"That's just what translation is, I think. That's all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they'"That's just what translation is, I think. That's all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they're trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands."
I think I have been a victim of the hype.
Don't get me wrong; this book was enjoyable. The concept, the themes, the lens through which we explore them, the magic system... all great. The discussion of linguistics and translation and their relationship to colonization and oppression? Utterly fascinating.
But while this book had infinite potential, for me, it fell short. The characters were little more than cardboard cutouts, many of them shallow as a puddle, with little to no growth of change throughout the novel (ignoring the sudden 180 of our protagonist, which felt a little too unnatural and contrived for my taste). My favourite character, Victoire, was woefully underutilized, Ramy was little more than a mouthpiece through which the author could directly translate her ideas to the reader, and Letty was cartoonish in every aspect.
The exploration of the themes, while interesting, was quite repetitive and heavy-handed, the same concepts driven home over and over and over again both in the main text and the footnotes to the point where I felt a little bit like I was in a lecture with a professor who thought I was not the sharpest tool in the shed and had to hit me over the head with a concept 500 times for me to get it.
Each reveal was less a surprise and more an inevitability, and the predictable nature of the narrative bled it dry of all intrigue.
I believe this book would have been greatly improved with a little less underestimation of the reader and a much deeper development of the characters. I'll be interested to read more from this author in the future, and the concepts introduced in terms of translation and the role of language in colonization will stick with me for a long time to come.
Trigger/Content Warnings: drug use, death of a parent, child abuse, violence, racism, sexism and misogyny, xenophobia, slavery, murder, blood and gore, suicidal ideation, colonization
If you'd asked me two chapters in for my rating, A Deadly Education would have been sitting around two stars. I *really* struggled with this book initIf you'd asked me two chapters in for my rating, A Deadly Education would have been sitting around two stars. I *really* struggled with this book initially, finding that Novik was somehow both over and under-explaining the world-building and magic system simultaneously, leaving me overwhelmed yet confused. There was a lot of info dumping in those first few chapters, but without proper explanations of basic terminology, that left me taking copious notes, guessing at how the magic worked, and rereading passages wondering if I'd missed something - and I am very accustomed to fantasy novels with extensive and complex world-building and magic systems. Eventually, thankfully, things became clearer, and we received enough additional information to comfortably exist in the world Novik created, but it was a clunky and confusing start that would have probably led to a DNF if this hadn't been our February pick for the PBB book club.
I was also intensely turned off by Galadriel's attitude from page one, struggling to root for her and her disdain for everything and everyone around her. Luckily, A Deadly Education picked up steam in the second half, delivering a diverse cast of (mostly) layered characters, and I found myself rooting for them as they faced some truly terrifying monsters, despite my initial reservations. This book has a lot of heart, primarily in its relationships. Whether it's El discovering the joy of friendship or the unwavering love of her mother, the emotional depth of these connections was a highlight for me. By the end of the book, I was thoroughly invested in (most of) these characters and their journeys.
The one glaring exception for me was Orion, who felt underdeveloped throughout the entire series. His character had so much potential, but Novik didn't go nearly as far as I would have liked to explore why Orion is the way he is and who he is past surface-level traits. There are "reasons" for him to be the way he is, but I don't think his character was nearly as well developed as he deserved.
Overall, though, this turned into a much better book than I expected, and I enjoyed it enough to read the second and third books in the trilogy very quickly. The examination of classism and privilege, nature vs nurture, and the sacrifice of younger generations to protect the comfort of those who came before added a lot of depth and nuance to a story that otherwise could have fallen a bit flat. If you're looking for a Dark Academia fantasy novel in a school setting with terrifying monsters and you don't mind that the characters are teenagers and the slow start, I'd give this series a try!
Representation: BIPOC mc & secondary characters
Trigger/Content Warnings: violence, blood, death, body horror, classism
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