A Deadly Education

Sean Randall reviewed A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance, #1)

Review of 'A Deadly Education' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I've not read any of Novik outside of her dragons, and even those I haven't finished. But I was having a rough spell with poor writing standards of Harry Potter Fanfiction and just wanted some more magicy stuff and here this was.

I didn't think I was too engaged to begin with, until I stopped reading and realised I'd lost nearly an hour and a half. and then El's putting the alliance together in chapter 10 and I find myself wanting to see what happens, and then an eyeblink later I'm reading Gwen's note and itching to start book 2!
So clearly I sucked this down and, for all I wasn't sure about the world, I have been enjoying myself. Can't say fairer than that!

Blackberry Jim reviewed A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance, #1)

5 stars

Aw, this was a lot of fun. I enjoy the author’s other work and I’m glad that I enjoy this one too - and have a series to look forward to! On my library audiobook app it’s titled ‘A Deadly Education: TikTok made me read it’ which is very funny to me, I didn’t know it got big on tiktok. It makes sense though, it’s good YA that has (imo) well-executed themes of privilege & how it can be ignored by those who benefit from it, it’s got an undeniably dark academia-compatible setting, and it’s got… like…. a ratfic (as in fiction coming out of the rationalist community, like uhhh HPMOR) vibe, if ratfic identified itself more often as a viewpoint particularly attractive to teenagers as a kind of bad way of dealing with a specific set of probably temporary dissatisfactions than the ratfic I’ve read has. (That is pretty …

Aw, this was a lot of fun. I enjoy the author’s other work and I’m glad that I enjoy this one too - and have a series to look forward to! On my library audiobook app it’s titled ‘A Deadly Education: TikTok made me read it’ which is very funny to me, I didn’t know it got big on tiktok. It makes sense though, it’s good YA that has (imo) well-executed themes of privilege & how it can be ignored by those who benefit from it, it’s got an undeniably dark academia-compatible setting, and it’s got… like…. a ratfic (as in fiction coming out of the rationalist community, like uhhh HPMOR) vibe, if ratfic identified itself more often as a viewpoint particularly attractive to teenagers as a kind of bad way of dealing with a specific set of probably temporary dissatisfactions than the ratfic I’ve read has. (That is pretty scathing, which may not be merited. Maybe I have just read the worse bits of rationalism.) It did a much better job of grounding the protagonist’s actions in her believable personality as well - honestly that was something I really enjoyed throughout this book.

There’s worldbuilding stuff I could try and nitpick but it didn’t impact my enjoyment of a generally very fun and expansive-feeling world. I get the sense that a lot of very interesting and very different stories could take place in a thousand different places in this world and not diminish each other, which is nice.

Rating 5/5 - just what I want from YA :3

Andy Christmas reviewed A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance, #1)

Very readable

4 stars

Really enjoyed this and have started straight onto part two. Lots of political intreague (though school politics) and some really novel ideas about magic and magical worlds. Really excited to see where the author takes the story next!

Kadomi reviewed A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance, #1)

Slow burn

4 stars

This book was such a slow burn for me. Coming highly praised, I came in here expecting a traditional school of wizardry tale. But your HP it is not. It's good though, very good.

Told from first person perspective, our narrator is Galadriel, a sophomore at the Scholomance, a deadly place of education indeed. The students learn magic simply by surviving the many horrors the school throws at them. There are no houses or anything the like, but alliances to make sure you survive your senior year. Students have to fight their way out, through masses of monsters.

Galadriel is a loner though. Secretly, she's one of the most powerful magic-users of the school, but she can only use spells of destruction. As the story progresses, Galadriel has to make alliances herself, and figure out if she and the most prolific monster killer of Scholomance, Orion Lake, are dating or …

This book was such a slow burn for me. Coming highly praised, I came in here expecting a traditional school of wizardry tale. But your HP it is not. It's good though, very good.

Told from first person perspective, our narrator is Galadriel, a sophomore at the Scholomance, a deadly place of education indeed. The students learn magic simply by surviving the many horrors the school throws at them. There are no houses or anything the like, but alliances to make sure you survive your senior year. Students have to fight their way out, through masses of monsters.

Galadriel is a loner though. Secretly, she's one of the most powerful magic-users of the school, but she can only use spells of destruction. As the story progresses, Galadriel has to make alliances herself, and figure out if she and the most prolific monster killer of Scholomance, Orion Lake, are dating or not?

You get zero exposition in the beginning, you're just thrown in, as Galadriel, called El, is saved by Orion. The magic system is a bit mind-boggling at first, and El is a bit of an unreliable narrator, as she's not super-likeable. She's an antisocial introvert. Takes time for her to thaw, took time for me to warm up to her.

It is a creative story, and it successfully breaks the mold of every other wizard academy story out there.

Béladozer reviewed A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance, #1)

Review of 'A Deadly Education' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

Abandoned after first chapter but I will concede that I am probably the wrong audience for this book; it would more likely appeal to mid-teens. I usually love YA fiction, but I just could not get past the arrogant whine of the main character. I flipped through to spot read to see if her entitled attitude would dial back and then realized I wasn't invested enough in the hints of the story to come presented in chapter one, so back to the library for something different.

chadkoh reviewed A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance, #1)

Review of 'A Deadly Education' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Anissa Dadia does an excellent job as narrator keeping you interested in a book that starts out featuring an angsty teenage dark mage who is in a terrible place by force. Naomi Novik deserves credit for setting up such a difficult task as an author. But as things progress, and the book wins the reader over, we get to see Novik’s ability to subtly include allegory on a number of real world social ills. That and some very nice language work… plus a very good ending making me get the second volume right away. 4.5 stars rounded up!

ranjit@bookwyrm.social reviewed A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance, #1)

Fun all the way through

4 stars

A lot of reviewers complained reasonably that the worldbuilding is pretty unbelievable at times, but I was having too much fun to notice.

I loved the big gimmick underlying the whole book: the protagonist has the talents and affinities to be the most powerful and destructive necromancer of her generation - there’s even prophecies about her! - but she was raised by pacifist hippies and works incredibly hard not to accidentally incinerate or mind-control her classmates, building power not by sacrificing animals but through push-ups and crochet.