Stevie‘s review of A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, Book 1) by Naomi Novik
Young Adult Fantasy published by Del Rey 29 Sep 20
I’ve been wanting to find an alternative to the Harry Potter books, since JKR started writing particularly hateful screeds against the trans* community earlier this year. I’ve also been meaning to read more Naomi Novik for a lot longer, so this new series looked like it might fill both reading gaps rather neatly, being the author’s first foray into Young Adult fantasy. I was also rather taken by the blurb, which seemed to promise us a snarky anti-heroic protagonist and a suitably heroic ally-cum-antagonist. Add in a semi-sentient school and hoards of monsters just desperate to eat all the students, and it all looked like being tremendous fun.
Galadriel (El) Higgins is the daughter of a Welsh hippie mother and a well-to-do Indian father, who died saving his wife and unborn child from a rampaging magical beast. Initially welcomed by her father’s family, El’s propensities to draw on darker magics herself led to their subsequently wanting nothing to do with either El or her mother. El’s mother is something of a celebrity in both the magical world and amongst the new age set in the non-magical population, something El tries hard to live down – almost as hard as she tries to only use magics of which her mother would approve, in spite of her school’s tendency to supply her with spells suited to her potential, rather than to those skills she would like to develop. El is also something of a loner, both as a result of her upbringing and because her fellow students sense that she has a dark side and tend to avoid her because of it.
Into the mess that is El’s life and her continued determination to survive a school that kills a large proportion of its students – though not as many as would die if left out in the wider world for the monsters to prey on before the youngsters have learned to defend themselves – steps – or rather launches himself – Orion Lake. One of the popular students, due to his connections as well as due to his habit of saving his classmates from imminent death and devouring, Orion has rescued El twice by their fourth year at the school. El, cynic that she is, is convinced that both situations were Orion’s fault in the first place, of course.
When El and Orion discover that more monsters than usual are invading the upper levels of the school – which may also be partly Orion’s fault – they have to gather together a team to fix the problem before the current senior year undergo their potentially fatal graduation night. The seniors, however, are not entirely keen on having younger students interfering, setting circumstances in motion for an even grander showdown.
I liked this book a lot, in spite of some of its glaring flaws, which have been pointed out by other reviewers. While the author has tried to be more diverse in the race, ethnicity and nationalities of her cast of characters, mistakes have been made. Personally, I could have put a lot of that down to El’s general cluelessness, and I suspect the next book will make attempts to correct any glaring errors. I did also feel that there was a lack of LGBT+ representation, which I found quite surprising. Again, there’s more to come from this universe, so I’m hoping that was also just a case of El failing to notice and/or comment on the activities and identities of her fellow students.
Grade: B
Summary:
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.
Read an excerpt.
Other books in this series:
