A Deadly Education Review
I was supposed to do an Illumicrate unboxing today, but that just seemed like so much work. So instead I’m posting my A Deadly Education Review, which was supposed to go up on Friday. Let’s jump in!
Read my House of Hollow Review here!
Title: A Deadly Education
Author: Naomi Novik
Rating: 4 Stars
CAWPILE: 8/10
Genre: Fantasy, YA
Content Warnings: Assault, attempted murder, violence, death
Format: Audiobook
Publisher: Del Ray Books
Date Published: September 29th 2020
Goodreads Description: A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) — until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets.
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 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.
I received a review copy from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
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A Deadly Education Review
I wasn’t sure if I was going to read this book. It’s been on my Netgalley shelf for a LONG time. At some point, it was one of my most anticipated books. Then the early reviews started coming out and I decided to give it some time. The book faced a lot of backlash (check this thread here for a summary). Now I’ve finally read it and I am ready to give my own thoughts on this turbulent book.
However, I am not an own-voices reviewer for any of the identities in this book. Which is why I will point you to own-voices reviews here and here.
Characters – 8/10
I really like El. She’s angry and a badass and she wants to burn the world down. I love her, and I love her anger (because she fucking deserves to be mad). She reminds me a bit of Rin from The Poppy War. Her journey throughout this book really kept me reading and I love the person she became at the end.
Orion Lake is basically a golden retriever. While it’s not my usual type of fictional man, I liked him. His personality really works well with El’s and I loved their dynamic. I would like to get to know him better, as we mainly get to know him through other people. I think most of the other side characters are well rounded.
Aadhya and El’s friendship is also really sweet. I hope we get more of it.
Atmosphere – 9/10
The Scholomance is both a place I want to go to and a place I want to avoid. I really loved the worldbuilding. It’s what pulled me into this book in the first place. The idea of a scholomance is fascinating, it’s almost like the school is a character on its own. I just love the lore and the way the school functions.
Writing – 7/10
I listened to the audiobook of this and I think that made the book much easier to digest. The writing style is very conversational, and El often veers off into tangents. The audiobook makes those tangents easier to follow. The writing isn’t bad, but I can see how some people can hate it. I personally enjoyed it.
Plot – 7/10
The plot is actually fairly simple, but it does tackle one main issue: class disparity. And I liked how it was handled. I would like El to smash the whole system.
I don’t think fantasy books need to tackle every single real-world issue at the same time. It’s impossible and authors are only human. Also, this is a fantasy book (not real). Novik gets a lot of criticism for not tackling other issues, but she would have gotten criticism either way. I liked the diversity in this book, and that’s okay. I enjoyed reading about kids from Johannesburg, even if just in passing since we’re hardly mentioned in anything.
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Intrigue – 8/10
At some point, the whole “everything in this school is trying to kill us” vibe got old and I got desensitized to it. Novik did a good job of escalating the conflict as the book goes on. I really enjoyed the ending of this book and I’m excited to see where the series goes.
Logic – 9/10
The magic system in this book is AMAZING. It’s so simple yet so creative. I think it’s one of the best magic system’s I’ve encountered. I love hard magic systems with rules and consequences, and we really FEEL those rules and consequences in this book. Read this book for the magic system alone.
Enjoyment – 8/10
There are a few things I didn’t mention in my review, that I’ll point you to other reviewers for. This review also gives a nice overview of all the criticisms A Deadly Education faced. I highly suggest checking it out.
I will say that it’s not for me to decide how you see a book. While I enjoyed this, I know many people didn’t. I’d suggest reading this book and forming your own opinion.
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Sounds like a book that stirs intense emotions that people either love or hate, I tend to love those 😉
I really enjoyed the first book, but a little skeptical about the second one. Have seen a lot of mixed reviews…
I’m definitely going to give the second book a try to see what happens.
A Deadly Education sounds like it may have some controversial issue.
Very glad that you gave this a good shot. Sometimes it’s hard to read out of our comfort zone but it sometimes really pays off.