A review by buer
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

El (or Galadriel if you want to annoy her) is a young magician who is currently trying to graduate from school - ie make it out of school alive. At the start of Deadly Education she has resigned herself to not having any friends, which suddenly changes when Orion - the most heroic boy at school - starts to follow her around. El sees an opportunity and convinces her classmates that she's dating Orion and slowly sees her status at school take what she thought was an impossible upswing.
 
The world building in this series is great. The kids are cutthroat in a way that mirrors the world they are navigating. Schoolroom politics, classroom guidelines, and social dynamics are all heavily influenced by the violent, threatening world that is their school, which makes for really interesting storytelling.

I listened to the audiobook for this one, which I would recommend, although I do think that the narrator (Anisha Dadia) struggles with American accents. The accents never took me out of the story and everything else about the reading was great. 

I would recommend this for anyone who likes magic, teen fiction, and imaginative world building.