Reviews with content warning for Confinement - A Deadly Education

I loved this book! The protagonist is from Wales (like me) so massive bonus. Her inner thoughts and dark humour had me laughing throughout, despite the challenging and often scary situations she was in. A must read for lovers of dark academia and school settings.

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nutm3g's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A quick way to describe A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik would be to say it is like Harry Potter meets The Magicians meets Deadly Class. The students are all fighting to stay alive till graduation day (and especially make it through that day) whether it be from themselves, fellow students turned dark, the mal creeping in, and even the magic they are learning. There is a great sense of wrongness with how there are enclaves, and how the world and school itself was designed with them in mind at the sacrifice of those with the unfortunate luck of being born into nothing. The friendships are developed well, considering the Scholomance is not a place where trust is taken lightly.

**POSSIBLE SPOILERS** It was very interesting how it starts off letting us know El is evil-inclined (regardless of if she wants to be) and with a foreboding prophecy about her supposed destruction, but as the story unfolds you begin to see that she is very much a hero and that her fate may be leaning more towards salvation for the disenfranchised magic-wielders.

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foreverinastory's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I'm still debating my rating because there was an overtly racist statement, which has been addressed by the author and changed for future printings, but I still don't like that it hasn't been updated in the audiobook. Plus besides that I was still so confused by the whole premise of this book, like why would anyone want to go to this school??

Rep: Indian female MC. Various students from all over the world. I wish I could be more specific but I already forgot everyone...

CWs: Blood, bullying, child death, confinement, death, fire, injury/injury detail, gore, toxic friendship (of side character), violence. Moderate: Addiction, drug use and abuse by side character, murder.

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