A Deadly Education

I read all three books in Naomi Novik's Scholomance trilogy this year (A Deadly Education is the first). I was drawn in by the wonderfully sarcastic protagonist, Galadriel (El). She's determined to remain good despite her immense aptitude towards becoming a dark and powerful sorceress in the 'all shall love me and despair' vein, but that doesn't mean she has to suffer fools gladly. And I was kept immersed by the Scholomance itself - a school for magical children that kills a good percentage of them - as well as a plot that, as it unfolded over the three books,… show more.

These days, there is no shortage of books set in magic schools. What drew my attention to this one was that the premise is almost entirely different from that of the typical volume in this subgenre.

The students don’t really go there for magic instruction. In fact, there are no teachers. The school itself has ways of pushing students to work and study. No, the real purpose of the school is to keep students safe from a world full of maleficaria (mals)—creatures who feed on mana (magic energy) and go after young wizards because they are more vulnerable.

I also… show more.

Naomi Novak could write anything, and I would read it, but I am a sucker for dark academia.

Well, this one takes the cake with a school that is actively trying to kill the students. While this book is pretty dark in parts, it was the instances of light that really kept me reading the entire series.

There were many times I wasn’t sure where it would lead, but I was never disappointed by what I discovered.

A Deadly Education is the first novel in Naomi Novik's Scholomance trilogy, set at a dangerous school for magic where the students are lucky to survive, let alone graduate (I've described it as "Hogwarts, but a meat grinder").

Main character Galadriel "El" Higgins has a knack for indescribably horrific death magic, and is prophesied to be a destroyer of worlds... but she really doesn’t want to fulfill that destiny, and works hard to stay on the right side of the line between good and evil.

Then there's this boy, Orion Lake, who is everything a "hero" should be, and wow,… show more.

This fantasy novel is set in the Scholomance, a magical school where teenage students are very likely to die as they try to complete their education.

But even though it’s fantasy, it has a lot to say about how hierarchies in schools hurt everybody – whether you’re the ‘gifted’ student who has to hide their powers for fear of vicious bullying, the working-class student whom everyone looks down on, or the ‘stupid’ student who is also socially ostracised.

El, our sarcastic Welsh-Indian narrator, hates her peers, but she hates herself even more, as she tries to grapple with the inherent… show more.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this fantasy novel at first. It’s the first in a trilogy, and all I knew going in was that it was a magical school story that was sort of in dialogue with Harry Potter.

I found that hidden beneath a deceptively simple set-up of Hogwarts meets The Hunger Games is a novel that made me think about social responsibility, climate change, and class. I came in looking for a fun read, and I got it, but it was also thought-provoking and nuanced in ways I wasn’t expecting.

On top of that, it… show more.

"I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life."

The first line of A Deadly Education lets the reader know the world inside its pages is dangerous and dark. The protagonist, El, would just as likely stab you in the back (literally) as accept offered help she won't be gracious about receiving. Her attitude isn't even her fault.

As an unpopular outsider in the school of magic where alliances are the key to survival, El is vulnerable, and she knows it.

A Deadly Education is original and smart, with a protagonist you'll root… show more.

While this is the first book in the trilogy, I am, perhaps cheekily, talking about the entire trilogy because I devoured this story so quickly I can barely separate the books in my head.

A magical school for wizards, but Harry Potter this is not. In Naomi Novik’s world, young mages are sent for four years to the Scholomance, to protect them from the monsters, or “mals” that want to eat them for the mana that all sorcerers use. El, a student in her junior year with no friends, has been used to being an outcast since her family rejected her after her great-great-grandmother prophesied she’d become an evil malificer and bring about the destruction of wizarding society. I love how El, snarky and spiky, fights hard to prove everyone wrong while still worrying… show more.

I’m obsessed with Naomi Novik’s books, and it was tough to choose which one to recommend for this topic. A Deadly Education fits the bill because its heroine, El, has the potential to become a terrifying dark sorceress, but she puts tremendous effort into resisting her destiny. She finds ways to use her knack for destruction to save the world instead of annihilating it. A prickly, difficult person, El speaks in an honest and often hilarious voice as she grapples with the complications and inequalities of her world. Bonus: the book is set in a magic school that’s literally trying… show more.