A review by britmston3
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A

3.5

Instead of copying and pasting my Goodreads review. In short, this book was less than what I was expecting. I wasn’t really a fan of the stream of conscious writing style. I struggled with this book, and reading it physically the narrator came off as insufferable to me. Afterwards I decided to try the audio book and the narrator was more tolerable  when listening to her story.  Essentially the narrator is telling the entire story, with nonsensical info dumping of the magic system and world building. Which makes this under 400 page book DRAG. There is little dialogue in this book. Which I guess is fair, because our main character is anti-social, mistrustful, and keeps to herself. We are introduced to another character Orion , and he’s a popular guy among his peers, and helpful and expresses interest towards our narrator, our FMC. The FMC, who goes by El doesn’t like Orion. He’s always there to get her out of trouble, and she is very self righteous. Their dynamic was the best part of the book, but I wanted more interactions between the two. Their relationship is giving rivals to possible lovers? 

I’m forgiving when it comes to a first book in a fantasy series, because they generally set up the world. So usually for me a 3 star rating is expected from me for that first book. 

I will give the rest of the series a chance, but I’m not super excited to pick it up right away. The story just wasn’t entrancing to me. 
I liked the concepts, but the execution was lacking in my opinion. Also, again I wasn’t vibing with the writing style. 
So that is what lost some stars for me. 

We’ll see how I’ll get on with the rest of this series.