Novik balances throwing the reader in the deep end with a semi-self aware narration style from El, allowing for the occasional explanation to eke through in a straight forward manner. The other thing I absolutely loved learning about was the magic system. It’s also easy to see past El’s bias because of her anger, which lets other characters shine and develop despite her glowering. She just doesn’t care at times, and Novik captures what it’s like to be self-aware and angry so well. Her mother acts as both a foil and foundation for that writing to be done so well – because rather than irrationally and inexplicably swimming in it, El knows she’s angry. It’s not often I get to read such a well-written, and nuanced, angry character. Her character development aligns well with her latent magic abilities, some that she can’t control, and have created deep seated anger inside her. Due to the constant threat she lives in, she does read as older with her no-nonsense voice, but her life is still that of a teenager, albeit one living under extraordinary circumstances.
Her grim inner monologue had me cackling out loud many times, although it took me a chapter or two to fully adjust to her tone.
She is written incredibly well, and will appeal to older teens as well as adults. Galadriel, commonly known as “El,” is an acerbic, witty, in-her-own-head protagonist that is on a mission to survive until and through Graduation at the deadly Scholomance. I didn’t think another book could fill the Nevernight shaped hole in my heart, and then I cracked open A Deadly Education. And the goddamn hero won’t stop saving her. El, the arcane equivalent to the Anti-Christ, has sworn to only use mana magic to make it out of here alive instead of her affinity for life draining malia magic. Typically, I use the GoodReads blurb in the next section, but honestly, I think how I pitched it to a friend does a much better job at conveying the overall dire and dry wit tone of the book:ĭuring students’ time in the Scholomance, a school that exists in a magically created void where teenage arcane users are sucked in on their 14th birthday, it’s learn, survive, graduate through a ravenous blood thirsty maleficaria horde, or be eaten by the terrifying “smaller” mals that lurk within every darkened corner of the school. Come scream with me about this book, practically perfect in every regard.
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