Reviews with content warning for Blood - A Deadly Education

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

83 reviews

evpie's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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passionatereader78's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

What a book! The details are fantastic. The way the author takes time to describe all of the creatures in the school is beautiful. The way she unfolded this story was enchanting. Galadriel is attending the school of Scholomance. She needs to learn spells to survive in the world. This school is the most dangerous place for students. They must watch out for monsters and horrible creatures. They should never be alone. The school is magic and provides the students with what they need at a practice of course. Orion is fearlessly Saving his fellow students from the creatures in the school. He's attracted to Galadriel and becomes her personal Bodyguard. Plunging into danger at every turn. He belongs to the New York coven which Galadriel wants to join.

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rheagoveas's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

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taroroot's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

this was an incredibly fun and fast read! once i got into the grove of the Scholomance fantasy setting, i flew through this book. i'm very fond of El and her friends. can't wait to read the next book!

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teklalind's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is the third book I've read by Novik and I still can't tell if I really enjoy her writing. Clearly, I do enough to keep trying her books! I have definitely seen her improve especially with character relationships and development that I'm happy to see after Uprooted. I do intend to read the rest of this series but I still struggle with her writing style as it just doesn't feel polished.

I enjoyed this book, but it lacks exposition or a coherent explanation of the world-building. What you learn is fascinating, I find the school's structure interesting. I found myself stumbling around trying to remember all of the names thrown at me, not just the characters but also of the various monsters because there are so many different types thrown in. Usually, an introduction includes a description of it but it's rushed in while the main character is fighting it. Maybe it's intended for the audience to think on their feet as much as the characters have to, but instead, I found myself just flailing and making all the monsters just blobs because I couldn't distinguish them from one another. I wish there had been an index in the back of the book with descriptions of the "mals" (the monsters) so I could keep track, let alone an index with the names of the characters thrown around with their rushed description.

It seemed like Novik was trying to create a diverse cast of characters except she threw them all to the side most of the time because most of the book was about El, the MC, and sometimes Orion Lake. A lot of the cast of characters could have been trimmed to give other important ones more time but Novik really tried to sell how diverse the school was and ended up just creating a massive hole in character development. Maybe that happens in the sequel!

Overall, I did enjoy the book though. I wouldn't compare it to Harry Potter at all but I realize people will always compare a magical school to HP despite the fact that magical schools in fantasy existed before HP and continue to after but I digress. It has a darker sense where Novik tries to pick apart the class differences between students but ignores the racial differences that could've been a major influence but the attempts she did make at critical thinking about race were not well received so maybe it's good she didn't try.

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