A Deadly Education

July 1, 2020
A loosely connected group of young magicians fight horrendous creatures to ensure their own survival. Galadriel "El" Higgins knows how dangerous the Scholomance is. Her father died during the school's infamous graduation ceremony, in which senior students run through a gauntlet of magic-eating monsters, just to make sure her pregnant mother made it out alive. Now a student herself at the nebulous, ever shifting magic school, which is populated with fearsome creatures, she has made not making friends into an art form. Not that anyone would want to be her friend, anyway. The only time she ever met her father's family, they tried to kill her, claiming she posed an existential threat to every other wizard. And, as a spell-caster with a natural affinity for using other people's life forces to power destructive magic, maybe she does. No one gave Orion Lake that memo, however, so he's spent the better part of the school year trying to save El from every monster that comes along, much to her chagrin. With graduation fast approaching, El hatches a plan to pretend to be Orion's girlfriend in order to secure some allies for the deadly fight that lies ahead, but she can't stop being mean to the people she needs the most. El's bad attitude and her incessant info-dumping make Novik's protagonist hard to like, and the lack of chemistry between the two main characters leaves the central romantic pairing feeling forced. Although the conclusion makes space for a promising sequel, getting there requires readers to give El more grace than they may be willing to part with. A perilous, magic-school adventure that falls short of its potential.

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Starred review from July 6, 2020
Novik (Spinning Silver) puts a refreshingly dark, adult spin on the magical boarding school setting of the spellbinding first fantasy in her Scholomance trilogy. The students of Scholomance, a boarding school for sorcerers, must weather survival-of-the-fittest trials, fighting off the Lovecraftian monsters known as maleficaria (or “mals”) that routinely break in to eat students. Graduation is the greatest challenge of all, and requires the students to fight their way through the sea of mals clustered outside the building. Dark sorceress El (short for Galadriel) has a plan for how she’ll make it through the gates alive next year: she’ll learn to control her affinity for destruction, make allies by impressing other students with her abilities, and stockpile magical energy. But monster-slayer Orion Lake throws a wrench in the works. He keeps saving El before she can display her talents, and has killed so many lesser mals that the ones left are huge—and hungry. El and Orion must strike up an alliance to save themselves and their schoolmates from monstrous destruction. Readers will delight in the push-and-pull of El and Orion’s relationship, the fantastically detailed world, the clever magic system, and the matter-of-fact diversity of the student body. This is a must-read for fantasy fans.

Starred review from July 1, 2020
Award-winner Novik's latest (after Spinning Silver, 2018) is the start of a fabulous dark and monstrous trilogy. The Scholomance is a typical high school with classes, cliques, competition, angst-driven teenagers?and monsters infesting the walls. The students either learn magic or die trying, and a high percentage never make it to senior year, much less survive the graduation ceremony. El (short for Galadriel) has no friends, never has and never will, not with her affinity for mass destruction. She hopes to eventually make allies who appreciate a powerful witch and will help her join an enclave, one of the large congregations that lives and works together, sharing power to ensure group safety and success. Unfortunately, El has attracted the attention of the school's wildly popular champion, who has been saving students by the dozens for the last three years, and who thinks she is an evil-sorceress serial killer. El could care less; she just wants him to stay away because his heroic antics have upset the magical balance, and retribution is deadly and overdue. The final chapter in this fast-paced fantasy introduces new characters and a surprising conflict for the next book in the series, which offers a fresh take on the magic school trope.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

Starred review from July 1, 2020

From the time she was young, living with her mother on a commune, Galadriel has had a special bond with magical forces. As this novel opens, she is in her third year in the Scholomance, a school for magically gifted children. In Scholomance, students are tested daily on not only their magical abilities but their ability to survive the other students, the magical inhabitants of the school, the creepy cafeteria, and the dangerous coursework. Outcast Galadriel can rely on no help from the other students, except for Orion, who appears to be "some kind of inhumanly heroic monster slayer." But is he trying to help, or does he have sinister ulterior motives for always showing up when she's in danger? An unresolved ending leaves readers eager for the next installment. VERDICT This latest from Novik ("Temeraire" series) launches a new series that should appeal to aficionados of fantastical fiction as well as to those who have felt they never quite fit in and don't understand why. The magic and mystery of this chillingly lovely novel will appeal to both YA and adult fans of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. [See Prepub Alert, 3/18/20.]--Jane Henriksen Baird, formerly at Anchorage P.L., AK

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