A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
Oct. 2nd, 2021 07:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaI loved it.
+ Galandriel was excellent. I loved her. I found her both sympathetic and relatable and also fairly fun. Like - "I certainly did feel like myself again, namely violently irritated." or "I just have very little willpower when it comes to indulging petty resentment." I loved how bitter she was about her own morality.
+ I enjoyed the world-building. I love the Scholomance. I love how magic works and the existence of the mals and how magic-uses deal with them. I loved how mundanes work, and intersect, with the mals/magic. The story about El's mundane teacher who saw a mal about to attack her as a rat that they then killed was great. I love that spellbooks need to be babied and coddled, that they love electronics (that's a new take I haven't seen before), that they're fickle and prone to disappearing.
+ I love El's affinity. "All shall love me and despair". I love that she's this foretold evil sorceress who will lie waste to everything and she gets everything with that (the beauty and height, the stare that can scare people, the way people can sense how dangerous she is, that she gets thrown massively powerful destruction spells and the ease to use them) and yet she takes the harder tract of refusing to go evil and that it is actually harder (she's alone because people don't like or trust her, the school is literal encouraging her to go evil, it's harder for her to find non-destructive spells that she actually needs, she has terrible clothes and bad hygiene). I love that she can't create spells because they will end up something dangerous and destructive. That when she creates things they go dark.
+ I loved the friendship and eventual alliance that grew between El, Aadhya and Liu.
+ I liked Orion. I found his and El's relationship and how that played out great.
+ I love El's mom Gwen. I love how much she loved El and her determination to protect her daughter (even from herself) and how unwavering she was about it even in the face of everyone's reactions to El. I love that while El's affinity makes her dark as a balance to her mother, Beth uses her light affinity to balance El in return.
+ Galandriel was certainly a choice in names but as the book went on I absolutely got why Beth named her daughter that and I love it.
+ I loved the reveal that Orion actually was dating El in comparison to her spending all that time being disdainful about him not realising that everyone thought they were dating (when obviously they weren't). It amused me.
+ I liked the direction the book went in with Chloe. I was expecting mean girl antagonist and instead we got painful introspection and an eventual offer of friendship after a sincere apology.
+ I liked all the girls taking one of Liu's mice as a familiar but after that section about the chayenas I found myself wanting El to rescue one of them, and her having a chayena familiar feels pretty appropriate.
+ I was surprised that Orion powering El up never came up again.
+ One issue I had was with El not helping Orion fight the mals. Even considering her decision to hide her abilities in that sort of life or death situation I'd have expected her to at least consider letting some of that power out so they could survive.
+ Part of me was expecting, after El killed the maw-mouth, for her to think about her father trapped in one of the others, still suffering, and at least consider the possibility of freeing him from his torment.
+ Galandriel was excellent. I loved her. I found her both sympathetic and relatable and also fairly fun. Like - "I certainly did feel like myself again, namely violently irritated." or "I just have very little willpower when it comes to indulging petty resentment." I loved how bitter she was about her own morality.
+ I enjoyed the world-building. I love the Scholomance. I love how magic works and the existence of the mals and how magic-uses deal with them. I loved how mundanes work, and intersect, with the mals/magic. The story about El's mundane teacher who saw a mal about to attack her as a rat that they then killed was great. I love that spellbooks need to be babied and coddled, that they love electronics (that's a new take I haven't seen before), that they're fickle and prone to disappearing.
+ I love El's affinity. "All shall love me and despair". I love that she's this foretold evil sorceress who will lie waste to everything and she gets everything with that (the beauty and height, the stare that can scare people, the way people can sense how dangerous she is, that she gets thrown massively powerful destruction spells and the ease to use them) and yet she takes the harder tract of refusing to go evil and that it is actually harder (she's alone because people don't like or trust her, the school is literal encouraging her to go evil, it's harder for her to find non-destructive spells that she actually needs, she has terrible clothes and bad hygiene). I love that she can't create spells because they will end up something dangerous and destructive. That when she creates things they go dark.
+ I loved the friendship and eventual alliance that grew between El, Aadhya and Liu.
+ I liked Orion. I found his and El's relationship and how that played out great.
+ I love El's mom Gwen. I love how much she loved El and her determination to protect her daughter (even from herself) and how unwavering she was about it even in the face of everyone's reactions to El. I love that while El's affinity makes her dark as a balance to her mother, Beth uses her light affinity to balance El in return.
+ Galandriel was certainly a choice in names but as the book went on I absolutely got why Beth named her daughter that and I love it.
+ I loved the reveal that Orion actually was dating El in comparison to her spending all that time being disdainful about him not realising that everyone thought they were dating (when obviously they weren't). It amused me.
+ I liked the direction the book went in with Chloe. I was expecting mean girl antagonist and instead we got painful introspection and an eventual offer of friendship after a sincere apology.
+ I liked all the girls taking one of Liu's mice as a familiar but after that section about the chayenas I found myself wanting El to rescue one of them, and her having a chayena familiar feels pretty appropriate.
+ I was surprised that Orion powering El up never came up again.
+ One issue I had was with El not helping Orion fight the mals. Even considering her decision to hide her abilities in that sort of life or death situation I'd have expected her to at least consider letting some of that power out so they could survive.
+ Part of me was expecting, after El killed the maw-mouth, for her to think about her father trapped in one of the others, still suffering, and at least consider the possibility of freeing him from his torment.
