Book Review: A Deadly Education
By: Laila M.
Tags: Books Commentary, Book Review, Book Recommendations

Naomi Novik’s most recent release redefines what exactly "education" means to the students of the Scholomance - a school like no other, where everything, even your fellow students and the cafeteria food, may be out to kill you, if you aren’t careful or trained enough to prevent it. Created to supposedly protect its students from the horrors and monsters of the world, the school doesn’t really seem to do its job, with all students constantly having to look behind and in all directions for fear of monsters attacking them.

A Deadly Education follows our protagonist Galadriel "El" Higgins, a half British, half Indian wizard attending a school where the simple mistake of not paying attention to the food on your plate could end your life.

The story is told in first person perspective - specifically El’s point of view - and it stays the same throughout the book. Although the prospect does seem a bit boring - to be stuck in the head of a single character, and a teenage girl’s head at that, really doesn’t seem all that intriguing - Novik does a fantastic job at making it an extremely enjoyable ride. El’s snarky tone of voice and wealth of sarcasm is definitely something a lot of readers can relate to, myself included.

While some readers may be put off with the amount of information that is dumped through El’s telling rather than showing, I found it quite enjoyable, turning the pages, wanting to know more and more about Novik’s rich and dark world. Despite the heavy focus on this complex world, at the heart of the novel lies El, and the plot revolves around her trying her utmost to survive and graduate from this hellish school, without hurting her peers - as much as she may dislike them.

Starting off her journey as a fairly dislikeable character - although I found her particularly charming - El’s relationship with each of the characters she encounters is extremely complex and beautifully cultivated. With an affinity for murder and destruction, it’s an incredibly hilarious twist of fate when the school “hero”, Orion Lake begins to tail right behind her at all times.

One thing that makes or breaks a book for me, specifically Young Adult books is how the female friendships are written, and it pleases me to say that this book did not disappoint. Enemies-to-friends is a very rarely talked about trope that I absolutely adore and wouldn’t mind seeing more of in the literary world.

Although it is targeted towards Young Adult audiences, there is a much broader and prevalent theme of classism that prevails throughout the entire story. As El does not belong to any enclave — which consist of strong wizards and practically unlimited power — she has to earn her mana — the capacity for magic, so to speak — through rigorous physical training and hard work. The conversations El has with Orion about his class privilege as a member of an extremely powerful enclave were particularly thought-provoking, and could likely encourage some serious discussion among younger audiences as well.

As a first book in a series , there is a lot of room for Novik to develop her characters further, as well as her plot, more than was addressed in this first installment. The plot of this book was fairly straight forward, which may not be your cup of tea. And yet, there is much to be discovered, much to be done by El and her ragtag bunch of schoolmates, and I’m looking forward to the next release (expected in 2021), especially after reading the last page!