Reviews with content warning for Violence - A Deadly Education

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

223 reviews

blewballoon's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I had been sitting on this book for a long time and finally decided to read it. I ended up doing the audiobook, and I think the narrator did very well.

This book is quite exposition heavy, but the exposition is in the main character's voice so you get a bit of flavor of their personality along with the info dumps. Sometimes it felt like the story would come to a halt for some fairly irrelevant exposition, while other times the story would plunge along and I felt like I didn't have context to fully understand what was happening. It's a bit of an exhausting story because the Scholomance is such an exhausting place to live. There are monsters, school rules, and complex social hierarchies that make every action and every conversation loaded with potential repercussions, and all of those things constantly need explaining.

All that being said, I did enjoy this book. The main character was a lot more likable than I expected from the blurb, and there were some interesting supporting characters as well. As a character driven reader, these characters worked for me and carried me through the book. I am not sure if I will pick up the rest of the series or not, though.

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scarlett_f's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad 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

3.5

Takes 2/3rds of the book to get to any real story or action. Too much detail-building. Maps of the school and cross-sections are at the end of the book. Should've been at the beginning for better understanding of the layout. Strong female protagonist.

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clairelikesbooks95's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Very fun! But dear god what a lot of exposition. It was disguised in the sassy internal monologue of the MC, but you can’t fool me, Naomi!

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alyssaakdefusco's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I think the idea of the book is interesting, but there was so much world building that had to happen in this first book of the series that I found pretty tough to get through. And everything is so terrible that the characters have to go through. No delightful magic, just a version of Harry Potter where everything is terrible and everyone is probably going to die. Not my favorite. But I did get caught up in the more action -packed scenes towards the end enough to keep me going!

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