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A Deadly Education, the book

Writer's picture: Haunted LoreHaunted Lore

Ciao & Happy Sunday!


Sundays are my least favorite days b/c they cause me the most anxiety & stress. No matter how prepared I am for the new week, how much I've accomplished the day before, or how ahead I get, Sundays are always the worse.


I can't say that I directly have a favorite day of the week though, not even friday. I've been working weekends since I was 16, so my fun has never been limited to the weekend or friday nights. Though, a little contradiction, D&D is on friday nights. However, I am not currently enjoying D&D, but that is a long story that I don't want to get in to.


Side Note: Allow me to lay out a hypothetical for you: You're the one that is always spoken over so you've become use to everyone talking over you & nobody paying attention to what you have to say. So you become quiet. Then everyone starts to act like they care about what you have to say now that you aren't saying anything. But, then someone else in the group, who is the primary person that speaks over you & never lets you finish a god damn sentence, has it happen to them (is spoken over & disregarded). That same person has the audacity to pout & immediately make everyone feel sorry for him then gets more offended when you mumble "join the group". Oh, & once this passes he's right back on top of the antics all over again. So, person reading my blog post, my question for you is: how would this all make you feel? B/c is made me violently angry inside & fueled a deep hatred of men that my mom gifted to me.


Moving on...


Book hangover is still strong & ongoing, in case you guys were wondering. Which just adds onto the dislike of Sundays. So we are going to go ahead & discuss the wonderous world of A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik.


Before jumping into this: There will be Spoiler in this discuss. Sorry. I tried to think about how to write this without the spoilers but it didn't have the same feel to it. However, I will say that I will avoid the larger twists & surprises that the book holds.


Let's dive in:

...I'm not sure where to begin so I'm just going to start of by saying I loved pretty much every aspect of this book except the little to no romance portion, information dumping, & there seemed to just be a piece missing from the novel. Though I'm not someone who is really into reading romance, this book was marketed with a promise of mild romance. Within the entirety of the book there were three romance scenes & one of those scenes El (the mc) almost died b/c homeboy wanted to drink her blood.

The lack of romance wasn't a bad thing, for me, though b/c of the way that the book is structured. (A little disappointing, nonetheless) It's very elebroate & detailed when discussing the academy's construction, magical properties, & knowledge/history regarding their studies. If you're a detail loving person than this would be a great book for you to read, extremely long chapters though. If you're like me & enjoy details but not having to read through three pages before returning the the matter at hand, which is sometimes El's own life, then it gets tiring fast.

I'm in between, details are important to me but so are characters & this book had some great characters. Galadriel, the main character who goes by El, I instantly connected with. Raised by a single mother, unresolved anger from our childhood, trouble trusting others which leads to trouble making friends, reserved to the point of being standoffish, & I'm going to stop here b/c I don't want to call myself out anymore...

El is a great character though & goes through a wonderful development throughout the novel. There was a portion in the center of the book, prior to the climax, where El realizes that she finally made friends & we're given a touching flashback that shows why she became so antisocial. The entirety of that interaction, which was only four or five pages, undid years of heartache that sweet girl El went through. I'd be lying if I didn't say that it brought a few tears to my eyes.

El's counterpart is Orion Lake. Now, El is the outcast girl that is reserved & some people fear (for good reason) while Orion is the golden boy that is destined for greatness & everyone literally adores. A truly unlikely pair, to say the least, & it becomes even weirder when Orion begins following El around. One thing that I disliked about El's character is that she seemed to be mean for absolutely no reason, to anyone one she crossed paths with even if she needed them for survival. Which is her whole deal, surviving the Schoolmancer. (That's the name of the academy, btw) She even admits that to herself. & yeah I get it, I mentioned the unresolved anger, but her anger is a little much b/c, like I also said, she admits that it is.

Anyways, she acts horrible to Orion & for some reason he stays by her side, & eventually El convinces the whole academy that they are dating. At the beginning it is unclear if Orion knows or not about the dating. El's goal, through this, is to better her chances of survival, b/c the title is quite serious. While Orion's goal is unclear until about midway through the book &, in my opinion, it's a little anticlimax.

The group of misfits that El attracts are diverse & fun, I particularly loved the friendship that the three of them share. It's wholesome, built on trust & understanding, & an equal dive to survive. Plus, when Orion is added to the group it adds a slight comedic aspect. Side-note-that-isn't-really-a-side-note: everyone is good looking in this series!

El, with her long black hair & softly tanned skin, out right admits that she's become beautiful within the last few years. A Queen. Orion, with pale blonde hair & broad shoulders, admits that he's had girls in their year ask to...ya know. That, & El even mentions that he is indeed handsome. When we are first meeting her other friends, before they were friends, El states that each of the girls had stunning aspects about them.

There is no short of action in this novel, the student literally fight for their lives inside the Schoolmancer. They spend all their time studying, honing in on their magic abilities, while a hoard of monsters try to break in & eat them, & their finally just so happens to be running a gauntlet of monsters. Chill, this is all explained within the first chapter of the novel.


In conclusion, I did love this novel but felt as though it missed some great opportunities. I could be bias b/c I love anything that is magical with an academia feel to it. The characters are the best part of this novel while it is action packed, it is missing the romance element that it is marketed with. The every shifting layout & magical properties of the Schoolmancer are unique while certainly enforcing the 'deadly' portion of the title. Long chapters, heavily detailed, & full of fantasy elements, would be considered the traits of this.

Overall, I'd suggest this book to anyone (leaving out the romance portion) & I believe they'd enjoy it.

I've got high hopes for the sequel.


Arrivederci

-Haunted Lore

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