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kshertz's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
There’s a chance this book got too hyped up for me. I enjoyed it once I got through all the worldbuilding and understanding of this magical realm. It did take a while though. I’m not sure if I’m gonna continue with the series because I’m not too invested in this couple. I’m also not too invested in the school. But I am interested in, what happens with all these monsters. TBD.
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
geckotigerwolf's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
A magic school where there are no teachers, the school itself is out to get you and every friendship is strategic - everyone's just trying to make it to graduation a) alive and b) allied with the right people to ensure they continue to stay alive after graduation too.
I love protagonists who take action based on the most strategic move and this protagonist is really smart. I loved watching her. Really interesting world and unique situation. I couldn't get enough of it and ordered the sequel (I think it's a duology) from the library within minutes of finishing.
(PS the magical world is nicely diverse, with students from around the world and lots of spellcasting languages mentioned, from Mandarin to Sanskrit to Finnish, which was a nice breath of fresh air.)
I love protagonists who take action based on the most strategic move and this protagonist is really smart. I loved watching her. Really interesting world and unique situation. I couldn't get enough of it and ordered the sequel (I think it's a duology) from the library within minutes of finishing.
(PS the magical world is nicely diverse, with students from around the world and lots of spellcasting languages mentioned, from Mandarin to Sanskrit to Finnish, which was a nice breath of fresh air.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Vomit, and Death of parent
bookedandbusy's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I loved this book so much!! It was rich and atmospheric and absolutely perfect for Autumn 🍂✨ I can’t wait to read the rest of the series!!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood and Injury/Injury detail
ginbat's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Someone should’ve told the author about “show don’t tell.” In some ways yes, that’s difficult because it’s fantasy but Jesus I feel like she gave us lots of unnecessary info. Also main character felt like a Mary Sue. Should have been YA but it’s not. Cool concept but ultimately empty.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, Death of parent, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
bunnypunk's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying
Minor: Racism, Sexism, and Suicidal thoughts
readwithsophsx's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
kiwij96's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
I could not tell you a single thing that happened in this.
If you took out all of Galadriel's ramblings, lore/infodumping, and internal monologues, the book would be like 70 pages.
Why was this only 13 chapters? It dragged on so much because of it.
If you took out all of Galadriel's ramblings, lore/infodumping, and internal monologues, the book would be like 70 pages.
Why was this only 13 chapters? It dragged on so much because of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Vomit and Pregnancy
Minor: Racism
maxierosalee's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This was another book that unfortunately falls in the "cool premise, mediocre execution" for me, although there were times when it peaked to fall into the "borderline good" stage, hence the extra half-star.
My biggest problem was just the exposition dumps. There was so much exposition to slog through.
In my opinion, Novik has made a legitimately fascinating world, on paper at least. I love the idea of Harry Potter but deconstructed and showed how legitimately deadly a world like that would be to magical children. There were times when maybe Novik toed the line of ridiculousness a bit too much, but I didn't mind too much. If anything, it almost added to the dark humor of the book. Harry Potter is an idealized magical world (at least in the early books), Scholomance is the exact opposite and is borderline grimdark.
Unfortunately, Novik's strategy of worldbuilding is to have El, the narrator and main character of the book, grace us with exposition dumps. Paragraphs and paragraphs of exposition dumps. I loved the world but hated reading about it. Scenes would stop because a character would introduce a new aspect to the world, some kind of new creature or rule of the magic system, and then El would have to stop and explain it to the reader in full, pace-halting detail. When it feels like the story has to grind to a halt and half a chapter is dedicated to exposition, it's no longer engaging to me. It's tedious. Really, I feel like that's the main issue I had with the book. Weave the exposition into the story in a less heavy-handed way, and I feel like this would easily be a 4 star book for me.
Galadriel (El for short) was annoying at first, but I actually warmed up to her by the time the book ended. She gave me petulant child vibes. She puts on a front of being rude to everyone. She's snarling at Orion constantly, she snaps at her classmates. She thinks about how she can blast Orion into a bloody pulp, how she can level the school with her magical powers, how she can take on Orion in a fight, but never actually does. A lot of her thoughts, especially in her interactions with Orion, boil down to "I wanted to [insert physical hostile action here] to Orion, but ended up not doing it." While I maybe thought her development and the character arc she goes through might have been a bit sudden and it would have been nice to have the seeds of it sowed earlier, it was still a nice character arc to see develop.
I don't know if any character outside of Galadriel and Orion in last act of the book were really all that engaging, but they weren't overly dull or tedious to read about. Novik didn't fall into the usual boarding school tropes that are in so many other books. She could have given us the same exact character tropes we see in boarding school books: the fish-out-of-water main character, the good-without-question allies of the main character, the obligatory mean bully, shallow love interest put on a pedestal. It's a breath of fresh air, and I commend Novik for it.
Also, confession: Part of me thought Orion and El was cute. Yeah, it's the kind of silly where it's like "El is constantly rude to Orion and in real life, this would be a toxic relationship" but...I don't know, man. It's a romance trope guilty pleasure of mine.
So, do I want to read the rest of the series? Maybe Novik got out all of the exposition dumps in the first book and it'll make the other ones better for me to read.
I'll be real. If I do read the rest of the series, it'll just be to see where El and Orion end up. I hope they kiss again.
My biggest problem was just the exposition dumps. There was so much exposition to slog through.
In my opinion, Novik has made a legitimately fascinating world, on paper at least. I love the idea of Harry Potter but deconstructed and showed how legitimately deadly a world like that would be to magical children. There were times when maybe Novik toed the line of ridiculousness a bit too much, but I didn't mind too much. If anything, it almost added to the dark humor of the book. Harry Potter is an idealized magical world (at least in the early books), Scholomance is the exact opposite and is borderline grimdark.
Unfortunately, Novik's strategy of worldbuilding is to have El, the narrator and main character of the book, grace us with exposition dumps. Paragraphs and paragraphs of exposition dumps. I loved the world but hated reading about it. Scenes would stop because a character would introduce a new aspect to the world, some kind of new creature or rule of the magic system, and then El would have to stop and explain it to the reader in full, pace-halting detail. When it feels like the story has to grind to a halt and half a chapter is dedicated to exposition, it's no longer engaging to me. It's tedious. Really, I feel like that's the main issue I had with the book. Weave the exposition into the story in a less heavy-handed way, and I feel like this would easily be a 4 star book for me.
Galadriel (El for short) was annoying at first, but I actually warmed up to her by the time the book ended. She gave me petulant child vibes. She puts on a front of being rude to everyone. She's snarling at Orion constantly, she snaps at her classmates. She thinks about how she can blast Orion into a bloody pulp, how she can level the school with her magical powers, how she can take on Orion in a fight, but never actually does. A lot of her thoughts, especially in her interactions with Orion, boil down to "I wanted to [insert physical hostile action here] to Orion, but ended up not doing it." While I maybe thought her development and the character arc she goes through might have been a bit sudden and it would have been nice to have the seeds of it sowed earlier, it was still a nice character arc to see develop.
I don't know if any character outside of Galadriel and Orion in last act of the book were really all that engaging, but they weren't overly dull or tedious to read about. Novik didn't fall into the usual boarding school tropes that are in so many other books. She could have given us the same exact character tropes we see in boarding school books: the fish-out-of-water main character, the good-without-question allies of the main character, the obligatory mean bully, shallow love interest put on a pedestal. It's a breath of fresh air, and I commend Novik for it.
Also, confession: Part of me thought Orion and El was cute. Yeah, it's the kind of silly where it's like "El is constantly rude to Orion and in real life, this would be a toxic relationship" but...I don't know, man. It's a romance trope guilty pleasure of mine.
So, do I want to read the rest of the series? Maybe Novik got out all of the exposition dumps in the first book and it'll make the other ones better for me to read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Blood, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Toxic friendship
Did my best to list things as accurately as possible. I know the "toxic friendship" is really played for laughs but thought I would include it just in casekastix's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, and Death of parent
Minor: Pregnancy and Colonisation
maresuju's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Gore, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death and Death of parent