Cover Image: A Deadly Education

A Deadly Education

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

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

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

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC of this book!

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

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

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

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This review is made possible via an ARC through NetGalley.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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This was an enjoyable read as a whole.

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

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

Mimi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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First I want to thank NetGalley and Random House for allowing me access to a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

A Deadly Education is a creative and interesting take on the modern fantasy genre. There are plenty of magic schools in fantasy these days, but this one catches your attention from the very beginning and doesn’t let go.

In the Scholomance series we follow Galadriel, or just El to most, as she tries to survive her junior year at a magical school intended to protect kids with magical talent. In actuality the school is a death trap that attracts dangerous creatures called “Mals” drawn to the raw magical power of the students. Although the school is warded against such creatures the allure of a meal is often stronger and over time the school has become a deadly place to live. El knows that she has long been destined to wield terrible and awesome power, but has done her best to play that close to the chest. It is that much more infuriating when Orion, the class “hero”, keeps saving her life and attracting a lot of attention to her. In the Scholomance too much attention from fellow classmates can be just as deadly as any Mal.

There are so many things to love about this book. Just the lore and history of the school itself is such a fun concept and worth a lot more time than I have here in this review. I enjoyed the character development as El and her cohorts have to learn to survive together, and there’s some interesting dynamics within the school politics. I dove into this book and just kept going. The best part about reading it at this time is that the second and third in this series are out and I immediately jumped into the next book.

This wasn’t necessarily a life altering book for me, but it was really interesting and I was engaged the whole way through. If you like dark academia then you’re in the right place with A Deadly Education.

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This book grabs you and takes you on a ride. I was a bit confused with the magic system in the beginning, because I am normally a thriller/ horror reader. This book grabs you and you are captured by the characters. Can't wait to read books two and three. Thank you to the publisher for my honest review. 4 stars

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Who knew magic boarding schools could be so dark and deadly, and still wizards are willing to go any length to get in and consider themselves lucky when they are chosen?
This Scholomance universe is truly something else!
I have read only the first book of the trilogy, A Deadly Education, so far, and I can't wait to know more about El, Orion and the others in the next ones.

Naomi Novik is a tough author for me, but in a good way.
Kind of like the brilliant teacher that you feel lucky to have, but she explains the lesson too fast for you to truly follow. And while you debate if you are smart enough to deserve such a great teacher and if you are getting too behind with the program, you find yourself trusting her ways and going with the flow (and I am not a "go-with-the-flow" kind of person, bye bye comfort zone!). All of a sudden you realize that you learnt all the lessons without even knowing it and the whole program makes a big huge sense in one gulp! As if she were there, the Author / Teacher, looking at me, with that "I knew you could do it" reassuring smile.
She overwhelmes and then soothes me.

A Deadly Education is narrated from the point of view of Galadriel, a teenage sorceress admitted to the Scholomance: a high school for wizards, but forget High School Musical or Hogwarts. The Scholomance is a creepy school, where, if you don't make alliances and you don't pay attention to every weird detail out of place, a mal will come and feed on you. If you get into the Scholomance, it's more likely that you will die there.
Then why should you want to go? Because the odds of surviving mals are even less favourable if you are a wizard and you don't go to the Scholomance. Life for young wizards is that hard, unless you train at the Scholomance and find an enclave where to live the rest of your of life more safely.

Back to "A Deadly Education"... how brilliant is the incipit? El writing:"I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life."
How can you not want to know more about El and Orion?

The first chapter is so intense! So much information all at once. It’s like making the acquaintance of a super-chatty person who launches herself into a monologue about her life after the first minute of knowing her. Overwhelming. But since El is such an interesting person, you brave through and keep your focus to make sure you don’t miss any important information. This girl will go places and you want to be knowingly there when it happens.
I liked that, as in the other Novik's book I read (Uprooted), her main character is a girl who is struggling to fit, who has a gift that is perceived as a negative trait, so she learns to control it and hide it. It makes me hope that by the end of the series she will have figured out how to use it positively, by paving a new road to good magic and finally feeling well in her own shoes.

Only one regret: I would have loved to hear Orion’s point of view every once in a while, but I trust as usual that it will all make sense in the end and I have to be more patient about finding out the whole story of Orion and his motives.

Some loose ends keep me wanting to find out if they will be tackled in the next books or just dropped and, of course, how will El, Orion and their allies make it out alive? Will they all make it out alive.

I might never find out how Naomi Novik's quickly turns books that I feel estranged from into page turners that keep awake at night, but I am so glad to keep being absorbed by her universe and her characters. Such truly amazing concepts and endearing souls: I can't wait to read them all!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

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“Getting attached to anyone in here except on practical terms is like sending out an engraved invitation to misery, even if you don’t pick out an idiot who spends all his time hurling himself into danger.”

Life in author Naomi Novik’s wizarding world is no piece of cake. Young wizards are particularly tasty to evil maleficaria creatures who prey on them for their power: a type of energy called mana. Galadriel “El” Higgins is no exception. She has no connection to any of the powerful enclaves that bind mana and power affinities for protection during her four-year stay in the Scholomance—an unusual high school overridden with maleficaria. El has an affinity for mass destruction and a snarky attitude that makes it difficult for others to trust her, especially considering her grandmother’s prophecy that El will destroy the world. However, El has a plan to lay low to survive, store mana in her mother’s crystals, and then impress the enclave members with a massive display of her power before graduation. But a wrench is thrown into her plot when golden boy Orion Lake repeatedly saves El’s life and sends her into turmoil.

Although the impeccable world-building initially drew me in, the characters ultimately made the story a disappointment. The Scholomance is a unique setting: built into the magical void to stay hidden, the school doesn’t have teachers and is full of evil creatures trying to eat the students. However, all El and her friends do is fight these creatures with no regard for character development or relationship building. El is an unlikable, antisocial heroine with a terrible attitude. While Novik attempts to peel back El’s layers, this is accompanied by an unparalleled amount of El’s complaining and bickering. Most of the book consists of El being rude to Orion, who continues to follow her around despite her behavior alienating him from the all-mighty New York enclave. There is no chemistry between the pair or satisfying release of their supposed romantic tension. My main problem with the novel is how unrealistic the characters’ behavior is considering their perilous situation. El details this plan to join an enclave to ensure her survival, yet she is unnecessarily rude and snarky to both enclave and non-enclave students. El’s only redeeming quality is her vow not to turn evil and employ her affinity for mass destruction. Her struggle to stay “good” is an interesting internal dilemma, especially considering how powerful she could be if she tapped into her full potential. Although teenagers are not supposed to be entirely rational, I would have liked the students to be more realistic in their fight to stay alive through graduation.

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This is likely to appeal to fans of the "magical school genre". While the world building up front was sometimes a but of a slog to get through, the characters were a delight to spend time with. El is a complex and interesting protagonist and it's easy to be in her head. I'll definitely pick up the other 2 books in the series, especially since this one ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.

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