3 stars. I admire the creativity of the world-building. I also seriously love me a snarky main character. But the plot, the story, and the development of the characters really suffer in this book because of the way it's told. To be honest, this book feels like 75% info dump, 15% snarky commentary from the main character, and 10% actual action. All that being said, I will read volume two.

If I were to describe A Deadly Education, I’d say think Harry Potter but make it way darker, with a main character that has a bit of an attitude problem, major anger issues and whose magic affinity is destruction, plus the cherry on top, a school that’s hellbent on killing its students. If the dark academia genre had a baby with the fantasy genre, this book would certainly be it. An all-time favorite for sure!

I'm not a huge Naomi Novik fan, but I enjoyed this title well enough! Looking forward to the next in the series.

This book drags the "special wizard children have adventures together in a special school" plot into a back alley, shakes it down for loose tropes and subverts them into a breathtaking thrill ride of a read that oozes originality & excitement from every dark, deadly, monster-filled corner.

It delivers scathing class and economic commentary in the voice of a lonely, indomitable young woman whose heart is much bigger than she knows and who isn't nearly as cynical and bitter as she thinks she should be.

hands-down the best thing I read all year. I loved every word and I cannot wait for the second book in the series.

I love this author. Sadly this book was a miss for me. Most people love it but I found it really difficult to follow and I couldn't really connect with any of the heroine's actions. Still curious about the next book though.

Wow! This isn’t the average wizarding school. Main objective: stay alive. El is sarcastic and friendless in a school where it’s dangerous to not have friends, or at least allies. Everyone, including the Scholomance itself, seems to expect her to go malificer, stealing others’ life force and creating mass destruction. But she doesn’t want to. She just wants to stay alive and make it through graduation.

This story is wonderful. Danger and action at every turn. The characters and their relationships are entertaining. Starting book two immediately!

I love Naomi Novik's Uprooted, and I've kind of like Temeraire book 1 too, but even if the story of A Deadly Education is really interesting, I'm struggling too much with the writing style. It's really heavy and confusing, I can't follow properly the plot. And it frustrates me, because the dialogues are good and I think all the characters have a great potential but.. I stopped.
I'll try again another time, but for now is a big (and sad) no.

Another great fantasy read from the one and only, Naomi Novik! I loved the academic setting in this one -- the perfect read to get you in the back-to-school mode or if you're looking for some classic fall vibes!

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey Books for this eARC

It pains me to admit that I did not finish this book. I gave it my best attempts, but I just could not get into this story.
It did not grab my attention and with over 600 pages (that is a commitment) and one I make often. I've learned after many years of reading that if a story does not grab you within the first 100 pages it is ok to simply close it and walk away. Perhaps I will give it a try again, but I appreciate being a part of NetGalley and will always give my honest opinions.

This title is amazing and I am very upset that I have to continue to wait for its conclusion. I love my grumpy genius and her golden retriever boyfriend.

3 1/2. Maybe not as fantasy-fleshy as I'd like, and definitely to indebted to YA development tactics, but there's promise for future entries if Novik opens up the world a bit and tamps down her more pubescent storytelling instincts.

This was absolutely amazing. I had previously read many of Naomi Novik's books including the Napoleon's Dragon series and her redone fairy tales, but this was one of my favorites. It's like an evil Hogwarts filled with intrigue and danger. The main character is nuanced and interesting. The evil school is freaking cool. I can't wait for more.

Naomi Novik has special talent for writing fantasy with an all consuming world. In a "Deadly Education" we are introduced to Galadriel (El) a powerful and dark magical wizard of the Scholomance school. As she tries to survive a school full of maleficaria, and murderous wizards, El allies with Orion and heroic warrior wizard. It's fast-paced and heavily detailed. Big fans of world-building dark academia will love this novel.

A book about a magical educational facility where the twist is the place is extremely likely to kill you—but only a fraction as likely as the world outside its walls. In this school, there are no teachers and no guardians, and for our bad-aura-radiating main character, El, no friends; nothing to stop her from being offed by some horrible monster or a serial-killing, dark-magic-using fellow student other than her own wits and reflexes. Add in broken monster-cleaning machinery; a handsome, overpowered, monster-death powered classmate; and a prophecy of a future of societal desctruction, and you've got a magical recipe for awesome disaster. The first-person, stream-of-consciousness narration, full of some quite long clauses, will put off some readers, but the story is fantastic.

I love Novik; she is a strong story teller. However, this one took me a lot longer to get hooked by. SO much, in fact, I was considering abandoning it (I usually give it about 3 chapters/15% to decide), and the only thing that stopped me was that it was Novik. I'm glad I continued.

Overall, a good fantasy with urban flare coupled with a timeless feel. The characters are compelling, the world building is on point, and the story is moving. I can't wait for the next one.

It took me a while to finish this book. Significantly longer than usual. Both with reading it and with reviewing it.
Didn't I like it or what was going on?
Yes. No. Difficult.
Rarely had I so many things to "notice".
What did I like?
The world building, the school, the magic system. These elements were extremely exciting and interesting. A school without teachers that is full of monsters that want to kill you? Yes, please! Super cool.
I also liked Orion, the side character. Very much so.
On the other hand, I found the protagonist El, whose perspective the book is from, incredibly annoying. I think some will read her as tough and cool - and they'll have fun with her, too. For me, on the other hand, she was ignorant, conceited, and super self-important. Characters don't always have to be likeable, but this lady? I would have been happy if she would have been eaten directly by the monsters.
If the book would have been from Orion's point of view as the main character, I probably would have really liked the book. Since I really like the world it’s set in.
I think it stands or falls on how you get along with El, the protagonist.
❗️I would like to note that there were a few discussions. The author included some insensitive things in the original, but then apologized and had it changed. However, this topic is also discussed very controversially in the communities concerned.
I think that Scholomance is worth a look at reviews, discussions about the accusations and a reading of the sample. Because basically you can find a lot of great things here, but also things that are not too good. If you don't have a problem with a superficial, ignorant girl who thinks she's all great, you'll like the main protagonist. The world itself is great anyway. It's best to form your own opinion.

I normally love Naomi Novik's work, but I had mixed feelings about this one! Sour, antisocial El makes for an interesting heroine - she reminds me a bit of Katniss from The Hunger Games, actually - but she is the only character who seemed like a real person. The POV is very interior with little dialogue to get to know the other characters except through El's grumpy, suspicious eyes. I think Novik intentionally wanted to create an anxious and adversarial mood in the boarding school-slash-prison known as the Scholomance, where no one can sleep, eat, pee, or shower without putting themselves in mortal danger. However, this results in a world that is... unpleasant to spend much time within. I finished it unsatisfied, desperately wanting the characters to find some measure of contentment and peace and maybe a nice long bath. Perhaps in book two?

Deadly Education was a unique story based in a magic school unlike any I’ve read about before. Everything is out to kill the students, and that’s just the way it goes at the Scholomance. I found this to be an intriguing story that ended leaving me begging for more!

Excuse me while I squeal in delight to rival a sirenspider. Squee~

(Choose one of the following)
This book is:
A.) a dark, socialist-feminist Harry Potter
B.) set in Scholomance, a killer (literally) Hogwarts-esque school populated with ravenous maleficaria (like the aforementioned sirenspider (who paralyze their prey with sirensong in order to slowly suck their blood) that demands its own Wiki,
C.) narrated by a sardonic & sarcastic half-Indian, half-Welsh dark sorceress,
D.) an enemies-to-reluctant-allies-to-allies-to-friends-to-maybe-lovers(-to-maybe-enemies).

Answer:
E.) All of the above and so much more!

CW: for mentions and depictions of attempted filicide, parental death, murder & attempted murder, animal neglect & cruelty, & gore

Very dark but very good. Novik has created a fascinating, if extremely grim, world and characters. I look forward to future books.