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 TrilogyI decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second … 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
“The can’t-miss fantasy of fall 2020, a brutal coming-of-power story steeped in the aesthetics of dark academia. . . . A Deadly Education will cement Naomi Novik’s place as one of the greatest and most versatile fantasy writers of our time.”—BookPage (starred review)
“A must-read . . . Novik puts a refreshingly dark, adult spin on the magical boarding school. . . . Readers will delight in the push-and-pull of El and Orion’s relationship, the fantastically detailed world, the clever magic system, and the matter-of-fact diversity of the student body.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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Friendship in spite of itself; danger that doesn’t quit—what a wildly magical ride!
Hilarious and wild! Take any fictional magic school, make it as over-the-top dangerous as possible, and populate it with a bunch of snarky teenagers; the result is pure batshit fun.
A Deadly Education is a nightmare from which I never wished to wake: savage, inventive, and soulful. Novik grasps the totems of childhood that linger in your mind—schools of magic, curses, cutthroat classmates, monsters—only to twist them into a grand new tale that’ll make you believe in magic again.
A Deadly Education is a book that lives up to its gobsmacker of an opening sentence and follows right through to its shocker of an ending that promises more to come. Naomi Novik is relentlessly innovative and entertaining.
At the Scholomance, monsters are everywhere and the breakfast might kill you, but the wonderful cast of characters will grab ahold of your heart and you’ll never want to leave this deadly school. Naomi Novik skillfully combines sharp humor with layers of imagination to build a fantasy that delights on every level. I loved this brilliant book.
This book had me Dying… in all the best ways.
Galadriel is a rebel outcast who could destroy the entire school, but neurotically sticks to the path of good… without credit, glory, or even a freaking “Thank you!” Probably doesn’t help that she’s rude and snubs the elite coven kids every chance she gets. (A girl after my own heart.)
Then there’s Orion Lake… hero AND loner. Really good at killing monsters and super oblivious and awkward about praise and social situations. Everyone fawns over him, except for Galadriel. It is Hilarious the way her insults turn Orion into a loyal puppy following her around. But it’s much more than that. I adored the genuine friendship that develops between such an unlikely, yet well-matched pair.
All of the dark love in my heart goes out to A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik.
(Purchased the beautiful hardback edition and can’t wait for book 2!!)
I have such mixed feelings about this book. I generally love Naomi Novik’s books, and once I heard this one compared to Harry Potter, I knew I had to read it. I was so excited to dive in, but quickly realized that comparisons to the Potterverse are completely unfounded. Besides sharing a magical school, the series have absolutely nothing in common. A better comparison might be Carry On if it had been written by Sarah J. Maas, Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood style.
It took me ages to get into the story – I felt like I had to slog through the first 40% of info-dumping and frankly tedious world building. This world seems unnecessarily complicated, detailed at the level of a many-book series but thrown at you in only a hundred pages, usually in the “tell, don’t show” method. This book was full of magic that largely felt pointless and destructive, and it never really becomes clear why anyone would actually want to be a wizard when there is always the option to stop doing magic, become a “mundane”, and just live your life without the constant threat of being eaten. However, when the action does finally appear on the page and we start to see other nuanced characters besides El, the pace picks up and the book becomes difficult to put down. I can see how a sequel would be so much better with all the requisite world-building out of the way, though how I wonder how it will manage to stay interesting when the characters are apparently locked in the school for another year with not much else to do besides fight monsters and try not to die. I do think I recommend this book, but be warned going in that the beginning is slow-going!
The Scholomance is the dark school of magic I’ve been waiting for, and its wise, witty, and monstrous heroine is one I’d happily follow anywhere—even into a school full of monsters.
Magical academies don’t get any more fascinating – or dangerous – than the Scholomance! I loved the powerful world-building balanced by the strong protagonist and narrative voice. Gripping stuff.
A Deadly Education is such an interesting twist on the Magical Academy genre. It’s kind like of like Hogwarts but what if everything was trying to kill you all the time? I love that it’s written in first person and the main character is so relatable and interesting. I recommend it to anyone who wants to get lost in a fantasy world that feels real. Can’t wait for the sequel!
Side Note: This book got me through Election Night! I was saving this book because I love Naomi Novik and I knew I needed something really special to keep my mind off what was happening. Thank goodness I had it in reserve because what a nail biter! I was able to fall into her world and forget the real world for the entire night (I was up until 5 am reading) and I am so grateful for the escape.
A Deadly Education, The Scholomance 1, is the best book I’ve read this year, and I’ve read quite a few. I like Novik’s Temeraire series set in an alt-history Regency universe with dragons, so I was eager to read this one when I received a review copy from NetGalley. Her new series couldn’t be farther from the sophisticated historical fantasy—and it’s all the better for it.
The book is being advertised as Harry Potter meets The Fight Club, and it’s sort of accurate and not accurate at all. It’s young adult (urban) fantasy set in a school for sorcerers. But unlike in Harry Potter, it’s not a safe haven from the scary real world. The students are inducted at fourteen and they graduate four years later—if they’re still alive. Because the school is actively trying to kill them. There are no adults to help them, no sage elders. There are no teachers. There are only the students and hungry monsters. And the fight is constant. There are no safe places and they can’t get out except at graduation, and for that they have to exit through a huge hall teeming with the killer monsters. Not everyone survives.
Galadriel is on her second to last year, and she’s doing fairly well. She would do better if she gave into her affinity to dark magic, but she knows that if she does, she’ll become an unstoppable monster. So she hides her true nature and sticks to the good magic. But other students shun her, for no reason that she can understand. In a school that tries to constantly kill one, she need friends and allies. She can’t even take a shower without someone watching her back. She has no one.
Then Orion Lake, the hero of her year, takes interest in her, saving her from a monster after another. That’s what he does. He’s brilliant at keeping people alive. Galadriel resents him for it—the book starts with her contemplating his murder—but he seems to be impervious to her anger. And to her amazement, he starts hanging out with her. And with him, come other people. Not being alone is a new experience for her. What follows is basically a growth story about an angry loner, a fairly typical one at that, with popular kids versus the shunned ones and finding one’s true friends. There’s a little bit of romance there as well, but in a school where anyone can die at any moment, one doesn’t want to get too attached. Especially since it turns out that by saving all those students, Orion has only managed to make the monsters even hungrier—and they’re out to get the entire school.
What makes this book so brilliant is the world Novik has created. It’s rich and terrifying, and the narrative doesn’t spend a moment longer than necessary at explaining things. We learn as we go with Galadriel, her stream of consciousness describing both the school and the outside world in an exhausting but unputdownable manner. The chapters and paragraphs are long, but the reader plunges right in there with her and is in for a ride. The ending is satisfying, with a hook that guarantees I’m going to want to read the next book. Instantly, if that were possible.
This was so good! Naomi Novik is brilliant. Who knew we needed an evil Hogwarts meets the Hunger Games book? I gulped down the kindle version then got the paperback for a birthday present and fully intend to read it again very soon! Go forth and enjoy! I am going to be stalking to find out when the next one is out!
Take magical teens and throw them into a potentially deadly school with no really noticeable adult involvement. Isolate them from most contact with their families and keep them there until they are skilled enough and connected enough to, by theory, face the constant onslaught of dark forces attempting to kill them. They attend the school because to remain in the outside would leave them even more vulnerable to attack by the monsters (which considering not a chapter seems to go by without at least one attack, that must be saying something – although one does suppose the adult in the kids’ lives in their magical enclaves and communities should be able to do something to keep their young safe.)
Add to these terrified youngsters a glowing hero named Orion. The entire student body woos fellow student Orion who dispatches the evil intentioned creatures with seeming ease.
Well, everyone except our first person lead POV character. Orion keeps “saving” her, though she’d really rather he didn’t. She has plenty of power on her own and doesn’t need Orion strutting in and making messes for her to clean up. Especially if she’s to form any alliances of her own, despite a terrible (and foretold) potential she may yet grow into.
In A Deadly Education, Naomi Novik created a truly intriguing and misunderstood lead character, an interesting setting, and a new approach to magic. It is told through the (most likely) tainted perspective of a prickly, mostly antisocial loner, though El (short for Galadriel – yes, she’s named for the Tolkien character) does make strides toward a more civil outlook during her character arc. The book built a world ripe for exploration by the terrified-but-talented students (most of whom the author will doubtless explore in greater detail in the next installments), and although I saw the end’s twist coming, it provided a great building block for the sequel. Because, yes, this apparently is the first in a series.
If Harry Potter had been more realistic, then you’d have A Deadly Education! For fans of Harry Potter, Howl’s Moving Castle, Spiderwick, etc. The characters will have you rooting for them the whole time!
Dark Academia, at its best, A Deadly Education, gives readers a magical tale of Galadriel – El – as she focuses on surviving the dark magic in the school with her destructive power, wit, and spitfire spirit.
Something Different
Usually, when you think of a school of magic, your mind instantly goes to Hogwarts. That is not a bad thing, but I can personally say that is not the scholomance. The Scholomance is a magic school, but it is located in the void, surrounded by monsters that hunt out magic users for food. That is, of course, a simplistic summary of the book.
Now, once you are in school, there is no way out except graduation or death. Yes, you read that correctly. The school is in the void; no one knows if you can escape the void by walking through it, what with all the monsters within it.
There are no teachers, no headmasters, no adults, just students who form alliances rather than friendships in their quest to learn and survive the school.
Together, all of the above make A Deadly Education a unique and fun novel. It is magical, there are monsters at every turn, and it is unpredictable. You have no idea which direction this novel is going to go. However, that is what makes it incredible.
Novik’s talent for storytelling is incredible. Her pacing grounds the reader in the premise and world she is building up, making it engaging from beginning to end.
All Shall Love Galadriel & Despair
Novik also did an incredible job with her characterization. El is the wittiest character in the world. She is this sorceress who has a proclivity for destruction. Not because she wants it but because this is how she was born. Some people, like Orion, have a proclivity for combat magic, others for alchemy, and so on. Her magic manifested this way, creating this dark cloud around her that pushes people away. Even as a child, she did not understand why people instantly disliked her until she discovered her magic.
This has made her a sarcastic loner who now intentionally drives people away. El decided when she went to school that friends were not significant; alliances were. So as the story develops, so does El. El has always believed that she could do whatever she needed to do on her own. She decided that she did not need others to survive.
Boy, was she wrong.
Her journey in A Deadly Education is a personal one. However, she discovers that she can form bonds, friendships even and that she does not have to be a complete b*tch all the time. El is opening herself up; she is welcoming friendships; she is changing and growing without losing that spunk and attitude that make her so great.
Final Thoughts
A Deadly Education is a fantastic novel. With an unpredictable plot and unforgettable protagonist, this story will keep the reader engaged from beginning to end.
So glad I took a chance on this new-to-me author. Loved her take on the “Bizarro World” Hogwarts and can’t wait to dive into book two when it releases. (I loved Novik’s writing so much I started her dragon series, too. Does not disappoint!)
I haven’t read a book series I’ve been so enamored with after just one book since I fell in love with The Philosopher’s Stone after discovering Harry Potter early on in its series publication.
Galadriel is very different from Harry but she is that type of character who will distinguish herself from all others – unique, strong, smart, clever, powerful and witty – She will define herself and her destiny rather than be ruled by it.
The Scholomance is not another Hogwarts as El is not another Harry – rather – it is something wholly different and unique unto itself – a world that will take you in, hold you captive and make you eager for the very next taste of it – a phenomenon waiting to happen – a magic school like no other with its own set of rules – where secrets lie waiting beneath every layer – the monsters win par the norm, unsung heroes remain hidden, no good deed goes unpunished and alliances are formed amongst the unlikeliest of allies.
What happens next is anyone’s guess, but it’s safe to say Naomi Novik has me spellbound.
Full review at:
https://deanaera.com/2020/12/06/a-deadly-education-the-scholomance-1-by-naomi-novik/
I loved this deeply dark but incredibly entertaining take on a school for young wizards. Peril is absolutely everywhere — demons are trying to kill them, their classmates are trying to kill them, the school itself is trying to kill them! Add a very jaded and snarky protagonist just trying to live to graduation, and this was a ton of fun.
Eyeball-meltingly brilliant… Novik is, quite simply, a genius.
Imagine a school of magic that is *expected* to kill many, if not most, of the students! Naomi Novik has created a dark school of magic that is absolutely captivating. Her heroine is a complex girl who is trying to deal with her own questionable powers while trying to stay alive and it does not help that one of the boys in the school has taken it upon himself to save her life more than once, making her look less capable than she knows herself to be. I highly recommend this book and anxiously await the sequel, The Last Graduate, coming in September 2021!