Enter a school of magic unlike any you have ever encountered: There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won't allow its students to leave until they graduate . . . or die. The rules are deceptively simple: Don't walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere. El is uniquely prepared for the school's dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out untold millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students. So El is trying her hardest not to use her power . . . at least not until she has no other option. Meanwhile, her fellow student, …
Enter a school of magic unlike any you have ever encountered: There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won't allow its students to leave until they graduate . . . or die. The rules are deceptively simple: Don't walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere. El is uniquely prepared for the school's dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out untold millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students. So El is trying her hardest not to use her power . . . at least not until she has no other option. Meanwhile, her fellow student, the insufferable Orion Lake, is making heroism look like a breeze. He's saved hundreds of lives--including El's - with his flashy combat magic. But in the spring of their junior year, after Orion rescues El for the second time and makes her look like more of an outcast than she already is, she reaches an impulsive conclusion: Orion Lake must die. But El is about to learn some lessons she never could in the classroom: About the school. About Orion Lake. And about who she really is.
Take a basic adolescent novel about fitting in, friendship and crushes and then make all of that real: if you don't have any friends, you will literally be eaten by monsters. If the golden boy reciprocates his crush on you, it will literally save your life. That's the premise of Deadly Education and it's kind of a fascinating one.
I think Novik's characters were well-developed, especially to explore the way that adolescence can feel so life-or-death. Sometimes school fantasy can feel twee, but I felt like Novik's monsters felt real, serious threats and this was done well.
A lot of reviewers complained reasonably that the worldbuilding is pretty unbelievable at times, but I was having too much fun to notice.
I loved the big gimmick underlying the whole book: the protagonist has the talents and affinities to be the most powerful and destructive necromancer of her generation - there’s even prophecies about her! - but she was raised by pacifist hippies and works incredibly hard not to accidentally incinerate or mind-control her classmates, building power not by sacrificing animals but through push-ups and crochet.
4.5 Snarky Hopepunk masquerading as Grimdark. Novik paints her most realistic characters in a horribly twisted world that isn't so different from ours on a deeper level. The pacing is great and never seems too hurried or too slow. The school is fascinating if ghastly and the spell-casting is quite original.
There are few real complaints to make. I could have done with a little more in the way of physical description. Even though it's mentioned a couple of times that everybody wears ratty mundane clothing it doesn't really feel like that until later in the book. There is also relatively little architectural detail, unless it becomes really important. The final twist, while certainly effective, is a little clichéd. And of course, the two main characters are both loners with huge heapings of magical ability, but yeah, what did you except when the school is literally trying to get you …
4.5 Snarky Hopepunk masquerading as Grimdark. Novik paints her most realistic characters in a horribly twisted world that isn't so different from ours on a deeper level. The pacing is great and never seems too hurried or too slow. The school is fascinating if ghastly and the spell-casting is quite original.
There are few real complaints to make. I could have done with a little more in the way of physical description. Even though it's mentioned a couple of times that everybody wears ratty mundane clothing it doesn't really feel like that until later in the book. There is also relatively little architectural detail, unless it becomes really important. The final twist, while certainly effective, is a little clichéd. And of course, the two main characters are both loners with huge heapings of magical ability, but yeah, what did you except when the school is literally trying to get you killed?
Can't wait for the next volume. Fingers crossed that it's not going to turn into a hetero romance. Friendship for the win!
I've read Uprooted and Spinning Silver and liked those a lot, but this book really clanged for me. I almost gave up on it a few times, but persisted through to the end and found it to be mostly okay. It's a pretty interesting concept for a book (I didn't realize until I was finished that the Scholomance is from folklore) and I could imagine the next book being ok, but I can also imagine that I might not bother reading it.
There is a lot that I liked (and that I think people who've enjoyed Novik's previous books will enjoy) -- she writes characters with strong chemistry, the pacing is excellent, the world-building is super interesting. I think the does an impressive job of writing an angsty teen character and a romance based on being kind of mean in, which normally I would find unbearable.
But there are so many things in the plot that just... don't make sense. It really bothered me! I wasn't wild about the gotcha at the end that sets up the sequel either.
Turns out I'll read pretty much anything that Naomi Novik writes, the way that she talks about class, acceptance, and the value of relationships (especially as a parent). All those things snuck up on me in the course of this book. Looking forward to the next one(s) being released.
A UK based school of magic, but with a much darker twist than Hogwarts. In this version of our world, children who develop magic as they enter their teens become targets for the dark monsters that need to feed on magic, and magical children are a tasty magic-filled snack that hasn't yet learned to defend itself. Adult magic-users band together into powerful Enclaves to keep each other safe. And any children identified as developing magic are placed into the Scholomance, a magical school slightly outside of the real world where they either learn self-defense skills or die trying. Only 1 in 4 students survive to graduation (but their chances would be only 1 in 20 if not taken into the Scholomance) so they are all EXTREMELY focused on survival.
The book is told from the point of view of El, aka Galadriel, daughter of a hippie mother specializing in healing …
A UK based school of magic, but with a much darker twist than Hogwarts. In this version of our world, children who develop magic as they enter their teens become targets for the dark monsters that need to feed on magic, and magical children are a tasty magic-filled snack that hasn't yet learned to defend itself. Adult magic-users band together into powerful Enclaves to keep each other safe. And any children identified as developing magic are placed into the Scholomance, a magical school slightly outside of the real world where they either learn self-defense skills or die trying. Only 1 in 4 students survive to graduation (but their chances would be only 1 in 20 if not taken into the Scholomance) so they are all EXTREMELY focused on survival.
The book is told from the point of view of El, aka Galadriel, daughter of a hippie mother specializing in healing magic and crystals, who rejected the enclaves and raised her in a yurt in a Welsh commune. El, in contrast, has an affinity for spells of mass destruction and has to spend much of her concentration trying to NOT accidentally invent spells for mass plagues and genocides. The book follows through her second-to-last year at the Scholomance, as she's trying to navigate politics, lack of friends, and unexpected threats to the school's entire existence.
Although the story wraps up satisfactorily there's clearly the intent of a sequel to come for El's final year.
I enjoyed this book a lot, and it wasn't until coming to Goodreads to write a review that I learned there's apparently been a bit of a twitter tempest about some racist stereotypes used in the book. The author clearly did make a deliberate effort to make the school extremely multicultural, and El herself is biracial. Apparently, she made some errors in the attempt. Apparently she has apologized and future editions will be released with some edits: www.naominovik.com/apology/ Reading the reviews written by BIPOC they seem divided; some find some passages offensive, others are forgiving of unintended microagressions created through the intention of being inclusive. Not being an expert I won't try to issue a judgement, just calling out that it's something to be aware of and decide for yourself if you decide to pick this book up. I certainly enjoyed the book a lot outside those issues and would have given it 5 stars otherwise; hopefully Novik will use some sensitivity readers for the sequel and avoid any future issues!
This was fantastic and I enjoyed every minute of it. The setting is tense and scary without being nightmare-inducing, the characters end up being liked despite not being a priori likeable, and that world building is :chef-kiss:. Loved it.
I loved the characters and the whole concept of the Scholomance. It doesn't feel as polished as her last two books, some info dumping here and there and occasional clunky sentences (perhaps editing fell foul of the mal that is 2020).
Particularly liked the idea of someone who doesn't fit in, not suddenly having their life transformed by going to a magical school. El struggles to be liked,is prickly for a reason, and her progress is all that more rewarding.
