This was a fun Sci Fi story. A school for people with magical abilities who are at continual risk of being eaten by various anomalies which live in the school. Graduation day is generally when a majority of the pupils are eaten before they make it out of the door. The story describes there day to day lives or deaths as the case may be. A very imaginative story which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Having read Niomi Novik before I was super excited to get stuck into a book that was centred around a school of magic and a main character who was a little dark.

I loved the setting, loved the magic and the depth I got from it, and I loved El as a main character; she was feisty and sassy and funny - I instantly liked her and her blatant negative outlook on things. She felt real.

Whilst the school is full of danger and crazy I was instantly wishing I could go and experience the crazy for myself. I wanted to learn and experience it all.

Whilst I really enjpyed this book and burned through it very quickly I would say that there are moments where you feel as though you have been chucked in without all the information. There are moments where it can be a little info dumpy...but not overly so, and I would also say that I was waiting, and waiting for El to have her big moment, and it felt like that never really came. I felt like I was promised big things from her and then the defining moment never really occurred.

That being said I did enjoy the book and would recommend it, and I will also read book 2 when it comes out.

Naomi Novik no es una autora desconocida para mí ni para les lectores españoles. Reconozco que me conquistó con Un cuento oscuro, aunque me dejó un poco fríe con Un mundo helado (pun intended). Sin embargo, salta a la vista que Novik sabe construir historias muy diferentes entre sí con personajes de lo más particulares. Por esa razón, os pido que abráis la mente, porque A Deadly Education es una novela bastante… inesperada.

Nada más anunciarse su publicación, los medios y editoriales empezaron a venderla como «Una mezcla entre Hogwarts y Los Juegos del Hambre» y eso a mí ya me hizo alzar una escéptica ceja. Nunca sale nada bueno de las mezclas que se inventan las empresas editoriales a partir de productos ya existentes para vender productos nuevos. Y, en este caso, aquí ocurre un poco de lo mismo. De Hogwarts solo encontramos una escuela de magia con adolescentes (y no, eso no lo inventó la terf que no debe ser nombrada, es un subgénero de la fantasía que viene ya de lejos) y de Los Juegos del Hambre solo encontramos… un sistema de castas y adolescentes muertes.

A Deadly Education no tiene un título amable en inglés y espero que en español no lo suavicen de ninguna forma, ya que resume a la perfección la trama: les adolescentes con magia van a una escuela donde deben aprender a sobrevivir pronto o pueden morir a manos de criaturas terribles cuando menos se lo esperan. Y, diréis: pero ¿qué crueldad es esa? Pues en realidad es todo lo contrario, porque les xadres envían a sus hijes a esta escuela porque allí están más protegides que en el mundo exterior.

Mi teoría, mientras leía la novela, era que Novik había hecho una apuesta para ver si creaba un mundo al que nadie, absolutamente nadie, querría ir. Me explico: en la escuela puedes morir de diversas formas (monstruos en el baño, debajo de la cama, en las aulas; comida envenenada; compañeres de clase que te matan a la primera de cambio…), pero es que fuera es peor. Los maleficaria, que así se llaman estos monstruos que adquieren un aspecto a cada cual más grotesco, se sienten atraídos sobre todo por personas adultas. Encerrar a les adolescentes en la escuela durante años es, por tanto, una forma de protegerles, algo que se hace por su propio bien. Para más inri, las familias no tienen prácticamente ninguna forma de saber si sus hijes han sobrevivido hasta que salen de la escuela, años después.

Me he ido por las ramas explicando la base del mundo de Scholomance, pero es lo mismo que le ocurre a Novik en A Deadly Education. Una buena parte del inicio es una explicación extensa que dura páginas y más páginas sobre cómo es la escuela y cómo funciona el mundo y cómo puedes morir y cómo puedes sobrevivir. Todo está contado desde el punto de vista de la protagonista, Galadriel (o El), que prefiere ir por libre, pero ve que en realidad no puede, ni debe, porque para sobrevivir necesita la ayuda de sus compañeres. El siente una tendencia insana hacia la magia oscura, por lo que siempre se está esforzando para hacer las cosas bien, aunque el resto de alumnes no lo aprecien y la consideren rara.

En contraposición a El tenemos a Orion, un chaval que tiende a salvar a todo el mundo y, a cambio, todo el mundo piensa que es un héroe maravilloso. Por su puesto, a El le cae como el culo y prefiere mantenerse alejada de él, pero al parecer están destinados a encontrarse a la mínima de cambio, a saber: cada vez que aparece un maleficaria (que es, aproximadamente, cada diez páginas).

Veréis, en libros como A Deadly Education, donde todo va mal y todo es horrible; donde hay violencia y más violencia y, ¡oh!, sangre, vísceras, muerte, etc., etc.; donde la maldad se ha convertido en algo cotidiano, llega un punto en el que ya te da igual. Te despegas de la trama y de los personajes y solo quieres ver cómo acaba todo (regular, seguramente). Hay autores que esto lo hacen estupendamente, como Octavia Butler, que consigue mantenerte en tensión durante toda la trama una de sus obras maestras, Parable of the Sower, en la que presenta un mundo distópico demasiado parecido al nuestro, por desgracia. Pero con Novik solo esperas a que aparezca el siguiente monstruo.

Así pues, mi sensación durante toda la lectura fue un poco de aburrimiento, porque sentía un interés escaso por tanta violencia gratuita y porque estaba harta de que me explicaran el mundo, a la par que me preguntaba cómo leches iba a acabar aquello. La trama en sí me pareció un tanto predecible, ya que me da la sensación de que Novik ha concentrado todos sus esfuerzos en desarrollar el mundo de Scholomance. Tanto es así, que la novela chorrea worldbuilding por los cuatro costados y, al final, te cansas.

Cuando terminé de leer A Deadly Education, me quedó un regusto amargo. Sin embargo, reconozco que tiene cosas muy chulas, a saber:
-LA PROTAGONISTA: El está hasta el coño de todo y no lo esconde (me representa). Sabe que podría sobrevivir si se dejara seducir por el lado oscuro, pero siempre conserva su integridad.
-LA MADRE DE EL: no aparece de forma directa, solo a través de los recuerdos y pensamientos de su hija, pero es una señora que deja huella y, además, es anticapitalista a tope.
-EL SISTEMA DE CASTAS: Vale, esto no es bueno de por sí, pero está muy bien construido y la crítica de Novik está clara. Si no perteneces a un enclave, mueres. Y, para pertenecer a un enclave, debes aportar algo de valor y debes trabajar para él de por vida. Novik crea un sistema capitalista que favorece a la persona más rica y extermina a la que se sale de la norma. Por supuesto, El está muy en contra de esto.
-LAS AMIGAS DE EL: aunque su vínculo tarda en desarrollarse, me gustaría ver cómo florece esta amistad en el segundo libro.

Y lo que no me ha gustado tanto sería:
-EL DICHOSO WORLDBUILDING, que no se acaba nunca.
-LA PRIMERA PERSONA: aunque el personaje de El mola, queda poco natural que se pare a explicar todas las cosas nuevas que salen en la novela. Pero todas, todas. Así es normal que la trama no avance hasta bien pasado el 30 % del libro.
-LOS MONSTRUOS FEOS CANSAN, es decir, sabemos que un monstruo con tentáculos y doce pares de ojos y quinientos dientes es feo y malo y querrá comerte, pero ¿qué tiene eso de interesante? El monstruo que más me interesó fue Jack y, para mí, no está bien aprovechado.
En definitiva: A Deadly Education es una novela donde lo importante es la ambientación que ha creado Naomi Novik y no tanto la trama ni los personajes, aunque estos son potentes. A mí me dejó un regusto amargo, pero me gustaría leer la segunda parte, ya que, una vez desarrollado todo el worldbuilding, quizá la autora aproveche el potencial del mundo de Scholomance para desarrollar una trama que me enganche de verdad.

I LOVED this book!

I was already half way sold but the mentions of a sassy heroine, magic school and Novik's famous world building but I wasn't prepared for just how good it would be.

Our main character El is a straight talking anti people, strict mana wizard (I can relate to this on many levels) who attends the Sholomance. A teacher less wizard school where everything once to kill you. Including but not limited to Mals (dark creatures), other students and at one point even the morning's scrambled eggs. Oh and of course the school itself which slowly spirals you and your fellow classmates down to a graduation hall where near certain death waits.

Or love interest Orion is an actual badass, not our usual YA hero where we here about how great he is but really he just spends most of the time lounging, hardly a chapter goes by without Orion saving someone (or being a show off as El would put it). There's also a loveable cast of side characters to really get to love.

That ending though!

I can't wait for the next book.

This was my first book by Naomi Novik, and I know she's a super popular author, so I went into this with fairly high expectations. While I read my fair share of fantasy, I don't read a lot of the dark academia/magical school type of book, so this was also new for me, and I had SO MUCH FUN.

In this story, we follow Galadriel (El), a young girl attending the Scholomance, a magical school filled with monsters that quite literally want to eat the students and steal their power. El is very much a loner at the school, struggling with a lack of friends, which puts her at constant risk at the Scholomance. Also at the school we have Orion Lake, a boy in El's year who is revered by all the students at the school for constantly killing the monsters and saving endless amounts of students on a day to day basis. El has a strong dislike for Orion and the other essentially "rich kids" at the school, and we follow El as she navigates new friendships and struggles at the Scholomance, as her newfound "relationship" with Orion after he saves her opens up new doors for her.

I really loved El as a main character in this book. She is my ideal sarcastic, cynical character who just wants to get on with her day and move on with things. Throughout her life, she has been subject to constant prophecies and tales of how she will use her evil powers and destroy the world, and we see her apathy towards this as she's had to deal with it her entire life. She works hard to only use "good magic" (mana) and refuses to use even the smallest amounts of "dark magic" (malia). She holds immense power and I loved seeing this subversion of your typical heroine with no struggles to be good. I thought El was hilarious as a narrator, and I loved all her one-liners and jokes (a favourite being - "Reader, I ran the fuck away.") It was nice to read about her struggles with trust and seeing her open up more with other people throughout the course of the book. She also gets bonus points from me immediately for all her Welshness of course.

Orion was also a standout character for me. He was an adorable character who doesn't actually try to be the hero that everyone sees him as, and I really liked how he ended up being more layered a character than he seems on face value. Seeing his struggles with forming friendships and how people treat him was kind of sad to read, and added a lot to his character. I loved the relationship between El and Orion throughout the book, it was the best grumpy/sunshine relationship I could ask for, it was so much fun. Their banter and back and forth with each other never failed to make me smile, and it was just great.

The plot was also fun, and I really enjoyed the world that was built in this book. It was a little overwhelming at first because we were pretty much thrown in the deep end, but I actually ended up liking this. We learned about the world more slowly rather than being hit with an info dump, which I definitely appreciate. I just loved seeing the relationships and bonds between all the characters, and seeing them work together to achieve a greater goal. It was a really fast read for me, but my one complaint would be chapter length- the chapters were insanely long at times. The ending was also really nicely done, and left me with just enough of a cliffhanger to leave me wanting the next book already.

Overall, if you're looking for a fun, magical adventure with a dark and cynical main character and a fabulous grumpy/sunshine relationship, this is one for you!!

Well, that went down in one big gulp! As a huge fan of Naomi Novik's Uprooted and Spinning Silver, I was desperate to read A Deadly Education and nearly fell off my chair when the publisher gave me an early copy. Hoorah! I (rather foolishly) started it at bedtime and stayed up until 4am reading the entire thing. Oops.

The story follows Galadriel ("El"), a junior at the Scholomance - a magical school which, somewhat accidentally, is killing its students. Infested with maleficaria ('mals') which are deeply attracted to young wizards going through puberty, the students walk to the showers and cafeteria in groups, and try never to venture anywhere alone. This is hard for El, a loner bearing a heavy prophecy: El will become a dark sorceress with the power to level mountains. El tries to remain good, reining in her power and instincts for bad spells, watching as her fellow students are picked off one by one by the mals - and watching with cynicism as a student with a hero complex, Orion Lake, tries to save them all. Orion (the wannabe hero) and Galadriel (the prophesied villain) recognise something in each other and form an unusual alliance in a place where every favour comes with a price: friendship.

The magic system is wonderfully creative. I loved that the wizards must generate mana (good magic) to do spells, generating it through - wait for it - push-ups, crochet and yoga. Bad magic is malia - sucking the life force from living objects.

The novel is an allegory for privilege. The rich students come from Enclaves who all stick together, provide the enclave students with vast resources of mana which they can pull from at any time, and generally have more of everything than anyone else. Kids desperate to join Enclaves will do anything for the rich Enclavers, while everyone else has, simply, less. El comes from a hippy commune in Wales with a mother who rejected the Enclave system; Orion is the most gifted student from the New York Enclave. Hello, culture clash, you are delicious.

But there's no getting around it - the amount of exposition in A Deadly Education is heavy. There are pages-long explanations for how things work, or the history of objects, or diversions into the ways of this magical world or the history of Galadriel and her family. Which is interesting, but also grinds the pace of many scenes to a halt. Almost every review I've seen has mentioned 'info-dumping', and I can't help but wonder what the novel might feel like if the scope of the story was broader, how we might have been introduced to the world in a more natural and pacy way. I also wonder if this is a novel which might have benefited from being freed from El's first-person perspective - third person, here, might have given us room for exposition handled more lightly. Who knows.

As the first in a series, this book also holds back from 'going there'. Everything you want to happen in this story... doesn't, quite. Not yet. The cliffhanger ending is WOWOWOW but it comes at the end of a finale in which the stakes aren't... quite as high as they were set up to be.

Don't get me wrong, I will categorically be reading the next book in the series and I relished reading this one. Down in one! If the sound of something akin to 'Hogwarts if the school was trying to eat its students' or 'a dark sorceress tries to remain good at Brakebills' tickles your imagination, then you are in for a treat. I think this would make a wonderful animated film... I can see it now, from the characters of Galadriel and Orion, to the beasts and creatures, and the school itself. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the very enjoyable read.

Some books are objectively well written – neatly structured, with clever turns of phrase – but fail to tell enjoyable stories. Others are objectively poor – full of info-dumping, lacking a coherent plot, without a single likeable character, or all three – yet despite this, are so brilliant to read it doesn’t matter. ‘A Deadly Education’ is the latter. It’s a mess of a book, told in a first-person stream of consciousness style that goes on page-long tangents about entirely irrelevant points before abruptly jumping back to the original point that you’d forgotten was being made, but it’s such a fun book that it doesn’t matter. I regularly found myself laughing out loud reading it. This has been talked about as a fantasy dark academia, but the vibes I was getting from it were more Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth. Gideon and Novik’s protagonist, El, would outwardly hate each other but secretly get along like a house on fire, setting not just the house but the entire village on fire in the process.

‘A Deadly Education’ follows El, short for Galadriel, a sophomore student at the Scholomance – a school for those born with magic. However, it’s not like any other school. There are no teachers – in fact, there are no staff members at all. There are lessons, but the content is unpredictable and may or may not be helpful. There’s only one rule – survive – deceptively difficult when monsters stroll the halls. Thousands of students enter, but only a few hundred will leave.

El is a loner – her mother is a hippy at a commune in Wales, not a member of an Enclave which might have brought her daughter allies. In a school where alliances with other students are key to survival, this should have been a death sentence – except that El possesses dark magic strong enough to level mountains. Too bad that using that magic would kill everyone else in the school – and that no-one believes she has it. When her life is saved by the school’s resident hero – Orion, the son of the head of the New York Enclave, one of the most powerful witches in the world – El’s initial reaction is anger. How dare he think her incapable of protecting herself? When Orion continues to stick around like an old piece of chewing gum stuck to her shoe, the entire balance of power keeping the school in check shifts – with potentially devastating consequences.

El is the single best part of this book. She’s a perpetually angry, grumpy mess, but has a heart of gold – fortunate in someone with enough power to kill all those around her. Everything she says and thinks is completely deadpan but regularly hilarious – her interactions with Orion bring constant laughter. She’s also incredibly smart and insightful in the way she sees the world. At first, it’s easy to feel annoyed at her for her constant anger at others, but as the book unfolds it becomes easier to see why she acts in the way she does. Her character development is excellent – when she finally starts to let others in it’s one of the best moments of the book.

Orion is absolutely adorable. The saviour of the school, Orion has an entire Enclave’s worth of power at his back and a unique ability to kill Mals (monsters) and steal their power. His efforts mean there are more surviving students at the Scholomance than ever before -but they’ve also made the magic of the school very angry, and the Mals very hungry. Orion has always been hero-worshipped for his ability, so he has no idea what to do when El acts like her charming self with him. At first, his presence is hard to understand and he seems like a two-dimensional hero, but once again Novik brilliantly adds depth to his character as the story unfolds, painting a picture of a boy who just wants to be liked for who he is, rather than what he can do. Orion is also, for a conquering hero, the single naivest character in the world, and El’s continuing exasperation at his obliviousness is comedy gold.

The supporting characters are equally excellent. There’s Liu, who resorts to sacrificing animals to obtain power; Chloe, the spoilt rich girl from the New York Enclave who El can’t stand; Aadhya, the pragmatic trader and one of the few in the school to tolerate El’s presence; Magnus, the entitled prat who wants El dead for the crime of daring to talk to Orion. Even these characters grew and developed throughout the book, with Novik managing to flip opinions of them as events unfolded. She has a true gift for writing exceptional characters.

In many ways, the plot is simple – it has to be, to fit in around the winding tangents and info-dumps – but this matters less because of the intriguing setting and characters. It’s still tense, clever, and the ending is such an exceptional cliffhanger I’m both in awe and angry. Novik manages the rare skill of both making this stand alone as a full book and leaving a cliffhanger so good you need the next book immediately. She’d better not give us years to wait or I’ll be tearing my hair out at the suspense.

Overall, this is an info-dumpy mess that somehow still manages to be an exceptional book. Novik has dared to write a book that many people will hate but others will love for the sheer brilliance of the setting and characters. Recommended for those who like character-driven fantasy, intriguing settings, and grizzly, unlikeable characters who you end up loving anyway.

Once my brain was able to make sense of all the information it needed to process, I was able to thoroughly enjoy my time reading A Deadly Education.

Set in a school for magic and made by magic known as the Scholomance, A Deadly Education follows the wonderfully pessimistic El along the deadly road to graduation, ie. the only way out of the place. Every day is filled with trying to survive long enough to see the next one as she faces demons/monsters known as maleficaria (mals) of all shapes and terrifying sizes. Enter the darling golden boy Orion Lake and his hero complex and we’re in for an entertaining ride.

Novik has created a very complex and fascinating world with great care, then filled that world with a number of interesting characters; morally grey, dark, himbo personified, genuine characters. The story is engaging and I’m excited to see what senior year brings our ragtag bunch.

I want to preface by saying I don't think is a book for everyone, it has a very particular brand of humour (I would say in a similar vein to gideon the ninth) and has quite a cynical and sarcastic protagonist however this book just really clicked with me and I had the best time reading it!!!!

A Deadly Education follows El, who attends the scholomance which is a school that is literally trying to kill it's students (seriously someone call social services ahha), she is quite ostrasized from the other students both due to background (some students belong to enclaves which grants them certain priviledges - El however very much doesn't like the neclave students) and her general bad attitude and unfriendliness. El is a very interesting protagonist, as I said earlier she is very cynical and sarcastic but she also weirdly likeable and she is a great trope subversion on the chosen one, as she is almost the chosen one for evil, she knows she has a massive potential for spellcasting and she always seems to acquire spells of mass destruction but she is actually very conserved with her magic and knows she has the potenial for evil but tries to do the right thing.

At the start of the book El also has a deep (?)hatred for Orion, the so called hero of the school who goes around saving everyone from these monsters called mals. When Orion saves her life again she decides to cook up a scheme to make the school thing they are dating in order to get more social status/power. I want to take a minute to talk about Orion, it's no secret I am a massive fan of himbos and oh boy is Orion a himbo. He is the cutest, dumbest little ray of sunshine just trying to do his best whilst being completely oblivious to everything around him. El almost takes him under her wing which is hilarious to watch. Orion and El gradually become friends, which is the sweetest thing and El always being snipy with him but really he is her emotional support himbo uwu

I also really liked the survival aspect of this book, the school really is out to get everyone and there are so many cool monster battles!! I also think this book looks really well at power and social dynamics, how having a head start in life really helps you (and in this case literally means you survive) and the idea that it's not what you know it's who you know. It was a great reflection of the real world. Also the lengths people go to to get power, for example there are 2 types of power in this world, one is mana which people earn by doing tasks/exercise (ie the harder you work the more power you get) but then the powerful enclaves share their power (mana) amongst themselves whilst leaving those lower in status to fend for themselves. The other kind of magic we see is Malia, ehich is dark magic and requires pulling life from other things/beings - this is very much looked down upon but sometimes the students have to resort to this in order to survive.

I had so much fun reading this book, and watching El gradually come out of her shell and cautiously start trusting people was one of my favourites parts of this book (along with Orion being exactly my type ;)). This book is very different from spinning silver/uprooted so I wouldn't go in expecting that - it is much less fairytale like (although I thought the writing was still excellent - it was so easy to picture the scholomance) and a deadly education is more lighthearted I feel.


(also side note, if anyone has read this and the stormlight archive this basically reads as a shallan x adolin magical school au - which !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I am, unfortunately, DNFing this at 25%.

The prose was incredibly messy and all over the place, the plot was strange, and it didn't have the dark vibes that I was expecting. I will say that I was really enjoying our two main characters a lot-- and the characterization so far was really well done-- but I just don't think I can make it through the remaining 75%.

I do think this will be enjoyable to a lot of people, but, unfortunately, it wasn't for me.

Well this most definitely is NOT Hogwarts ! El goes to a magical school called Scolomance which has no teachers, no professors or staff just fellow students and of course the all too real monstrous Mal creatures that hunt them ! El isn’t exactly part of the in crowd and in fact her Dark sorceress in training vibe means most view her with distrust but she’s survived this long and she’s not giving up anytime soon.
I liked El with her defences always up and her insightful way of seeing others for exactly what they are. Crucial to remember here is that there are two powerful ways to obtain and store magic known as Mana. First is through your own sacrifice, toil and labour which takes effort although many have found ways to share using allies. The second method is through the purging of life force so for example pulling from a plant, an ant or more horrifically taking a human life. So take a guess at which method most think El uses ? Our curmudgeonly heroine El isn’t exactly polite or forthcoming with anyone so it’s no great surprise really but as the story progresses she does open up more to others .
I think this was quite unique and I did feel that the second half had a lot more to recommend it than the first. Perhaps if there had been some lighter moments along the way as these are teenagers and there wasn’t really a giggly moment until the end which I admit did make me smile . However I did feel it lacked levity throughout because as much as these characters are constantly in danger they are still of an age when hormones run rampant. Perhaps too many info dumps but it certainly didn’t stop me reading until the end which left me completely shocked and now I really need to know what happens next. Darker than I expected but definitely well worth your time reading.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

I received this book through NetGalley but this review is all my own.

I don't read many YA books, but I liked the sound of this one - Harry Potter-esque but darker, more evil and more thrilling. What I got what a very short plot filled out with heaps and heaps of pages describing random creatures or retelling memories from the main character. It felt to me like a Stephen King novel - way too much description and not enough action! I don't read Stephen King as they bore me too much and this was the same. Took me way too long to get through and I was so distracted all the time!

I didn't particular like El, the main character - she was not a nice person to anybody most of the time, least of all the boy who kept saving her life! Ok, she could have saved herself, but she didn't even say thank you when he stepped in and killed the mals for her, saving her from using her own mana. She seemed to begrudge him from doing it, yet didn't bother to explain that she didn't need his help - she was just downright rude and arrogant towards him. No wonder she had no friends at the start! She did get better as the book went on, but by the end I didn't like her enough to care whether she lived or died!

The actual plot was pretty interesting - a magical school with no teachers, where the school expected you to do the work yourself and "punished" you if you didn't, with scary, mana eating creatures constantly trying to eat and kill the students, so they all had to form groups or alliances to survive. The fighting of the creatures was good fun to read, but most of the time, halfway through the fight, the narrative would turn into a long-winded description or memory of this particular mal! This also happened in the middle of conversations between characters and it almost felt like the author had so much to say that she would randomly info-dump in scenes to get it all written down.

An interesting idea, but not one for me!

Naomi Novik writes a dark and gripping story full of wit and wonder in this series starter set at the Scholomance, a magical boarding school filled with monsters, mayhem and murder. Think Hogwarts, but the professor's have been switched out for a sentient building filled with Shadowhunter demons where the students must fight for their lives and their educations.

Large sections of the book are heavy on exposition, at times bordering on info-dumps. This may hamper some reader's enjoyment, but I couldn't get enough because I was fascinated by the world Novik reveals. The world building and magic system are expertly crafted and though the story is set entirely in the school, you begin to understand the structure of the wider magical world it's set in which I loved.

The magic system is unique and clever, with a well defined set of rules. It's an impressively intricate and innovative system that offers plenty of opportunity for both wickedness and humour (who knew crocheting could get you magic power?!)

The standout of the book is Galadriel's character arc and narrative voice, she's infused with so much heart, emotion and humour. She’s exceptionally rude to everyone and may not come across instantly likeable, but I think anyone would be hard pressed not to love her by the end after discovering her backstory and watching her make some tough personal decisions that show the true nature underneath the grouchy, snarky girl she appears on the surface.

Galadriel's interactions with her classmates and the general dynamics between students is a highlight. Especially those between Galadriel and the potential love interest, Orien. The whole cast of characters are well developed, distinct personalities who all add many layers to Galadriel's personal journey.

This is a fascinating start to the series and I'm already desperate for more. The only reason A Deadly Education didn't quite hit five stars is because the book focuses so heavily on the politics of the Scholomance, the world building and magic system that it makes the actual storyline and climax of the book feel a little slight.

I'd heard a lot of people getting excited about this book, so I picked it up even though I hadn't really managed to get in to any of the authors other work. And I'm so glad I did - after a kind of rambling first chapter that failed to grip me, the action really picked up and the story hooked me in.

The world building is incredible - so immersive that I'm still catching myself moving carefully through dark spots incase something unsavoury jumps out!

The magic system is really interesting too - slightly complicated at first but quickly becoming clearer.

I completely adored Galadriel's mother in particular, which I thought was impressive of the author since we never actually meet her in the book! However, the other characters were all fantastically multi layered and relatable.

This is the grown up Harry Potter that I didn't know I needed - except better. I'm now going off to purchase every beautiful copy of this book that I can get my hands on!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

OH MY GOSH, that last line!
I knew something was coming, it was just building up for a cliff hanger last line but damn. I can’t wait for the next book.

I’ll be honest I wasn’t expecting much going into this one. I really wanted to love it because it sounded awesome and that cover looks epic but I have read the authors previous two books and while I enjoyed them I wasn’t overly taken with them. I really wanted to be and I heard only amazing things about them and they sounded fantastic but something just didn’t click for me and I was always a little sad that I didn’t fall in love with them like other people did.

I assumed this new book was going to be the same and I admit even when I started it I wasn’t thinking it was anything spectacular but after only a chapter or two maybe less? I lost track, I was completely hooked.

I loved it. Every moment of it and I couldn’t put it down.
Sure I feel like if you pulled out individual threads and examined them closely you might find faults but when it’s all mashed up together it somehow just works and is this epic novel.

I loved the main character and how down to earth she is but also kind of grumpy (with good cause) and hating on everyone because that kind of basically sounds like my attitude all the time but she’s also this super powerful badass wizard who could just wipe everyone out without breaking a sweat and yet puts so much effort into not using her power like that or turning evil even though it would be so easy to and it’s not like anyone is being great to her anyways? But she’s a decent, good person who has only wanted to be treated fairly.

I also loved the supporting characters and the way their depth and personalities grew and developed.

But the story telling was sublime. Everything is woven in brilliantly and you get a huge amount of info dumped on you because this is one intricate and unique world but it somehow didn’t feel overwhelming. It was just done really well.

Honestly I couldn’t put this down once I started it and finished it in a day.
I highly recommend picking this one up.

I will be posting this review on my blog and Instagram shortly.

I’ve been a massive fan of Naomi Novik’s since reading Uprooted and she’s been an auto-buy for me ever since. So I went into A Deadly Education with extremely high expectations. I was not disappointed. It was different from Spinning Silver and Uprooted, in that despite the fantasy setting, the characters felt modern and young and of our time. It was the same as Uprooted and Spinning Silver in that the writing was wonderful, and the story was addictive and carried you along. The characters were as original as the world they exist in, and as we got to understand the world and magic system, so the individual characters and their relationships to each other grew. I stayed up far too late reading this addictive novel, and my only regret is that now I will have to wait an eternity to find out what’s next for El and her friends.

I really liked the synopsis of this book and it did not disappoint! The main character was extremely likeable, she was sarcastic and determined. And the whole new magic system was great and I cannot wait for the next book!

Have you ever sat down to read a book with plans of writing notes as you go, for the purpose of reviewing? Then, in the end, you’ve written nothing because you devoured the book and are considering a reread the second after you finished it. That’s where I was with this book. I feel 2020 has been a good year for me choosing the perfect books to read and I’m freaking delighted I got an early copy of this. Honestly, I’d trade my soul for a physical arc.

Galadriel and Orion... Those Names!

Our main and point of view character is Galadriel. Yes, her name is Galadriel, yes, that’s awesome. Yes, there’s a specific Lord of the Rings mention in this. Yes, I was delighted and geeked out a little bit. El was a fantastic strong, female character who was not interested in taking any crap. In fact, she so didn’t want to take any crap that she usually caused herself more problems with her stand-offish and often aggressive attitude. Frankly, I related hard to this, so it just made me love her more. In public, it takes all my willpower not to glare and tell people to back off. Usually in more colourful language. Language like El occasionally uses.

El’s character arc was glorious, and as the story was told from her point of view, we got to see it via her thoughts and feelings. I appreciated reading her internal struggles of being nice vs. her instinct of pushing everyone away and how she tried to balance it, and frequently failed. El is inherently flawed, and those flaws are what I loved, related to and had me cheering her on the whole time. It’s also worth mentioning that El is half-Indian, half-Welsh and that makes for a fascinating backstory.

We’ve also got Orion. Your everyday, magical, knight in shining armour. Apart from the fact, he’s really not. Yeah, he’s got the saving people down to a fine art. The suave, sweep you off your feet after it? Not so much. Orion kind-of reminded me of a puppy Labrador or golden retriever. He’s got a good heart, but he’s absolutely clueless. And I loved him for it. I worried at first it was going to be the cliché character, but he really wasn’t and it was interesting to follow, not so much his development, but the development of how those around him treated him just because he saved people and had a privileged background but didn’t act like anyone expected.

Magic and Monsters

The world that Naomi Novik has built for The Deadly Education is fantastic, and my favourite thing about this whole book. The fact the school itself is almost a character I could’ve listed above, the way there are no teachers but the school can handle things perfectly well itself. That, and the way the magic works.

Magic isn’t necessarily easy to pick-up - you have to study, and study very hard. You have to learn multiple languages if you want a variety of spells, you have to work your ass off just for survival, you have to hope the school grants you good spells, or at least spells worthy of trade. I could’ve read another 100 pages just about the spells and magic. It was fascinating to me; I wanted to just read about what spells people had obtained, which languages they were in and what it was worthy of trading for.

On the subject of the school, the description was great. I always felt like I could picture the exact environment around El, including the variety of monsters hiding around the corner or in the dark recess of a room.

Essentially, I just need more of these characters, this world, this book. And the way it ended made me need book 2 even more. I’m super excited to see what’s coming next, and also... I wonder what merch there will be?

I get a lot aka most of my book recommendations from social media, so when everyone on book twitter started hyping up Naomi Novik's new novel I knew it was time to jump on the bandwagon. I've previously read Spinning Silver also by Novik and loved it, Uprooted has been on my tbr list for an age so I was so excited to read this!

A Deadly Education is one of those incredible novels where even though you've only read a few chapters you just know you're going to devour the whole thing. This is a pretty fast paced book, though I did find that there was a bit of an info dump throughout the book but I guess with a new series and one where there's a magical element, it's kinda needed. We do get to learn about how The Scholomance works, the magic system and the climate/world outside of the school, basically life in Novik's new world is brutal. I hope this is explored in the rest of the series though

I found A Deadly Education to be really well written though a very different style to Spinning Silver (the only other Naomi Novik book I've read), I also I really enjoyed the world building. Like I mentioned before, there's a lot happening in this book and it can be a little hard to keep track off but the world building is very intricate and sets up the rest of the series. 

I'll be honest, I did not know what to expect with this book, I thought it would be some sort of Hogwarts/St Trinian's  mix up. Where everybody's a Slytherin and off battling dementors everyday. Hogwarts it is not, this is dark academia (I googled dark academia and feel fairly confident A Deadly Education falls under this category/there are dark academia vibes at least!), life at The Scholomance is merciless, only half of the seniors survive graduation! A lot does happen in this story, the characters are constantly on the go but I'm also really interested in what'll happen in the next book.

Galadriel or El as she prefers is the brilliantly strong and incredibly rude main character, normally I can't stand rudeness but you can't help but love and root for her. My  heart breaks for El (can we talk about how fab her name is!) she is so lonely and Novik did a great job of this, you can practically taste her longing to belong. I enjoyed reading the snippets from her childhood as I think it helps us to understand why she acts and thinks the way she does. El is very funny, she has this snarky/sarcastic kinda humour that I love. I love how her character develops and her developing friendships. The Scholomance is very cut throat so it's nice to see genuine friendships develop from being reluctant allies and using each other to actual friends. 

There's not a lot of romance in this book, which for once I'm quite happy about. There was a little hint at the end of the book which sets it up nicely for the rest of the series, I'm not sure this is even a trope but I'm feeling a reluctant allies to possible lovers vibes though! 

Novik's take on the magical school trope is brilliant and I have very high hopes for the rest of the series, 4 STARS.

Wow. This was something a little bit different and very delightful!

I found the writing style pacey and was dragged swiftly into a first hand account of El's experience at a very unique, and somewhat terrifying, boarding school for magicians. This school is something 'special' and definitely not what you would expect if you are looking for something Potter-esque. Think more along the lines of a vicious magical Hunger Games with less adult supervision, less desire to kill your peers (unless you prefer to suck your magic from living things) and more teamwork (sometimes). El is somewhat unique in that she is effectively a magical 'vegetarian' which is a fun side-theme to the story as other students begin to realise that she is not as bad as she comes across, just a little socially inept.

It was an absolute pleasure to read and had me laughing out loud, cringing in empathy and wishing I could read more immediately.

See my full review on ww.twwbookclub.co.uk a little closer to the release date!