A DEADLY EDUCATION is the story of a magic school where death is casual, and if you go in unconnected, you’re nearly guaranteed not to live until graduation day. But even those odds are better than if you’re "out in the real world."

If you’re a fantasy reader, it’s nearly impossible not to have heard of Naomi Novik. She’s an author who’s been on my radar for a long time, and I’m glad I decided to pick up this first installment of the Scholomance series. I really enjoyed this one, and I’m always excited to add an ongoing series to my TBR. Is there anything better, as a reader, to be part of the hype for the next book in this series? I don’t think so! Something to know going in is that this magic system is intricate and intense, so this book is going to require a lot of focus. As the first book in the series, there’s a lot to establish. But hang in there! It’s a story that’s more than worth it. One of the scariest things for me about reading this genre is that the book is going to be smarter than I am, and suffice it to say that this one was. But that’s one of the things I really enjoyed about it; I constantly felt like I was learning something.

Galadriel, better known to her classmates as El, is our heroine. And as you might have guessed, she’s one of the "unconnected." Until she begrudgingly gets in good with her classmate Orion, and then she’s suddenly more connected than she ever wanted to be, and for all the wrong reasons. One of the more (and only) lighthearted aspects of this book was El and Orion’s tenuous friendship. As we only get this story from El’s point of view, we’re never truly clear on Orion’s intentions. But as the class hero, he’s on everyone’s radar, and that puts El there, too. What confuses El the most is that her abrasive personality has never really drawn anyone in, so why Orion? This reason may have put El on new classmates' radars, but it doesn’t mean that the relationships she gains because of it aren’t genuine. We get to see some great female friendships blossom, and even a tenuous respect from her classmates as being thrust into the spotlight makes El and her abilities, of which there are many, more known.

I fear that sharing more would be spoilery, so I’m going to leave it at this: amazing world building and spectacular characters will leave you spellbound. It will be hard to even try not to think about A DEADLY EDUCATION when you’re forced to step away from it. You’ll be left wondering how on Earth you’re going to be able to wait for the next Scholomance installment. It’s a no-brainer to know that I’ll be picking up the next book because that ending, though. . .