I was excited to get into Naomi Novik's new book, and now I'm excited to see where this story goes forth in the book(s) to follow. Harry Potter for adults? Hell yes. As this is book one, it does a lot of world building and character presentation. El is such a funny and badass heroine and she's almost unstoppable in how she functions. The entire premise of the book is so interesting and I did love the Novik didn't do certain conventional things like for example, the romance aspect between El and Orion. They're a set of two different types of people and the flirtation between them is almost something that you can pass by. It's a unique read, but I did get the feel that this was more YA than adult, and I feel like that made the book not be as great as it could've been.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

El, née Galadriel, is a junior at Scholomance, a magic school where graduating literally means surviving four years of education. El is misunderstood, grumpy, defensive, and secretly very powerful. Because El wants to be a good wizard, (as opposed to evil) she struggles more than most students to navigate the obstacles that the school throws her way. At any given time or place, mals (malicious monster-ish things) attack students, particularly her. Her frustrations are made worse by one heroic do-gooder who keeps saving her life unnecessarily.

Words cannot express how much I LOVE this book. NN is a wizard of an author and I’ve always been a little sad that Uprooted and Spinning Silver are stand alone novels. I’m ecstatic that this one will not be. El is such a kick-ass heroine. I really cannot get enough of her. (She reminds me of Princess Cimorene from the Enchanted Forest series, anyone remember those?) Her interactions with her classmates, and Orion are hilarious. My favorite line—“Don’t even open your mouth in my direction, you overgrown lemming,”

Please don’t ever compare this to Harry Potter. Sure they both feature wizarding schools, but the resemblance ends there. This is so much better. It’s Teuscher Truffles next to Hershey’s.

Deadly Education by Naomi Novik is a stark departure from her last two books Spinning Silver and Uprooted. What would it look like if the magical world of wizards and witches was full of Slytherins and they were forced to compete to the death in a graduation ceremony full of creatures that wanted to eat them? Novik's newest fantasy is a dark and twisted magical world where magic users are locked into a school together to be eaten by monsters before graduation. Only alliances with other enclaves and students will give them a fighting chance of getting out on graduation day.

Young Adult Audience will definitely jump on this title. It reminded me in some degree to Wilder Girls by Rory Power . It is extremely dark and different than what I am used to from Novik. I also felt like there was a lot of telling and not showing from a first point of view character that I did not like. This is why i can only give it three stars. It had an interesting premise and I am curious to see what happens in the second book. But the pacing for me was off putting and I felt like I was slugging through it. This is by far one of the most interesting worlds I have seen in a while and I do believe there is an audience out there for this book. As a librarian this will be an easy sell to teens in my community. But as a huge fan of Uprooted and Spinning Silver I was missing my lyrical beautiful language that Novik is so amazing at. The language that makes me reread entire paragraphs because it is so amazing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

“Reader, I ran the fuck away.”

A Deadly Education was an interesting read. It took me a while to get into, which didn’t exactly surprise me since Uprooted and Spinning Silver, also by Novik, both were the same for me. The world building was different and well fleshed out, but it was a lot to take in in the beginning. The magic system was well explained as well.

El, our narrator, is quite prickly and not the easiest person to like. She does eventually grow on you though, and you understand where’s she’s coming from. Her enemies turned friends relationship with Orion was actually very cute. I enjoyed their dynamic a lot.

A Deadly Education was being marketed as a darker, female-led Harry Potter, and I think that description would be pretty accurate for the most part. But I actually wish this book was even darker. The monsters are there, but it seemed a little tame at times. And it read pretty YA to be honest. Also at times, it seemed like not a lot was happening plot wise, but I was never bored. The ending has me intrigued enough that I will definitely pick up the sequel.

You guys. YOU GUYS. She's done it again, that absolute maniac, she's written a scathing critique of capitalism and the lie of meritocracy and then wrapped it up in an adventure narrative. I enjoyed this book so much that I finished it and then the very next morning read the whole thing all over again. I've been reflecting on what exactly it is about Naomi Novik's narratives that I enjoy so much and it partly boils down to the relationship dynamic which I classify as "The One Who Loves Truth & Justice/The One Who Read The Art Of War Seventeen Times In Preschool", and it is SO GREAT here. El (short for Galadriel, DON'T ASK HER ABOUT IT) is a keen observer of social dynamics, because as a poor kid with no useful connections and an overpowering case of Resting Bitch Attitude at a school that's constantly trying to kill the students, her life literally depends on knowing what other people want. When the class hero (Orion Lake, and if you're into Transformers, I'm fairly sure the joke is exactly what you think it is) starts following her around because he thinks she's killed one of their classmates, it's El's one big chance: everyone else at school thinks he has a crush on her, and they're suddenly willing to do her all kinds of favors in order to get his attention. If she plays it right, she might even be able to leverage the situation into surviving graduation (which is what they call the entire class of seniors being dumped into a hall crawling with monsters and making a break for the door: whoever makes it out alive has graduated). Orion, who's from a well-connected family and has never needed anything he doesn't already have without asking, finds El baffling and paranoid, but throughout the book, she's RIGHT. She's been on the outskirts looking in her whole life, and she understands the system, which is designed to help the rich and force the poor to cooperate with their own subjugation in the hopes of survival. Most importantly, the people who benefit from the system (like Orion) get to not notice it. Orion is not a bad person! He genuinely wants to dedicate his life to helping others! And he is completely oblivious to everything that's happening beneath the surface, because his survival has never depended on playing the game successfully.

People are going to compare this book to Harry Potter, and I think that's fair. It's hard to evaluate just from the first book of a series, but I think the Scholomance is a much more thoughtful take on what a truly international wizard school would look like, and I love the magic system and worldbuilding. The slow build of alliances into genuine friendships is a delight, especially from such a cynical POV -- El is so surprised to love and be loved! And of course the hook, namely the fact that El is destined to be a world-destroying dark sorceress except she was lovingly raised to be the magical equivalent of a vegan and doesn't actually want to hurt a fly, is a phenomenal launching point for the book. This isn't being billed as YA, but I'm not sure why aside from Novik's past publishing history and possibly plans for the following books in the trilogy. It's a great YA novel, and I think it would really appeal to fans of Sarah Rees Brennan's In Other Lands.

Long story short: strongly recommend, can't wait for the next book!

I have such mixed feelings about this one! On one hand, I loved El and her arc; she was such an interesting character and I felt for her throughout the entire story. I also really adored the other characters and the world in general. It was all so intriguing and really captured me.

However, this writing style just was not for me. I felt like the entire story—all 300 and some pages—was just constant info dumping. Paragraphs felt long, there wasn’t a ton of dialogue, and new information was constantly being thrown at me to the point of overwhelming. I just don’t think I meshed well with how it was written, even though I did love everything else about it.

Overall, super good read! And that ending really has me yearning for the next book.

Electronic ARC provided by NetGalley.

This is a very weird but very good YA fantasy from Naomi Novik. Imagine Harry Potter, except there are no teachers, you can't ever leave the school, and Hogwarts is actively trying to murder you at all times. El (short for Galadriel) lives in a world where mages are under constant danger from "mals"--magical monsters who want nothing more then to destroy them. The worst part is that mals disproporionately go for adolescent or teenage mages. In a desperate bid to save some of their children, mages created the Scholomance, a school that is basically shunted off into another dimension. The survival rate within the school is higher then the outside, but students still have to use every bit of intelligence and initiative to make it out alive.

El's mother is liked by everyone. El, however, is pretty universally hated. She has a strong affinity for dark magic, and a prickly personality that she has developed to keep people away before they can reject her. She's in her second to last year at the Scholomance, and all she wants is to make it out the other side without resorting to too much dark magic.

The characters and world building in this book are great. In the beginning some things feel like they might be too simple or illogical, but everything has a reason, and characters are always acting in very understandable ways. El is a great narrator, especially as the narrative slowly starts to pick apart her many issues. The school is full of diverse students, with many acknowledgments of the fact that people are learning magic in different languages, and using different methods from all over the world. There are some illusions to potential romance but there is no actual romance in this book.

This is the first book in a series, but is worth reading alone anyways since there is a lot here. The last line of the book is a big surprise, and really makes you wonder about a ton of things that I assume will be explored later on. I'm excited about this series and will definitely be following along.

This book was absolutely phenomenal! I devoured it in one sitting, I could not put it down. For the first time in over a month I forgot to worry about current events and fell completely into Naomi Novik's new world. This is not a book to be missed!

I went into this book completely unprepared for the genius I was about to discover. I loved Uprooted so I assumed I’d love this, but I really had no idea what it was about; I just jumped in. I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve read the last line of a book, gasped, then laughed out loud at the absolute brilliance of it.

The main character, El, is just perfect. She’s wicked smart, snarky, and so funny! She’s the loner teen forced to develop razor sharp survival skills to make it through boarding school. Anyone who’s struggled with making friends will relate to her - I adored her immediately.

I got lost in El’s world at Scholomance and did not want this book to end. Now I’m impatiently waiting for the next book in the series! So good!