A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
My Rating: 5 stars!
Cover Rating: 6/10 it’s a pretty cover, but also kinda basic for my tastes. I feel like I get a feel that the story is magical and school related, but I think the styling isn’t completely for me.
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Publish Date: September 29th, 2020
Number of Pages: 336
Received: My boyfriend bought it for me as a blind date with a book. I was surprised and curious about it when I got it and then reading it absolutely blew me away. It was also amazing cause I realized this was the second blind date book he’d gotten me and it was randomly the same author as the previous one he’d gotten for me ‘Spinning Silver’.
Purchase: Amazon
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 the 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.
Opening Sentence: “I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life.”
Musings:
I finished this book a good while back and I feel so bad I didn’t review this sooner because this book is just so amazing! I adore this book. I want to live in this book. Actually I’d rather not the Scolomancy is actually terrifying, but the idea of the magic and the school was so unique and wonderful! GAHHHHH! I have so many feelings for this book.
What I LOVED:
Actually everything. The pacing was amazing. The characters quirky and interesting to read about. The magic system S tier. The setting mindblowingly interesting and cool. The way this book made me think about current issues with capitalism was shocking to me. The conversations I had about this book with my boyfriend were amazing. There were times this book made me smile so big and want to chuckle. The way that magic and the school itself had its own personality was amazing. The detail and the lushness of this book was stunning. I couldn’t rave about this book more.
Novik created a world of her own. I think there’s so many typical interpretations of magic that have been done over and over, but in ‘A Deadly Education’ that is definitely not the case. The magic is so alive and the danger and systems in place so unique to this world it was delightful. It truly is a deadly eduction. Surviving this school would be a tough order for most anyone.
Galadriel’s view of her own power. Galadriel is so powerful. Intensely powerful. Yet, her reasonings for staying under the radar are admirable. I don’t know if I can speak more on this without spoiling something really powerful about this book. So I’ll leave it like this for you all to discover this on your own.
How real the world felt. Even though this book is 100% fantasy. The world uncovers itself in such a way that you’re learning about it, but it feels like you’ve always known it to be that way. It’s so easy to be sucked in and you don’t feel like your being told how the world is, the world simply is. Which shows just how much care Naomi put into crafting this story.
How messed up Enclaves are. Enclaves and enclaves dynamics are so important to this story and it adds to the messed up system this world is built upon. Yet, everyone wants to be in an enclave and everyone wants the protection it provides. Which is the part that made me think of our worlds capitalism and being rich and how it screws over so many people, but yet everyone wishes they were well off. This cycle of a system fundamentally broken and often insidiously so.
The fights. The battles in this book are so well paced and fun to read. You feel the danger of it. It sucks you in immediately.
Galadriel and Orion as people. These two have some super unique personalities yet, the way they were brought up and the more you learn about them the more their thought processes and quirks make a lot of sense. Very well fleshed out characters in ‘A Deadly Education’.
Language being so integral to the magic. The learning of languages and the value of languages in this school and magic is so interesting. The more language you know the more spells you have access to and the more unique the language the more unique the spells. I loved the library scenes in this book. So cool.
All in all:
You should stop reading this review and go and pick up a copy of this book right now. It was so good and amazing. I loved this. I’ll always love this book it’s definitely a new favorite.
About the Author
Naomi Novik is the acclaimed New York Times-bestselling author of the Nebula Award-winning novel Uprooted, Spinning Silver, and the nine-volume Temeraire series, as well as a founder of the Archive of Our Own. Her upcoming book A Deadly Education is the first of the Scholomance trilogy, and will be available September 2020.
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The Book Raven 
That’s a big favorite of mine too!!
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Yay! I’m so glad to hear
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