A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

Hello dear readers.

On my journey of rediscovering my love for books, I came across A Deadly Education at my local bookstore. The cover intrigued me, which drew me to wanting to read it, as it typically goes. Except I did not, for the longest time. I had taken a picture of the cover, telling myself I would come back for the book.

I did not go back to the bookstore to buy it. In fact, I had completely forgotten about the book... until I visited the library.

A few years ago, my partner and I moved into a new city. We got so busy trying to establish a home and ease into our new jobs that I had never visited our new-to-us library. And so, as the new year rolled around, I resolved to read more, and as much as I possibly could.

As I perused the shelves, I spotted A Deadly Education perched on the top of the shelf, almost gleaming down at me. Something clicked in my brain and I immediately scooped it up, along with a few other books. As soon as I got home, I dove into the book. I am so glad I did.

A Deadly Education is set in the present time. The synopsis is as follows: "I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life.

Everyone loves Orion Lake. Everyone else, that is. Far as I’m concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I’m not joining his pack of adoring fans.

I don’t need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do. Forget the hordes of monsters and cursed artifacts, I’m probably the most dangerous thing in the place. Just give me a chance and I’ll level mountains and kill untold millions, make myself the dark queen of the world.

At least, that’s what the world expects. Most of the other students in here would be delighted if Orion killed me like one more evil thing that’s crawled out of the drains. Sometimes I think they want me to turn into the evil witch they assume I am. The school certainly does.

But the Scholomance isn’t getting what it wants from me. And neither is Orion Lake. I may not be anyone’s idea of the shining hero, but I’m going to make it out of this place alive, and I’m not going to slaughter thousands to do it, either.

Although I’m giving serious consideration to just one"

Now, before I continue, please know there will be some spoilers ahead!

Ahem.

To start, I absolutely fell in love with Galadriel Higgins, our "villainous" heroine of the story. I felt her emotions, I saw what she saw and I heard what she heard. Novik did an incredible job putting me into her shoes. El (Galadriel; I will be referring to her as El from now on) is a mostly typical kind of character. While she does fall into the "lonely girl is super powerful but she's mean and people think she's a loser" trope that most authors go for in YA Fiction, I feel that it was written in a way that wasn't so obvious. That is to say, I didn't quite catch on at first. Once I understood that El had some serious power at play, I wasn't in her shoes—I wanted to be in them. She displays a cynical view of the world that I remember was a similar feeling I had at that age. Her want to just blend into the background and do what was needed is something I related to and made me feel for her. Especially being so close to dying every day.

While I know there are some people out there who feel the diversity was not lacking but lazy, I disagree. Novik knew that the Scholomance could no way be centred in white culture only, so she made sure to include as much diversity as she could without drowning the book in it. While there was a rather controversial line in the book about a predominately black hairstyle, (which, let's face it, could've been worded entirely differently or left out) I believe the amount of different names, cultures and awareness of the benefit of learning new languages was done well.

One thing I particularly enjoyed was the subtle romance plot. So many novels nowadays just throw you into a romance pages into the characters' meeting, which is rather fast considering how reality is. I like that El just wanted Orion as far as possible from her. Which, to be fair, I get it. If the main part of this school is to show off your prowess to get into an Enclave, some random teen boy saving you left and right isn't going to do you any favours.

I have already read and finished the entire series (which should tell you how much I enjoyed it!) so know that I wholeheartedly recommend picking it up for yourself. The twists and turns from this entire series kept me constantly thinking about the books. I became so enthralled that I took these books to work and read them every chance I got.

So, to end this review with a final rating, I give A Deadly Education (and the entirety of the Scholomance series) a 4.5 out of 5 stars. There were things I would've liked to see go in different directions and tiny gripes with not elaborating on certain characters more, but overall I recommend this book series. I will definitely be purchasing the physical copies and rereading them over and over.

Sending all my love to you,

Vic