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slimepuppy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.0
A very fun read, I breezed through this one in less than 24 hours. One of the best YAs I've read in the last couple of years, a considerable feat coming from a genre that has turned into a collection of repeated tropes stacked on top of each other.
The characters were detailed, multidimensional and flawed, while still having plenty of charisma to go around the wiiide variety of personalities available. Galadriel and Orion were especially endearing, and I found myself rooting for them, despite not being a huge fan of romance. Thankfully, that's not really the focus of the book, because the slowburn worked wonders for me.
The world and the setting are intersting and surprisingly detailed for such a contained tale; the reader never gets to leave the school and see what the life is like for wizards outside, but you still get the broadest idea.
Despite liking it a lot, there are still some... considerable flaws to talk about. You can read all about them online, I'll just point something that irked me, personally:the moment where the main character is attacked by a maleficaria and for no apparent reason, the attack is described as if a sexual assault is taking place, with explicit comparative language. It's not a short passage, either, and felt completely out of place, even in such a grim tale of teenagers being left to die in this school. If the writer wished to discuss it further, say anything at all about it, I'd hold back on my criticism. But nothing is done with it, it just... happens. Galadriel is shocked for a moment, and then she moves on, and we move on with her without diving deep in what just happened.
I hope Naomi has read the plenty of justified criticism this book garnered and taken them into account, I'm very excited to read whatever comes next in the series.
The characters were detailed, multidimensional and flawed, while still having plenty of charisma to go around the wiiide variety of personalities available. Galadriel and Orion were especially endearing, and I found myself rooting for them, despite not being a huge fan of romance. Thankfully, that's not really the focus of the book, because the slowburn worked wonders for me.
The world and the setting are intersting and surprisingly detailed for such a contained tale; the reader never gets to leave the school and see what the life is like for wizards outside, but you still get the broadest idea.
Despite liking it a lot, there are still some... considerable flaws to talk about. You can read all about them online, I'll just point something that irked me, personally:
I hope Naomi has read the plenty of justified criticism this book garnered and taken them into account, I'm very excited to read whatever comes next in the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death
Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence
aliveironically's review against another edition
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
sofiya's review against another edition
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? No
5.0
When it comes to rating books, I put 5 stars as either "this book had a profound effect on me" or "I loved this book through and through and already want to re-read it." This book falls into the latter category for me, despite any of its minor flaws. I thought the world was really interesting and enjoyed El's snark even though I'm not generally a fan of first-person POVs. I like her growth as a character and that even her bad qualities revolve around really realistic things (trying to survive) rather than just her being mean for no reason.
Unlike other reviewers, I didn't have a problem with the "info dumping" and didn't really notice it until I read reviews, but there was a point where I (aloud) said "Okay, okay, I get it. Just do it already!" But I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I think that was more the character herself than the writing.
Also, I really enjoyed the writing. It felt reasonably elevated for the genre, and I personally never thought "adult Harry Potter". Overall, just really enjoyable to me and I'm excited to get to the next one.
Last thing, but I half-listened, half-read this book, and the person who recorded the audiobook did an amazing job.
Unlike other reviewers, I didn't have a problem with the "info dumping" and didn't really notice it until I read reviews, but there was a point where I (aloud) said "Okay, okay, I get it. Just do it already!" But I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I think that was more the character herself than the writing.
Also, I really enjoyed the writing. It felt reasonably elevated for the genre, and I personally never thought "adult Harry Potter". Overall, just really enjoyable to me and I'm excited to get to the next one.
Last thing, but I half-listened, half-read this book, and the person who recorded the audiobook did an amazing job.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Forced institutionalization
Minor: Sexual assault
bookwisp'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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Scholomance – a deadly school for kids with magical talent, where you graduate… or die trying. Study hard, master your affinity, make alliances with other students and you might stand a chance.
El Higgins is very much on her own. Sure, she has an incredible natural aptitude for spells of mass destruction (and slaughter, and chaos) but she doesn’t want to be a dark wizard, thank you very much. But the school term is wearing on, the mals (monsters) are getting hungrier – deadlier – and the seniors are getting increasingly desperate and determined. With her own graduation little over a year away, El might just have to use what she has to make it out alive.
Dark academia is one of those phrases that gets chucked about a lot in the book community, but seems to mostly consist of moody edits of blouse-wearing individuals reaching out towards overfilled antique bookshelves, underscored by a minor string cover of a pop song. Don’t @ me, I enjoy these edits too, but it was very cool to see the concept in action in this novel. The Scholomance is not Hogwarts. It can and will kill you and, while it doesn’t actively want to bring about your demise, it won’t make it easy.
The prose is very dense, so it’s not a fast read if you’re really trying to take it all in, but it’s extremely cool. There are a lot of neat details in there; tabletop gaming enthusiasts will probably notice a few familiar enemies. It’s one of those books that I’m already look forward to rereading because I’ll already have the broader strokes of the worldbuilding and an understanding of the magic system down. El and co. are extremely blasé about how deadly their surroundings are, creating frequent wait, what?? moments as you’re reading.
As a lead, El is difficult to like at first. She’s cold, rude and aloof. But as the book went on, I grew to have an immense sympathy for her, even if I didn’t always agree with her behaviour. The way she’s been treated her whole life, of course she has a lot of walls. What’s more, she’s trying to survive this extremely deadly gauntlet, but is still emphatically resisting the ‘easy’ path – using her fellow students as mana batteries to nuke the whole damn school and walk out the gates – which, ya know, is a restraint I respect. At the beginning, El is very lonely and very much on her own, so watching her experience friendship for the first time was really emotional.
Vibes: Powerful. Focused. Nostalgic*
[*look, the magic-school trope will always speak to me].
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Murder and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual assault
mhowi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
readingdanger'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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
multiplyoctopi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
tense
fast-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
4.25
Fast paced, entertaining - I enjoyed the relationships/dynamics between characters.
*However* there is an entire paragraph where the MC describes dreadlocks being a bad idea in the school due to a specific monster being able to infest them. Especially since this was the only hairstyle specifically mentioned, it just serves to perpetuate discriminatory ideas re: back hairstyles. The fact that this paragraph was even written and then published is just completely thoughtless.
Since publication, Novik has apologised and future prints and e-books won't contain that paragraph.
There has been a lot of talk about racism throughout this book which this review, I think, does a really good job of addressing a lot of the points people have made (it's not entirely spoiler-free tho):
https://nusantaranaga.wordpress.com/2020/10/11/the-intersectionality-of-magical-academia-a-review-of-naomi-noviks-a-deadly-education/
*However* there is an entire paragraph where the MC describes dreadlocks being a bad idea in the school due to a specific monster being able to infest them. Especially since this was the only hairstyle specifically mentioned, it just serves to perpetuate discriminatory ideas re: back hairstyles. The fact that this paragraph was even written and then published is just completely thoughtless.
Since publication, Novik has apologised and future prints and e-books won't contain that paragraph.
There has been a lot of talk about racism throughout this book which this review, I think, does a really good job of addressing a lot of the points people have made (it's not entirely spoiler-free tho):
https://nusantaranaga.wordpress.com/2020/10/11/the-intersectionality-of-magical-academia-a-review-of-naomi-noviks-a-deadly-education/
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Blood
Moderate: Child death, Death, and Violence
Minor: Racism, Sexual assault, and Vomit