Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

31 reviews

readwithria's review

dark funny mysterious fast-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

4.5

*review from 2022 reread*

A Deadly Education is full of magic, monsters, and mayhem. It’s smart, funny, and full of interesting world building and politicking.

I love this book so much. How Novik fits the magic into the world is so interesting, and how the school works makes it feel like another world entirely. 

The characters are so fun, and everyone is so smart and so good at what they do. El is such a snarky MC, I love getting to see through her eyes and understand her worldview. Aadhya and Liu are such great friends (as far as friends go in the Scholomance) and Orion is such a lovably dummy. The whole cast of characters feel fleshed out and have real wants and needs that make the stakes feel even higher.

This book goes by fast, the first 250 pages is about two weeks and the next week goes by in barely 50 pages, but so much happens. I almost wish the timespan had been a bit longer, but I completely understand why it wasn’t. The chapters are also a bit long, this 313 page book only has 13 chapters in it! But I read this book in a day, and I couldn’t put it down. 4.5 stars (up from 4 on my first read, though it’s possible I wasn’t using the partial star system yet).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Gore

Moderate: Cursing, Violence, Classism, and Blood

Minor: Vomit, Death, Death of parent, Child death, Colonisation, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

emmahe's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny tense fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Gore, Medical content, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Death of parent

nixieba25f's review

adventurous dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Xenophobia

keen's review

adventurous dark funny tense medium-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

3.5

So I came into this story excited... then less excited after hearing a lot of warnings about poor handling of races. I try to avoid most information about a book before I read it, only focusing on the plot and overall like/dislike ratio of a book. Learning about the controversy, unfortunately, made me focus more on it as I read, unable to focus on the book for what I thought about it.

But first, let's focus on my general feelings of the book, I found it enjoyable. It was slow at first, and for a bit I went to read some other books before speeding through it. I enjoyed the main characters, Galadriel, for being this snarky "I'm not like other girls" teenager. Surprisingly. Usually I hate those types of characters. The real fun of it came from how it contrasted the world she's in: a school that wants to kill her and she's responding to it nonchalantly. Thankfully, that doesn't stick throughout the story. It is made clear that her snark isn't healthy. It's also made clear that her school life is giving her some serious trauma that she has gotten "comfortable" with.

I'm not a fan of teenage romances. I'm not a fan of misunderstandings either. Surprisingly, I didn't have an issue with either here. The romance isn't really a romance, just a misunderstanding everyone outside of it. It's not focused on more than it needs to be either. It has a purpose in the plot and character development, which I appreciate.

Now, to get to my comments on the controversies. Honestly, I didn't have any issues with the book. I can only speak as a black person, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, because there's A LOT of cultures mixing in this book. Children from all over the world are sent to this school, and the author makes sure you remember that. 

My Kindle version was updated, so there's no mentions of the dreadlocks passage that many were unhappy about. I found a passage of the book on Google, which I can both see and can't see the issue with. The safety of how you style your hair is a cause for concern in the setting. If your hair is long, it's easier for the monsters to grab onto it as an advantage. As such, hair of all kinds is cut short, and materials to do so are valued. Hygiene problems are an issue every character in this book faces, because the school is not set up well for that. HOWEVER, if that wasn't expanded on, it is weird to focus on dreadlocks as being an issue instead of long hair in general.

I also heard of criticism over the main character not being in touch with her Indian heritage. Which is... weird? There's a whole backstory to why that's the case, but even so, plenty of people aren't in touch with their heritage for all sorts of reasons. It honestly offends me to hear a complaint that boils down to "She's not X enough," which is something I've struggled with in my life. I'm a black person, but I've been told I don't "act black," as if there's a defining way to act black. Additionally, I avoid my Jamaican heritage because that's from my dad's side and it has negative memories for me, similar to Galadriel's trouble with the Indian side of her family.

Aside from that, I can't actually comment on how well other races are described in the book. Truly, the worst part was a black girl with beaded braids. It reminded me of the kind I had when I was a kid, and how I got a concussion every time I moved my head even an inch. Shame on you, Naomi Novik, for resurfacing such a painful memory. (This is all a joke.)

For a better explanation on how I viewed the book, this post from Reddit was lovely: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/j8o7om/so_naomi_noviks_a_deadly_education_is_accused_of/

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Violence, Death, Murder, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Bullying, and Body horror

Moderate: Vomit and Racism

Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, and Cursing

ruuntvoces's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Violence

Moderate: Murder and Bullying

Minor: Animal cruelty and Racism

dana_kuku's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child death, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Murder, and Physical abuse

Minor: Death of parent, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexual violence, Slavery, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

anglophobeonthemoon's review

dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Death and Bullying

Minor: Racism, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

very dark magic school, kind of scary, but not excessively in the context of the story imo

rfleming's review

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

A monster attack is described in a way that makes it analogous to sexual assault.

nerdybirdy101's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

3.5

The idea behind this book is fabulous dark academia in a magical world, but I do not think that it was presented in the best manner. I think the author needed to definitely have this book be reviewed more by the people she was representing. You could definitely tell that there were many scenes that were written as a white woman’s interpretation and not necessarily as what a person of color would see. I agree with the ‘controversy’  when this first book came out and that the author needed to do better. I think it is weird that the book had different enclaves of the students from the different regions, but that most (if not all) of the enclaves were stereotypically white areas. The students left out of the enclaves were the ‘undesirables’ and at least from the viewpoint we receive from the main character are people of color. If the author was using this as a way to break the mold and have an uprising to change the system, then cool do that. It seems like the author is not trying to do that, but I will withhold judgment until the series is completed. I give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars because the writing style is good, the magical proponents are fine, but the racial and ethnic representation is horrible.

Now I like the idea of an aggressive young lady and a chivalrous young man, I liked how the characteristics of the two ‘heroes’ were contrasting and somewhat went against gender norms. It was established in a nice way, where they were enemies and became friendly if not lovers. I am curious to see how the relationship goes.

MY PREDICTIONS FOR THE NEXT BOOK:

I have predictions for the next book. I think that El and Orion are going to become more of a couple where they either mirror El’s parent’s fate exactly or that Orion will die and El becomes a death machine in her grief. It would explain the warning that El received to stay away from Orion because someone knows more about the prophecy about El. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Animal death, Violence, Animal cruelty, and Cursing

Moderate: Bullying

angelareads's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Amazing book! Info-dumpy at the beginning, though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying and Vomit

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide