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A review by lennie_reads
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Thanks to NetGalley and Del Ray for my Arc in exchange for an honest review.
Ok so first off let me just say that this school is utterly horrible. I know that's the point but it cannot be said enough.
Monsters that want to eat teens, a school with no teachers or safety, no proper friends, potentially tainted food, no contact with the outside world, only being able to bring what's on your person to the school when you're 13 and then of you want more stuff you have to try and make or trade items.
Not being able to go to bathroom alone so just not washing often. Having one wall of your room be the Void.
In one instance, Galadriel (El) vomits into the void and from then on all I could think was - Do they poop in the void as well? Like, if you need to go to the bathroom in packs and a lot of people, El included, are often alone, when would you be able to go to the toilet?
Anyway...
We follow Galadriel (El) as she's in her penultimate year of The Scholomance; she has no friends, 2 t-shirts, world ending powers and a knack for languages. She's a sarcastic cow and I genuinely found her very funny; she's pragmatic, clever, stubborn, ruthless and only cares about survival.
One night, Orion, the resident 'hero' of the school, saves her from a Mal (monster) and she is furious as she believes it'll make her look weak. Everyone in the school has an affinity for different types of magic and his is killing mals, so he kind of can't help himself. They eventually form a prickly alliance after El is attacked by another student and because of her connection to the beloved Orion, things start to look up for her.
In their world, one of the main ways to survive is to become part of an enclave (a group of magicians who live together for protection) and lots of large cities around the world have them - this kind of reminded me of Shadow Hunters because two of the main ones are London and New York but there are a lot more, even in the UK so it's not your typical Western Centric fantasy academy. Orion comes from the New York enclave but as we learn more about him, it's clear that his only true friend is El.
I loved the relationship between El and Orion, that coupled with her humour were definitely some of my favourite parts of this book. I also really enjoyed El trying to make friends.
In this world there are two main way to create energy for magic (Malia and Mana) Malia is kind of evil as you take others life force for magic whereas Mana is more honest like doing things that create energy (and you can sometimes store) e.g. exercise, crocheting, welding etc.
I also really like the fact that at this school you have to be able to build things in the workshop and are assigned objects to make on a regular basis, based on your powers. This aspect especially really reminded me of The University in The Name of The Wind too.
Now, the first two chapters of this book are HUGE info dumps and this school is very complicatedly horrible so there are a lot of world building facts often dumped by the MC when something relevant happens but I think if you can get through the first few chapters you'll be fine!
However, I do have some critiques.
I know Naomi has already issued an apology and is planning on removing this passage about Loc Leeches but because I had an arc it was still there. Now, there's a Lot of horrible things on this school - it's truly awful. And there were a lot of random tidbits of information thrown in but this felt so off kilter, especially for a school that's meant to be international, if theses mals (monsters) were going to burrow into hair, why would it specifically be locs (dreadlocks) that they chose? It doesn't make any sense and was clearly not thought through at all.
I also feel that this book suffers a bit from the fact that the author is white and is trying to write a mixed indian MC. And because the MC only mentions it a couple of times, mainly in relation to her backstory I genuinely kept forgetting.
And I knowww in this horror show of a school you've got other things on your mind but I think that certain perspectives can come from being mixed race and these weren't highlighted nearly enough. There is one part where she mentions that she feels out of place in Wales but not in India and that's pretty much it. But also because she's magic and prophecised to lay waste and sorrow to the world and has an aura that makes people miserable, that could also be why she has no friends. However, I'm not mixed race and I know there is a lot of diaspora for mixed race people so it's not my place to say whether this is 'authentic' or not.
And lastly, I don't necessarily think it was intentional but this book suffers massively from ableism. As I've mentioned (REPEATEDLY) this school is awful, there are monsters everywhere and you're constantly trying to not be killed - because of this you cannot be ill or you'll die. In one instance El gets stabbed and still goes to classes because otherwise the mals will get her. And yes, obviously in a school where survival is low anyway, the strong are more likely to survive but it just annoyed me. I don't suffer from any chronic illnesses but I'm often poorly (migraines, stomach issues, low blood pressure etc etc) and it just felt like a bit of an 'eff you' - if you're going to be poorly, you're going to die.
Also the fact that there are no teachers and it's never really explained why so there's no one to help when things go wrong.
I genuinely did enjoy this book and the characters however I hate the Scholomance with a passion. And also the (kind of) cliffhanger ending!!
I'm going to choose to believe that there's been a miscommunication but we'll see!
Ok so first off let me just say that this school is utterly horrible. I know that's the point but it cannot be said enough.
Monsters that want to eat teens, a school with no teachers or safety, no proper friends, potentially tainted food, no contact with the outside world, only being able to bring what's on your person to the school when you're 13 and then of you want more stuff you have to try and make or trade items.
Not being able to go to bathroom alone so just not washing often. Having one wall of your room be the Void.
In one instance, Galadriel (El) vomits into the void and from then on all I could think was - Do they poop in the void as well? Like, if you need to go to the bathroom in packs and a lot of people, El included, are often alone, when would you be able to go to the toilet?
Anyway...
We follow Galadriel (El) as she's in her penultimate year of The Scholomance; she has no friends, 2 t-shirts, world ending powers and a knack for languages. She's a sarcastic cow and I genuinely found her very funny; she's pragmatic, clever, stubborn, ruthless and only cares about survival.
One night, Orion, the resident 'hero' of the school, saves her from a Mal (monster) and she is furious as she believes it'll make her look weak. Everyone in the school has an affinity for different types of magic and his is killing mals, so he kind of can't help himself. They eventually form a prickly alliance after El is attacked by another student and because of her connection to the beloved Orion, things start to look up for her.
In their world, one of the main ways to survive is to become part of an enclave (a group of magicians who live together for protection) and lots of large cities around the world have them - this kind of reminded me of Shadow Hunters because two of the main ones are London and New York but there are a lot more, even in the UK so it's not your typical Western Centric fantasy academy. Orion comes from the New York enclave but as we learn more about him, it's clear that his only true friend is El.
I loved the relationship between El and Orion, that coupled with her humour were definitely some of my favourite parts of this book. I also really enjoyed El trying to make friends.
In this world there are two main way to create energy for magic (Malia and Mana) Malia is kind of evil as you take others life force for magic whereas Mana is more honest like doing things that create energy (and you can sometimes store) e.g. exercise, crocheting, welding etc.
I also really like the fact that at this school you have to be able to build things in the workshop and are assigned objects to make on a regular basis, based on your powers. This aspect especially really reminded me of The University in The Name of The Wind too.
Now, the first two chapters of this book are HUGE info dumps and this school is very complicatedly horrible so there are a lot of world building facts often dumped by the MC when something relevant happens but I think if you can get through the first few chapters you'll be fine!
However, I do have some critiques.
I know Naomi has already issued an apology and is planning on removing this passage about Loc Leeches but because I had an arc it was still there. Now, there's a Lot of horrible things on this school - it's truly awful. And there were a lot of random tidbits of information thrown in but this felt so off kilter, especially for a school that's meant to be international, if theses mals (monsters) were going to burrow into hair, why would it specifically be locs (dreadlocks) that they chose? It doesn't make any sense and was clearly not thought through at all.
I also feel that this book suffers a bit from the fact that the author is white and is trying to write a mixed indian MC. And because the MC only mentions it a couple of times, mainly in relation to her backstory I genuinely kept forgetting.
And I knowww in this horror show of a school you've got other things on your mind but I think that certain perspectives can come from being mixed race and these weren't highlighted nearly enough. There is one part where she mentions that she feels out of place in Wales but not in India and that's pretty much it. But also because she's magic and prophecised to lay waste and sorrow to the world and has an aura that makes people miserable, that could also be why she has no friends. However, I'm not mixed race and I know there is a lot of diaspora for mixed race people so it's not my place to say whether this is 'authentic' or not.
And lastly, I don't necessarily think it was intentional but this book suffers massively from ableism. As I've mentioned (REPEATEDLY) this school is awful, there are monsters everywhere and you're constantly trying to not be killed - because of this you cannot be ill or you'll die. In one instance El gets stabbed and still goes to classes because otherwise the mals will get her. And yes, obviously in a school where survival is low anyway, the strong are more likely to survive but it just annoyed me. I don't suffer from any chronic illnesses but I'm often poorly (migraines, stomach issues, low blood pressure etc etc) and it just felt like a bit of an 'eff you' - if you're going to be poorly, you're going to die.
Also the fact that there are no teachers and it's never really explained why so there's no one to help when things go wrong.
I genuinely did enjoy this book and the characters however I hate the Scholomance with a passion. And also the (kind of) cliffhanger ending!!
I'm going to choose to believe that there's been a miscommunication but we'll see!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Ableism, Violence, Gore, Forced institutionalization, and Blood
Moderate: Addiction
Minor: Racism