Have you ever sat down to read a book with plans of writing notes as you go, for the purpose of reviewing? Then, in the end, you’ve written nothing because you devoured the book and are considering a reread the second after you finished it. That’s where I was with this book. I feel 2020 has been a good year for me choosing the perfect books to read and I’m freaking delighted I got an early copy of this. Honestly, I’d trade my soul for a physical arc.

Galadriel and Orion... Those Names!

Our main and point of view character is Galadriel. Yes, her name is Galadriel, yes, that’s awesome. Yes, there’s a specific Lord of the Rings mention in this. Yes, I was delighted and geeked out a little bit. El was a fantastic strong, female character who was not interested in taking any crap. In fact, she so didn’t want to take any crap that she usually caused herself more problems with her stand-offish and often aggressive attitude. Frankly, I related hard to this, so it just made me love her more. In public, it takes all my willpower not to glare and tell people to back off. Usually in more colourful language. Language like El occasionally uses.

El’s character arc was glorious, and as the story was told from her point of view, we got to see it via her thoughts and feelings. I appreciated reading her internal struggles of being nice vs. her instinct of pushing everyone away and how she tried to balance it, and frequently failed. El is inherently flawed, and those flaws are what I loved, related to and had me cheering her on the whole time. It’s also worth mentioning that El is half-Indian, half-Welsh and that makes for a fascinating backstory.

We’ve also got Orion. Your everyday, magical, knight in shining armour. Apart from the fact, he’s really not. Yeah, he’s got the saving people down to a fine art. The suave, sweep you off your feet after it? Not so much. Orion kind-of reminded me of a puppy Labrador or golden retriever. He’s got a good heart, but he’s absolutely clueless. And I loved him for it. I worried at first it was going to be the cliché character, but he really wasn’t and it was interesting to follow, not so much his development, but the development of how those around him treated him just because he saved people and had a privileged background but didn’t act like anyone expected.

Magic and Monsters

The world that Naomi Novik has built for The Deadly Education is fantastic, and my favourite thing about this whole book. The fact the school itself is almost a character I could’ve listed above, the way there are no teachers but the school can handle things perfectly well itself. That, and the way the magic works.

Magic isn’t necessarily easy to pick-up - you have to study, and study very hard. You have to learn multiple languages if you want a variety of spells, you have to work your ass off just for survival, you have to hope the school grants you good spells, or at least spells worthy of trade. I could’ve read another 100 pages just about the spells and magic. It was fascinating to me; I wanted to just read about what spells people had obtained, which languages they were in and what it was worthy of trading for.

On the subject of the school, the description was great. I always felt like I could picture the exact environment around El, including the variety of monsters hiding around the corner or in the dark recess of a room.

Essentially, I just need more of these characters, this world, this book. And the way it ended made me need book 2 even more. I’m super excited to see what’s coming next, and also... I wonder what merch there will be?

I get a lot aka most of my book recommendations from social media, so when everyone on book twitter started hyping up Naomi Novik's new novel I knew it was time to jump on the bandwagon. I've previously read Spinning Silver also by Novik and loved it, Uprooted has been on my tbr list for an age so I was so excited to read this!

A Deadly Education is one of those incredible novels where even though you've only read a few chapters you just know you're going to devour the whole thing. This is a pretty fast paced book, though I did find that there was a bit of an info dump throughout the book but I guess with a new series and one where there's a magical element, it's kinda needed. We do get to learn about how The Scholomance works, the magic system and the climate/world outside of the school, basically life in Novik's new world is brutal. I hope this is explored in the rest of the series though

I found A Deadly Education to be really well written though a very different style to Spinning Silver (the only other Naomi Novik book I've read), I also I really enjoyed the world building. Like I mentioned before, there's a lot happening in this book and it can be a little hard to keep track off but the world building is very intricate and sets up the rest of the series. 

I'll be honest, I did not know what to expect with this book, I thought it would be some sort of Hogwarts/St Trinian's  mix up. Where everybody's a Slytherin and off battling dementors everyday. Hogwarts it is not, this is dark academia (I googled dark academia and feel fairly confident A Deadly Education falls under this category/there are dark academia vibes at least!), life at The Scholomance is merciless, only half of the seniors survive graduation! A lot does happen in this story, the characters are constantly on the go but I'm also really interested in what'll happen in the next book.

Galadriel or El as she prefers is the brilliantly strong and incredibly rude main character, normally I can't stand rudeness but you can't help but love and root for her. My  heart breaks for El (can we talk about how fab her name is!) she is so lonely and Novik did a great job of this, you can practically taste her longing to belong. I enjoyed reading the snippets from her childhood as I think it helps us to understand why she acts and thinks the way she does. El is very funny, she has this snarky/sarcastic kinda humour that I love. I love how her character develops and her developing friendships. The Scholomance is very cut throat so it's nice to see genuine friendships develop from being reluctant allies and using each other to actual friends. 

There's not a lot of romance in this book, which for once I'm quite happy about. There was a little hint at the end of the book which sets it up nicely for the rest of the series, I'm not sure this is even a trope but I'm feeling a reluctant allies to possible lovers vibes though! 

Novik's take on the magical school trope is brilliant and I have very high hopes for the rest of the series, 4 STARS.

Wow. This was something a little bit different and very delightful!

I found the writing style pacey and was dragged swiftly into a first hand account of El's experience at a very unique, and somewhat terrifying, boarding school for magicians. This school is something 'special' and definitely not what you would expect if you are looking for something Potter-esque. Think more along the lines of a vicious magical Hunger Games with less adult supervision, less desire to kill your peers (unless you prefer to suck your magic from living things) and more teamwork (sometimes). El is somewhat unique in that she is effectively a magical 'vegetarian' which is a fun side-theme to the story as other students begin to realise that she is not as bad as she comes across, just a little socially inept.

It was an absolute pleasure to read and had me laughing out loud, cringing in empathy and wishing I could read more immediately.

See my full review on ww.twwbookclub.co.uk a little closer to the release date!

I went into this book with very few expectations beyond 'magical school' so I was kind of expecting a dark academia sort of story with floppy-haired sorcerers brooding on plush armchairs - so it was a pleasant surprise to discover that this book was...something else. 

One of the most significant things I found was that this book doesn't start with a 'freshman' character. At the point where the book starts El is only a couple of years away from graduation, I liked this because it means the story could go to different places, El already knows what's what, we get to see her navigate the halls with a degree of confidence. The book is written in first person so I imagine it would have been pretty devoid of substance if we were learning everything at the same pace as the narrator!  I'll be interested to see how many books we get in this series since in theory the next year is El's graduation year but time will tell!

This setting was incredibly cool. I will say I got a little confused by the layout of things at first but gradually I managed to understand this strange rotating school that gradually lowers it's classes towards the graduation hall. The fact that any pipe, vent, or crack in anything could contain a lurking creature ready to kill the unsuspecting student was really well done. Naomi Novik manages to convey the exhausting effects of being constantly on guard against potential death and I really felt for the characters. What I thought was also well done was the way that Novik conveys the benefits of the scholomance - otherwise I think I would have spent the entire book wondering why on earth anyone would choose to go there?

The magic was also very cool. It was a fairly hard magic system, though you don't get a blow by blow account of how all magic works it does get explained fairly well. I liked the way that spells were another thing students could barter and the development of new spells throughout the book was very cool. I won't spoil it but I think this will be good for booklovers (without being a book about books). 

One thing I will touch on is the recent discourse about non POC authors writing books from the perspective of a character of colour. In this case El is biracial and (as far as I a aware) this is not an ownvoices representation. I don't think the rep was damaging in any way but I thought it would be remiss not to mention, and those looking for stories that go more into the lived experience of people who are biracial might find this lacking. Obviously I'm a white lady so can't comment on this from any position of authority and, as always, urge you to seek out the opinions of ownvoices reviewers. 

This book is a fun story, I liked the characters, I even enjoyed the romance (it's not a big focus of the book but it was fun). I loved being inside El's head as she was just so delightfully cynical and grumpy - I could relate. The one thing missing, and it has been missing from every Naomi Novik book I've read, was LGBTQIA+ representation. You have a whole school of kids and not one mention of anyone LGBTQIA+? Or if there was it was blink and miss it. I still really enjoyed the book but I will keep singing 'it should have been gay' until the end of time. I'm not asking for tokenistic representation I just feel like if you're going to put out a magical school story in 2020 there had better be some queer youth...

Overall I would say this book is worth reading, and I'll certainly keep reading the series - the setting is what makes it amazing so if you want to read a truly unique magical school then I humbly place this recommendation at your feet!

My rating: 4/5 stars

I received a free digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley - all opinions are my own. 

A Deadly Education is out September 29th

I was thoroughly disappointed by this book. I thought it was going to be something it wasn’t, and what made it worse was the fact that it had all the potential and all the right kicks in the story but it felt like it was missing something.

The book sounded good and on paper it sounds like completely my thing, and i’m not joking when I say I screamed when I was approved for this! But it was SUCH boring book. We’re stuck in the perspective of one character which isn’t bad, but it just feels like it wasn’t edited. Like one stream of consciousness, and at times it jumped and felt purposefully confusing. Like we’d meet a character and not know anything about them and then later we would hear something more about them and who they are etc. But what really got to me was the definitions of the magic based language. It was used over and over again before being defined and clarified what it meant leaving you in a state of weird confusing wondering if you’d missed something when you hadn’t.

Like dark magic? Amazing. School that tries to kill you whilst you study there? Amazing. Sorceress with the potential to be the most powerful evil witch of all time? Sign me up! But what really annoys me is that the book felt way too short for the amount of content and the concept it was trying to set up. Like it’s a strange conundrum of not being edited enough but also not expanding on the story and helping it achieve it’s full potential, Though it’s not all doom and gloom. The last 20% of the book was actually really fun and it did pick up, and i’m looking forward (albeit, sceptically) to the next book. Because the ending did end on a slight cliff-hanger and intrigue me slightly towards the next entry in the series.

The book is just too small for the story it’s trying to tell. Like when i saw it was just over 300 pages I was like, “oh”. As in, this could either be a really great slim-lined dark academia book or it could feel extremely thin and empty. Unfortunately as I was nearing the end of the first chapter, it already felt like it was the later and it just got worse and worse. Like it’s not a bad book?? but it’s also not a good book and it just felt disappointing especially from such a well renown author. But who knows remember this book isn’t actually published so things can change from the time I read it to release you never know! Also you might enjoy it was more than I did! and if you did i’d love to hear your thoughts about it

I have been anticipating this book, having heard lots about it. It did not disappoint! Like a dark Harry potter, with a feminist twist. I will be getting the illumicrate edition, and it will live on my most loved shelf! Highly recommend, you can't miss this one

Just fantastic. Like Harry Potter from a Slytherin's perspective - but also something wholly original and unique. Yes, there is lots of complex world-building and passages of description - but the world is so amazing that I ended up enjoying some of those bits the most. The final sentence had my reeling. Novik is a genius.

The Scholomance is a school for wizards where everything is trying to kill you and the only way to graduate is to survive a hall full of wizard eating monsters. Everyone spends their time collecting the best spells and items and making alliances.
I really enjoyed this. I wasn't sure if it was going to end up being a bit 'Harry Potter for grownups' but it's fun, and dark and has a really interesting world and magic system. The two main characters are a bit unlikable in completely different ways (as are a lot of the other characters) and it made for some really fun interactions between them and everyone else. It was really interesting to see how the characters behaved in a world where being out for yourself was the norm and the idea of 'the greater good' was dangerous and possibly harmful to others.
I had a good idea of where the plot and characters were heading about halfway in but it didn't spoil the rest of the book as that often can.
I'm hoping that there will be a sequel.

A magical school unlike any other, where there are no teachers, no rules, no parents, sounds great, doesn't it?

Oh, did I forget to mention the cliques that could literally spell life or death if you don't get invited to join? Or the fact that once in the school you can't leave until graduation (which is an event that makes 'The Hunger Games' a walk in the park), and the fact that there are monsters lurking down every dark corridor, waiting to enter your nightmares or maybe even pop out of the book you are reading.

Galadriel, or El, is the prickly social misfit with a secret or two is navigating her way through the school. Determined not to give in to the lure of dark magic or let her defences down and make friends she is forced to reassess her prejudices when she is targetted by one of the more privileged students. Woven into the plot are themes that examine power and social hierarchy, diversity and injustice, peer pressure and self-esteem. It's cleverly done and El is a fantastic MC that I really liked.

There's a brilliant cliff hanger of an ending and I'm really looking forward to the next installment.

My thanks go to the publishers and Netgalley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

This is a fun read that is a mash-up of Harry Potter (and the magic school genre), Mean Girls for the wonderfully snarky El, and books like The Hunger Games/Divergent. I first came to Novik via her Temeraire books which I love (love!) but I'd say this is very different: it doesn't have the same depth of characterisation or the solid historical foundation that made those books so addictive - this new world floats in the 'void' which means that students have read 'Lord of the Flies', say, and generally speak English so it's more or less a generic fantasy world with contemporary overtones.

This definitely feels like the opener in a planned series: there's lots of scene-setting and laying out of information that the reader needs to orient themselves. At times these info-bulletins hold up the action and are even placed mid-speech: at 80%, for example, just as someone is about to unfold a dastardly plan, the narrative stops for 3 pages to explain the absence/presence of academic ranking boards... There is also a... not quite cliff-hanger ending, but one which is designed to overturn what has developed in this book in preparation for the next.

For me, this feels YA - it's fun, especially the narrative voice, so if you fancy a darker Hogwarts with a snarky, sparky female lead then go for it!

A Deadly Education is a well written story, as a fantasy reader, I loved to falling deep into its pages. Secrets, magic, romance, and surprises make this a great start to the beginning of a new series. There is plenty of breathtaking action full of plot twists.

The story of Galadriel, Orion, their classmates, and makeshift alliances pulls you deep into this young adult fantasy. The world A Deadly Education takes place in is easily built around the reader as you flip through the pages. No detail is left out as the main character does a great job of explaining every situation. There’s almost too much explanation for my liking. While I am one to appreciate background detail I found myself skimming through pages waiting for the story to pick back up again. Once it did I was immediately drawn back into the

This was the first book in the series and while I did feel it dragged on in a few spots, I find myself intrigued to see what happens next for Galadriel & Orion.

Uprooted may be my favourite book by Novik but this is a very close 2nd and one that I know I will enjoy again and again. I love the character El that is sassy, violent and trying to stay as untainted as humanly possible even though it would be so easy to turn dark for her. I love that the male lead is more of a bumbling hero than the ultra-perfect alpha male type guy that a lot of books use (nothing wrong with them but this is just refreshing). I love how it doesn't centre around a relationship and is more about how El plans to survive and the dangers they have to face daily to survive and graduate.

I didn't like the cliffhanger but it was more because I knew I would have to wait forever for the next to come out!

This is my first Naomi Novik book and I got super intrigued by the premise as soon as I heard it. But the book itself fell short of my expectations although the world Novik came up with is fascinating.

Deadly Education has the setting of a magical school where there’s no teacher and no guarantee you will make it out alive to graduation. The world in this book is brilliant but also very complex and Novik does dump a lot of information on us from the get go and I’m not gonna lie, I was very confused for the first 20% of the book. Names of creatures and such are thrown out like I’m supposed to know what it all means right away but it takes a bit of time and more story to really grasp it all - once you do, totally worth it though!

I liked our MC, Galadriel, enough as well as the side characters. The main love interest was a bit meh and the chemistry between him and Galadriel is a bit of a strange one to be honest but I could end up rooting for them depending on how it evolves in the sequel.

The story in itself was okay - I liked certain parts and was indifferent to others. I was disappointed by the ending as I imagined something bigger but I can’t hold it against Novik as it is only the first book in a series and she therefore needs to keep the more exciting stuff for later.

To conclude I can say I enjoyed Deadly Education but expected more from it and was left a bit disappointed. I will probably continue on with the series as I really want to see what Novik decides to do with some elements revealed in this first instalment.

A Deadly Education captured my imagination right from the start. I loved the premise of a more deadly kind of magical school, and El came across well as a character. I felt an instant affinity for her and became caught up in her story, wondering how things would turn out. The pacing of the book was nicely handled, with plenty of action and adventure propelling the story forward, alongside good development of the principal characters. The world building was beautifully realised without unnecessary info dumping, and I appreciated the subtle twist at the end that left me keen to know what would happen next. Fans of Novik's writing will definitely love this new work, and anyone who enjoys magical adventures in a school setting, with a dark twist, should also check it out. A solid 4.5 stars from me.

A totally immersive and thrilling read. Exactly what I would expect from Naomi and a great start to a new series.

This book was one of my top 5 most anticipated of the year. I was so ready to love it. After all, this is the same author who wrote one of my favourite books, Spinning Silver.
The amount of thought and care that went into the worldbuilding is exceptional and was, undoubtedly, where this book shined. However, the explanations needed to know what was going on where dumped paragraphs upon paragraphs throughout the whole book, which made it tedious for me, as the reader.
There was just so much information that actions were constantly being interrupted. Not that a lot was happening. I found the plot lacking. It felt like you were only reading about the world and not the characters. And that combination made me bored at the start. But, after knowing more about the characters, and getting a grasp on how the school worked, I became wholly invested in the story.
I was surprised to find that this book was indeed YA and not adult, like her other works. The setting was a magical school, not a university, which wasn't what I expected. Also, even though the main character, El, meets the love interest at the beginning, nothing happened until the last chapter. But, it's set up very well for the next book (*fingers crossed*).
It saddens me that this could have been a new favourite if the info-dumping wasn't so severe. A category I still hope the sequels will reach, because I'm hugely excited for them after THAT cliffhanger.

absolutely loved this! This is about how our heroine’s life goes through a total turn about in the space of a year. The setting of the school was so well thought out and absolutely nothing like Hogwarts! El (Galadriel) is a girl I thoroughly empathised with from the beginning, although I’m not sure what that says about me! Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

This was my first time reading anything by Naomi Novik and I was pleasantly surprised. The concept of this book was so interesting to me and I think Novik executed it quite well. It was a refreshing take on the magic school concept which made it very enjoyable for me.

The pacing of the book was a bit of an issue for me as I felt like the explanations the author would make in the middle of a scene to give us some backstory kind of took me out of the scene and by the time I was back in the present I forgot some of what was going on. With that being said, it was nice to be given such an extensive knowledge of the world to completely understand what was happening.

I'm looking forward to continuing with the series and seeing where Novik goes with the story. I would definitely recommend reading this book.

With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley.

I absolutely loved this book and read it in two sessions, only because at 2am I was too tired to stay awake!

It has everything I enjoyed in Uprooted and Spinning Silver; a fast pace, fantastic world building, characters that I’d like to know and a conclusion that leaves me more wanting more because I don’t want the story to have ended. I’m so glad that this is book 1 in the Scholomance
series and I’ll be waiting eagerly for the next book in the series.

El is in her second to last year at the Scholomance; a loner, desperately trying to work out how to make a strong enough alliance to survive graduation, and even, how to survive the monsters infesting the school until then. It makes for riveting reading (the same as Uprooted and Spinning Silver) and the characters and story will continue to resonate long after the story is finished.

4-4.5 stars

I’m a bit dithery over that rating, take it as 4.25 if that helps! I just about devoured this book whenever I could and it made for tasty reading. The Scholomance was a school like you’ve never imagined, a school trying to kill its pupils with brimming magic, a void and tonnes of deadly creatures.

This was a witty read and that really surprised me. We’ve definitely seen shades of Novik’s sarcastic humour through Uprooted but this story had a lighter, laugh-out-loudness to it. I thought the whole concept of The Scholomance (the boarding school for wizards) was unique. Add to that the snarkiest heroine I’ve read in a while in Galadriel (El) and it was hard for this book to put a foot wrong.

"When I want to straighten my room, I get instructions on how to kill it with fire."

Odd right? Spells didn’t flow in the expected way for her, but Galadriel was not a conventional wizard by Scholomance pupil standards, she was quietly and covertly exceptional. I loved reading about her systems, her talents and the languages she was studying. Most of all, I enjoyed reading her growth in friendships. El was almost made perfect with her use of British swears. I can say that Novik wrote a Brit (she was actually Welsh) particularly well.

The begrudging friendship/white knight (not needed) in Orion made for hilarity and chuckling. It was hard not to like Orion despite his saviour complex but there’s definitely more to unpack with him and I’m so glad we hopefully get to do that in the next book.

“You know, it’s almost impressive,” he said after a moment, sounding less wobbly. “You’re nearly dead and you’re still the rudest person I’ve ever met.”

The heirarchies in the school were something else and the void was just nausea-inducing to me. This truly was the school of nightmares and I wouldn’t last more than a minute in there! I simply cannot wait for the next instalment. And so I leave you with my favourite line (kudos to Jane Eyre here).

"Reader, I ran the fuck away."

Thank you to Cornerstone/Random House for the early review copy.