Okay, a few surprising things that made up my first impressions of this book: The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.Įl is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate… or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone.

There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Lesson One of the Scholomance: Learning has never been this deadly.Ī Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) - until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets. Opening line: I decided that Orion needed to die after the second time he saved my life. So these reviews put me on guard and that actually helped me enjoy the novel when I maybe wouldn’t have liked it as much otherwise. People said the first half is only info-dumps, there are problems with the diversity, and the protagonist is unlikable. Or at least I couldn’t find it.Originally, I had planned to read this as soon as it came out because, come on, a magic school novel by Naomi Novik? Gimme gimme gimme! But then early reviews started coming in and they were very mixed. In HP, another fantasy based on a school of magic, we always knew there would be a day when Harry would have to face You-Know-Who in person, and I looked forward to that day through 7 books. I saw a faint interest building up when I realized that El’s great-grandmother had narrated a prophecy foretelling she would turn to the dark side. I did not understand the hype surrounding the book. Else I would’ve mostly given up on the book. Whatever dialogue did happen between the characters kept me going.

Maybe the author was preparing you for what’s coming up. How to get what you need at school? What are the rules you need to follow? Why are things the way they are? Who are the privileged kids? Why are they privileged? Why are there no teachers? What do the students do at this kind of school? And all related questions will be answered. I felt like reading a user manual to the magical school. It’s a good thing the book comes with a top view and cross-section view of the school and pictures of Ell’s dormitory. This book should come with an illustrated dictionary.

A deadly education reviews