Naomi Novik must have the best imagination in the world. This is a very good YA novel with a different twist for the characters. The first person voice is intense, different from her style in other novels but no less interesting.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik is a very different school of magic from Hogwarts. Children from magical families enter the school with a limited amount of belongings and do not leave until graduation. There are no letters from home or care packages. The school is filled with monsters, and students must learn quickly how to protect themselves or die. This engaging fantasy book is told for the perspective of a girl who is completely on her own and avoided by her fellow students due to an expectation that she will level mountains and become dark queen of the world. However, Orion Lake, a popular boy from the New York Enclave wants very much to be close to her. This was a very original tale about a dark school of magic called the Scholomance, and the lengths that students had to go to survive. This book has had some negative feedback due to descriptions which were perceived as racist, but I don’t think that this was intentional. If one read the passages fully with an open mind, the reference was an unfortunate choice of illustration, but there weren’t any other red flags in the book. I absolutely loved this story which was very unique and included the camaraderie of teens developing friendships, the first blush of young love, and teens working together to solve a problem. This was exceptionally well written and fascinating. Readers who enjoy YA Fantasy shouldn’t miss this book! I am voluntarily submitting this review after reading a complementary copy of this book thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey.

I ate this up

the author drones on about languages for like 10 pages of inner monologue right after someone died over breakfast…. normally the words paint a picture in my head or play a movie. I can’t see her world cause she has to over explain every single thing to death that you fall asleep waiting for a character to actually say or do something.

Very good and interesting book. Started off world building and by the end you felt like you were in it. I would definitely give it a chance.

The story is an interesting one, but the writing style, makes this a very boring read. The action was too quick and the reader spends a lot of time just reading the narrators thoughts, explaining all of the dangers she has to be aware of. Also Novik leaves too many open questions about the plot. You don’t really get a full sense of what is going on and why in this world, compared to her other books.

The whole series is some of the best fantasy I’ve read in years, and the first book sets up the world and characters. The people feel real, varied, even ‘side characters’ come with a sense of full realization. Turns the school for magic genre on its head in the best way.

Uprooted was one of my favourite reads of the year. Clever, original, heartfelt. Spinning Silver didn’t quite hit the same heights, but the characters, world building and poetry kept me enthralled. A Deadly Education feels like it was written by someone else. Pages of exposition, characters introduced with barely anything to distinguish them, incomprehensibly convoluted reasoning and motivations, hanging narrative threads, all rendered through the eyes of a such a calculating and disenfranchised mind that it felt like we were being set up for a big unreliable narrator reveal that never came. World building is excellent. Everything else is under cooked or over cooked and served on beds of endlessly indulgent monologues. Bummer x

Naomi Novik has created a school overflowing with magic but needing balance. A YA heroine intimately realized with a nuance of character that will carry many stories. Scholomance may remind you of Hogwarts for 3-seconds, then the lights go out and the world turns dark. It gets especially dark for a person without friends and a gift with no nuance. Galadriel is from the wrong side of the tracks and has no allies. Oh, don't forget those anger issues. Ms. Novik has created a wonderful world in a single building that looks and feels like the secondary (HS) school you attend(ed) but with the monsters under the bed that has actually followed you to your dorm room. Much like that famous story, this is part of a school and during the year, the students realize things are bad. Not bad in an expected way, but a much worse way. Incantations, Alchemistry, battle magic, and more are going to greet you in this wonderful world. Enjoy, I did.

I felt like it started slow, but I was also having trouble focusing. Once I got into it I couldn’t put it down. Fascinating world being built.