This book is set in a school.
The world building in this book is so intriguing.
The pacing in this book is fast and action packed.
Loved the ending of this book
A great read

El is a student in the Scholomance - one of the deadliest schools in the world for those born with magical powers. In the Scholomance, every day could be your last as students are faced with the prospect of being set upon by all kinds of monsters that live within the walls, and the only way of leaving is on Graduation Day. El has managed four years on her own but as her Junior year is almost up, she begins to grudgingly accept some new friendships and alliances that come her way and might help save her life.

This was a really fun audiobook listen - the pacing of the book is quite fast and action-packed with some kind of monster fight happening every couple of pages (even if it's just Orion blasting a few away from El's head) and while I did find there was a lot of information coming my way about how the school worked as well as manna vs malia, I think I understood almost all of it.

The magic school setting is a fun one as this particular setting is different to other kinds of schools in just how dangerous it is. There are no adults or teachers present, the school provides all the education the students need in different topics with the library presenting the students the books they need or want for certain things (or sometimes the spells the school wants them to know). I did have to suspend some disbelief in how any parents would be okay sending their children to be locked away for 5 years in a place that has an extremely high mortality rate but that's just the way this world works.

El as a character is very good - she's really smart and powerful but there's a prophecy about her being able to bring about world destruction - and the way the school reacts to this power of El's is quite funny in many ways. She's snappy and well able to take care of herself but during this book we see moments of vulnerability within her, and ways in which she is a normal teenage girl.

There's not a lot of general teen angst or romance in this book because the students have a lot more to be worrying about but there was a moment near the end of the book that some of it came in and I actually really loved it as it was a lovely, light moment at the end of a book that had been fairly dark - both between El and Orion, and her two girlfriends.

I really liked this, and I'm moving straight onto the next book as it's a fun world to be in for a while.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik is a compelling and creative new fantasy novel that plunges readers into a dangerous world of magic and mystery. Set in a school where failure means certain death, it tells the story of El Higgins, a unique and powerful student with a dark power. Despite the deadly stakes, Novik's cleverly-crafted characters and lively writing bring humor and warmth to the page. This highly entertaining novel takes an honest look at survival and friendship, reminding us that there is more to life than simply surviving. With captivating prose and a fresh story, this novel is sure to entice fantasy fans and readers of all kinds.

Books come and go, but there are only few ones that feel so visceral that you still think about them after you have long finished the book. This book is one of them — it’s raw, brutal, unapologetic, educational, forceful and painful at the same time. I felt with every page of this book, and it feels as if the author is forcing you to stay with her with your eyes wide open until the very end of the book while cutting herself open. Transgenerational trauma, depression, microaggressions, housing discrimination — these are only some of the words that the author is refusing to be reduced to. I don’t believe for a moment Alicia Elliott wants your tears, she just wants you to listen and understand.

Although this book didn't 100% hit the mark for me, I would have preferred it to be more adult (but that's a me problem - I generally don't enjoy YA so take my opinion with a pinch of salt) - there were plenty of things I enjoyed about the book, the world-building, the general concept, the humor and sarcasm, and the found family feel.

Harry Potter vs The Hunger Games.
Let's not dive into the controversy around this book, you have Google: use it! There's rambling, huge chunks of info-dumps and a slugging narrative, just forget it.

As a huge fan of Novik’s previous work I was super excited to see what her much hyped venture into dark Academia would look like. What did I find? That it’s as dark and twisty and messed up and clever as I’d hoped. I’m hooked. Can’t WAIT to get my hands on the rest of the series.

Naomi Novak is a favourite author of mine, I can't count how often I've recommended her books and Deadly Education will be no exception!
By far my favourite aspect is the world building, from the inherent danger of magic itself to the school attempting to murder it's students, I was fully engrossed in the world from the moment I picked this one up.
The characters and their relationships build believably and I was truly rooting for them to succeed the entire time!

I absolutely loved this! Novik's writing is always great and El's snarky character was a lot of fun. The whole concept of the Scholomance as a dark, dangerous wizarding school is fab, and I particularly enjoyed the reluctant ally to friend pipeline with the cast of supporting characters.

An incredibly unique fantasy novel, and a brilliant start to the series! The magic system and society is so different to anything I've read before, and El as a character is in equal parts endearing and hostile. The writing is so engaging and despite there being a quite complex magic system, the story is fast paced and immersive. I loved it so much, it's for sure one of my favourite fantasy books.

Thank you for my eARC of this book!!
I loved this story and absolutely love Noviks writing style.
The characters are brilliant and engaging and the writing and dialogue is clever and witty and dark. Brilliant.

I so wanted to love this book, but it really wasn't for me. When reading this genre I want to imagine myself there with the characters...but I couldn't picture anything worse than attending this school!

I've always been a fan of Naomi Novak's writing, from Temeraire to Uprooted, she's a fabulously talented fantasy author. So naturally, I was dying to get my paws on a copy of A Deadly Education, and I ended up loving it.

I love the magic school trope, and A Deadly Education is a dark, funny, and brutal look at the most dangerous magic school you could possibly imagine. I loved the school setting, the idea of 'graduation', the monsters and magic, everything. The characters were wonderfully written and complex, and I really loved the relationships (or lack thereof) between them.

Highly recommended if you like your magic dark, your cinnamon rolls muscular, and your heroines snarky. I'd also highly recommend the audiobook, which was well narrated and totally addictive. Novak has blessed us by making this series a trilogy and I'm so hyped to read them all!

Unfortunately the story was not able to catch me. The idea was quite interesting but I was not able to build a connection to the main protagonist El. The story felt long and slow moving and I could not warm to the story. Unfortunately the book was not for me though it sounded quite nice

I enjoyed this book as i found the school setting and the world building interesting but the characters felt a bit flat.I will read the second one and hopefully it will pick up I'm interested enough in the plot to carry on

The only way to begin to describe this book or the Scholomance more accurately is “Hogwarts on steroids” because I was not ready for that level of chaos and student danger to be honest. Whilst I like to think Dumbledore perhaps just had a bit of a lax attitude to student safety or, I don’t know, thought it was “character building”, and didn’t actually go out of his way to threaten students’ lives every day. Whereas the Scholomance does exactly that; for four years the students have to survive on their own in a magical school where your graduation is more of a “congratulations on making it out alive”.

The problem for our protagonist, El, is that she is a dark sorceress, but doesn’t really want to hurt everyone around her and destroy everything she touches. So she’s doing her best to get by but not do too well in case her class mates decide to get to her rather than a monster, and yes that has been known to happen too. El’s natural affinity to dark spells and destruction make for some rather humorous scenes particularly early on in the book when it’s all still very unexpected; though the sort of dry and somewhat-dark sense of humour present in A Deadly Education is right up my street.

As a character she’s abrasive though primarily it would seem a defence tactic as fitting in isn’t exactly her speciality; but as the book goes on, and she manages to start forming some alliances with fellow classmates, she also opens up as a character a little and the reader starts to learn more of the complex and unique qualities of the protagonist. Whilst initially I wouldn’t say El is particularly disagreeable as a character, she’s certainly one that becomes more likeable as the story progresses. There is a particularly interesting and fun dynamic present following El’s near miss with death (but no big deal at the Scholomance) and Orion’s brave heroics that bring the two together in a very unlikely alliance; with his saviour complex, and El’s insistence that she’s doing just fine on her own, the stark contrast between characters and personalities makes for an amusing twist in the narrative.

Although the story primarily takes place within the Scholomance the world-building is incredible; an interdimensional realm (I would imagine) is never an easy thing to explain in a book, but the fact Novik is able to paint such a vivid picture of the school, its intricacies, and – I guess – rules without distracting from the storyline or breaking pace truly bears testament to her skill as a writer. It’s a book that will grip you from the first page to the last; I think I finished this in less than 24 hours I was so hooked on the story. I’ll definitely be picking up book 2 very soon, and perhaps even branch out to reading more of Novik’s work. In short: highly recommend.

This had an interesting premise but there were some issues that other reviewers have raised. If you like dark academia you might like to check it out.

I thoroughly enjoyed this magical and mysterious school. The plot reminded me of all the reasons why I love magical education. I found this very entertaining and I did not want to finish the book. The descriptions of the school and the characters were spot on!

I have loved every thing Naomi Novik has written and this was no exception- I loved this new world she has created. A whole new magic system and amazing characters- I need the next book now!

This was a book I was really looking forward to reading, but it didn’t seem to gel with me. I couldn’t get into it at the start because there seemed to be a lot of narration and info dumping about backstory and the world. I’m also not a fan of 1st person POV so right from the start I wasn’t the right audience for the book.
The concept of the book really interested me, but I think the writing style didn’t fit with what I like to read and it seems to be written to the younger YA audience.
I think this would appeal to people who like a lot of detail up front in the story and don’t mind a slower pace.