a deadly education review guardian

REVIEW: ‘A Deadly Education’ by Naomi Novik needs some wow-factor

I absolutely adored a lot of ‘A Deadly Education’, but couldn’t escape a lingering sense of disappointment.

Two days after finishing A Deadly Education , I am still struggling to understand exactly how I felt about this book.

From the Blurb:

Enter a school of magic unlike any you have ever encountered. There are no teachers, no holidays, friendships are purely strategic, and the odds of survival are never equal. Once you’re inside, there are only two ways out: you graduate or you die. El Higgins is uniquely prepared for the school’s many dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out untold millions — never mind easily destroy the countless monsters that prowl the school. Except, she might accidentally kill all the other students, too. So El is trying her hardest not to use it…that is, unless she has no other choice.

I was excited to read A Deadly Education from the second I first heard about it, and even more so upon seeing the gorgeous cover. But, though I enjoyed the story, when I think about it more critically I was left a little disappointed.

There are no doubts that Naomi Novik receives an enormous number of points for originality. A Deadly Education is set in a magic school called the Scholomance, where wizard children go to learn magic. Only, instead of their education being all fun and games as we are used to with this type of fantasy novel, the school is deadly and delights in eating up those that fall by the wayside.

I was absolutely fascinated by this concept. I thought it unique and refreshing and regardless of what the rest of this review will discuss, I am sure I’ll be reading the rest of the series for that alone.

Our main character, El Higgins, is rude, sometimes arrogant, and absolutely hilarious. There were numerous times when I laughed out loud at her quips and attitude. I can see where some readers may find her difficult to connect with, however I completely fell for her. Her voice tells the story, with all its snarky, sarcastic humour that is probably what kept me reading.

Not only this, but her character development was lovely to see. She may not be able to leave the sharpness and rudeness behind (for those who deserve it), but she really comes out of her shell when she begins to develop relationships with some of her classmates. Seeing this insanely loyal, kind girl underneath the arrogance was wonderful, and made me like her even more.

The character development for others, however, was lacking. Orion Lake is the superstar of the school — and El’s nemesis. That is, until she realises he is just as lonely as her, and they form a frenemy-esque relationship. Orion is clearly a complex character, and yet he doesn’t appear to change throughout the novel. By the end, he is just as shy and frustratingly (for El) stupid as he was at the beginning. I couldn’t help but wish the careful character arc El had been given had been bestowed upon him as well.

All good fantasy stories have an intriguing, complex world behind them, and A Deadly Education is no different. There is a need for description, naturally, but I found in this instance the info-dumps were quite heavy-handed. As I said, I was fascinated by the world and the Scholomance, but the frequency and length of the info-dumps, paired with some questionable pacing, often left me feeling rushed and a little bewildered when it came to learning vital information about the world.

Generally, the story felt very told, rather than shown. From El’s apparently world-destroying, chaotic evil power, to feelings of certain characters, I had a hard time truly believing it. As a reader, you are left to rely a lot on El’s, or the author’s, word, rather than seeing it for yourself. I think this is perhaps what let down A Deadly Education most, as it seeps into every aspect of the novel.

Similarly, I was never surprised by the plot. It was exciting and beautiful and dark, but there were no twists and turns to truly wow me. The ending nicely sets up a sequel, but even that was foreshadowed none-too-subtly. The fast-pace and lack of twistiness brought the ending about rather abruptly. I remember turning the page surprised that the story had finished.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed with A Deadly Education — and disappointed that I was disappointed. There is an awful lot of potential in the story (and an awful lot of readers that have given very high ratings), so I was upset that I wasn’t as blown away as I wanted to be.

Having said all that, A Deadly Education has a lot going for it, and there were certainly many aspects I enjoyed and even loved. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see me reviewing the rest of the trilogy!

Project Results

Plot: exciting, but not particularly surprising.

Characters: El was my favourite by far, with Aadhya and Liu coming in close second. Orion, though an interesting character, wasn’t given the time of day to truly shine.

Writing: A bit hit-and-miss for me. Some elements were very well written, whereas others missed their mark.

Theme/Message: An exciting and original story that lots of readers are adoring.

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Personally, I enjoyed the “info dumps” as much as the story – as they were a huge part of it. In fact, my concern is that there will be fewer of them in subsequent books since much of the relevant backstory is already described. Further, I would say Orion’s arc takes place in the backstory. While it is tidy for every character to conveniently have an arc in the same time frame, I would say that’s actually less believable. Orion’s arc ended the moment he found a friend in El. His backstory, describing the arc, is given in one of the info dumps, but it seems described well enough.

Also, there were many moments where the author demonstrated that El’s take on the situation was flawed. It seems an intentional point of relying on El’s word is to set up those flaws – not so much as surprises to the reader, but so that the reader can pick up on clues El isn’t (with good reason given for why El isn’t picking up on them), thus describing how something obvious can be a surprise to El (like Orion dating her). It only stands to reason that her impression of the world is likely also flawed. I could be giving too much (or at least the wrong type of) credit to the writer, but I’ve long been fascinated by the idea of a skilled writer writing a book entirely in the third person omniscient perspective and then rewriting it from the first person. Such an endeavor would give the author clues to include and interpret wrongly in a way consistent to the character that the reader can still pick up on if they are clever and don’t buy into the narrator’s bias. Not saying that’s what the author is doing but there are hints that that’s what was done, and I enjoy it. El is always spot on when it comes to the malicious intent of others, but is just as often completely misreads the situation when anyone demonstrates a shred of humanity.

There were plot holes, though. The biggest one is why the Maw Mouth went by Todd’s room but didn’t just stop there and feed on the seniors. They were supposedly the most delicious anyway, according to the first chapter (though later in the book it also says seniors are the most “stale,” which seems a contradiction). Indeed, by looking at the map of the Scholomance, the Maw Mouth would have had a much easier time just climbing the steps to get to the freshman dorms (even assuming there’s an explanation for why it preferred freshman over seniors). Whereas going through the library vent is almost mazelike. Also, the apparently infinite mana of the enclaves makes the whole concept of “strict mana” a bit superfluous. Why would they cheat even a little? And where does the mana even come from if they spend almost no time generating any of it then use it up on the way out? Maybe that will be explained but for now there seems to be a math issue – pulling malia from the heat in the air, for example, shouldn’t yield much, and as such the whole place should be freezing if everyone does it. Also, the fact that the graduation horde wasn’t eating itself all this while seems unlikely, considering how eager they are to eat each others’ corpses. And Orion taking credit for the Grogler. And Aadhya concluding that El might have killed a maw-mouth – no matter her reasoning everyone assumes it’s impossible. And Aadhya seeing the huge cache of radiant mind crystals but not having the same question as Orion had when he saw just two (it’s later revealed that she definitely heard of El’s mom). Plus some other minor ones I’m forgetting.. I can come up with answers for these on my own but that’s like writing fan fiction to complete someone else’s story. And considering the fact that I’d have really preferred this book to have gone on for another thousand pages, I wouldn’t have objected to the answers being inferred somewhere.

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A DEADLY EDUCATION

From the the scholomance series , vol. 1.

by Naomi Novik ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 29, 2020

A perilous, magic-school adventure that falls short of its potential.

A loosely connected group of young magicians fight horrendous creatures to ensure their own survival.

Galadriel "El" Higgins knows how dangerous the Scholomance is. Her father died during the school's infamous graduation ceremony, in which senior students run through a gauntlet of magic-eating monsters, just to make sure her pregnant mother made it out alive. Now a student herself at the nebulous, ever shifting magic school, which is populated with fearsome creatures, she has made not making friends into an art form. Not that anyone would want to be her friend, anyway. The only time she ever met her father's family, they tried to kill her, claiming she posed an existential threat to every other wizard. And, as a spell-caster with a natural affinity for using other people's life forces to power destructive magic, maybe she does. No one gave Orion Lake that memo, however, so he's spent the better part of the school year trying to save El from every monster that comes along, much to her chagrin. With graduation fast approaching, El hatches a plan to pretend to be Orion's girlfriend in order to secure some allies for the deadly fight that lies ahead, but she can't stop being mean to the people she needs the most. El's bad attitude and her incessant info-dumping make Novik's protagonist hard to like, and the lack of chemistry between the two main characters leaves the central romantic pairing feeling forced. Although the conclusion makes space for a promising sequel, getting there requires readers to give El more grace than they may be willing to part with.

Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-593-12848-0

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Del Rey

Review Posted Online: June 16, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020

FANTASY | GENERAL FANTASY | EPIC FANTASY | ACTION & ADVENTURE FANTASY | GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

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BOOK REVIEW

by Naomi Novik

FOURTH WING

From the empyrean series , vol. 1.

by Rebecca Yarros ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 2, 2023

Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.

On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.

Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.

Pub Date: May 2, 2023

ISBN: 9781649374042

Page Count: 528

Publisher: Red Tower

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024

FANTASY | EPIC FANTASY | GENERAL FANTASY | GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

From the Empyrean series , Vol. 2

by Rebecca Yarros ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 2023

Unrelenting, and not in a good way.

A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.

Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.

Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023

ISBN: 9781649374172

Page Count: 640

Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024

FANTASY | EPIC FANTASY | GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

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A Deadly Education Review by Naomi Novik (Scholomance #1)

I went into A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik completely unsure of what I was in for, but somewhat expecting to not like it.

I admit it.

Let’s just get it out there.

I’m a book snob.

And I absolutely DO judge a book by it’s cover. And none of Naomi Novik’s book covers have ever spoken to me.

So, yeah, I wasn’t expecting much, but I started reading A Deadly Education for our YA Fantasy Addicts book club.

Ohhhhhh man! Wow! What a ride. After I finish this series, I’m diving head first into the rest of Novik’s books, and she is well on her way to becoming an auto-buy author for me.

So as they say you absolutely “can’t judge a book by it’s cover,” because if I had, I’d have majorly missed out on possibly the best series I’ve read all year.

Let’s jump into the review.

A Deadly Education Review

A Deadly Education is an easy read, but it’s hard to read. It’s a short read, but it’s a long read.

It’s complicated.

On one hand, you have our heroine, Galadriel, who is so likable (to the reader, everyone in the book hates her) and has such a great voice that you can’t help but turn pages.

But then you deal with her constant ramblings. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it just makes stringing thoughts together difficult. El starts one train of thought and goes on a three page rabbit trail to immediately jump back into her original thought process.

So it’s easy to read, but it can take some work at times.

And then of course you’re so engrossed in what’s going on in the story, that the pages literally fly by, but there’s only 13 chapters, and each one takes 45-60 minutes each to get through.

Which may not be a problem for those of you capable of stopping midway through a chapter, but some of us are obsessive about our reading sessions, and finding time for a 60 minute continuous session can be challenging at times.

But absolutely none of that matters because Naomi Novik is a frickin’ genius and I’ll devour it all for more of El and the Scholomance.

We’re immediately dropped into the world of Galadriel and the Scholomance with little info-dumping (Hallelujah!), but that also means you’ve got to learn fast or the mals will get you like they do more than 75% of the students at the Scholomance.

This book is touted as a darker Harry Potter, and I can see it.

The world is divided into wizards and mundanes (read: Muggles). Because magic can’t exist around the mundanes (thanks to their disbelief), all the terrible creatures that need magic to survive try to eat wizards as their food. But a fully grown wizard is too much work, so they go after children.

To protect them, wizards built a school, the Scholomance, where they can train in relative safety from the outside world. But mals (these creatures) still manage to get inside through all the wards and protections in place and a large chunk of the children end up dying anyway.

That is until wizard prodigy Orion Lake went to the Scholomance and started killing everything and saving everyone, which everyone is happy to have him keep doing. Everyone except Galadriel.

El is a nobody, and if she’s ever going to prove her immense, world-shaking power to the mighty enclaves and ensure herself a spot of safety after graduation, she needs to actually be able to show off that power.

Something she struggles to do every time Orion Lake swoops in and saves the day, making her out as a damsel in distress instead.

What I Loved

Despite my gripings earlier, I breezed through A Deadly Education and would gladly do it again if I could purge my brain of the details of this story simply for the sake of experiencing it all over.

In that regard, A Deadly Education and Harry Potter share something in common. Aside from that, the wizard aspect, the school aspect, and the Muggle aspect, A Deadly Education is really it’s own thing and I absolutely love it for that.

Instead of reading a book from the perspective of Harry, we instead see it from the viewpoint of a female Voldemort who is in every way Orion Lake’s equal.

But instead of guarding and protecting, El’s magical affinity is for death and destruction in catastrophic, world-ending proportions.

When El was a child, her great grandmother prophesied that she’d be the doom of them all and proceeded to attempt to kill her. Everyone who comes into contact with her immediately hates her, and her negative attitude doesn’t help win them over either.

And while she’s perfectly rude to everyone around her, she’s quite endearing to the reader.

I loved reading this story about a budding antagonist who walks the line of turning into Voldemort at any moment.

Social Issues

I read a few reviews, and saw a whole thread on Reddit about how people complain about racism in the book. But I didn’t see any.

I guess there was a line about having dreadlocks being a bad idea because it makes it easier for the mals to get you, and that set a lot of people off.

Long hair of any kind is discouraged for the same reason. I didn’t take it as a racist comment myself. In fact, race didn’t even enter my mind. I don’t even recall the line that’s how much it didn’t stand out to me.

Either way, I actually thought Novik did a fantastic job with the social/political commentary on privilege within the book as she highlights the divide between kids from backgrounds who had everything (read as Pure Bloods from wizarding families like Draco Malfoy) and those who have nothing (read as Mud Bloods who came from Muggle families like Hermione Granger).

The enclave kids, like Orion, come into the Scholomance with decades of knowledge, supplies, and alliances, to help them survive. While outcast kids like El have nothing and are almost guaranteed to die alone at graduation.

The way that Novik uses El and Orion throughout the story to teach, not only the characters but the reader as well, about this injustice in the world is spot on and praiseworthy.

Final Thoughts on A Deadly Education

There’s not much more I can tell you about the book. There isn’t some great mystery or unknown mystery. There isn’t an antagonist at work outside of the deadly mals trying to get them.

A Deadly Education is a fun, straightforward first person POV romp. You learn as El learns, you cry when El cries, you shout victoriously when El does. You experience her life, for good or bad, in the Scholomance.

And while that might not sound super duper exciting, I promise that A Deadly Education and the whole Scholomance series will be one of the best books you read this year. It certainly is one of mine right up there with House of Sky and Breath .

A Deadly Education is an easy 5 out of 5 stars for me.

A Deadly Education

By naomi novik.

Book review and synopsis for A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik, a story about a young female wizard in a dangerous school of magic.

In A Deadly Education (Scholomance #1) , Galadriel, or El, is a junior enrolled in a school of magic, where dangers lurk around every corner. El has a strong natural ability for the dark arts, but is determined to stay away from all that. Still, it's been prophesized that El is the bringer of death and will sow destruction in her wake.

When the school's golden boy, Orion Lake, takes an interest in El, it opens up new possibilities for her, but new dangers as well.

(The Full Plot Summary is also available, below)

Full Plot Summary

Galadriel ("El") is a junior at Scholomance , a school of magic. She's also someone with a very strong natural ability for mass destruction and the dark arts. She doesn't want to be a dark wizard (a " maleficer "), but her affinity for destruction limits her ability to use her powers in other ways. Learning non-destructive spells is much more difficult for her, while destructive spells are overpowered in her hands. Others can often sense her darkness, too, which is why El is a loner.

There are two types of power that can fuel spells: malia and mana . Malia (the "bad" type) draws from the life-force of other living things, and users of it are known as "maleficers". Whereas Mana (the "good" type) is generated through effort, like exercise or labor. El is "strict mana".

Orion Lake is a very well-connected classmate, considered the "hero" of their class. Orion's family is part of the New York enclave, the most powerful enclave in the world and his mother is soon to be the leader of it. Enclaves (identified based on location) are groupings of wizards that share power and protect each other. Entry into an enclave is highly sought-after, and everyone sucks up to students born into enclaves, called " enclavers ", in hopes of securing a spot.

Orion starts hanging around El because he suspects she is a maleficer who had something to do with the recent disappearance of one of their classmates, Louisa . However, the actual culprit, Jack , ends up attacking El, and Orion saves her. After the misunderstand is cleared up, Orion continues to hang out with El. It leads to a major boost to El's popularity.

There are three educational tracks at school: incantations, alchemy, or artifice . El is an incanter and has a project that requires all three disciplines to complete. She recruits Aardhya (artificer), an acquaintance of hers, and Orion (alchemist) to help. They create a magic mirror. Afterwards, the mirror repeats a prophesy that El has already heard before, that El is the bringer of death and will sow death and doom and bring down enclaves.

Scholomance is structurally designed to protect young, untrained wizards from maleficaria ("mals"), dangerous creatures that feed on wizards for their mana. Still, mals manage to get in, so students must be on alert, especially loners like El. Moreoever, in order to graduate, seniors cross through the lowest floor of Scholomance (considered the "graduation ceremony"), which was designed as a barrier to keep mals outs. It's an area overrun with mals and many die in the process. Preparing for the "ceremony" is a major part of being a student at Scholomance. There is a scouring machine that goes through the halls of the entire school twice a year with a wall of mortal flame that kills all the mals. The lowest floor ("graduation hall") has one, too, but it's been broken since 1886. Attempts to repair it have left powerful wizards dead.

El is in the library when she finds a maw-mouth, a unstoppable mal whose presence means certain death. There is only one known instance of killing a maw-mouth, and it involved nine powerful wizards. El manages to single-handedly kill the maw-mouth. She doesn't think anyone will believe her afterwards and tells no one.

The New York enclavers are puzzled by Orion's friendship with El, since he has never show much interest in anyone else including themselves. They eventually extend El a high-prized invitation to join their enclave, but El has come to realize that she wants nothing to do with the elitist enclaves that prey on and exploit others' desperation. Instead, El works to parlay her new social capital into an alliance with Aardhya and another friend, Yi Liu , for their ceremony next year. El feels lucky to have real friends now and people to watch her back.

While Orion's heroics has saved hundreds of students from mals, that means the mals are now desperately hungry, especially the ones in the basement. They've created a hole in the barrier which is how the maw-mouth ended up in the school. Orion has been trying to patch it up, but El learns that a group of seniors have been knocking out his repairs in hopes that mals will feed on the lower-classmen to sate their hunger somewhat before the ceremony.

Together, El, Orion and some of El's friends (all juniors) manage to collectively repair the barrier more securely. But the seniors are angry about this. After some argument, a plan is formed for El, Orion and a group of talented seniors to attempt a repair of the scouring machine in the graduation hall before the ceremony in one week. After much preparation, a group of 20 of them manage to get in and make repairs, though two die.

When they return to the main floors, the warning bell has gone off signaling that the scouring machines are about to run. Soon, the seniors have now departed, though whether they exited into a newly-scoured hall or one crawling with mals is unknown. El and Orion decide to formally start dating. Induction happens, where new freshmen are magically drawn into the school. One of them comes bearing a letter from El's mother. It reads: " My darling girl, I love you, have courage, and keep far away from Orion Lake ."

For more detail, see the full Chapter-by-Chapter Summary .

If this summary was useful to you, please consider supporting this site by leaving a tip ( $2 , $3 , or $5 ) or joining the Patreon !

Book Review

A Deadly Education (Scholomance #1) , by Naomi Novik, is the first book from Novik’s planned Scholomance Trilogy . In Novik’s new series, the wizarding world is a dangerous one, full of monsters and creatures that feed on wizards and the power they possess. Meanwhile, El is a junior at the school who has unusually powerful natural abilities but is unable to make use of much of it due to its destructive nature.

Like in her previous novels Uprooted or Spinning Silver , Novik has, once again, created a world that is imaginative and compelling. There is a bit of an information dump in this novel, just because there’s a lot of unique qualities in her world that need to be explained, like the mechanics of a school that functions without teachers or the void where everything comes from.

I won’t try to explain it all here, but it works. I thought it was all really interesting and thoroughly conceived, and I loved reading about it. She also lays down a number of details that I imagine will come into play later. Novik’s writing is very accessible, and she imbues the story with some wry humor which I appreciated. The book went by very quickly for me.

In terms of substance, A Deadly Education deals with a lot of issues regarding social divisions and the disparities between classes of people. This is a book that has something to say beyond telling one character’s story. It’s easy to see how these issues, even when dreamed up in a wizarding school located in a magical void, can find parallels in institutions and societies in the real world.

El grew up with her mother, residing outside of the safety and comfort of the “enclave” classes of people. Throughout the book, El tussles with her feelings about the exploitative nature of enclaves and her own desire for the protection that enclaves can provide.

The book also touches upon things like privilege and entitlement. For example, Orion comes from a very well-connected enclave family and certain provisions have been made for him and his comfort without his even knowing it. El and others must take on “maintenance shifts” (mandatory drudge work), but Orion, despite being a well-meaning boy with good intentions, has no idea what it entails or even that he has avoided that responsibility because it’s been taken care of on his behalf and unbeknownst to him.

El also struggles between the relative ease of relying on dark magic (“malia”, which gets power from the life force of other creatures) and the painstaking effort of generating a morally superior power source (“mana”, which is generated based on labor-intensive activities).

I am also a much bigger fan of the El and Orion romance that I have been of Novik’s past romances (in Uprooted or Spinning Silver ). I thought it was charming. El is a bit meaner to him than I’d ideally prefer, but considering that she’s an outcast with her defenses up, I think it probably makes sense initially. I hope it’s something she matures out of as the series progresses.

I had a few quibbles like El acting a bit too petulant sometimes and little things like that, but honestly my main gripe is just that I’m impatient for the next book to come out. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten really excited about a series, so this was definitely a win for me.

YA or Adult Fantasy?

I would recommend this to both YA and adult fantasy fans. While the story does deal with some coming-of-age type issues (typical of YA novels), A Deadly Education also tells a multi-layered story about class, morals and difficult decisions that adult readers can fully appreciate.

The main character, El, is in high school, but she’s also making decisions about what she wants her future to look like that extend beyond school-aged-type concerns.

I have a pet peeve which is that some YA fantasy authors write books that are essentially YA in substance and then throw in very graphic sex scenes in order to argue that they should be adult novels. (And then all their fans go around haranguing people on the internet about book classifications.) That is not all the case here. While the characters act age-appropriate, I’d qualify A Deadly Education as suitable for both YA and adult readers because the issues it deals with can appeal to both YA and adult audiences.

Read it or Skip It?

I had a delightful time reading this fantastical, fun and fully-imagined book. While the characters are in high school, I would have no reservations recommending it to adults who enjoy fantasy novels. I grew up reading the Harry Potter books, and this definitely took me back to anticipating those book releases and the late nights spent reading them the day after.

When I started this book, I was planning on reading for an hour or two, but ended up staying up late into the early hours of the morning finishing it. I loved the fully-imagined world, but also the very specific choices in what type of story Novik was looking to tell. As much as I found this book really enchanting, I’m even more excited about what’s to come for this series.

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Hello Jennifer, typical of your reviews, this is to the point, revealing the weaker side, but raising the stronger and leaving me wanting to read the book and ‘find out for myself!’ In short, for me its a pleasure to read your review, even if I never try the book for myself. Well done and Thank you.

hey peter what a nice comment, I really appreciate the encouragement! Glad you enjoyed it and happy reading! :)

His sounds flippin’ awesome! I’ll need to see if my library has it already, and if they don’t, have them order it because it sounds so good! And I’ve loved Naomi Novik’s books so far, so I’m excited to see what this one has in store.

I hope you love it, her books have definitely found their way to my “must reads” list. Happy reading! :)

Loved it! Desperate for more. Next July seems like a lifetime away.

I KNOW, I think if the second book was already out I would’ve just read them back to back haha

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BOOK REVIEW: A Deadly Education (The Scholomance #1) by Naomi Novik

Synopsis: 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 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.

“You know, it’s almost impressive,” he said after a moment, sounding less wobbly. “You’re nearly dead and you’re still the rudest person I’ve ever met. You’re welcome again , by the way.”

It goes without saying, at this point, that I am obsessed and would die for character driven stories: if not for the most amazing buildups, for the agonizingly painful build up to something almost always extraordinary. Do I think this book had some epic end? I don’t know-I think it was epic, in its own right, but it wasn’t some crazy battle to the end or anything. What it 1000% DID accomplish, though, was one of the most satisfying cherries on top of an incredulous El sundae, where we get the most gratifying payoff of the cutest non-storyline ever . Seriously. I know, vagueness is vague but….it’s good. It’s worth it. It’s just so deliciously underhandedly subtle and fleshed out. The genius behind this…I still can’t put my finger on how it made such a dark story so cute .

I’d like to claim I couldn’t bring myself to go, but I’ve got quite well-developed willpower when it comes to doing necessary work. I just have very little willpower when it comes to indulging petty resentment.

But enough of that. This book was so much darker than I ever thought it would be . It honestly makes me wonder if my radar is off, if my mind is inexplicably broken, if I have some gear that’s broken inside my brain for how little my radar has protected me lately. I guess I’m just coasting through books these days, assuming because it’s labeled YA it won’t be weird or nasty or downright gory- I’ve seen more gore in YA lately than I’ve seen in years , it feels like (I’m not complaining), and I owe it all to my lack of being in the loop for years because of my children. It’s a weird sort of vindication to have found so many wins in one year/one summer, and I’m really immersing myself to the point it’s onto the next one each time I put a book down. I’m a monster. I’m insatiable. And this book was just another I added to my 5 star pile in 2021.

…probably every instinct he had was now going wild with the desire to put a stop to my not-yet-begun reign of terror. Naturally that made me want to go and launch said reign of terror immediately, but first I had to sit through two hours of language and one of Maleficaria Studies.

Which, can I just say, is just so refreshing. I don’t even truly know how I’m reading, at the moment, as I can’t seem to shake my illness, but I am demolishing each book thrown at me, and I’ve re-read two different sets of stories back to back within a few months. Who even am I? That being said, this poor book probably shouldn’t have stood a chance. I mean, I kept picking it up and eventually zoning out, yet it held my attention so raptly that I couldn’t help to forge on through the plague of zombie-mindedness. I am shocked I got even a flicker of a feel, seeing as how I feel emotionless and dead inside-but, hey, perhaps this was the perfect read, as the snark was at a 10/10 level , and it kept me laughing long into the night.

Boys often think for about ten seconds that they might want to go out with me, and then they look into my eyes or talk to me and I suppose get the strong impression I’m likely to devour their souls or something. Also, in Orion’s case, I’d been aggressively rude to him and nearly got him killed by mimics.

But, aside from what I was talking about earlier and will probably [but definitely will] expand on, the thing that worked most for this book was the level of anger and snark that emanated off of our dark heroine . It actually almost broke my heart how mean she was to Orion, but he seemed to like it so who am I to feel bad for the poor dude? At one point I felt so inexplicably drawn to her inner thoughts that I had to do a double take to make sure it wasn’t ME who was talking. The way she ALWAYS has to get something snarky in, the way she views everything, the way she portrays it to us and breaks it down into a hilarious, dark version with morbid humor about every situation added much needed levity to a book centered around a school that basically devours it’s students to keep it running (but why).

Thanks to my freshman-year Maleficaria Studies textbook, I know that our deliciousness goes up another order of magnitude every six months between thirteen and eighteen, all wrapped up inside a thin and easy-to-break sugar shell instead of the tough chewy hide of a grown wizard. That’s not a metaphor I made up myself: it’s straight out of the book, which took a lot of pleasure telling us in loads of detail just how badly the maleficaria want to eat us: really, really badly.

And I can’t even begin to describe how this book helped me kind of coast through the worst days of my illness, but it did. I don’t know how, but her inner ramblings-which are 90% of the book, seriously-just spoke to me on a higher level, one that kept me grounded and not so miserable. Perhaps because she was so miserable herself? I suppose that’s something that people should know, going in, if you live under a rock-this author is very wordy (Uprooted, anyone? Another FAV!) and doesn’t rush any one under any circumstance for any reason. And that’s why it’s so amazing once you make it to the end-it’s always extraordinary, even if its unconventionally so.

Instead I’ve spent three years putting it off and coming up with convoluted plans for how I was going to arrange my dramatic revelation and meanwhile, at the first chance I got, I just started being as rude as I could to every enclave kid who crossed my path. I’d certainly done my very best to chase Orion off. If he wasn’t a towering weirdo who liked that in a person, I’d have succeeded.

And finally, my favorite favorite plot point: The whole plot literally revolves around our MC’s vehement denial that she and Orion are dating . I was lol’ing the. Whole. Time. Like clockwork when she’d ground it out of her clenched teeth or in her mind, her little reassurances to make sure we readers knew she knew better and it annoyed her people thought so. And that’s the other thing-she spoke to us sometimes, addressing us as readers, and it cracked me up, too. I am so odd, but it just made me chuckle.

My anger’s a bad guest, my mother likes to say: comes without warning and stays a long time.

So, in the end, I guess I never even knew what this book was about, because it was nothing I’d have ever expected. I still really don’t get it, but I guess that’s the fun of it, and that’s what makes the Orion and Galadriel moments that much sweeter. I can’t say it’s for everyone (it’s definitely not), but for those, like me, that like bitch humor, snark, and character driven plots…it’s literally a hole in one.

***********

Literally my favorite storyline (and it’s arguably a large portion of the plot, if you ask me (I know you didn’t, but)) in the book is the ‘We are NOT dating’ struggle the MC passionately shuts down throughout the novel-seriously, it’s like a subtle plot that slayed me. And Orion’s complete obliviousness to the whole debacle lol. 5 stars just for that hilarious drama

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Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, a deadly education.

Some of us hated school; I loved it. Thus, academies of magic are my ultimate fantasy: Hogwarts, of course, and Ursula K. Le Guin’s school for wizards on Roke Island in her peerless Earthsea books. Award-winning writer Naomi Novik is perfectly aware of this lineage. In her latest novel, A DEADLY EDUCATION, she pays homage, often with sly wit, to her predecessors, but she is no imitator. Hogwarts and Roke had at least some of the features of a conventional educational establishment, such as professors, team sports and rival houses. Novik’s creation, the Scholomance, is quite different.

Novik has an M.A. in computer science and once worked on the design of a computer game, yet there is nothing especially high-tech about her previous books: the marvelous alternate-history Temeraire novels (the Napoleonic Wars fought with dragons) and her two excellent fantasy stand-alones, UPROOTED and SPINNING SILVER, based on folklore and traditional fairy tales. In A DEADLY EDUCATION, however --- apparently the first in a planned series --- her academic background comes to the fore. The Scholomance resembles a huge, incredibly intricate video game, technically complex and unimaginably violent.

The school is a weird combination of real and virtual, made of actual materials but “built into the void,” so it doesn’t always follow the laws of physics. Space can change at a moment’s notice. And instead of teachers, there are disembodied mechanisms that give and collect assignments and dole out grades.

At the same time, the place is crawling with mals: vile, bloodthirsty creatures of every sort (Novik must have had as much fun dreaming these up as Rowling did with her “fantastic beasts”). The students are prey, but it’s not as though they all have the same odds of survival. Because the world outside the Scholomance is equally dangerous and monster-ridden, enclaves --- areas defended by magical barriers and wards --- were created by wizards in the 19th century. Urban enclaves like New York and London are the most prestigious, and students belonging to them have access to a level of safety, power and comfort that non-enclavers utterly lack.

"[O]nce I’d gone through orientation --- learned the vocabulary and history of the place --- I adored this clever reworking of young adult formulas into a sophisticated coming-of-age story. I give it an A+."

Insiders and outsiders --- how high school! A DEADLY EDUCATION does indeed play with some classic teen themes: young woman from wrong side of tracks meets rich guy; lonely nerd makes friends; mean girls and creepy boys become human beings.

Novik’s protagonist is named Galadriel (El for short), after the elf princess in The Lord of the Rings. She’s 16, and words like rude or sarcastic scarcely begin to describe her lack of social graces. People don’t like her. “Nobody does, except Mum.” Oh, yes, her mother: a gifted sorceress who raised her daughter in a remote Welsh commune peopled mostly by non-wizards, known as mundanes (a word way too close to muggles to be accidental).

Novik gives El a tough, mouthy voice that is especially amusing when applied to the commune’s do-gooders, who reprimand her for “negativity of spirit.” That’s putting it mildly. El is an extraordinarily talented sorceress, but her gift is for mass destruction. Although she is scrupulous about rejecting the dark side of magic, other students seem to sense her power, and recoil.

El is like a scholarship kid compared to the enclave students, who have plenty of magical energy, or mana (equivalent to money, power, status), at their fingertips, sort of like inherited wealth. She has to earn hers with maintenance chores, solitary aerobics sessions and, worst of all, crochet (“Words can’t describe how much I hate crochet”).

Being lonely in an ordinary school is sad, but in the Scholomance it is actually life-threatening because of the mals. To do anything unaccompanied is perilous, so friendless El is at particular risk, whether it’s finding someone to sit with in the cafeteria (where the jockeying for a good table reflects all the clique-iness of a typical high school) or somebody to stand guard in the bathroom while she’s taking a shower.

And then an enclave boy named Orion saves El’s life, as he has saved many others. A born mal hunter, he can’t stop himself from killing the murderous creatures, and he is regarded as a hero. El, however, just finds him annoying (she’s used to taking care of herself). Of course, the insults they exchange are merely a form of flirtation. In teen romances, it’s always the couples who argue who wind up together.

Their staunch-yet-thorny relationship leads other students to accept El, and though she’s suspicious of their motives (trying to butter up Orion), she’s grateful for the protection; she even begins to make real friends. El is only a junior now, but when it comes time to graduate, anybody without an alliance or an invitation to join an enclave is, literally, dead meat. A horde of hungry mals descend on the seniors as they try to leave. El’s own father died that way, while saving the life of her mother.

Orion, meanwhile (stay with me here), has upset the whole balance of the Scholomance by saving 600 students’ lives. The school wasn’t designed to accommodate so many. There isn’t enough food to go around, and the mals, because of Orion’s feats, are more ravenous for human fodder than ever. Graduation day looms as an absolute massacre.

And so a bunch of students embark on a mission. I love a mission, those old movies where an unlikely mix of prisoners/soldiers/air-crash survivors bond and triumph. Here, the gang consists of El and her destructive superpowers, Orion with his mal-killing zeal, and a motley crew of magically talented juniors and seniors. Plus, El has secured an ancient, precious spell that enables wizards to manipulate matter.

I won’t reveal what happens. But at the end, El gets a message from Mum that is surprising, ominous and clearly a setup for the next book.

My only complaint is that Novik’s elaborate universe kind of takes over A DEADLY EDUCATION in the first few chapters. Too much worldbuilding happens before the story really gets going. But once I’d gone through orientation --- learned the vocabulary and history of the place --- I adored this clever reworking of young adult formulas into a sophisticated coming-of-age story. I give it an A+.

Reviewed by Katherine B. Weissman on October 2, 2020

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

Publication Date: May 4, 2021
Genres: Fantasy , Fiction
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Del Rey
ISBN-10: 0593128508
ISBN-13: 9780593128503

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Book reviews and book adventures, review: a deadly education by naomi novik.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

Buy the book here
Page Count: 336
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Content Warnings: Death, violence

Living is lethal in A Deadly Education . In this world, having access to magic means a young death. The only chance for magical kids to survive is to attend school at the Scholomance.

But just because you’ve made it to the Scholomance doesn’t mean you’ll live. Monsters looking to prey on students lurk in every hidden corner of the school. To have no allies to watch your back is basically a death note.

El sticks to herself in the school. She’s not one for friends, and nobody knows that beneath the surface, El wields enough power to wipe out every monster in the school and beyond. But this power is dark and sinister, and using might just kill everyone else, too.

I’ll admit that this book really peaked my interest. I love my angst-filled YA, I love stories about magic, and I love books set at boarding schools. But unfortunately, not all of the pieces clicked into place seamlessly in A Deadly Education. What I hoped would be a dark, dramatic, and fun filled read turned out to be

I think A Deadly Education works rebuff comparison and association to the magical British boarding school story that we all know, branding itself as a ‘not your typical cute/warm/cozy magical school’, and I hope more stories fill this genre. It is an entertaining premise that is not owned by one person!

Let’s talk about Scholomance. All throughout, I just kept saying, why the hell would anyone send their child here? Novik repetitively provides answers to this question, explaining how the outside world is more dangerous and kids who don’t attend thee school usually die a gruesome death. So attending the Scholomance is one’s only chance at survival.

I can get into grim stories. But this book felt like it was piling on the horror just for the sake of being horrible. So you’re born with magical powers, and that means you’ll be attacked and killed by monsters as a child, or you’ll get sent to a school where for four years you’ll fight for your life against those same monsters, and then if you manage to make it that far, there’s a high likelihood that you’ll die on your last day? If you’re wondering what the main theme of A Deadly Education is, look no further than the name. Death, death, and more death are the constant looming threats of this story.

Galadriel, El, is not a hopeful protagonist. I don’t blame her. I mean, with these odds, it’s not odd to be completely soul-crushed. One of the other characters describes El’s demeanor by saying “You feel like it’s going to rain” and, honestly, they’re correct. El is a grim protagonist. She’s not hopeful.

And I think a bit of this story is about El gaining hope, but the persistent grimness of the constructed society really puts a damper on her possibilities. El is reserved and tactical. She thinks more about what people can offer her in terms of survival chances instead of considering any opportunities to care for or humanize other characters.

I wanted so badly to empathize with El as a character, because going to the Scholomance obviously sucks, but her clinical approach to other people bothered me consistently. It felt like she began the journey to understanding the value of being people as humans and not assets, but hopefully that plot will continue into the second book.

There’s an attempt for a diverse cast of characters, and El herself is written as biracial, being half-Welsh and half-Indian, but some of the shallow descriptions and detached rhetoric El uses to describe her peers aligns with what readers and writers of color have been speaking out against white authors writing in the name of ‘diverse books’.

I’ve read lots of different reviews from people who’s communities are represented in A Deadly Education because some of the descriptions in the book did not entirely sit right with me and I wanted to know what other people thought. Novik has apologized and edited one section of the book for insensitivity, but it is a small part of the bigger picture with this book and the way minority characters are spoken about in the story. I encourage readers to seek out other opinions on this source, not just mine, perhaps with this thorough analysis by A Naga of the Nusantara , a post from BookRiot , or elsewhere.

At the same time, I’ve read reviews from people who see their communities represented in this story that take no issue with the book. Just something to consider as a reader and a consumer.

One thing I did enjoy about this book was the subtle romance. The book immedately sets up a premise of El resenting the golden-sunshine-hero boy Orion. Orinon is affluent, popular, and is constantly saving people. He cares a lot and is the opposite of El in many ways. The two form an unlikely friendship, which brings much needed humor and heart to this story. I’m looking forward to seeing how El and Orion grow as individuals and as a duo in the sequel.

Overall, I was a bit underwhelmed with A Deadly Education . I liked the premise, but found that the story felt like it got so wrapped up in proving that it was dark and scary that it dragged a bit. Hopefully I can get my hands on the sequel soon, though, because I’d love to know what happens to these characters!

Marketer. Blogger. Professional Bookworm.

Writing on the Wall

Feb 14, 2021

Book Review: “A Deadly Education” gives new meaning to “school is killing me”

If the Harry Potter series was darker and murderous, it would look something like Naomi Novik’s 2020 fantasy novel “A Deadly Education.”

Set against the Scholomance boarding school that literally tries to kill its students, cynical Galadriel “El '' Higgins the resident loser of her class. Her magical affinity for apocalyptic-level destruction isn't well-suited for the social hierarchy of the Scholomance and it doesn’t help that she attracts monsters (or maleficaria) wherever she goes.

Rather than be killed by the school, monsters or her fellow students, El vows to make alliances with other students and stockpile her energy to get out of the school as quickly as possible.

Her plans come crashing down when fellow, heroic student Orion Lake saves her and mistakenly screws up the monster-school balance in the process. El and Orion relunctantly strike up an alliance to save themselves and their classmates before the school literally kills them.

Like so many other readers, I adore the enemies-to-lovers trope and Novik flawlessly indulges readers with El and Orion’s relationship. The push-and-pull dynamic between the two characters is hysterical at times, with both trying and failing to hide their feelings for one another. Their banter and melodramtics are a highlight of the novel, and by the end you’ll be screaming, “Can you two just be together already?!”

In comparison to Novik’s previous work, I was disappointed in the narrative style of “A Deadly Education.” In her wildly praised novels “Uprooted” and “Spinning Silver,” Novik’s writing is something of a masterpiece; intricate descriptions and incredible character arcs are enviable to the average writer and exemplify the magic of diving into one of her novels.

But “A Deadly Education” falls short of those beauties. The novel is entirely in El’s point of view, making for interesting commentary, but also becoming very long info dumps and streams of consciousness that could be literally cut down to a few sentences rather than two whole pages worth. Understandably, the first novel is setting the entire trilogy up, but nevertheless, the info dumps made reading “A Deadly Education” arduous and disengaging.

By the time the climax came around, I didn’t even realize it was the climax until after it took place. The info dumping is partially what contributed to the anti-climatic climax—and the rest of the novel falling short of it’s intended dramatics. There was no blood-pumping, what-are-they-going-to-do-next adrenaline that should have occurred during the last third of the book. Rather, it all fell short and only made me want to finish the book quicker.

Nevertheless, Novik’s concept is an interesting spin on the magical boarding school sub-genre and could give Harry Potter a run for it’s money. I can see the novel’s potential further down the series, but for now, I am mildly disappointed at the staleness of it.

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Book Reviews

Review: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

A Deadly Education was one of the most hyped books for this year. Magical school meets the hint of dark magic? But early POC reviews alerted us to racism against dreadlocks, the use of POC side characters as plot devices, and El’s biracial (British Indian). Since I already had the electronic early copy, I decided to read it and even if one ignored the glaring racism, I still would not recommend. Keep reading to see my full thoughts on A Deadly Education .

A 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. There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. 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. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere. El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students

(Disclaimer: I received this book from Netgalley. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)

Please make sure you check out Asma’s review which details the racism within A Deadly Education . Having read the entire review, I can second the claims of the very unnecessary racism against dreadlocks especially since the point could have been made easily without the comments. Another point that Kate (from YourTitateKate ) makes in her review , is that even the ‘diverse’ characters do not have much detail or nuance to them. Kate says that they could have been replaced by white characters who knew the specific languages and I 100% agree. She also makes the very good point that Mana is an existing concept in Polynesian religion and even though it’s being pervasively used in video games, does not make it okay.

Biracial Identity

I have had this conversation many times before. If, while I’m reading, I don’t remember someone’s identity, especially over the period of an entire book, then I seriously side eye. I am not biracial. My identity as a Chinese American has filtered through my entire life. Whether it be the way others treat me, in mostly white spaces – asking me where I’m from – or even other Chinese people speaking to me in Chinese – I don’t speak Chinese – my identity as a POC and as an adopted person is something that impacts my choices and feelings. And it doesn’t go away over time. So while I don’t share El’s biracial identity, or ethnicity, I cannot imagine a lived narration of my own life without these touches.

But What About the Other Parts?

Now you may be asking me, well what about the rest of the book. I read the entire book and even if one ignored the racism, I was not a fan. Look, I really liked Spinning Silver and Uprooted , but this was just not it for me. I kept reading because I was determined to finish, but if I wasn’t, Novik would have lost me about 40% of the way in when there was not a clear sense of plot or action. I’m fine with ‘slice of life’ stories and even with stories just about a year of school, but the amount of clunky paragraphs dedicated to explanations made it hard to slough through.

I enjoyed the idea of the school and the magic especially considering that El comes from a background where she isn’t given any advantages – unlike those part of the enclaves. This imbalance was discussed overtly and subtly throughout the book. A Deadly Education is one of those books where, ignoring the racism, I enjoyed the idea of the world, but the execution wasn’t there for me.

In addition, I felt like it was almost 80% through with the book before I felt like, “okay the action is going, the plot seems to be moving somewhere”, before I was just stumbling around. I’m also all for ‘unlikeable heroines’ (I mean there is a huge conversation I can’t get into now with that….), but El was really pushing it for me. I understand that everyone in the school is basically your competition and you have no real reason to befriend anyone, but many of her decisions didn’t make any sense to me. Additionally, it was hard for me to figure out who El was as a character, because I felt like her internal narration or emotions just weren’t delved into deeply.

I’m pretty disappointed overall with this book, not only for the racism, but also for the writing. The idea of the Scholomance is one that I really enjoyed thinking about, but the execution left me frustrated. It’s a shame because I think we have all been looking for more stories about magical schools considering the transphobic comments JK Rowling has made as well. But I gotta say that this isn’t it.

Do you have good magical school recommendations?

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A Deadly Education: Fantastic originality

Posted by Bill Capossere , Jana Nyman , Tadiana Jones and John Hulet ´s rating: 4.5 | Naomi Novik | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |

I honestly had a very hard time with the beginning of Naomi Novik ’s newest novel, A Deadly Education (2020). But based on my experience with her prior work, I kept going and though I don’t think this novel nears the strength of ones like Spinning Silver or Uprooted , I was happy I did.

El (short for Galadriel) Higgins is a student at the Scholomance, a sort of sentient, no-professors-here, boarding school for sorcerers. Students have various tracks of magic, the school presents them with lessons, supplies, and space. Which sounds nice and all, save that the school is filled with lots of monsters (called maleficaria or “mals”) of varying sizes and danger, and so opening up, say, a cabinet in a lab or taking a book off a shelf in the library might see you maimed or killed. And that’s the “good” day-to-day danger. At graduation, the seniors end up in the basement and have to fight their way free of a sea of the oldest and most dangerous maleficaria. Between the daily problems and the big graduation day, as El says, “Most of the time less than a quarter of the class makes it all the way through graduation.”

El herself is powerful, but her power comes from the ability to use other people’s lifeforce, and that, and other reasons, means she hides her abilities from her classmates. She’s a loner and has convinced herself (true or not) it’s by choice. Meanwhile, one of those classmates, the super-powerful Orion, decides it’s his job to keep an eye on her even as he’s saving hundreds of their classmates. Eventually El gets pulled into a circle, though she makes it as hard on herself and her classmates as possible, even as they hurtle toward the near-suicidal graduation “ceremony.” The question is, can she survive both her new “friends” and graduation.

As noted, I had a hard time at the start of A Deadly Education . El’s voice was too YA, too forced-snarky for me. And the first third of the book is also heavily (overly I’d argue) expositive. So I wasn’t enjoying the voice or liking the character, and the plot was constantly be interrupted by info dumps. Thus my problem.

Past the first few chapters, though, the snark starts to get toned down, the explanations are either behind the reader or more lightly dropped in, and it felt (though I can’t swear this is actually true) as if the book moved out of YA style/tone/vocabulary into more adult territory (as vague as that seems and as unintentionally dismissive of YA as that may sound). As El takes her tentative steps out from her circle of one, Novik shows a wonderfully deft manner in presenting true-to-life young anxieties. I could have done without the romance element, but outside of that, the relationships are warmly and realistically portrayed, with each of the characters deepening in tenor and richness.

The plot offers up lots of suspenseful moments and culminates with an exciting and costly battle. Along the way, Novik also drops in some pointed social criticism to add a bit of depth, as well as some lighter and laugh-worthy moments to balance out the darker, more serious aspects. And I absolutely loved the school itself, its oddness, its sense of truly wild magic, its many wonderfully original quirks, none of which I’ll spoil here. Believe me, if you think you’ve seen everything there is to see in a “magic school” story, you haven’t. This take is all Novik.

~Bill Capossere

Readers might have a hard time initially warming up to our narrator, El Higgins (don’t you dare call her by her given name, Galadriel), who’s managed to survive everything the terrifyingly lethal and incredibly amazing Scholomance has thrown at her by dint of hard work, a bottomless supply of snark, and a “weapons of mass destruction” level of magical talent. El hasn’t made it this far by playing nice and making friends, and the world certainly hasn’t made that option available to her, thanks to racism or other, equally odious, kinds of bigotry. It’s almost like the magical and mundane worlds are pushing her to become a practitioner of evil magics (a “maleficer” who exploits “malia,” in the book’s parlance) just to see how horrible she can become.

If you don’t complete a shop assignment on time, your unfinished work will animate on the due date and come after you with whatever power you’ve put into it. And if you try and get around that by not putting anything into it, or doing it wrong, the raw materials you should have used will all animate separately and come at you. It’s quite a solid teaching technique.

Equally unfortunately, El has the major headache of a silver-haired Chosen One boy from the New York enclave: Orion Lake. His over-enthusiasm for rushing into situations and tearing mals apart without a second thought has caused more problems than he can comprehend, and has absolutely not endeared him to El in any way. But through happenstance and a level of interference that provoked a lot of questions in my mind about the nature of the Scholomance, El’s social circle gradually expands; good thing, too, because her junior year rapidly becomes too dangerous for her to handle without extremely serious consequences.

In a lot of ways, A Deadly Education is the far more realistic antidote to all those happy-shiny-sparkly magical school books in which the Chosen One is amazing and wonderful and completely steamrolls over anyone else’s ability to learn anything because the Chosen One soaks up all the time and attention that should be allocated to the other students. Orion Lake might mean well, but he doesn’t see the negative effects of his actions, which El and the other members of their class constantly have to clean up after. And although Lesson One of the Scholomance is a compact book, Novik manages to work in commentary on class, privilege, discrimination, and a thoughtful cost-benefit analysis of personal agency. I was completely hooked by El’s voice, by her frustration at a lifetime’s uphill battle just to be herself, and her suspicion-evolving-into-something-else as she hesitantly allows other students to be a part of her life. And then, right at the end, Novik casts everything into doubt, making me gnash my teeth (really!) and hope fervently that the next book will be coming out soon. I’m so excited to see what lies in store for El and the others!

~Jana Nyman

Naomi Novik

The worst problem is that the only exit from the school is through a hall where the largest infestation of mals exists, a whole menagerie of monsters lying in wait to eat the majority of graduating seniors. Years ago, Galadriel’s own father died during the graduating seniors’ mass exist from the school, protecting his girlfriend, who was pregnant with El at the time. Now El is at the Scholomance herself, a third-year student doing her best to stay alive. She’s a loner, angry and resentful of everyone around her — especially Orion Lake, a privileged and popular student whose life mission seems to be protecting other students from being killed by mals. El just wants Orion to leave her alone; his constant white knighting is making her look incompetent to other students, decreasing her chances of being able to join one of the better alliances of students, who protect each other during the graduation exit when they’re running the gauntlet of mals.

El is actually a superior magician, but no one else at the Scholomance knows it; she’s been hiding her talent, hoping to dazzle her classmates into asking her to join an alliance, but also because El’s particular magical affinity is for murder and mass destruction. When Orion stubbornly refuses to leave El alone, she decides to pretend to be his girlfriend in order to leverage his popularity to get a good alliance offer. The problem is, El is so brimming with anger and resentment that she can’t resist making rude comments to all of her classmates that she’s supposed to be schmoozing up to.

I’m a big Naomi Novik fan after reading Uprooted and especially Spinning Silver , but I was dubious about A Deadly Education for the first several chapters. There’s a lot of initial info-dumping to absorb here, and El, who narrates this story, is a hard main character to warm up to. She’s defined chiefly by her snark, her anger, and her unwanted affinity for mass destruction spells. She also is frequently her own worst enemy, driving others away when it would clearly benefit her — and wouldn’t really be all that difficult — to just play nice. Main characters who are prickly and rude to others and who shoot themselves in the foot with their own decisions are a hard type for me to enjoy. (I like the secret mastermind type characters far better.)

But eventually it occurred to me how brilliant Novik is to have created a character whose natural talent is mass murder and destruction, but to have that offset by the way her sweet, open-hearted white witch mother raised her. These two opposing factors, nature vs. nurture, create a major tension within El’s character, making her an unusually interesting person to me as I got more into the book, and by the end I was fully on board with her character. Orion isn’t just a hero; he has his own issues, and the friendship (and perhaps more) between him and El has a tough road to travel.

While the Scholomance has a worldwide, highly diverse student body, the handling of this diversity is on the shallower end of the pool. I didn’t really get much of a feel for their different cultures, including El’s half-Indian heritage. Other than that, though, there are an abundance of marvelous details in the worldbuilding. El’s focus on language and linguistics plays a major role in the way her magical talents develop, and there are magical drawbacks to learning new languages as well as benefits. The benefits of wealth and social status are shown very clearly in who thrives in the Scholomance, or even just survives. The metaphor for our own society isn’t subtle, but it does play out in a realistic way.

A Deadly Education is an intriguing twist on the magic school genre and a solid beginning for THE SCHOLOMANCE trilogy. I’m excited for when the next book, The Last Graduate , comes out in 2021.

~Tadiana Jones

El, Galadriel actually, is in her third year in the Scholomance. Think Hogwarts without the teachers, with no breaks to go home, no mail from your family and so many things trying to kill you that the survival rate just to make it all 4 years is low. She’s pretty grumpy, but you might be too if you were struggling to survive and you’d chosen to do it on your own terms instead of currying favor from the rich kids in school.

Novik does a terrific job of creating a place that feels menacing and interesting at the same time. I don’t want to go there, but I am quite happy to read about it. El has grown up with nothing but a mother who loves her and annoys her in equal measure. It’s got to be a challenge when one of you heals and cures with ease and the other has to restrain themself to avoid creating death and destruction on a whim. As the story evolves this relationship is one that kind of tugged at my heart.

Inject into this challenging environment one Orion Lake, hero-at-large. Where others run from the things that go bump in the dark, Orion charges into the dark and usually kills whatever caused the bump. The number of lives he’s saved grows by the day. And, of course, he annoys the hell out of El. She’s just trying to get through this, keep her head down and avoid unleashing Armageddon, but with Orion just happening to save her life over and over she keeps getting stuck hanging around him when she’d really much rather kill him.

Novik’s characters are so interesting. There are layers and revelations and sometimes I literally laughed out loud. If opposites attract then El and Orion will be bumping into each other a lot as the story progresses and El finds her way through the school year. Can she do it without killing anyone? Will she do it without dipping into the dark arts that seem practically made for her? It’s a lot of fun to follow.

This really feels like a YA book because it’s not terribly graphic about anything. That’s not a knock on the story, because the characters are ideal for the YA audience, but the story is so fun and interesting that I have already pre-ordered the next one. My one complaint is that there are pages of internal dialogue and explanations that I found myself skipping. I’m sure there was lots of stuff that would have been interesting, but I was too eager to keep the story rolling to slog through them. A minor annoyance, but not enough to keep me from recommending this whole heartedly.

~John Hulet

BILL CAPOSSERE, who's been with us since June 2007, lives in Rochester NY, where he is an English adjunct by day and a writer by night. His essays and stories have appeared in Colorado Review, Rosebud, Alaska Quarterly, and other literary journals, along with a few anthologies, and been recognized in the "Notable Essays" section of Best American Essays. His children's work has appeared in several magazines, while his plays have been given stage readings at GEVA Theatre and Bristol Valley Playhouse. When he's not writing, reading, reviewing, or teaching, he can usually be found with his wife and son on the frisbee golf course or the ultimate frisbee field.

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JANA NYMAN, with us since January 2015, is a freelance copy-editor who has lived all over the United States, but now makes her home in Colorado with her dog and a Wookiee. Jana was exposed to science fiction and fantasy at an early age, watching Star Wars and Star Trek movie marathons with her family and reading works by Robert Heinlein and Ray Bradbury WAY before she was old enough to understand them; thus began a lifelong fascination with what it means to be human. Jana enjoys reading all kinds of books, but her particular favorites are fairy- and folktales (old and new), fantasy involving dragons or other mythological beasties, contemporary science fiction, and superhero fiction. Some of her favorite authors are James Tiptree, Jr., Madeleine L'Engle, Ann Leckie, N.K. Jemisin, and Seanan McGuire.

TADIANA JONES, on our staff since July 2015, is an intellectual property lawyer with a BA in English. She inherited her love of classic and hard SF from her father and her love of fantasy and fairy tales from her mother. She lives with her husband and four children in a small town near the mountains in Utah. Tadiana juggles her career, her family, and her love for reading, travel and art, only occasionally dropping balls. She likes complex and layered stories and characters with hidden depths. Favorite authors include Lois McMaster Bujold, Brandon Sanderson, Robin McKinley, Connie Willis, Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, Megan Whalen Turner, Patricia McKillip, Mary Stewart, Ilona Andrews, and Susanna Clarke.

JOHN HULET is a member of the Utah Army National Guard. John’s experiences have often left a great void that has been filled by countless hours spent between the pages of a book lost in the words and images of the authors he admires. During a 12 month tour of Iraq, he spent well over $1000 on books and found sanity in the process. John lives in Utah and works slavishly to prepare soldiers to serve their country with the honor and distinction that Sturm Brightblade or Arithon s’Ffalenn would be proud of. John retired from FanLit in March 2015 after being with us for nearly 8 years. We still hear from him every once in a while.

April 30th, 2021. Bill Capossere , Jana Nyman , Tadiana Jones and John Hulet ´s rating: 4.5 | Naomi Novik | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |

I really want to read it, but am concerned about the reports of racism. Maybe, I’ll read some of the other books and/or wait to see what the part tow of this series is like. Sounds good though. =)

The author is going to edit and re-release the book. It’ll be on my to be read list. =)

Novik’s comments about the reprints can be found here: https://twitter.com/naominovik/status/1315062787144638465

Thanks Jana! Truthfully, the sample that you shared hooked me. I have to see who survived these “solid teaching techniques” and how.

You’re welcome! Happy reading!

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Review: A Deadly Education

Galadriel, or in A DEADLY EDUCATION she’s known as “El”, is a junior at The Scholomance, a school of magic. You can think Hogwarts if you want, but instead of summer holidays or weekend trips for butterbeer, the students must ward their bedroom or else be eaten by magical creatures who consider young students a tasty snack. When students graduate, they face a gauntlet of the worst magical and student-eating baddies the school has to offer, and if they don’t have an alliance or an arsenal of spells ready, they won’t make it. The school matriculation rate is pretty abysmal.

At least until Orion Lake came along, whose affinity for fighting magical baddies has kept the student population, if not at 100%, has at least given the kids inside a fighting chance. Even El has been saved from the occasional baddie by Orion a few times now, even when she didn’t need it, and it’s made her downright cranky. Who does he think he is, anyway? If only he knew about El’s affinity. Think “love me and despair.” Which, actually, isn’t too far off from Orion’s suspicion that she’s siphoning off the life force of her fellow students to power her own magic, so he sticks close to keep an eye on her. What he doesn’t expect (or El, either) is that her annoyed attitude toward him–compared to the fawning of the rest of the student population–is refreshing and honest. Will this lead to friendship? Or maybe something more? Naomi Novik just gets better with every book. I loved her UPROOTED ( EBR Review ) and SPINNING SILVER ( EBR Review ), and of course her Temeraire books. A DEADLY EDUCATION combines all that we loved about Hogwarts but takes it to a (ridiculous? maybe not) logical conclusion that magic is crazy dangerous and that there’s more to learning about it than potions and defense against the dark arts. Novik dumps the reader straight into the Scholomance world, with its convoluted rules (sometimes over-the-top, but it’s all in good fun), most of which the students have to learn the hard way, and if they don’t, they will die a painful and horrible death. Conservation of mana is a thing (seriously, Rowling, how was this never considered?), and it actually plays a big part in El’s life. She can’t cast without it, but it’s not easy to come by, and her lone wolf lifestyle makes it hard to pool resources with others. It’s fascinating to watch her navigate the world she lives in while trying to live up to her mother’s expectations.

El’s personality starts off grating (she can sure be a whiner) but as you get to know her, you understand what’s beneath that gruff exterior, and come to realize why the other students respect her–and even why Orion is fascinated with her. Watching her grow during the course of the novel is a true coming-of-age story, even if it is a horror-ridden setting (honestly, I cannot wait to see how she progresses in the second book). Orion’s personality arc isn’t as pronounced, mostly because the POV is from El, but it’s still interesting to see how El helps him to understand himself better, and well as help him understand how he relates to other people. As the reader begins to understand him better, it’s easy to see why El doesn’t mind having him around, even if she starts off the book wanting to kill him off.

We meet El, a witch in training, in A DEADLY EDUCATION, where magical schooling means survival of the most ruthless.

The story gets a little bogged down in the middle (not unusual for a Novik book, but be patient, she’s laying important groundwork), otherwise the story moves forward at a steady pace, and by the halfway mark it starts to pick up steam and I stayed up too late to finish the book. The story didn’t go where I expected, which I liked, because Novik always does better than I can imagine for myself. She sets the story up well for the sequel–there are just the two books–and I fully expect awesome things from El during graduation.

Recommended Age: 13+
Language: A handful of f-bombs
Violence: Fighting and death, but not gory
Sex: Referenced

Series links: The Scholomance

# 1: A Deadly Education — This Review — Amazon — Audible — Bookshop.org
# 2: The Last Graduate — EBR Review — Amazon — Audible — Bookshop.org
# 3: The Golden Enclaves — EBR Review — Amazon — Audible — Bookshop.org

Author Links:

Naomi Novik — Website — EBR Reviews

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A Deadly Education

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Uprooted and Spinning Silver comes the story of an unwilling dark sorceress who is destined to rewrite the rules of magic. 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 me to do. 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 itself 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 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.

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A Deadly Education: A Novel (The Scholomance Book 1)

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A Deadly Education: A Novel (The Scholomance Book 1) Kindle Edition

Book 1 of 3 The Scholomance
Print length 338 pages
Language English
Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
Publisher Del Rey
Publication date September 29, 2020
File size 8552 KB
Page Flip Enabled
Word Wise Enabled
Enhanced typesetting Enabled
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deadly education;school of magic;witchcraft;witches;epic fantasy;YA fantasy;coming of age;scifi

Editorial Reviews

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B083RZC8KQ
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Del Rey (September 29, 2020)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 29, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 8552 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 338 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1529100879
#48 in Teen & Young Adult Coming of Age Fantasy eBooks
#173 in Coming of Age Fantasy (Books)
#314 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books)

About the author

Naomi novik.

An avid reader of fantasy literature since age six, Naomi Novik is also a history buff with a particular fascination with the Napoleonic era and a fondness for the work of Patrick O'Brian and Jane Austen. She lives with her husband and daughter in New York City along with many purring computers.

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‘Civil War’ Review: We Have Met the Enemy and It Is Us. Again.

In Alex Garland’s tough new movie, a group of journalists led by Kirsten Dunst, as a photographer, travels a United States at war with itself.

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‘Civil War’ | Anatomy of a Scene

The writer and director alex garland narrates a sequence from his film..

“My name is Alex Garland and I’m the writer director of ‘Civil War’. So this particular clip is roughly around the halfway point of the movie and it’s these four journalists and they’re trying to get, in a very circuitous route, from New York to DC, and encountering various obstacles on the way. And this is one of those obstacles. What they find themselves stuck in is a battle between two snipers. And they are close to one of the snipers and the other sniper is somewhere unseen, but presumably in a large house that sits over a field and a hill. It’s a surrealist exchange and it’s surrounded by some very surrealist imagery, which is they’re, in broad daylight in broad sunshine, there’s no indication that we’re anywhere near winter in the filming. In fact, you can kind of tell it’s summer. But they’re surrounded by Christmas decorations. And in some ways, the Christmas decorations speak of a country, which is in disrepair, however silly it sounds. If you haven’t put away your Christmas decorations, clearly something isn’t going right.” “What’s going on?” “Someone in that house, they’re stuck. We’re stuck.” “And there’s a bit of imagery. It felt like it hit the right note. But the interesting thing about that imagery was that it was not production designed. We didn’t create it. We actually literally found it. We were driving along and we saw all of these Christmas decorations, basically exactly as they are in the film. They were about 100 yards away, just piled up by the side of the road. And it turned out, it was a guy who’d put on a winter wonderland festival. People had not dug his winter wonderland festival, and he’d gone bankrupt. And he had decided just to leave everything just strewn around on a farmer’s field, who was then absolutely furious. So in a way, there’s a loose parallel, which is the same implication that exists within the film exists within real life.” “You don’t understand a word I say. Yo. What’s over there in that house?” “Someone shooting.” “It’s to do with the fact that when things get extreme, the reasons why things got extreme no longer become relevant and the knife edge of the problem is all that really remains relevant. So it doesn’t actually matter, as it were, in this context, what side they’re fighting for or what the other person’s fighting for. It’s just reduced to a survival.”

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A blunt, gut-twisting work of speculative fiction, “Civil War” opens with the United States at war with itself — literally, not just rhetorically. In Washington, D.C., the president is holed up in the White House; in a spookily depopulated New York, desperate people wait for water rations. It’s the near-future, and rooftop snipers, suicide bombers and wild-eyed randos are in the fight while an opposition faction with a two-star flag called the Western Forces, comprising Texas and California — as I said, this is speculative fiction — is leading the charge against what remains of the federal government. If you’re feeling triggered, you aren’t alone.

It’s mourning again in America, and it’s mesmerizingly, horribly gripping. Filled with bullets, consuming fires and terrific actors like Kirsten Dunst running for cover, the movie is a what-if nightmare stoked by memories of Jan. 6. As in what if the visions of some rioters had been realized, what if the nation was again broken by Civil War, what if the democratic experiment called America had come undone? If that sounds harrowing, you’re right. It’s one thing when a movie taps into childish fears with monsters under the bed; you’re eager to see what happens because you know how it will end (until the sequel). Adult fears are another matter.

In “Civil War,” the British filmmaker Alex Garland explores the unbearable if not the unthinkable, something he likes to do. A pop cultural savant, he made a splashy zeitgeist-ready debut with his 1996 best seller “The Beach,” a novel about a paradise that proves deadly, an evergreen metaphor for life and the basis for a silly film . That things in the world are not what they seem, and are often far worse, is a theme that Garland has continued pursuing in other dark fantasies, first as a screenwriter (“ 28 Days Later ”), and then as a writer-director (“ Ex Machina ”). His résumé is populated with zombies, clones and aliens, though reliably it is his outwardly ordinary characters you need to keep a closer watch on.

By the time “Civil War” opens, the fight has been raging for an undisclosed period yet long enough to have hollowed out cities and people’s faces alike. It’s unclear as to why the war started or who fired the first shot. Garland does scatter some hints; in one ugly scene, a militia type played by a jolting, scarily effective Jesse Plemons asks captives “what kind of American” they are. Yet whatever divisions preceded the conflict are left to your imagination, at least partly because Garland assumes you’ve been paying attention to recent events. Instead, he presents an outwardly and largely post-ideological landscape in which debates over policies, politics and American exceptionalism have been rendered moot by war.

‘Civil War’ Is Designed to Disturb You

A woman with a bulletproof vest that says “Press” stands in a smoky city street.

One thing that remains familiar amid these ruins is the movie’s old-fashioned faith in journalism. Dunst, who’s sensational, plays Lee, a war photographer who works for Reuters alongside her friend, a reporter, Joel (the charismatic Wagner Moura). They’re in New York when you meet them, milling through a crowd anxiously waiting for water rations next to a protected tanker. It’s a fraught scene; the restless crowd is edging into mob panic, and Lee, camera in hand, is on high alert. As Garland’s own camera and Joel skitter about, Lee carves a path through the chaos, as if she knows exactly where she needs to be — and then a bomb goes off. By the time it does, an aspiring photojournalist, Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), is also in the mix.

The streamlined, insistently intimate story takes shape once Lee, Joel, Jessie and a veteran reporter, Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), pile into a van and head to Washington. Joel and Lee are hoping to interview the president (Nick Offerman), and Sammy and Jessie are riding along largely so that Garland can make the trip more interesting. Sammy serves as a stabilizing force (Henderson fills the van with humanizing warmth), while Jessie plays the eager upstart Lee takes under her resentful wing. It’s a tidily balanced sampling that the actors, with Garland’s banter and via some cozy downtime, turn into flesh-and-blood personalities, people whose vulnerability feeds the escalating tension with each mile.

As the miles and hours pass, Garland adds diversions and hurdles, including a pair of playful colleagues, Tony and Bohai (Nelson Lee and Evan Lai), and some spooky dudes guarding a gas station. Garland shrewdly exploits the tense emptiness of the land, turning strangers into potential threats and pretty country roads into ominously ambiguous byways. Smartly, he also recurrently focuses on Lee’s face, a heartbreakingly hard mask that Dunst lets slip brilliantly. As the journey continues, Garland further sketches in the bigger picture — the dollar is near-worthless, the F.B.I. is gone — but for the most part, he focuses on his travelers and the engulfing violence, the smoke and the tracer fire that they often don’t notice until they do.

Despite some much-needed lulls (for you, for the narrative rhythm), “Civil War” is unremittingly brutal or at least it feels that way. Many contemporary thrillers are far more overtly gruesome than this one, partly because violence is one way unimaginative directors can put a distinctive spin on otherwise interchangeable material: Cue the artful fountains of arterial spray. Part of what makes the carnage here feel incessant and palpably realistic is that Garland, whose visual approach is generally unfussy, doesn’t embellish the violence, turning it into an ornament of his virtuosity. Instead, the violence is direct, at times shockingly casual and unsettling, so much so that its unpleasantness almost comes as a surprise.

If the violence feels more intense than in a typical genre shoot ’em up, it’s also because, I think, with “Civil War,” Garland has made the movie that’s long been workshopped in American political discourse and in mass culture, and which entered wider circulation on Jan. 6. The raw power of Garland’s vision unquestionably owes much to the vivid scenes that beamed across the world that day when rioters, some wearing T-shirts emblazoned with “ MAGA civil war ,” swarmed the Capitol. Even so, watching this movie, I also flashed on other times in which Americans have relitigated the Civil War directly and not, on the screen and in the streets.

Movies have played a role in that relitigation for more than a century, at times grotesquely. Two of the most famous films in history — D.W. Griffith’s 1915 racist epic “The Birth of a Nation” (which became a Ku Klux Klan recruitment tool) and the romantic 1939 melodrama “Gone With the Wind” — are monuments to white supremacy and the myth of the Southern Lost Cause. Both were critical and popular hits. In the decades since, filmmakers have returned to the Civil War era to tell other stories in films like “Glory,” “Lincoln” and “Django Unchained” that in addressing the American past inevitably engage with its present.

There are no lofty or reassuring speeches in “Civil War,” and the movie doesn’t speak to the better angels of our nature the way so many films try to. Hollywood’s longstanding, deeply American imperative for happy endings maintains an iron grip on movies, even in ostensibly independent productions. There’s no such possibility for that in “Civil War.” The very premise of Garland’s movie means that — no matter what happens when or if Lee and the rest reach Washington — a happy ending is impossible, which makes this very tough going. Rarely have I seen a movie that made me so acutely uncomfortable or watched an actor’s face that, like Dunst’s, expressed a nation’s soul-sickness so vividly that it felt like an X-ray.

Civil War Rated R for war violence and mass death. Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic for The Times. More about Manohla Dargis

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Even before his new film “Civil War” was released, the writer-director Alex Garland faced controversy over his vision of a divided America with Texas and California as allies.

Theda Hammel’s directorial debut, “Stress Positions,” a comedy about millennials weathering the early days of the pandemic , will ask audiences to return to a time that many people would rather forget.

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“Sasquatch Sunset” follows the creatures as they go about their lives. We had so many questions. The film’s cast and crew had answers .

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Scott Morrison-era ‘accounting tricks’ to cost public schools $13bn over next five years

National School Resourcing Board’s review finds state schools lost more than $2bn in 2022 due to a Coalition-era loophole

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Australia’s public schools will miss out on $13bn in the next five years if accounting tricks are maintained in upcoming funding agreements, a major report has found.

The National School Resourcing Board’s annual review, tabled in parliament last week, showed government schools lost more than $2bn in 2022 because of a Morrison-era loophole that allows states and territories to claim up to 4% of public school funding on non-school expenditures.

The federal education minister, Jason Clare, has indicated the 4% will not be reviewed until the next round of funding agreements – scheduled for 2030.

Modelling provided to Guardian Australia by the Save our Schools convener, Trevor Cobbold, suggests that if Clare’s position remains, public schools will miss out on about $13bn in funding to the end of the decade.

Under the agreement, all jurisdictions except the Australian Capital Territory can claim expenditures specifically excluded from how the Schooling Resource Standard is measured, including school transport, capital depreciation, childcare and ongoing funding to regulatory bodies.

The report found $2.2bn was claimed by states on non-school spending in 2022 that would otherwise have been used on meeting the need of public schools.

The biggest loss was in New South Wales ($613m) followed by Victoria and Queensland – ($564m and $534m respectively).

New in-principle agreements reached to “fully” fund public schools in Western Australia and Northern Territory have retained the 4%, causing backlash from the Australian Education Union and the Greens.

The former shadow education minister Tanya Plibersek had promised Labor would end the “accounting tricks” if elected.

Cobbold said the report was “official confirmation” funding agreements were “heavily biased” against public schools .

“The new in-principle agreements show the Albanese government is prepared to … play a greater role in the funding of public schools,” he said.

“However, this cannot be achieved while accounting tricks are retained in the agreements.”

All states excluding the ACT funded public schools below 80% of the SRS in 2022, the report showed, to a shortfall of about $5.3bn. At the same time, states over-funded private schools by $480m.

The Northern Territory fell exceedingly short – contributing just 56.5% of required funding to its public schools – making it non-compliant for the third year in a row.

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The board pointed to mitigating factors, including acute teacher shortages, but expressed concern the territory “may not have the appropriate infrastructure and adequate system oversight” to achieve full funding within “desired timeframes”.

The Australian Education Union federal president, Correna Haythorpe, said the situation in the NT was “shameful”. “There is effectively no funding for one in four public school students now.”

But she pointed to other jurisdictions that appeared to be downplaying their ability to provide greater funding to schools, despite pushing to maintain the 4% clause.

The report showed WA and NSW were already funding public schools at 78% in 2022, which is significantly higher than was required under their agreements with the federal government.

Despite this, the NSW government, as well as Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, have argued they need the commonwealth to increase its contribution to public school – from 20% to 25%.

The NSW education minister, Prue Car, told parliament in November governments were facing “unprecedented pressure”. “Our government has committed to reach 75% of the SRS by 2025 – that’s two years earlier than the previous government’s target,” she said at the time.

But Haythorpe noted that NSW surpassed that 75% target in 2022. She said this meant WA and NSW didn’t need to “rely on loopholes” to reach 100% of the SRS.

A spokesperson for the WA government said all jurisdictions bilateral agreements allowed them to include the 4% of the SRS, which included delivering kindergarten in school settings in WA and “direct transport costs” to and from school.

Car was approached for comment.

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A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1)
A 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. There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won't allow its ...
REVIEW: 'A Deadly Education' by Naomi Novik needs some wow-factor
October 6, 2020. Two days after finishing A Deadly Education, I am still struggling to understand exactly how I felt about this book. From the Blurb: Enter a school of magic unlike any you have ever encountered. There are no teachers, no holidays, friendships are purely strategic, and the odds of survival are never equal.
Mini Review: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik : r/Fantasy
Mini Review: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. I was initially turned off this novel several times by the opening text, which seemed to imply the heroine was an over-the-top villain-protagonist. That is not the case. In a world where magic follows rules of balance and everyone has a talent for a specific area of magic, the heroine's mother got ...
A DEADLY EDUCATION
The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school. Unrelenting, and not in a good way. 5.
A Deadly Education
A Deadly Education is a 2020 fantasy novel written by American author Naomi Novik following Galadriel "El" Higgins, a half-Welsh, half-Indian sorceress, who must survive to graduation while controlling her destructive abilities at a school of magic very loosely inspired by the legend of the Scholomance.It was published by Del Rey on September 29, 2020 and is the first book of The Scholomance ...
A Deadly Education Review by Naomi Novik (Scholomance #1)
A Deadly Education is an easy read, but it's hard to read. It's a short read, but it's a long read. It's complicated. On one hand, you have our heroine, Galadriel, who is so likable (to the reader, everyone in the book hates her) and has such a great voice that you can't help but turn pages.
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
A Deadly Education (Scholomance #1), by Naomi Novik, is the first book from Novik's planned Scholomance Trilogy. In Novik's new series, the wizarding world is a dangerous one, full of monsters and creatures that feed on wizards and the power they possess. Meanwhile, El is a junior at the school who has unusually powerful natural abilities ...
BOOK REVIEW: A Deadly Education (The Scholomance #1) by Naomi Novik
A Deadly Education (The Scholomance #1) by Naomi Novik Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks Add to: Goodreads Synopsis: 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.
A Deadly Education
Genres: Fantasy, Fiction. Paperback: 336 pages. Publisher: Del Rey. ISBN-10: 0593128508. ISBN-13: 9780593128503. Every sorcerer has a gift: a talent for transformation, a taste for combat magic. And mastering their gifts in a unique magical academy means a chance of being invited into the enclaves, the world's magical elite.
A Deadly Education
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 ...
Review: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
Review: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. Posted on July 11, 2022 December 12, ... I think A Deadly Education works rebuff comparison and association to the magical British boarding school story that we all know, branding itself as a 'not your typical cute/warm/cozy magical school', and I hope more stories fill this genre. It is an ...
A Deadly Education
Nebula Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Naomi Novik returns with the can't-miss fantasy of fall 2020, a brutal coming-of-power story steeped in the aesthetics of dark academia. The Scholomance school in Wales has a very specific purpose: Uphold the balance of good and evil, and prevent the latter from running rampant. The evil here […]
Book Review: "A Deadly Education" gives new meaning to "school is
If the Harry Potter series was darker and murderous, it would look something like Naomi Novik's 2020 fantasy novel "A Deadly Education.". Set against the Scholomance boarding school that literally tries to kill its students, cynical Galadriel "El '' Higgins the resident loser of her class. Her magical affinity for apocalyptic-level ...
Book Review: A Deadly Education
Review. A Deadly Education is the first in an all new series from acclaimed author Naomi Novik, and follows a young girl called El as she attempts to survive her years in the Scholomance - a school for children with magicial abilities. The only trouble is the school is not a typical boarding school - monsters hide in every corner and the ...
Book Marks reviews of A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
As a reader, nothing is more thrilling than discovering an author blessed with boundless imagination. A Deadly Education will cement Naomi Novik's place as one of the greatest and most versatile fantasy writers of our time. Intricate world-building, a nuanced and diverse cast and a thrilling plot culminate in the kind of pulse-pounding ending ...
REVIEW: 'A Deadly Education' by Naomi Novik
POWERED BY Bookshop.org. A Deadly Education: A TikTok sensation and Sunday Times b... By Naomi Novik. £9.99 £9.49. Buy This Book Supporting local bookshops. I was immediately impressed with the world building. There is something refreshing and unique about the setting and how the characters have to interact with their surroundings.
Review: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
Summary. A 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. There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won't allow ...
A Deadly Education: Fantastic originality
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. I honestly had a very hard time with the beginning of Naomi Novik's newest novel, A Deadly Education (2020). But based on my experience with her prior work, I kept going and though I don't think this novel nears the strength of ones like Spinning Silver or Uprooted, I was happy I did.. El (short for Galadriel) Higgins is a student at the Scholomance, a ...
Review: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
The story didn't go where I expected, which I liked, because Novik always does better than I can imagine for myself. She sets the story up well for the sequel-there are just the two books-and I fully expect awesome things from El during graduation. Recommended Age: 13+. Language: A handful of f-bombs. Violence: Fighting and death, but not ...
A Deadly Education
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 ...
A Deadly Education
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the New York Times bestselling author of Uprooted and Spinning Silver comes the story of an unwilling dark sorceress who is destined to rewrite the rules of magic. I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life. Everyone loves Orion Lake. Everyone else, that is.
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A Deadly Education: A Novel (The Scholomance Book 1)
Naomi Novik is the New York Times bestselling author of A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate, and The Golden Enclaves, the award-winning novels Uprooted and Spinning Silver, and the Temeraire series. She is a founder of the Organization for Transformative Works and the Archive of Our Own. She lives in New York City with her family and six ...
'Civil War' Review: We Have Met the Enemy and It Is Us. Again
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REVIEW: ‘A Deadly Education’ by Naomi Novik needs some wow-factor

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