A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik · Book review

A Deadly Education follows El (short for Galadriel) who is in her junior year at the magic school Sholomance. The school is a highly hazardous place. There are murderous creatures out to kill El and all her classmates, and even if you make it to graduation, there's an all-out bloodbath waiting for you when you try to leave the school grounds.

In reality this would make for a very depressing book (something like Attack on Titan comes to mind) but the book sidesteps this and it's actually more humorous than anything, because it's so absurd. The school provides spells to students in languages that they are familiar with, so El spends all her time studying different languages to try and get all the spells that she can.

I was originally a bit hesitant to read this since it's considered YA, but El is quite a flawed character and this book doesn't veer too close to the "chosen one" trope so I finished it pleasantly surprised.