Review: 'A Deadly Education' (The Scholomance #1) by Naomi Novik

I was blown away by Naomi Novik when I first read her novel Spinning Silver. Although, of course, familiar with the fairy tale, she took it in a direction I never saw coming and kept me engaged throughout. The same was true for A Deadly Education, a book I literally didn't want to stop reading. I'm now kind of mad at myself for reading it all in one go, but what's a girl supposed to do?

Pub. Date: 9/29/2020
Publisher: Del Rey Books

Lesson One of the Scholomance: Learning has never been this deadly.

A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) — until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets.

There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate… or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.

El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.

What I think needs to be addressed firstly is the controversy around certain descriptions in the book that have seen it labeled as racist. I went into A Deadly Education completely blindly so wasn't aware of the ongoing conversations. The one particular instance in A Deadly Education regarding dreadlocks did indeed strike a wrong tone with me since, while it technically makes sense within the book, strongly relies on negative stereotypes of African-American hair as well. Novik has already apologized for this but obviously it should have been picked up by either her or her editor much sooner. I found this post, 'The Intersectionality of Magical Academia: A Review of A Deadly Education', by A Naga of the Nusantara very insightful, as the reviewer themselves is Chinese and is able to address some of the criticism leveled at Novik a lot better than I can. They also point out the constant themes of class, privilege and wealth that echo throughout the novel, a difficult topic that Novik clearly wants to highlight and address. While not perfect, I don't think all of the criticism is equally valid and some of it is outright not applicable. This kind of dims the spotlight on the issues, like the discussion of dreadlocks, which do need to be addressed and fixed. Fantasy writing is rife with appropriations and misunderstandings, many of which are actively insulting, most of which, however, are mere mistakes. Conversations about this are important but they do require a certain nuance and the highlighting of voices that can more actively speak towards the impact of certain authorial choices.

El, short for Galadriel, is just trying to survive the insanity that is the Scholomance and make alliances, preferably without having to murder anyone in a show of power. Raised by her mother, the gentlest of Healers, she does her best to suppress the darkness within her, even if the school keeps sending her books on mass destruction. But when the number of monsters lurking in the halls begins to increase and one particularly pesky boy keeps trying to save her, El knows she needs to step her game up. El is a delightful character who begins the novel stating her intent to commit murder if necessary. She is snappy and full of sass, but Novik gives us enough insight into her internal life to show us how conflicted, lonely and sad she also is. El tries so very hard, and all her losses and victories become the reader's as well. Around El are the set of characters you kind of expect from a high school, whether it is magical or not. There are cool kids, whose life is significantly easier even in the Scholomance deathtrap. There are the weirdos who are useful and therefore mostly ok. And there are the creepy ones lurking at the edges, only this time the creepy ones are out for murder. With a wide and diverse cast, El's schoolmates are great fun and mostly fleshed out to show their own motivations and calculations. My favourites were definitely Liu and Aadhya

What I loved about Naomi Novik's writing in Spinning Silver was the precision of her language and her deep understanding of her main characters. The same skills are at play in A Deadly Education and I was sucked into the story pretty much from the get go. A love for magic schools is kind of a prerequisite for getting into anything scholomance-related, which means I personally was all set for A Deadly Education. The world-building in this novel is heavy and consistent. The plot is largely driven by the exploration of various parts of the school and new reveals about life there pop up in each chapter. I myself adored this, loved the way my picture of the Scholomance became sharper with each page. But for some readers this may slow down the plot. Since we are solely within El's perspective, the wider set of characters also only takes form slowly as she gets to know them better. While initially they feel a little bland, they gain more depth as we move along. I imagine they will be worked out even further in the next installment, The Last Graduate. I read A Deadly Education in a single afternoon and only the instance referred to in the first paragraph briefly threw me out of my reading. 

I give this novel...

4 Universes!

A Deadly Education will be a brilliant start to a new series, as long as Naomi Novik takes the justified criticism on some aspects to heart and moves forward with it. I was completely enraptured for most of the novel and would highly recommend it to anyone with a love for Magic and Fantasy.