Kogiopsis's Reviews > A Deadly Education

Ahhhh... it's nice to relax into a book that's just fun now and again.

It's hard not to read every magical boarding school story in relation to Harry Potter, so here's my take on this one: the setting, The Scholomance, is what you would get if you dropped all of Hogwarts down the deepest pit in the Mines of Moria and it just sort of... kept falling forever, and also got infested with every nasty critter smaller than a balrog. And then you kept throwing teenage wizards at it, because they were somehow actually safer inside than out.

It's a wild ride, is my point.

The book itself is going to have somewhat niche appeal, I think. It's written in first person, with a strong sense of voice and a very explanatory style. If you're willing to let curiosity about worldbuilding carry you from plot action to plot action (which I am), this style will probably work for you. If your mind tends to wander when characters explain things, probably not. Personally, I love learning about the quirks and strange underpinnings of a magical world, and protagonist Galadriel (who prefers 'El' for obvious reasons) has the kind of wisecracking internal monologue that makes everything more fun.

It's hard to decide how to describe this story. On the one hand, it hits a lot of the standard coming-of-age tropes, as our heroine starts to make friends, gain confidence, make decisions about her future, etc. On the other hand, it's set in a school pretty much designed on the assumption that hundreds of its students will die horribly, and that that is an acceptable loss if it increases the survival chances of the rest. Themes of societal inequality are not even the least bit subtle:

They wanted to be safe. It's not that much to ask, it feels like. But we don't have it to begin with, and to get it and keep it, they'd push another kid into the dark. One enclave would push another into the dark for that, too. And they didn't stop at safety, either. They wanted comfort, and then they wanted luxury, and then they wanted excess, and every step of the way they still wanted to be safe, even as they made themselves more and more of a tempting target, and the only way they could stay safe was to have enough power to keep everyone off that wanted what they had."

While this is a fundamentally dark setting, the book itself honestly isn't that dark. The story focuses mostly on El and her developing relationships with other students, starting with school golden boy and character most likely to yell LEEEEROOOOY JENKIIIINS while charging a magical monster, Orion Lake. Theirs is a snarky-dislike-to-snarky-friendship transition, and it's pretty delightful to watch them slowly grow closer despite El's best intentions. Through him, she starts to connect to other members of the cast, and eventually there's a proper little ragtag crew. It's good fun.

I think that's really my biggest takeaway: this book was fun. Every time I sat down to read it, I read longer than I had planned. It didn't take too long for the magic system and the setting to make sense, and I could just kind of... relax into the story. Especially right now, when my fond memories of Harry Potter have been tarnished by JKR's behavior, it was nice to just plain enjoy a nice magical school story.

(view spoiler)[Though I will say, the last line felt like a cheap trick to me and damaged a very nice denouement. (hide spoiler)]