A Deadly Education - Review

Book Review:
Title: A Deadly Education
Author: Naomi Novik
Publisher: DelRey UK/Penguin

“Some sorcerers get an affinity for weather magic, or transformation spells, or fantastic combat magics like dear Orion. I got an affinity for mass destruction.”

Enter a school of magic unlike any you have ever encountered.
There are no teachers, no holidays, friendships are purely strategic, and the odds of survival are never equal. Once you're inside, there are only two ways out: you graduate or you die.
El Higgins is uniquely prepared for the school's many dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out untold millions - never mind easily destroy the countless monsters that prowl the school.
Except, she might accidentally kill all the other students, too. So El is trying her hardest not to use it . . . that is, unless she has no other choice.

I don’t think a book has ever had such a fitting title before, because if I had to describe this book in 3 words, I’d probably say ‘A Deadly Education’.

For the setting we have the Scholomance, which is a school infested with creatures and monsters that will pop out of nowhere and try to kill you at ANY given opportunity. There are no adults, no teachers, no higher beings to protect the students, so they all must rely on their own abilities, aka survival of the fittest, or forming alliances to survive. A lack of skills or association usually means RIP.

Enter El, our prickly, standoff-ish and sarcastic main character. She hasn’t been the best at forming strong alliances but with her strategic timing and powerful spells she has managed to survive thus far.
Having read quite a few reviews before picking this book up it’s clear that El is one of those MCs you either love or HATE. She’s stubborn, grumpy, and just generally very unlikable, but I personally loved her. She’s not the type of (female) character you read about much, so it felt so good reading about someone who is extremely confident in their abilities, isn’t a pushover (some may argue she’s too stubborn) and won’t settle for less than what they believe they deserve. And on top of that, she encompassed your typical teenager – yeah, she has a bit of an attitude problem, but I resonated with her need to feel welcome without having to ‘prove’ herself or jump through a million hurdles. She wants to find the people who will simply accept her for who she is…

And that’s where Orion Lake comes in. Initially, Orion is wary of El because of how standoff-ish she is and thinks she may be hiding something, but he ends up sticking around, and for the first time El has a companion, reluctant as she is for said companion. These two had great back and forth banter – with Orion being popular and well-loved by his peers and El…not, they are quite opposite and clash a lot, but they nicely balance each other out with their grumpy one/popular one dynamic.
Orion is also the kind of love interest in this book. Not much actually happens romance wise, but there’s some subtle sprinkling here and there.

I guess this book has a (extremely) slow-burn romance, but I think what I liked the most was the slow-burn friendships. Having navigated this school so far with no one to lean on or turn to, throughout this book El has to learn how to be more trusting, how to open herself up more and be a little vulnerable in order to progress and build some solid foundations of friendship. It was heart-warming to see her come to the realisation that she finally had people she could rely on. I’m really hoping these friendships will continue in the series – I don’t want lonely El to return!

In terms of the world and story, was there a lot of info-dumping? Yes. So much info-dumping. I think every chapter had pages upon pages of history and just general background story, and coupled with the fact that the chapters in this book are crazy long, it did *sometimes* become a bit too much. But saying that, I did also find it incredibly fascinating. I’m very much in two minds about it – because while I did enjoy learning about the school’s history and how it operates, El’s childhood and all the different mals, on occasion it did pull me out of the story. I’m hoping that in the 2nd and 3rd books, it becomes a little more subtle.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. El was the shining star for me – I loved her as a main character and loved seeing her personal journey in this book with Orion and a few others. Despite the sometimes-heavy info-dumps, I was very much invested in the story and learning more about the school and magic system. The ending has me going crazy, so I cannot wait to get my hands on the sequel and see what direction El and Orion’s story takes!

 4 Stars
Goodreads