Stephanie’s Review of “A Deadly Education” by Naomi Novik

By: Stephanie Wyatt

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik tells the story of a young wizard student named Elle. Every wizard in the Scholomance has an affinity for a certain type of magic. Elle’s affinity is for spells that cause massive death and destruction. She doesn’t use it though because it requires the use of Dark magic called Malia. Excessive use of Malia turns a wizard into a Maleficer (Dark Wizard). Only Maleficers tend to die young.

Every student cheats a little and uses Malia from time to time. Not Elle though, thanks to a prophecy from her great grandmother that she would bring down the world with her power. She gets her Mana (good magic) from activities like crotchet and exercise. Then, one day in her junior year, she is saved from one of the many creatures called Malg by the hero of the junior class, Orion Lake. He’s the son of the heir apparent to one of the biggest wizard communities in the world. When the two are rumored to be dating, unpopular Elle is suddenly Miss Popular. However, once the pair finds out that Orion’s hero complex means that graduating students will have to fight through an even bigger horde of Malg to survive graduation, Elle discovers they aren’t so different after all.

I adore fantasy books with boarding school settings. I mean, what’s more fun than normal teenage drama when you can curse people? Boarding schools also lend themselves to forced proximity, which is always entertaining. The Schlomance is also sentient, so there are no teachers. The school itself gives you the assignments. The book had just the amount of schoolwork needed to avoid information dumping.

Elle and Orion are an amazing reverse grumpy sunshine trope. There’s also fake dating. The banter between the two of them is *chef’s kiss*.

The magic system is fairly simple. It’s interesting that they have to store their magic to cast spells. I devoured this book in two days. I loved it. It’s the first book in a trilogy. I’m ready for whatever emotional journey awaits.

Overall, this book was a five-star read for me. Fans of Fourth Wing would like this series. Also, if you love snarky characters, drama, and battling demons, this series is for you. The book is available wherever books are sold.

Until next review!

Have you read The Scholomance trilogy? What are your favorite fantasy school books? Let us know in the comments!!