A Deadly Education – Naomi Novik

Loved this book.

Galadriel is at an international boarding school for young wizards. They’re basically trapped there for four years, and constantly under threat from a whole bunch of nasty, evil beasties, but everyone keeps coming because it’s safer than being out in the real world at that age. Graduation is when you fight your way out of the school at the end of your senior year. Not everyone survives. El’s Dad didn’t – he died to save her mother, and the baby they had just realized they would be having.

Speaking of El’s mother, she’s good. You never actually meet her, but her personality just shines through El’s narrative. You see, El was basically born to be as evil as they come – everyone naturally avoids her. Except her mother. Who through sheer force of personality has raised El to be a good person, against some pretty stacked odds.

The story is basically about the end of El’s junior year, and I think it’s better read than described. I can’t wait to read the next book. I may actually buy a physical copy.