If you survive to graduation year, probably at least half will die in the graduation process which is basically fighting your way out of a bunch of beings call “mals” which will try to kill you. She is granted a place at a school for their kind and it’s basically a trial by fire. She was raised by a single mother but is not aligned to any sort of “enclave” which are like power groups of magicians, I suppose. She describes her affinity as “laying waste to multitudes” which means when she “asks” for a simple spell, she tends to get a lot of other things.Įl (short for Galadriel) has a certain something about her that causes people to be wary of her or even flat out dislike and mistrust her. Eventually I got to the stage where I felt comfortable understanding a lot, because our main character is not particularly typical in this world. The book kind of jumps in like you are already familiar with it in some ways but then just imparts a bunch of information at once. It took me a little while to come to grips with the world building and what the magic in it means and the whole mana vs malia thing. I have to admit, I found the first part of this book somewhat confusing. I thought it sounded intriguing so I requested both of them from my local library and this one came in right away. I have seen this series mentioned quite a lot ‘around the place’ – blogs, instagram, book tube, that sort of thing, especially after the second book was released relatively recently. Wry, witty, endlessly inventive, and mordantly funny – yet with a true depth and fierce justice at its heart – this enchanting novel reminds us that there are far more important things than mere survival.

So El is trying her hardest not to use it… that is, unless she has no other choice. Except, she might accidentally kill all the other students, too. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out untold millions – never mind easily destroy the countless monsters that prowl the school.

El Higgins is uniquely prepared for the school’s many dangers. Once you’re inside, there are only two ways out: you graduate or you die. There are no teachers, no holidays, friendships are purely strategic, and the odds of survival are never equal. Enter a school of magic unlike any you have ever encountered. In the start of an all-new series, the bestselling author of Uprooted and Spinning Silver introduces you to a dangerous school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death – until one girl begins to rewrite its rules. Blurb : From the leading talent in fantasy, a magical coming-of-age trilogy with a hilarious female anti-hero – a darker more intelligent Harry Potter for adults.

Books like a deadly education