Set at the Scholomance, a school for magically gifted individuals. A Deadly Education follows Galadriel or El as she's better known, literally struggling for survival through school. The Scholomance is an unusual school, there are no teachers, no holidays and no escape until graduation. If you make it. That's because the school is literally alive with monsters that lurk in the corners, under desks, in the school canteen and literally eat the students. On graduation, students need to have allied up in order to find a route to the real world. Death is a very real threat.

This dark and spooky vibe is definitely delivered in time for October and Halloween. Having said that, I felt at times the novel did lack the intensity or scare factor I kind of expected with a school full of monsters and wish Novik had really ramped up the tension.

The premise is great and Novik puts a lot into the world-building. She details the history and structure of the school, the way magic works in the world and El's own history. On that, I cannot fault her for delivering on the world-building. Although at times the heavy focus on the world-building does come at detriment to the speed and development of the plot.

I really liked El as a character and although she was a little bit prickly she actually had a lot more to her character than first appears. The relationships she develops across the novel with Liu, Aadhya and Orion were slow but more believable. I particularly liked the moments between El and Orion as their friendship blossomed despite them seemingly initial polar opposites and El's initial complete rebuttal of his presence.

This book is definitely not for everyone as it's not a faced-paced fantasy but that's very much a Novik's style. I would also say the book had a very different vibe to Uprooted and Spinning Silver although the writing style is very similar. However, the build up in this first instalment leaves me excited for what hopefully is set to be an even better sequel. Thanks to @delreybooks and @netgalley for the arc.