A clever, witty book that plays with the idea of a school for magic and doses it up with a real show of cynicism.

The book has a great pace, an engaging if not entirely likeable set of characters, and it sets the world of Scholomance up nicely for the next books in the series.

I did struggle with the amount of background information about the world - it's needed to set the scene, but is a bit heavy-handed in places and strains the narrative, but overall it's an enjoyable read.

A Deadly Education was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, but unfortunately, I don't think that this book was for me.

You can definitely tell that this book is written as an introduction to the world Naomi Novik created, and for the most part, I thought it was interesting: the concept of the Scholomance is enthralling, and the atmosphere quite vivid. I also loved that this magical school had people from all around the world, as it made for a diverse cast of characters! That being said, the book suffered from a lot of info-dumps: I almost gave up 20% in, because the world was explained by the main character through pages upon pages, making it all about telling and not showing, which isn't something I like.

In that sense, I didn't find A Deadly Education to be engaging: on top of all the exposition, I often found myself annoyed at El's voice, the protagonist who was also our narrator, as I quickly grew impatient with all her internal monologues, which felt quite long and disjointed. Her inner thoughts were either all about explaining the world, flashbacks to help get a sense of her (... and I didn't get her at all, so!), or her having yet another existential crisis. While the idea of El seemed interesting (I mean, a prophetized dark sorceress? Yes, please), I struggled to get a sense of her, and the way she acted was quite frustrating. I didn't like Orion either to be fair, so reading about them getting romantic at the end annoyed me to no end.

Other than that, this book suffered from too much exposition: while Novik's world was interesting and it seemed like she put a lot of thought into it, it almost felt like she added a plot two-thirds of the way in, but it was too late for me to care (sorry not sorry). Before that, this book had some random action moments that seemed to be the characters' routine, but I wasn't here for it. While that last third was huge improvement from the rest of the book, I had lost interest in the book, and literally snorted at the last line, which, I guess, is supposed to be a cliffhanger.

Overall, A Deadly Education had an interesting concept, but it suffered from too much exposition, which will probably be resolved in the next book, but I don't find myself eager to read the sequel. Neither the story nor the characters were engaging enough to keep my attention, which is a shame. I still hope it finds the right audience, though!

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik is set in a school for those with magic, called Scholomance.  Except there are things that are forever trying to kill you.

El is our protagonist, and is rude, grumpy and antagonistic, and on the first page, is planning to murder someone who has just saved her life.  

I really enjoyed the twists and turns, and learning about Scholomance, how the students survive it, and about the world!  As this is 'Lesson 1 of the Scholomance', I'm looking forward to the next book!

I'm a big Naomi Novik fan, and have been reading her books since the days of Temeraire, a dragon in the military during the Napoleonic War.

Her recent books, Uprooted and Spinning Silver have both been good plays on fairy tales, and so when I saw this book, I was excited!

A Deadly Education was published on 29th September 2020, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and your local independent bookshop.

You can follow Naomi Novik on her website, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

I was given this book in return for an unbiased review, and so my thanks to NetGalley and to Random House.

Captivating, well-built and thrilling. Really, really enjoyed. Cared about the characters, and kept me on the hook for the next one. Another success from Novik.

“With our deepest sympathies and commiserations, we must inform you that you have been accepted into the Scholomance.”

This is the invitation I received from Random House UK via NetGalley to read a free arc of A Deadly Education. Thanks guys! How could I resist?

In this world, magical kids are prone to be attacked and killed by all manner of evil creatures as they grow into their powers, so the Scholomance was built to minimise the risk. Even so, student death is a regular occurrence. The school was built to protect the children of the world’s magical enclaves (powerful magic covens) and those kids have an easier life, though even they are not safe from the constant threat of being eaten by the wizard-eating ‘maleficaria’.

El isn’t from an enclave. El (short for Galadriel) was prophesied in early childhood to be some kind of world-destroying, evil sorceress. However, having been raised on a Welsh commune by a loving nurturing mother, she is not keen to fulfil that prophecy. El is conscious that to graduate, you need to fight your way out past the worst of the maleficaria. To do that you need friends and alliances. El has none.

The story begins with El being saved by the school hero, Orion Lake. However, El doesn’t need to be saved. She has plans to use her considerable powers to destroy a large maleficaria in front of everyone and attract alliance offers. She is, therefore, not happy to be characterised as a damsel in distress instead. When Orion suspects her of being an evil wizard and begins to follow her around, she gives people the impression they are dating, not realising that this will change the balance of power within the school and put her in more danger.

The first thing to say about this book is that you get a lot of information thrown at you. More really than you can take in at times, but don’t let this put you off. You pick up the world basics as you go, and trust that it will all make sense before very long. Which it does.

There are so many themes going on in this book: good magic versus bad magic, balance, power versus abuse of power, risk/safety/death, the effect of strong beliefs. I’ve also heard the word ‘feminist’ being bandied about but that is not really my impression. Although El can look after herself, it’s not about gender. El would likely approve of the concept of equality, but it is not high on her list of priorities. Staying alive is slightly more important.

On finishing my first read of this book, I gave it 4.5 stars. I knocked off half a star because of the whole information overload issue. It never stood in the way of my enjoyment of the story though. I was hooked from the off. In fact, I became obsessed. Two days after finishing it, I hadn’t picked up another book. I was missing this one so much, I gave in and read it through a second time. I finished it (again) with tears in my eyes and upgraded the rating to 5 stars.

Now, though, I’m sitting with an arc of a book that hasn’t even been published yet, waiting desperately for book 2 like my life is incomplete until I find out what happens next. Once again, thanks guys. Seriously, I think this is my favourite book of the year so far.

Enter a school of magic unlike any you have ever encountered.
There are no teachers, no holidays, friendships are purely strategic, and the odds of survival are never equal.
Once you’re inside, there are only two ways out: you graduate or you die.
El Higgins is uniquely prepared for the school’s many dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out untold millions – never mind easily destroy the countless monsters that prowl the school.
These are some of my favourite 300 pages.

I loved this whole damn book. What really set this book up so well was how brilliantly this author builds her characters. El Higgins is an awesome character and her growth in my opinion in this book is really well written and done so humanly. Around her are an incredibly diverse set of characters that are well developed and I can’t wait to know more about them as this series continues - I feel Novik generally writes incredible characters and ‘A Deadly Education’ is no exception to this.

Plot wise, I liked that so much happened that kept the plot moving and it had a really good pace - the plot coming together in the end to make a really great ending that certainly kept me glued to my screen throughout. The action moments really keep you hooked and make you keep reading, and with such great characters moving the story along it was hard to stop - I once begun reading and then it was 3am, this is a dangerous book!

This book is powerful, intense, funny, charming and I love how there is so much more to unpack too as we go on, and I can’t wait to see in future books how they will emerge to be important. Fantastic writing, Naomi Novik is definitely becoming one of my favourite authors.

Go read this book, you won’t regret it.

Let me start by saying I enjoyed this book. I read it in a few days and never got bored. The writing flowed nicely and the characters were realistic and interesting. All the usual things in a good book.
But.
It felt like a prologue or a history book about the school. It set up a great location and told you all the backstory about the school in many info dumps but it never got around to having an actual plot. I was waiting for something more. Instead it just felt like a few normal - if chaotic and dangerous - weeks in the protagonist’s life and I began to wonder why the story had started here. What was so special about this moment that made it the beginning? Nothing bigger was happening.
As I said though, I did enjoy it and I’ll definitely check out the sequel. Hopefully the story will truly start then.

I really liked the concept of this book. Young Wizards of the world are admitted to a school where teachers are non existent and it’s crawling with monsters. Each year the building shift and the dorms move down. The seniors end up on the lower level and their graduation day is a fight for survival and escape. Why anyone would want to go to this school is beyond me. I found it difficult to relate, even like the main Character. She is hard work. They other characters are interesting, but I felt there wasn’t enough elaborations to them so it’s hard to relate to anyone. There was a lot of explaining throughout the story. But it was still hard to follow at times. It would have been nice to have had terms and meanings explained at the beginning as it would have made the story flow easier. The story kine stops and starts while the main character explains what terms, monsters etc mean/are through her thoughts. I found by the time I read the explanation I’d lost what was happening. for a moment. However despite all this It was still interesting and they way it ended left me wanted to know what happens next.

Ever since I heard about this book I’ve been both dying to read it AND actively bracing myself for disappointment. The thing is, Spinning Silver is one of my absolute favourite books and I honestly think it’s one of the best that fantasy has to offer. Since I read it last year, I’ve been waiting for Naomi Novik to announce her new book. Preferably following the same atmospheric, fairy tale-esque style of Spinning Silver and Uprooted. Hence, my anxiety over probable disappointment.

That said, I might be one of the few sane people on earth that doesn't loses her mind the moment magical school is mentioned. And yes, I’m one of those monsters who doesn’t have any soft spot for these stories. The things is, there are way too many tropes in these stories and it's kinda hard to avoid them if yours story is in magical school. So, as much as I was hyped for this book, and incredibly grateful for receiving an ARC, I honestly had no idea what to expect.

So let’s get some questions out of the way.

Is this as good as Spinning Silver? Hell no

Did I have fun reading it? Hell yes.

I think the best way to enjoy this is to just forget about the masterpiece that is Spinning Silver. Instead, enjoy it for what it is. A fun, imaginative and diverse YA fantasy with a protagonist that is to die for. El is honestly the best thing about this book. That said, I do think that she’s going to be a deal-breaker for a lot of people. She has the kind of characterisation that always work for me but I'm not sure it would work for others. Personally, my favourite thing in characterisation is when authors don’t play it safe and when they’re not trying to create characters that everyone would like. My mantra in characterisation is that compelling always beats likeable. And I think that’s where the book really shines.

It’s just really fun to be in her mind. She’s sarcastic and funny but she can come off as mean. She’s got loads of bottled up anger and the way the book explores this is absolutely fantastic. From the outside, she might come of as a total bitch. But when you’re inside her head, you can see why she acts the way she acts. Her attitude is something of a chicken and egg problem. Basically, her magic is incredibly destructive and powerful, this somehow affects her ‘vibes’. So that when people see her, even when she’s not giving them any reason to, they avoid her and think the very worst of her. This in return pushes her to build up walls around herself and push everyone else away.

Also, remember I said about her magic being destructive? There’s also a prophesy about her that basically says she’s a potential Queen of Doom and Destruction. So yep, that might explain why I liked her so much. There is a scene when she’s really on the edge of losing control and going dark, and I was there cheering and saying ‘YASS QUEEN BURN THEM ALL’.

I also really loved magical elements and world building in general. The way books and even the school had consciousness was very cool. I do have a criticism on the whole info-dump though. I feel like several times the scenes were ruined because of the unnecessary info-dump. Like the main character was about to enter a dangerous scene and we were getting some unnecessary info about her past. If this book was a debut book I would’ve forgiven it, but I honestly don’t expect Novik to make mistakes like this.

There’s also a sweet romance there. Just like every other Novik book I read, I think the romance needed more page time to be believable. That said, I still shipped them. I mean, the love interest here doesn’t kidnap the heroine, so that makes him infinitely better than the love interests in Uprooted and Spinning Silver. Besides, it’s friends to lovers arc and I have a soft spot for those.

All in all, I think this was a solid start to what’s going to be a fantastic series. At the end of this book, I wished I could binge-read the whole series. Yes it’s THAT good. I know I said it had flaws, but it was so much <I>fun </I>. Also, I think if you haven’t read anything by Novik it’s a good place to start. And if you’re already a Novik fan, then you know you HAVE TO read this.

I was so looking forward to reading this, and so glad it lived up to my expectations and then some. It was very different in tone to Novik's last two novels (which I also love) and definitely more catered to the young adult market with it's crazy magic school setting and snarky first-person narrator El. I loved El, I smirked a lot at many of her thoughts and actions (and even though I usually dislike any kind of pop culture references in fiction I loved that El is named after Galadriel from 'Lord of the Rings' and I suspect Eleven from 'Stranger Things'- it felt very appropriate with their similar levels of power and potential for destruction..!)

It also had genuine moments of horror despite the humour, there were lots of monsters but one encounter with a particularly nasty one reminded me of the darker scenes set in the Wood from Novik's 'Uprooted.' I appreciated how there was only a little romance (realistic I felt given the student's constant exhaustion and fight for survival) and what romance there was felt very grounded initially in friendship and was given equal importance as the close female friendships that also developed. I liked how multinational it felt, there were lots of characters of various backgrounds and the detailed world building meant I could easily imagine sequels being set anywhere in the world. Plus the inclusion of themes of class privilege and social injustice were well done I thought, I loved how El didn't care who she insulted and almost inadvertently stood up for the little people (mostly just to be contrary but her heart was usually in the right place...)

If you want a short snappy book comparison I expect we'll see a few 'think darker Harry Potter by way of Hunger Games' tag lines in the coming weeks.

Exuberant, fun, scary and thrilling, I can't wait to read more Scholomance novels!

(ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley)

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this unique book

what the hell have i just read....very comfortable with harry potter and though this isnt quite like that...its still a school where there are no teachers and things that go bump in the night can actually eat you...

there are all sorts of monsters abound and plenty of magic...where spells are bartered for and groups are encouraged

though el is a girl on her own. she has made no friends but she does have people she can barter with and thats important bartering and sharing...

have to say i thoroughly enjoyed this book and cant wait for the next one in this series

will also be keeping an eye out for more of this authors book

This was fun! I loved the world!

I went in thinking this was the type of school where Harry Potter meets The Hunger Games. If you survive you have graduated, but I thought students were taking down other students making it a deadly and fierce competition. It's not. And having read it, I'm so glad it's not. This school draws in the dark things from the shadows completely naturally. Having a bunch of young energy in one place will do that. There are no teachers as they don't last long, but there is a void in everyone's room (or cell as the main character refers to it) and you can ask for a spell and the void throws out a book or two. Unlucky for the MC, the void sends her the explosive and destructive spells when all she wants is a spell that cleans the floor. I loved how the world seems to be against her and she is trying so hard not to fall down that rabbit hole.

The wold building is well done and easily followed. It's clearly set in our world with the magical elements being ignored and invisible to the mundane. The world itself is folder piece by piece without you wanting t know more. You are given the exact right amount of information at any step.

This book didn't have a lot of dialogue and normally I hate that. It makes the story feel heavy and sluggish. This didn't though. I think a lot of El's snark and sarcasm lifted it all. Also, the world and the school was so interesting that all that information which was tucked into everything made me want to read on and know more.

For the writing, I had no issues with spelling, sentences, the layout of paragraph or formatting of the text. This book didn't have a lot of dialogue and normally I hate that. It makes the story feel heavy and sluggish. This didn't though. I think a lot of El's snark and sarcasm lifted it all and made it funny which is easier to read. Also, the world and the school was so interesting that all that information which was tucked into everything made me want to read on and know more.

I loved it and I can't wait for the next book!

Uprooted and Spinning Silver are two of my absolute favourite novels in recent years: full of strong characters and heart and twists on the genres they inhabit. I'm so pleased that A Deadly Education continued the run.

I didn't really grow up with Harry Potter - my main interaction with the books and films has been reading / watching them with my children - so I can't say much useful about how Scholomance and its world compares to Hogwarts. But I can say that coming fresh to the 'school for wizards' fiction category, I was quickly drawn in.

I love the darkness and the danger of the school Naomi has created: monsters (or 'mals') popping out of every corner / roof-tile / school-dinner tureen all the time, frequently killing / eating students; and a graduation ceremony that involves running through a hall full of slavering mals wielding as much magic as you can and hoping you're one of the few who makes it out alive.

It's paced beautifully, and as the characters open up – El, the main character mainly, but also the friends she gradually makes – I very quickly cared a lot about them. The world building is also really good: not just the school itself, but the world beyond it of wizarding 'enclaves' in the major cities around the world. There's so much scope for the books after this one. And as with Uprooted and Spinning Silver, the writing carries you along. Roll on book #2...

I…expected more from A Deadly Education.

And I think that’s all to do with the fact that it’s written by Naomi Novik. I think, if this book had been written by a debut, or someone I’d never read before, I think would have given them benefit of the doubt. But the thing is, I know Novik can write lyrical, powerful, beautiful stories, and this just did not hit that mark.

Which may sound weird, since I gave it four stars.

First of all, thank you so much Del Rey UK for approving me for an e-copy of A Deadly Education on Netgalley. May have screamed and made my dog jump when I got the email.

Galadriel “El” is currently a junior at the Scholomance, a school for budding witches and wizards, where they are supposedly protected from Maleficaria, dark creatures that feed off the energy that magic folk use to cast spells. And witches and wizards going through puberty? They’ve got lots of it, meaning they’re a target. So, the adults built a school in the void, with only one way in and one way out when you ‘graduate’. But, it doesn’t mean Maleficaria don’t try their best to crawl through each crevice to get to their food. So, with the help of the teacherless school, the students learn how to survive through teaming up, using their resources, and not hanging around somewhere for too long.

Now, while that was a fairly brief, simple synopsis about what this book is about, it doesn’t nearly cover it. Because there’s so much freakin’ exposition. The exposition, the descriptions, and the history of this school and magic society doesn’t stop, not even until the very end. If this were a bigger book, I think it wouldn’t have been so bad. It could have been spread out and not felt like so much was crammed in. But A Deadly Education is just over 300 pages, which is so short for the story it’s trying to tell. The chapter breaks are long, however, meaning the explanations don’t stop, there’s no pause for breath.

I get it, this school is different, this world has a lot going on, but could it not be staggered?
Could it not have been explained when necessary for us to understand the context? Action was bogged down by history lessons that seemed to have no correlation to what was going on. And while, sure, that was an interesting fact, could it have waited until later?

Naomi Novik clearly loves the world she’s created. So much so that she can’t wait to tell you all about it. But it means you have to wade through it all to find that story. And hey, the story is pretty good! I love Galadriel; she’s resourceful, cunning, out for number one, with a little evil that she has to keep pushing down. I liked her coming to terms with the idea that you can have friends without taking advantage or befriending them for a ‘purpose’ other than survival. And of course, the romance between her and Orion is hilarious and sweet.

A Deadly Education was almost a three star read. But then, very cleverly, the ending brought it up to a four. So, after all that, here’s me waiting for the next book.

A Deadly Education is true to its name as I've never read a book where getting an education can be so deadly. 

The leading lady in A Deadly Education is Galadriel aka El, and although she isn't well-liked by her classmates I really liked her.  She is blunt, sarcastic and smart, which not everyone can handle. Although her magic infinity is for the destruction she tries really hard not to blow things up and kill everyone.  

One of my favourite element is El "relationship" with Orion Lake the 'Hero" of Schoolmance. Everyone in the school treats Orion like the golden child and they bend over backwards for him. El doesn't and I love some of the insults she throws at him. I liked it even more when he banters back.

What surprised me about A Deadly Education was how emotional I got when El talked about the way people treat her and the loneliness of it all. Especially as everyone loves her mum so much she can see the difference even more, in the way they treat her.

There is a lot of Drama in A Deadly Education with the fact that death is literally around every corner from evil maleficent trying to eat your malia aka magic and even some student will kill you for power. Having this ever-present danger keeps the pact and interest in the story. I was never sure what the end game would be for the story but enjoyed the ending and how it left things for book 2. 

My rating for A Deadly Education is 3.8 out of 5.

I am already a big fan of Novik's work and knew she was a great writer, but I can say without any doubt that A Deadly Education is my favourite Novik book. It’s incredibly faced paced, taking you by the hand and sprinting like an Olympic athlete.
We follow El, a girl with no connections to any powerful enclaves (powerful wizarding communities) or any friends at all in the most dangerous school in the world. See the wizard teenagers of this world are the favourite meals of all kinds of horrific monsters, and if left in the normal world to grow up they have a 4 in 10 chance of surviving to adulthood. The school increases their chances dramatically, it is the safest place in the world for them and spots there are highly coveted. Yet death in the school is a constant reality and many monsters are still able to sneak through the wards and snack on the most vulnerable.
The experience of reading about the most dangerous school I could ever imagine and knowing that still, this is the safest place for these kids and that’s how bad it is for them in the normal world is just horrifying. The sense that you could die at any moment, that you most likely will if your one of the many unluckily few without enclave protection is steeped in every inch of the school. If you miss a class? You’ll probably die. Fail a test? Die. Eat lunch? Die. Go to the library? Die. If you are not vigilant and as paranoid as El then you will most likely die.
The exhaustion of constantly living with these stakes, on the knifes edge all the time is encapsulated perfectly in El as we follow her trying to make connections and alliances with other students in a desperate bid to survive her education. El has lived in this school entirely alone, unlike the enclave kids who are born into powerful wizarding groups who pool their power and share it only with each other. This has understandably shaped El into the fiery character I adored. She has never been liked by anyone other than her mother and this does not change when she enters the school. She is rude and caries a boiling rage after years of being left the scraps while the enclave kids live in luxury and safety. It’s a brilliant look at class tensions and privilege (certainly more effective and well done than Harry Potter) that is heightened dramatically due to the life and death situation. The non-enclave students are quite literally used as body fodder to protect the enclave kids and the non-enclave kids know that protecting them offers them the only chance at a better life; if only they can survive high school first.
I also must rave about the magic system! It’s in one part super clever and refreshingly simple. There are some complicated parts to it but it all boils down to one thing, magic is hard and painful work. For students not in an enclave who share a seemingly bottomless pit of magic, you must build it up and work for it. The safest way is to do something you find difficult for a long time, like 500 push up or knitting. As soon as you get better at these things and find it easier, the less magic you can build up. It fits the nature of the world so perfectly and shows how building up resources on your own is ceaseless and painful work. There are ways to cheat at this, you can build magic quickly and easily by draining the life out of living beings, but it will eventually lead to the destruction of your own body. It is, unfortunately, this aspect of magic that El is naturally talented at and one she refuses to give into, unable to bear the idea of stepping over other people’s bodies even if it can give her a better chance to live.
Overall, I loved this book and I know it’s one I will constantly reread. For those who enjoy face-paced adventures set in a brutal world where danger lurks around every corner, this book is a must.

Oh my goodness. I loved THIS. Naomi Novik is fast becoming one of my favourite fantasy writers thanks to Uprooted and Spinning Silver and so I was keen to read her take on a magical boarding school story. Thanks to lovely Netgalley I managed to get my hands on it a month early and took it on holiday which gave me the time and space to really enjoy this clever inventive book.

So a magical boarding school for witches. We've all read this before, right? Not like this. We might all secretly think our Hogwarts letters got lost in the post but I for one am very glad I wasn't summoned to this particular school. The premise is this: magic exists and so do a multitude of nasty creatures who have inventive ways of ending the lives of witches and they particularly love vulnerable adolescent witches. The elite in the magical world live in fort-like enclaves where they can work together to protect their children, but even they lost chilren at an alarming rate. So a school was created somewhere out of time and space where teens are deposited between 14 and 18. There are no teachers, but the kids are super motivated to learn because that's how they stay alive. Once in the school they stay there until they graduate or die, with only the things they took in with them to last them for the four years. It's easier for the enclave kids with ready made cliques and allies and a better chance of getting out after graduation. Because even in the school the nasties lurk and graduation is the most dangerous time of all.

El is a third year and has no friends or allies. Destined from birth to be a great dark witch she has to work extra hard to stay on the right path, hard when every spell you learn is one of death and destruction and everyone assumes you've gone to the bad anyway. Needing allies to help her survive graduation she's planning to show her classmates her strength in some spectacular way, but her plans are thwarted by class hero Orion Lake who will keep turning up and saving her life although she's quite capble of looking after herself.

Dark and twisty and original A Deadly Education is a brilliant book, El a unique and compelling heroine and if the next two in the trilogy live up to the first book then the Scholomance series is destined to become a YA Fantasy classic. Read it.

Hogwarts meets Hunger Games

The Scholomance is the world’s best (and only) school for young wizards. There are no teachers, just the school itself – and as graduation has a 50% fatality rate, survival is a great motivator for learning.

El isn’t great with people, or with spells that involve anything less than mass destruction. But if she can at least impress the other students with her skills, she could secure an alliance for graduation and beyond. Resident hero Orion Lake isn’t helping: not only does he keep rescuing her, his latest heroics have left a smelly mess all over her bedroom floor and she's struggling to find an appropriate cleaning spell. But with the school getting more dangerous by the day, if she’s going to live long enough to reach graduation, El is going to need all the allies - maybe even friends - she can get. And perhaps to be a little bit heroic, too.

A fascinating new world with a sarcastic, dangerous heroine, A Deadly Education is a fun and absorbing read that will appeal not just to teens, but to adults, too.

It’s a school for the magically gifted, but it isn’t Hogwarts! The only way to leave the Scholomance is to graduate or die. The idea of the school being in a void is terrifying and the shifting alliances between the students keeps the reader on the edge of their seat.

The character of El drives the book forward – she is so hostile at the beginning, and even by the end of the book when she has proved herself she is endearingly stroppy. The male protagonist Orion isn’t developed as fully, but the books ends with a cliffhanger which suggests that there is more to him than meets the eye.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is very different to Novik’s previous books, Spinning Silver and Uprooted, which are based on Eastern European myths, but the central characters of all three books share the same independent attitude.

I’m looking forward to book 2 with bated breath, particularly given that cliffhanger!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Cornerstone for sending me the proof.

Despite having never read anything by Naomi Novik before, A Deadly Education was one of my most anticipated releases of the year. A super dark, female-led Harry Potter? Sign me up. Unlike Hogwarts, however, this school has no teachers and is infested with dark creatures crawling through the shadows. Not only that, but graduation will probably kill you. Would I like to study there? Hell no! But it made for an interesting read 😂

So. Let’s just talk about this school shall we? As I mentioned before, there are no teachers, and the place is infested with monsters. You might be wondering why anybody would choose to go there, right? Well, it turns out that being stuck in the outside world during puberty is about the worst thing a magically gifted teenager can face. So they seek shelter within the walls of the Scholomance where their chances at survival are higher, though in no way guaranteed. When graduation comes, the surviving seniors get dropped into a nest of hungry monsters, their only goal: to get out of the doors. It’s terrifying and unique, and honestly, the whole school system is fascinatingly dark.

That being said, I did struggle with sections of this book. There are huge swaths of information thrown at you, and sometimes it just feels a little irrelevant. And it’s not even just in the beginning. The trend continues throughout the whole book. It’s clear that Naomi Novik wanted the reader to learn as much as they could about this world she’s created, and that’s totally understandable. But sometimes I just wanted something to happen, y’know? Nevertheless, once I realised that this was going to continue throughout the story, I adjusted my expectations and managed to fall in love with the book.

Our main character, Galadriel – or El, for short – is a sassy sorceress with an affinity for dark, destructive magic. Even her minor spells can have catastrophic consequences. She’s an unlikable protagonist, abrasive and rude to basically everyone who crosses her path, and I just loved her for reasons even I can’t fathom. This girl has been through the ringer. She was disowned by the majority of her family due to a nasty prophecy that says she’s probably going to destroy the world. I think it’s safe to say she’s earned some bitterness 😂 As the end of her junior year approaches, however, she comes to the conclusion that she needs help. People who will watch her back. True friendship doesn’t exist within the walls of the Scholomance, but maybe she can find a group of allies. Watching her juggle the politics of the school whilst also trying to stay alive and prevent herself slaughtering hundreds of people in the process really makes you feel for this snarky, unlikable character.

My main issue with this book, aside from the major info-dumping that goes on, is the romance. Or rather, “romance”. Orion Lake is the school hero. For some reason, the monsters leave him alone, so he doesn’t understand why the other students get into so much trouble all the time. El never asked him to save her, he just sort of latches on to her for no apparent reason. The entire book is basically El trying to figure out if they’re dating. I mean, the rest of the school seems to think so. It’s kind of hilarious. It’s also kind of annoying. I don’t want hilarious “romance”. I want actual chemistry, actual character building, or nothing at all. I don’t know why it bugged me so much, but there you go 🙈

The magic school setting is something that’s been around forever, so naturally it can feel a little samey sometimes. However, Naomi Novik managed to make it feel brand new again. The worldbuilding is extremely clever, and the magic is unique. Despite my issues with certain aspects, I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I have a feeling the rest of the series is going to be just as dark, just as thrilling, and just as intriguing.