
Member Reviews

“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!