A Deadly Education, by Naomi Novik

Fact: I had a terrible time getting through A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. Reading it felt like being dropped into the middle of a conversation that’s in a language I don’t know. Disorienting is the only word I can think of to describe the feel and pace of this book. And yet…there are some great thematic pay-offs: coming-of-age, embrace-your-power, find-your-friends kind of stuff. And the last line? Perfection!

A synopsis:

A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) — until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets.

There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate… or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.

El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.

From the opening of A Deadly Education, we’re looking through the main character’s eyes into an odd, violent, magical world with zero exposition, and it felt like I was supposed to *know* what the heck was going on.

Only after the first quarter of the book did I feel like I could get my feet under me, but it was still tough until the end. This is partly because of the crazy world the character is in, and partly because of the narrator herself. She’s sarcastic, moody, regularly traumatized but often disassociated, and feeds the story to you either in drips or with a fire hose.

Just by virtue of how hard I worked through this book, and how totally odd/unique it was, I gave it 4 stars. And now that I have a better foundation with this character and her world, I look forward to the rest of the series.