A Deadly Education

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Galadriel (AKA "El") is a student at the Scholomance, a boarding school for magic. But this is not like Harry Potter: students die at this school, and they must be constantly on guard for threats from the creatures in the building -- and their fellow students.

I'll start with some honesty... I listened to the audiobook of Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik and was not wowed by the book in the least. It was a very mediocre reading experience for me. Uprooted has been on my TBR list since it was published, but I was reluctant to try after reading Silver. I decided to give Novik another chance because the description of this book is so up my alley that I couldn't resist reading it.

I seriously enjoyed the school environment, which is rich in danger, strategy, and politics. Students must protect themselves while they're vulnerable (sleeping, collecting supplies) and even ensure their food isn't compromised before eating. Alliances are made for survival or in exchange for help. There are only two ways for the students to leave the school -- upon their graduation or their death. There's a lot of action for a book that takes place entirely within the school building. It makes for an interesting fictional environment, but it's not a school I'd want to enroll in!

The characters' studies are also interesting -- El's track is languages, which allows her to find and learn more spells. Students at the school trade spells like Chocolate Frog Cards, and spells aren't easily translated from one language to another. Students must have enough background in each language to be able to effectively cast a spell. Other skills like metallurgy and alchemy are studied, but each student has a specialty. The specialty can be determined by their natural affinity for a type of magic or by a strategic decision to make themselves more useful to others.

El is an appealing character because she has the potential to be a great dark sorcerer, but she doesn't want to use the "bad magic" stolen from others and continues to only use her own power. She's been a loner for most of her schooling so far, but when the most popular boy in her year starts paying attention to her, everyone is suddenly interested in aligning themselves with her. As the novel progresses, you start to realize that El is more powerful than those around her as long as she can acquire enough mana to cast her spells. The ending will leave the reader wanting to know what happens in the next book in the series!

Anisha Dadia is a great narrator, with a varied intonation that conveys the emotions of a young character remarkably well. Her almost conversational tone makes this book an easy listen and great audiobook experience.

Recommended for adult fans of Harry Potter and readers of contemporary fantasy. Teens really into YA fantasy would enjoy this book, and it's less adult in content than some YA titles like Sarah J. Maas.

Naomi Novik studied English literature at Brown and computer science at Columbia. She is a former video game developer/designer and is most well-known for her Temeraire series of fantasy novels. She lives in New York City.

Series: The Scholomance, #1

Publisher: Del Rey (print), Penguin Random House Audio (audiobook)

Length: 336 pages

Audio Narrator: Anisha Dadia

Running Time: 11 hours

Release Date: September 29, 2020

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I received an electronic galley copy of this title from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I also received digital audio recordings of this title from the publisher through the Volumes App and Libro.fm as librarian review copies, and this is the format I ended up reading/listening to. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.