A significant number of those who made it all the way to graduation day die during the annual bloodbath in which hordes of Maleficaria descend on the graduates to eat their brains. They form cliques which are more important than currying social status with Maleficaria literally lurking around every corner, not having friends to watch your back at meals, in the showers, in study hall, when you go to sleep, can be a death sentence. Children who have magical talent are sent here at age 14 to learn to control their abilities, and they don't leave until they graduate, four years later. It exists in a kind of pocket universe, surrounded by the Void. The Scholomance is a school without teachers it is a living entity that assigns classes to students and grades them on a harsh pass/die curve. For one thing, it's darker and more violent Novik goes into great detail describing the horrific 'Maleficaria' who ooze out of the corners of reality to feast on tasty wizarding morsels, and the grotesque ways in which they can kill you. I didn't really need to read yet another wizard school story, but I felt like giving Novik another try, having been pleasantly surprised by Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House.Ī Deadly Education is a YA novel about a secret wizarding school for children, but other than that, it is really not very Harry Potterish at all. I read the first book in Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, and was so bored I didn't finish it. Although I’m giving serious consideration to just one.

I may not be anyone’s idea of the shining hero, but I’m going to make it out of this place alive, and I’m not going to slaughter thousands to do it, either. But the Scholomance isn’t getting what it wants from me. Sometimes I think they want me to turn into the evil witch they assume I am.

Most of the other students in here would be delighted if Orion killed me like one more evil thing that’s crawled out of the drains. Just give me a chance and I’ll level mountains and kill untold millions, make myself the dark queen of the world. Forget the hordes of monsters and cursed artifacts, I’m probably the most dangerous thing in the place. I don’t need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do.

I’m not joining his pack of adoring fans. Far as I’m concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life.Įveryone loves Orion Lake.

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