A Deadly Education
A Deadly Education is a 2020 fantasy novel written by American author Naomi Novik following Galadriel "El" Higgins, a half-Welsh, half-Indian sorceress, who must survive to graduation while controlling her destructive abilities at the fabled school of black magic, the Scholomance. It was published by Del Rey on September 29, 2020 and is the first of "The Scholomance" trilogy. The sequel "The Last Graduate" was released on September 28, 2021. Plot. El is a student at the Scholomance, a school for sorcerers without any teachers or governing body. Due to their mana, the magical energy  that all sorcerers use and build up, all magic-wielders are constantly on the run from mana-eating monsters called malefecaria. By attending and surviving the Scholomance, where only a fourth of students end up graduating, sorcerers are given the opportunity to hide themselves from the mal past the "Void" where the Scholomance is located and train themselves to fight against them afterward. El is in her junior year and becomes entangled with Orion Lake after he kills a mal and saves her life. Initially believing that she has to kill him, the pair become closer as he gains a  protective attitude over her. However, Orion is part of an enclave, a union of magic-wielders who have a greater chance of survival, whereas El is not part of one at the bidding of her powerful sorceress mother. One day, El encounters a maw-mouth, a powerful mal, in the school's library, and kills it out of sight so as to not reveal her great power. Previously, El had been prophesized to wield her power and destroy the world, making it her own. She encounters a textbook in the library that teaches her the unique ability of phase-controlling . El eventually decides to form her own alliance with classmates Aadhya and Liu, and they help each other with their schoolwork while using their shared power to create powerful magical artifacts. Orion, who spends all of his time protecting other students from mal throughout the school, discovers holes in the Scholomance allowing more powerful mal to creep in. El uses her phase-controlling power to create steel and fix the holes, but several rogue seniors sabotage them so as to use the mal to kill the students below them. El, Orion, Aadhya, and Liu team up with other seniors to  fix the Scholomance's machinery and exterminate the mal in the graduation hall, which is supposed to be the final test for seniors in the Scholomance. The seniors escape and promise El and all who allied with her that she can join any enclave she would like, but she refuses their offer. Graduation day arrives and the Scholomance's machinery move El and the juniors to the seniors' dorms, and El accepts her confusing relationship with Orion. Later, she receives a letter from her mother telling her that she must stay away from Orion at all costs. Setting. When writing  of the Scholomance, Novik stated that it "paints a truly horrible place...[spending] years locked up in the dark, with answers to your lessons appearing in letters of flame, with no teachers, no contact with the outside world. It’s a horrible idea." She approached the institution as a more realistic version of Hogwarts, wherein she set out to "take the glaring flaws in school safety at Hogwarts a little too seriously." Reception. John Young of the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" acclaimed the "clear, nuanced and believable world" and the way that the story "blends some real-world situations with life  in the Scholomance." Writing for Locus, Adrienne Martini says, "Novik's light touch, dark whimsy, and sense of humor make it hard to put down." "Publishers Weekly" called it a "must-read for fantasy fans." "Kirkus Reviews" responded less positively, saying the book "falls short of its potential" and that "El's bad attitude and her incessant info-dumping make Novik's protagonist hard to like". "A Deadly Education" was a 2021 finalist for the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book. The Scholomance trilogy has been optioned by Universal Pictures for a film adaptation. Diversity-related criticism. Mahvesh Murad  of "Tor.com" called the novel's diversity "forced," saying "For many POC readers (particularly desi readers, myself included), there will be some discomfort at reading about El’s familial background, and why she isn’t in touch with her father’s family." A passage in the novel where the main character describes dreadlocks as being susceptible to infestation by bug-like magical creatures was criticized as perpetrating negative stereotypes about Black hair. The Mary Sue said that "to see a fantasy novel that describes a Black hair style in such a callous...manner is very disappointing and certainly does not  speak to the...representation that deserves to be seen." Novik issued a public apology promising to cut the "dreadlocks" passage from future editions. Further diversity-related issues were raised concerning the book, while others defended Novik, for example calling it "unfair to say that El’s lack of connection to her Indian relations is a sign of Novik’s laziness and unwillingness to portray an authentically Asian character".