A Deadly Education: A Novel (The Scholomance, #1)

by Naomi Novik

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Uprooted and Spinning Silver comes the first book of the Scholomance trilogy, the story of an unwilling dark sorceress who is destined to rewrite the rules of magic.

FINALIST FOR THE LODESTAR AWARD • “The dark school of magic I’ve been waiting for.”—Katherine Arden, author of the Winternight Trilogy

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.

With flawless mastery, Naomi Novik creates a school bursting with magic like you’ve never seen before, and a heroine for the ages—a character so sharply realized and so richly nuanced that she will live on in hearts and minds for generations to come.

The magic of the Scholomance trilogy continues in The Last Graduate and The Golden Enclaves

“The can’t-miss fantasy of fall 2020, a brutal coming-of-power story steeped in the aesthetics of dark academia. . . . A Deadly Education will cement Naomi Novik’s place as one of the greatest and most versatile fantasy writers of our time.”—BookPage (starred review)

“A must-read . . . Novik puts a refreshingly dark, adult spin on the magical boarding school. . . . Readers will delight in the push-and-pull of El and Orion’s relationship, the fantastically detailed world, the clever magic system, and the matter-of-fact diversity of the student body.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

• ISBN10: 0593128486
• ISBN13: 9780593128480
• Publish Date: 29 September 2020
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Del Rey Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780593128480

Reviews

[mrs_mander_reads]

ONE MILLION STARS. Everything about this is amazing. The world building feels so complete. The story is compelling and that cliffhanger! I have the sequel on hold and I can't wait.

[brdsk]

A fun read with a different magic school full of darkness and an almost apocaliptic feel. A thought out and detailed worldbuilding is exciting to read. I find an actual story as important as a full fledged world in fantasy work, and this book delivers on both accounts. I found so-called "info dumps" quite fascinating and hope to see more in the next book. (Although it may be annoying to those that can only enjoy dialog and action driven books.)

I appreciated the themes of balance and price for magic and one's actions through the story. Together with a technical approach to magic skills that go beyond the classic "think it very hard and wave your wand", it adds realism to this world.

The heroine is a a snarky antisocial teenager who manages to be realistic and engaging. Her backstory makes her often rude behavior easy to understand as a defence mechanism, and left me rooting for her. The book covers a very short time frame, but the heroine still manages to go through interesting changes and personal growth. I hope there is more development for secondary characters in the future book as well, as they are only mildly explored thus far.

The slightly rumbling inner monologue writing was definitely a highlight for me, adding personality and humour to the simplest expositions.

Overall, 7 hours well spent and I'm looking forward to the second book.

[thepunktheory]

Full review on my blog coming soon!

It took me a hot minute to get fully into this book. I don't know why. But all accounts, I should have loved it from page one. Nevertheless, I was fascinated by the premise and ended up reading up on the Scholomance a fair bit. 10/10 would recommend doing that if you enjoyed the book!

I'm not sure if it was the worldbuilding that startled me or if it simply was the protagonist. El is a tad annoying and, to be honest, acted quite bitchy a number of times. I got quite annoyed with her at the beginning but she did grow on me. So, after a rocky start, I soon got sucked into this dark and scary world full of monsters and magic.
Once those initial difficulties were overcome, I was here for it 100%. The world-building is amazing and I am so intrigued by the system of magic. I've read my fair share of books featuring magic, and I can't help but marvel at how unique the approaches to magic are oftentimes. I just love that there will be a sequel just so I can learn more about how magic works here.
Also, the book ended with a pretty significant cliffhanger. I need to know what all that is about, so I hope Naomi Novik is a fast typer and the sequel will be out soon. In A Deadly Education not a lot happens, while at the same time a lot of shit goes down. I feel like I'm unable to capture the specific essence of this book, it just has such a different vibe from everything else I've read recently.

[Joséphine]

Initial thoughts: I... have mixed feelings. I've had Uprooted on my bookshelf for a few years now but for some reason, A Deadly Education ended up being my first Naomi Novik book. I've not been much on bookstagram lately but this I did see this one pop up a fair bit lately, and since I didn't have to wait too long for the audiobook to come through on Overdrive, I decided to give it a go.

I hope that the sequel to A Deadly Education will offer a lot more substance now that the world building is behind us. I enjoyed the concepts and ideas as well as the writing style enough that I am curious to continue. Besides, magical boarding schools have a way of suckering me in. Still, The Last Graduate needs to bring so much more for me to care about the third book in this trilogy.

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

The world of Scholomance so rich and Novik adds her own twist. The only downside is that El rushes through much of the world building business that is necessary to understanding how the every works. She assumes the readers know it all and I did not. (In fact, I'm still not certain, by the end if I completely understand it all.) A Deadly Education is like that other magical YA series that took the world by storm 20+ years ago, but imagine the only classes are Defense Against the Dark Arts and there are no professors.  Got it?  Well, you've got A Deadly Education.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[alindstadtcorbeax]

Star Rating: —> 5 Stars

RE-READ #1! 5 Stars AGAINNN! I truly just appreciate the eccentricities of this novel & the dark academia setting with the anti-heroine, and all... just everything about it makes me feel such... wonderment.

I absolutely love this book
_________________
Star Rating: —> 5 Stars


GAHHHH THIS WAS EVERYTHING I WAS HOPING FOR & MORE !!!!
*screams excitedly, albiet a little annoyingly fangirl-y (#sorrynotsorry

[Beth C.]

Review to come, but OMG IT'S SO GOOD AND I'M SO HAPPY IT'S NOT A STAND-ALONE. Ahem. Sorry. I will review this on my blog, www.stillmorewords.com on 4/14/20.