Reviews with content warning for Gore - A Deadly Education

A fascinating introduction to a new, darkly intriguing magical world. El is one of the most interesting leads I've read in a while, and her prickly exterior combined with her strong will and dedication to her friends is so well-written. Novik's worldbuilding is captivating, if dense at moments, but overall excellently
done.

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lirio_dendron's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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pandemonicbaby's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? Yes

5.0

Loved this book! The lore is so rich and intricate, and the cast of characters is so lovable and diverse. Loved every second of being inside this universe!!

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phantomgecko's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-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

5.0

This brings a horrific new face to dark academia/magic boarding school. The premise for this book raises questions and concerns galore, but it works. When I laid out the premise to my husband, he asked if it was a horror novel (it's not).

The characters are interesting as well. El is a reverse chosen one--a fated dark lord that is NOT interested in being evil. I liked this take more than I thought I would. Orion is a himbo.

Honestly, my biggest regret is probably listening to the audiobook instead of reading it myself. I feel like the voice and tone, particularly of the main character, would have been different and better in my head. (No shade to Anisha Dadia, the voice actress)

This is a fun one to read.

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blewballoon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I had been sitting on this book for a long time and finally decided to read it. I ended up doing the audiobook, and I think the narrator did very well.

This book is quite exposition heavy, but the exposition is in the main character's voice so you get a bit of flavor of their personality along with the info dumps. Sometimes it felt like the story would come to a halt for some fairly irrelevant exposition, while other times the story would plunge along and I felt like I didn't have context to fully understand what was happening. It's a bit of an exhausting story because the Scholomance is such an exhausting place to live. There are monsters, school rules, and complex social hierarchies that make every action and every conversation loaded with potential repercussions, and all of those things constantly need explaining.

All that being said, I did enjoy this book. The main character was a lot more likable than I expected from the blurb, and there were some interesting supporting characters as well. As a character driven reader, these characters worked for me and carried me through the book. I am not sure if I will pick up the rest of the series or not, though.

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scarlett_f's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.5

Takes 2/3rds of the book to get to any real story or action. Too much detail-building. Maps of the school and cross-sections are at the end of the book. Should've been at the beginning for better understanding of the layout. Strong female protagonist.

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alyssaakdefusco's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I think the idea of the book is interesting, but there was so much world building that had to happen in this first book of the series that I found pretty tough to get through. And everything is so terrible that the characters have to go through. No delightful magic, just a version of Harry Potter where everything is terrible and everyone is probably going to die. Not my favorite. But I did get caught up in the more action -packed scenes towards the end enough to keep me going!

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ashawrites's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

4.5

I was so excited to read Astolot's published work and it's SO GOOD. I think it took me a while to finish because I had to like get my head to line up with El as a character? Don't get me wrong, she's fun and I love her so much, but in a Our Little Queen of Darkness teenage emo kid sort of way so I had to adjust the vibe in my head haha. Fantastic world building, the way the monsters were described was horrible (affectionate). The cliffhanger was Rude and I need to pester my friend for the second book immediately.

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