is this person that can’t speak for himself, and seems like he does whatever other people tell him to do.

And the romance between them was very non-existent. There wasn’t any form of attraction that I felt, only El’s rudeness. I don’t know how it escalated in the end to a romance, because I didn’t see it. El was even then being rude to him.

This is such a hard review to write, as I know this book is widely popular. But for me, it didn’t hit the mark in any way. I wish there was more to it than just the deadly monsters and strategies for a graduation that was so talked about. And I wish the romance was real. But I’m still keen to read the second book, just to find out whether it will redeem itself, at least a bit. If you’re looking for a magical school, I’d suggest Hogwarts.

This ain’t it.

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

Naomi Novik is absolutely in my list of top ten favorite authors of all time. Spinning Silver and Uprooted are so beautiful, romantic and atmospheric that I know they are books that will always stick with me. When I learned that we were getting a SERIES from Naomi Novik…and not just a series but A DARK ACADEMIA series? I legitimately jumped for joy. It was not cute and my downstairs neighbors definitely didn’t enjoy it, but it happened.

A Deadly Education was absolutely everything I wanted. The world was incredible and so unique. Novik actually managed to create a magical school that I very much do NOT want to attend. I never thought it would happen, but if I got admitted into the Scholomance I would legitimately run away. Far far away. Do not sign me up. Ever. Please. That being said, I loved reading about it. It is a school with no teachers that is instead filled with monsters that the students have to somehow survive in order to graduate.

El had the unique talent of being absolutely endearing in her narration, while simultaneously annoying me to no end when she spoke. Try to remember every snarky thing you’ve thought but kept to yourself. Now imagine what would’ve happened if all of that snark came out of your mouth instead of staying in your mind. THAT is El, and I absolutely loved her for it. When I tell you that El spoke her mind in this book, I don’t mean sometimes. The girl really spoke her mind. She also managed to be witty, funny, likable, tenacious and a surprisingly good friend to those who managed to slide into the role.

The pacing was a little slow to start, but that is to be expected of the first book in a new series. I didn’t feel as though there were any info-dumps, and the world was fairly easy to understand once I really let myself sink into it. While the book ends on a tiny cliffhanger, it is one that I can manage to survive. Do I want to call Naomi Novik and beg her for the second book right now? Well, yes. Will I be able to control myself and resist the urge? Probably.

If you fancy a book about a magical school which is basically designed to kill you, more monsters than you can throw multiple sticks at, a kick-ass, take no prisoners, smart mouthed snarky heroine and the promise of more to come then this is a book I’d highly recommend. The first in a new series, this is quite different from Naomi Novik’s previous novels but none the poorer for that. Her brilliant writing shines through and she has created some absolutely brilliant characters in this, both the leads El and Orion and the fabulous supporting cast. The school itself is a master piece in world building, and a larger world is hinted at that I very much look forward to discovering more about this. This is a thoroughly entertaining romp of a novel but there are serious moral issues raised, such as equality, privilege, and the abuse of power (both magical and non) which than give it an edgier tone than other books of it's kind. There is a hint of romance and some excellent unfolding friendships which will have you wishing for the next in the series.

4,5 stars

I'm struggling to write a review for this because I know many people will give A Deadly Education a lower rating based on the lack of an overall plot, but I couldn't help but love every minute of this book. It must be the characters and the world which were well-written because I was addicted.

Galadriel, El for short, was a snarky, committed student of the Scholomance, a magic school which seems hell-bent on killing its students. The friendship she formed with Orion, the school's resident hero, was so cute and I hope it blossoms into something further when they're ready. They were delivering on that grumpy/sunshine OTP dynamic that I love so much. I also liked the development of the female friendships throughout the book.

The spooky school setting itself was perfect for an October read. The fact that the students are never safe made me feel for them, really. I understand most of their motivations, which is just basic human survival. The magic system was also an interesting aspect to read about. not quite like any I've read before.

As I said before, there wasn't an overall storyline to speak of, more like a series of smaller arcs. Think of it as 'a year in the life of Galadriel' and then you won't go in expecting an epic plot. Nevertheless, I ate up all the crumbs I was given and I am craving more from this world and characters.

*Flings door open* HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THIS BOOK? It’s about witches and wizards at a schoo… HOLD ON.

Before you nope right outta here, let me give you a few key nuggets:
– This ain’t no happy school where everyone LOVES every minute of it
– Things are constantly trying K I L L you (which sucks)
– The lead is a bad-ass bitch-witch who’s half Indian and with literally zero time for your shenanigans

Perhaps that’s got your attention. Perhaps not, but if it has, let me tell you that this is a very easy read and will absolutely suck you right in. BUT (and I feel this is important to say now) there are a lot of infodumps and I went from OMG-I-LOVE-THIS to oh-god-I-dont-want-to-continue and back again. Perhaps it’s just me.

This is the story of the Scholomance – a school that was built in the void that was historically only open for the rich witches and wizards of the world. That was, however, until nasty ass creatures started breaking in looking for an easy lunch ticket and only then did the doors get opened up the less fortunate. Needless to say, a lot of students never made it home. If being constantly in fear for your life wasn’t enough, this school has no teachers, no staff of any kind, assignments that just appear and you MUST follow the bells to a tee or, you know, die a very long and painful death.

And then there’s our main character – Galadriel (yes, Lord of the Rings). El (as she hates to be called) has been scurrying around doing her damn best to survive, smacking anyone who gets in her way with a hefty dose of sarcasm and wit. Needless to say, she’s not exactly popular but you need to form alliances if you’re going to survive graduation. Which can be tricky to do when you’re trying to control your own powers and not take out the whole school.

Enter Liu and Aadhya who form a very unlikely group of outcasts and Orion – the emo enclave ~mysterious~ kid that has a penchant for killing monsters / potential other-end-of-the-personality-spectrum love interest. I know opposites attract, but I reeeeeally need to know where that one is going.

This is an excellent little book especially if you’re looking to continue in the YA magic world leaving ‘she who will not be named’ in the past. If the story continues on the same mental trajectory as this one, then book no. 2 The Last Graduate will be excellent.

4.5 stars.

The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher Del Rey (Random House UK, Cornerstone) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"Nobody gets to live or not live because they deserve it, deserving doesn’t count for a thing".

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik was one of my most anticipated new releases of this year and I’m so happy to say it didn’t disappoint, not even a tiny bit.
The novel was at first presented as “a twisted, super dark, super modern, female-led Harry Potter story”, then you can easily understand why I was immediately sold.

The world building was maybe the best feature of the entire novel. It’s really phenomenal.
I have to warn you, while reading this book, you’ll encounter lots and lots of paragraphs with descriptions and information about the Scholomance and its world in general. So, I guess some readers might find these parts boring, but, even though it’s true they slow the story down a bit, they’re still something unique and interesting to read because they give you the notions you need to build up in your head the image of the Scholomance. And, guys, as you go on with the pages, you can truly picture the school in your mind and it truly feels like it exists in the real world. I was really mesmerized by how Novik depicted this world.

El, aka Galadriel, is our main character here, or rather our anti-heroine. As all unforgettable heroes, she has a prophecy. But it just happens that here the chosen one trope has been subverted.
El is a witty, smart, sassy, determined and strong sixteen-year-old girl. She’s (almost) always grumpy, rude and mean to everyone around her, but, honestly, she has every right to be.
Orion Lake is another character in the book that I really liked and I think we can expect great things from him in the following instalments of the trilogy. He’s the actual hero of the novel, the knight in the shining armour, but he’s also a very adorable, kind and lovely guy. Plus, I live for his and El's banter.

A Deadly Education is a beautifully written, sarcastic and dark tale that poses a fascinating question: how do you preserve who you are as a person in the midst of every horrible thing that happens to you, or that you have to do, inside the Scholomance in order to survive? And the amazing thing is that this question is not only appliable to the themes in this book, but also to adolescence and life in general.
The novel also focuses on other very important themes such as injustice, inequality, exploitation, and privilege. And they’re explored in a witty yet effective way. As a matter of fact, Novik’s writing style is amazing! She was able to put humour and thriller together creating something particular and extremely captivating.

I have never read a book by Naomi Novik before but I have heard many great things so when I had my request on Netgalley accepted to read this book I was very excited. The synopsis itself speaks volumes about this book and I have seen lots of 5 star reviews and people saying it is a cross between the setting of Hogwarts and The Hunger Games. This all got me very hyped to read it. Unfortunately, for me personally it just did not hit the spot.

This is a such a great idea for a plot. A magic school where you try to survive and there being no teachers. All such unique ideas for a fantasy story, but when I got over halfway into this book I still was waiting for there to actually be a plot. There is so much world building going on in this book that it stopped me from connecting to any of the characters. I have seen a lot of people saying about there being an info-dump in some books, and that is exactly how I would describe this book. There is a lot of information about the magic system and how the school works but it got so overwhelming when I just wanted to read about something exciting happening in the school.

There were some events such as El coming into contact with some very scary monster type beings and I wanted to read about what she was going through but all of a sudden the author would suddenly write about a flashback to a conversation El had with her mother for example. It just took the excitement out of something that should have been an epic scene in the book. It made this book drag so I got to the point where I was desperate to finish it. I did think about giving up but since I saw so many 5 star reviews I assumed it would get better but unfortunately by the end I was disappointed.

I know most people have enjoyed this book and I can see why it appeals to people but it just wasn’t the book for me and I want to be truthful in my reading experience.

Thank you to Del Rey and Netgalley for letting me receive a copy of this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

“The Scholomance isn’t precisely a real place… It only works because it was built into the void.”

CW: Death, murder, injury

Probably best to start with the magic, right, seeing as that’s from what the rest of the book stems? I really enjoyed the magic system in this book; Naomi Novik created her own magic for this book, rather than relying on one that already existed. There’s no waving wands and robes and magic that always exists and is waiting to be summoned; students have to work for magic in this. It’s not an infinite supply, it’s something that you need to create and store for when you need it most. It’s also something that’s constantly changing and growing, with new spells appearing when they’re needed and old ones disappearing when they’re not.
The magical creatures are also completely new too, but so vividly created that you can see them – why fear dragons and werewolves when these lot have to deal with metal spiders, gloopy creatures that swallow you but never quite kill you, and some weird hyena hybrid?
And, of course, the school. Pictured above is just a glimpse of one of the maps that form the end pages of the hardback copies of the book (one: that I didn’t know existed until Tuesday; and two: that I’ve already fallen in love with). They look like utter nonsense on their own, but as part of the whole story, they’re so clever.
I remember the first time I heard about this, it was sold as dark, feminist Harry Potter, and I think that’s wrong? It’s unfair for every magic school story to be labelled as the ‘something’ Harry Potter – can’t they just be their own thing? Especially because, in my opinion, this is better. Or, at the very least, different. Maybe my judgement on Harry Potter isn’t the most unbiased at the moment, but eh, I don’t really care what JKR feels.
Hogwarts is a magic school: it teaches spells and potions, it has cloaks and hats and toads and a castle, with protections around it to make sure no one enters (apart from a certain Dark wizard). Scholomance, on the other hand, is less a magic school and more a…protective holding cell that isn’t doing a very job at protecting the students? It’s not actively trying to kill you, but it also won’t actively try to stop you from being killed. There are no teachers, no escape at the end of every year, barely enough food to scrape by with. Although it’s meant to teach you to use magic, it’s also built to protect you from your magic when it’s at its most dangerous.
Not to say, of course, that staying in the Scholomance is any easier than staying outside it. If you survive all the problems the school presents you with throughout your years, you still have to leave and that proves to have its own problems.
Friendships are a huge, central part to this book, not just because they make a person feel better but because they’re alliances. You need allies in every walk of life in this book – be that as simple as showering and eating dinner or in a more important sense like graduating. El’s spent most of her time at the school never quite finding her place or her people, until this year. There are two girls she’s always been on friendly terms with but doesn’t make friends with until it makes strategic sense for them. And there’s another, Orion, who El’s not really sure what her relationship is with him.
I really enjoyed Orion as a character (and, honestly, loved his name). He reminded me of a guard dog or something – immensely loyal, always wanting to save the save the day, but doing stupid things to get there. His relationship with El was really interesting and I look forward to seeing where it goes.
I also LOVED El. She was so interesting and such an usual protagonist. She was scared and just trying to get by, but she was brave and tried to help other people where possible. Let’s be honest, she was also stupidly stubborn sometimes, but I really loved her and I love how she narrated the book. An assortment of favourite lines include:
I’m the class tiramisu, you spanner.
I certainly did feel myself again, namely violently irritated.
Yes, now I was worrying that I’d be turned to the dark side by too much crochet.
I love having existential crises at bedtime, it’s so restful.
Obviously, I wanted to scream at her and set her whole enclave on fire, but that was just habit.
...fell asleep to soft lulling murmur of voices singing of violent death in French.
You overgrown lemming.
You tragic blob of unsteamed pudding.
Reader, I ran the fuck away.
I can easily say, when I went into this book, I didn’t know where it was going to go. Even when I was reading it, I didn’t know. But then it started going in that direction and it made so much sense and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really clever! It was high stakes, but has still left us with a high stakes adventure for the sequel. Plus, that final line? I want the next book straight away!

Thanks to NetGalley for an early copy of this for review.

(4.5 stars) This was so good! I was in a (relative) slump before this, and it absolutely pulled me out with all the force of a yanker spell.

It didn't take long for me to get hooked into this book: the alternately dark and light humour, the protagonist's strong and complex character voice all framed by amazing worldbuilding of a very savage international boarding school in an even more dangerous world. I liked that Novik had clearly thought out why parents would willingly send their kids to such a high-risk school - you can tell Novik's one for detail! Magic always comes with a price, and I absolutely adored the magic system in this book. I really liked that while El is incredibly powerful, she is not over-powered like some other YA 'Chosen Ones'. El actually had so many restrictions on her powers that made it that much more believable, and shows the value of teamwork!

Exposition was done really well, built up in layers based on the information's relevance to El's current scene/situation. Novik strikes a good balance between introspection and more action-packed scenes, both of which I found tense for different reasons. Choices can be just as life-changing as getting eaten by a maw-mouth maleficaria (monster, basically)! That being said, sometimes sentences ran on and felt overlong, and I ended up having to reread them several times before either understanding or giving up and moving on. This was only a minor issue, though!

I just loved the characters too, especially El and Orion. They're so different yet kindred: lonely 'Chosen Ones' trapped by boxes that the people around them keep shunting over their heads. A great interrogation of the 'Chosen One' trope, questioning who chooses and what might happen if the chosen rejects that choice. El constantly grapples with her pride, thrown up as prickly armour around her softer centre that yearns to be loved and accepted for who she is. She reminded me of 'The Raven Cycle''s Ronan and Adam blended together, and I love those boys to bits! El's constant conflict between survival past graduation and keeping her dignity and integrity of self made for excellent internal drama.

The relationships between characters are written very well, from the tentative friendships blooming (a Golden Trio for a new age), quasi-enemies to lovers (GODDD I SHIP IT) and El's loving bond with her mum. I adored that El had a good relationship with her mum (I have been starved of this in YA) and that El's father's family had wanted to love her, when I'd expected the opposite.

The cast is ethnically and financially diverse, and I was glad that this wasn't token diversity either. There is a clear awareness of the class-based inequality in the ground upon which the Scholomance is built and the exploitative nature of the entire wizard-training system is highlighted. Power structures are perpetuated by the privileged and paid for in the blood of those less fortunate. Of course, the characters aren't simply split into enclavers (entitled 'bad guys') and non-enclavers (deserving 'good guys') - there's way more nuance than that.

Highly recommend for fans of the following:

- subversion of common fantasy tropes
- magical boarding schools
- fake dating
- found family
- social commentary
- rivals/enemies to lovers who alternately snipe at each other and save each other's lives
- and last, but not least, the Oblivious Idiots™ trope

I'm sure 'A Deadly Education' will be the first of many more Novik books. I NEED the sequel to this, especially after that ending!

A Deadly Education was not at all what I expected it to be, and I can see why it wont be for everyone, but the uniqueness of the writing style and Novik's ability to drag me head first into whatever world she builds made sure I left this one still a firm fan. El is not what you would call 'Likeable' she lives her life on the fringes, which for life in the Scholomance means risking her life 3-4 times a day. That is until the maddening good boy Orion saves her life for the second time ( not that they're counting) and then starts sticking to her like glue. El is initially greatly annoyed by his presence, but soon realises she can work it to her advantage. She wants into an alliance and a Enclave invitation after graduation and Orion, golden Boy of the New York Enclave might be her way in. What starts as a wary alliance, soon blooms into a semi-reluctant friendship and El comes to realise that she may have more friends in the Scholomance than she realises... but also more enemies.

El is a really unique perspective to read from in that the book is 75% her inner thoughts and her feeding you bits of information. Don't get me wrong, their is action and dialogue, but those parts are few and far between, I have never read a book with this much inner dialogue and I admit to being put off a little at first. But once you get to know El, Orion and the other kids in the Scholomance you feel inexplicably ties to them, no matter how little page space they actually get.

Novik does something with El that few authors do, she allows her to be unforgiving , rude, prickly she didn’t try to fix her. Does she start to lay off a little towards the end? Yes, but not enough for her to be classed as likeable. She want's so much to be at the start, but she quickly realises there is a strength to people being wary of her. Everyone assumes she is using Malia (drawn from living beings who are more than likely killed in the process), the only problem is if El used even a little of it she could level mountains, cities with a click of her fingers. Instead she lives on a strict diet of Mana (formed from physical or mental exertion) which limits her powers to the city block kind of destruction. El and Orion's relationship had me in literal hysterics in parts

”You know, it’s almost impressive,” he said after a moment, sounding less wobbly. “You’re nearly dead and you’re still the rudest person I’ve ever met. You’re welcome again, by the way”

Dhe starts off unbelievably annoyed by his attention, even when that means more people start talking to her. But when she realises the truth of him, she realises that they are similar in a way, both being used for what they bring to the table and not who they are.

High school was the worst for most people, but imagine high school where you had to shower in pairs, with one person keeping watch for any Mals (demons) that are trying to kill you, where you have to check the food in the canteen before sticking your hands, or mouth anywhere near it, where sitting by yourself in the cafeteria can be a death sentence. So you would ask why people willingly send their children here right? You would be right in assuming it would be to weed out the weaker magic users, those not part of an alliance by graduation essentially become cannon fodder to the other groups fighting their way out on graduation day ( if you make it that far). Novik not only introduces us to both Mana and Malia users, but also different types of magic people specialise in which fits into three main categories: Incantation, alchemy and Artifice.

We get a lot of information, not just about what is happening in the Scholomance, but the outside world, insights into El's past and the history of magic users. I can see where some people would say it was a little dumpy and if I’m being honest I was close to DNF’ing in the first few chapters but I’m so glad I carried on. Novik is a rare talent who can give you enough information to completely immerse yourself in the world, past and present, whilst never loosing out on character interaction or growth.

I did wonder when reading this how it would turn out to be a series, whether it would get a little monotonous, but Novik weaves little tit bits of information throughout the book so that when you get to the ending, where she throws a complete spanner in the works, you find yourself questioning every interaction and scene. I am unbelievable eager to get my hands on book two, and for anybody starting this one... get past chapter two and it will pick up I promise!