Going through high school as a social outcast is hard enough when the school itself isn’t trying to kill you. At the Scholomance, being a loner can be deadly…. I’ve finally read A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik, a young adult fantasy novel which came out back in 2020. I’ve been a fan of Novik since first stumbling upon Uprooted in 2015, but even more so ever since I read her Slavic fairy story Spinning Silver. I’ve been hearing great things about the Scholomance series for years, and now that all three books in the trilogy are out, I figured it would be the perfect time to pick up Book 1.
For El, every minute of every day at the Scholomance is a life-and-death struggle. There are monsters lurking in every crevice and shadow, desperate to taste the mana radiating off of the magically gifted teens who populate the school. Without friends or allies, El has to work ten times as hard to watch her own back and negotiate deals and bribes just to find someone to walk with her to the bathroom or let her sit at their table for lunch. Which is why she absolutely cannot stand Orion Lake, the golden boy from a privileged New York wizarding family who dashes around effortlessly slaying monsters and earning the worship and admiration of their classmates. El knows she could be just as powerful as Orion—maybe even more powerful—if she gave into her affinity and embraced the magic that came most naturally to her. Unfortunately, that affinity is for large-scale death and destruction, and in order to embrace it she would have to go down the irreversible path of dark magic. Unwilling to make that sacrifice, El grits her teeth, puts her head down, and spends all of her energy to fight both external dangers and her own inner nature. Then Orion Lake starts pay attention to her and El suddenly has a shot at everything she ever dreamed of: safety and comfort in the hallways and lunchroom, offers of an alliance with other powerful students to fight beside her in the bloody gauntlet of monsters through which all senior must pass to graduate, and even the promise of a spot in one of the powerful Enclaves that keep adult wizards safe in the outside world. But is that truly what El wants? The more she sees of the injustices that make some kids much more likely to survive at this school than others, the more she kind of just wants to burn it all down….
One of the aspects of this book I found most interesting is the way that it explores goodness versus niceness. El isn’t nice. She’s prickly and angry and prone to respond with sarcasm and insults to anyone who makes the rare effort to speak to her. She may even wallow in her hatred for her peers and indulge in revenge fantasies after someone disrespects her. But at her core, El has an immovable moral center that drives her to do the right thing even when it’s hard and miserable and goes against her own interests. The popular kids might be friendly, faultlessly polite, and pleasant to hang out with—at least when you have something they want—but all too often, they’re looking out for their own interests above all others. Even Orion, who has gained quite the reputation for heroics and saving others, hasn’t given much thought to the way he participates in unfair systems that privilege the wealthy Enclave kids over everyone else. Or given much thought to the fact that saving the younger kids from becoming a meal for monsters will only make those monsters all the more bloodthirsty during the seniors’ graduation. El may not be winning any popularity contests, but her deep sense of fairness and justice might just be able to change the whole of magical society for the better.
The story also takes an interesting approach to the idea of dark magic. El’s affinity for death and destruction pushes her to draw on “malia”—the dark form of magical energy that is drawn from other living beings, as opposed to mana, which is generated through physical effort. Wizards who habitually use malia are called maleficers and are somewhat taboo in magical society. Using malia has a magical backlash on the wizard, which will noticeably change their appearance and will ultimately destroy their body and shorten their lifespan. Some maleficers will carefully ration their use of malia by sacrificing small animals over a long period of time, in order to gain enough power to get through their years at the Scholomance without causing irreparable damage to their body—a strategy that one of El’s classmates is pushed into following by her family, despite its ramifications for her health, reputation, and conscience. El, on the other hand, is adamant that she will never start down the maleficer path at all because she knows that her powerful destruction magic would require her to commit the ultimate taboo—killing another human being for their malia. The life of a maleficer is one of continually choosing short term gains at the expense of long-term self-destruction. The physical deterioration that maleficers endure can also be viewed as a manifestation of their moral corruption. No power ever comes without a price, and sacrificing the lives of others will ultimately come back to haunt you.
If you haven’t yet hopped on the Scholomance bandwagon, what are you waiting for? You can find A Deadly Education on shelves now at your favorite local retailer, or buy it online and support The Gothic Library in the process using this Bookshop.org affiliate link. If you’ve already read it, let me know your thoughts in the comments!
I loved this series. More than anything else, I love how neatly all three books are tied together. It feels more like a symphony in three movements than a series of stories.
I will make sure I read the sequels in a timely manner, then!