Review: A Deadly Education (Scholomance #1) – Naomi Novik
“With our deepest sympathies and commiserations, we must inform you that you have been accepted into the Scholomance.”
This is the invitation I received from Random House UK via NetGalley to read a free arc of A Deadly Education. Thanks guys! How could I resist?
In this world, magical kids are prone to be attacked and killed by all manner of evil creatures as they grow into their powers, so the Scholomance was built to minimise the risk. Even so, student death is a regular occurrence. The school was built to protect the children of the world’s magical enclaves (powerful magic covens) and those kids have an easier life, though even they are not safe from the constant threat of being eaten by the wizard-eating ‘maleficaria’.
El isn’t from an enclave. El (short for Galadriel) was prophesied in early childhood to be some kind of world-destroying, evil sorceress. However, having been raised on a Welsh commune by a loving nurturing mother, she is not keen to fulfil that prophecy. El is conscious that to graduate, you need to fight your way out past the worst of the maleficaria. To do that you need friends and alliances. El has none.
The story begins with El being saved by the school hero, Orion Lake. However, El doesn’t need to be saved. She has plans to use her considerable powers to destroy a large maleficaria in front of everyone and attract alliance offers. She is, therefore, not happy to be characterised as a damsel in distress instead. When Orion suspects her of being an evil wizard and begins to follow her around, she gives people the impression they are dating, not realising that this will change the balance of power within the school and put her in more danger.
The first thing to say about this book is that you get a lot of information thrown at you. More really than you can take in at times, but don’t let this put you off. You pick up the world basics as you go, and trust that it will all make sense before very long. Which it does.
There are so many themes going on in this book: good magic versus bad magic, balance, power versus abuse of power, risk/safety/death, the effect of strong beliefs. I’ve also heard the word ‘feminist’ being bandied about but that is not really my impression. Although El can look after herself, it’s not about gender. El would likely approve of the concept of equality, but it is not high on her list of priorities. Staying alive is slightly more important.
On finishing my first read of this book, I gave it 4.5 stars. I knocked off half a star because of the whole information overload issue. It never stood in the way of my enjoyment of the story though. I was hooked from the off. In fact, I became obsessed. Two days after finishing it, I hadn’t picked up another book. I was missing this one so much, I gave in and read it through a second time. I finished it (again) with tears in my eyes and upgraded the rating to 5 stars.
Now, though, I’m sitting with an arc of a book that hasn’t even been published yet, waiting desperately for book 2 like my life is incomplete until I find out what happens next. Once again, thanks guys. Seriously, I think this is my favourite book of the year so far.
A Deadly Education is out 29th September 2020.
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