A Deadly Education, by Naomi Novik

[sophia_sol]

This book is more deliberately YA flavoured than Novik's previous novels, featuring that now-classic trope of magic boarding school. The main character is a teen girl named El who is in her second-to-last year at the Scholomance, a school with no teachers and lots of deadly magic monsters that want to kill/eat the teenagers who inhabit it. (Students attend this school anyway because the rate of survival for magic teens outside the Scholomance is even worse!) El is an outsider who doesn't have friends and allies to help her survive school the way many of the kids do. But the boy who's the best at killing monsters seems weirdly invested in helping her, much to her suspicion!

Tbh my main opinion of the book is that it leaves me cold. I just never really cared! It's slick and well paced and well written, and very more-ish, but it doesn't feel to me like there's much actual heart in it. Like, I was warned it is a bit of a horror novel, but it didn't ever feel even a little bit horror to me because despite the high stakes for all the characters at all times, the stakes never felt worrying. Lots of people will die gruesomely and it's fine, basically? I think it might be a better book if it leaned more into the horror actually!

But as it was I just slid along easily through the prose to the end of the book and only had a bit of a small feeling about what was happening like, once. A little bit.

This is not Novik's usual flaw in writing, in my experience, and it's weird! Usually I CARE even if I'm mad about her choices. So I'm not sure what happened here. Especially since her most recent book before this one (Spinning Silver) was so absolutely brilliant and I adored it, and this feels like such a large step down. A really disappointing reading experience for me.

Novik does also continue her tradition of writing books that clearly and obviously need lesbians and have no lesbians, much to my dismay (and, okay, some amusement). El's male love interest Orion OBVIOUSLY needed to be a butch lesbian instead and it's a tragedy he isn't. (Not as much of a tragedy as the lack of lesbians in Spinning Silver and Uprooted though. Those ones demanded lesbians, whereas this one merely would be better with lesbians.)

On a final note: the first thing I remember hearing about this book when it came out was that it's racist, so I do feel the need to acknowledge this aspect. There was one passage about a black character's hair that was notably bad, and Novik has removed that passage from future editions and issued an apology; the ebook I read did not contain the passage in question. The other issues that I've seen raised, I've seen people of colour having widely disparate opinions as to whether they're actual issues in context or not, so I as a white person do not feel qualified to have an opinion about who's right. So that's just something to keep in mind for people interested in reading the book. But as you can probably tell from the review above, I'm not exactly recommending the book regardless!

Comments

[aria]

Those ones demanded lesbians, whereas this one merely would be better with lesbians. Oh this is it EXACTLY.

[sophia_sol]

where are the lesbians, naomi novik!!!!!

[aria]

Tbh my theory is that she [a] wants to write interesting women as her protagonists but [b] is only interested in writing men as the love interests/objects of attraction/etc, which in combination just means Endless Fuckboy Het, and siiiiigh

[lirazel]

Oooh, I think you're on to something with this. And she also seems incapable of writing a male romantic lead who isn't an absolute jerk (I say, even though a few of her absolute jerks kinda work for me within their stories). Like, I get that that's her ~thing~ but if she's going to insist on writing het romance (is she even aware that a book doesn't have to have a romance at all?) then I really, really wish she'd branch out a little and try to write a different kind of romantic interest.

[aria]

Yeah!! And the thing is, she and I have enough id overlap that I genuinely enjoy them sometimes -- I liked the Dragon, the tsar in Spinning Silver made me HOWL with the laughter of recognition over some trope enjoyment we share -- but Orion isn't even a fuckboy? Like, I'm not sure whether Naomi even likes him, so might as well just commit to making that boy a butch lesbian, which would be a massive improvement!

[lirazel]

The tsar is hilarious and also clearly asexual. I get a ton of enjoyment about picturing him in the future being essentially Irina's trophy husband while she runs the country. She's doing everything while he's just focused on his art and maybe, like, raising their kids.

I'm not sure whether Naomi even likes him

How weird!!! Do you think she included him just because there Needs To Be a romantic lead of that kind in a YA novel?

[sophia_sol]

Huh, I just went back and checked my review of SS (because I have no memory) and apparently I didn't read him as asexual at all, which is weird because I'm usually the first to accidentally read any given character as ace with the slightest provocation! But I absolutely agree about him being a trophy husband while she runs the country.

[lirazel]

I didn't pick up on it so much in my first read of the book, but it jumped out at me in rereads. He just seems pretty disgusted by sex in general and has no interest in it. If you ever reread it, keep an eye out and let me know if you notice it!

(My approach to all fiction is to assume a character is either ace or bi until I am explicitly, textually told otherwise.)

[sophia_sol]

I will keep an eye out for that, thank you! I'm due for a reread of the book anyway :)

Yeah het or gay is never my instinct for how to read a character either. The idea of being attracted to exactly one gender is a little baffling to me even though I know it's a thing people experience, so it takes effort from an author for me to agree a character is a) interested in sex and/or romance, and b) with a specific gender only

[lirazel]

Oh, I have so many feelings about this! I just fundamentally don't get people who are like, "No, I could never be attracted to anyone who's [gender], despite the fact that that they are half the population of the earth and so there are billions of them. Nope, there's not one person among those billions that I could be attracted to!" Whereas I do get the idea of not being attracted to anyone at all (as I am ace) and the idea of being attracted to individuals regardless of gender.

Basically: I understand bi/pan people and ace people, but I don't understand het or gay people.

[sophia_sol]

Yes exactly! Me too on all of the above, including being ace myself. The existence of gay people from highly homophobic communities (eg Evangelical christianity) has convinced me that mono attraction must exist, because that's a situation where people would be highly motivated to figure out if there's anyone of a different gender they might manage to work up an attraction to. But it still doesn't make sense to me even though I believe it exists!

[lirazel]

Right, exactly! I definitely believe mono attraction exists, and I would never question someone else's sexuality, but I'm like, "How??? Is that possible???"

[sophia_sol]

....I will admit to doing a little bit of questioning people's professed sexuality when it's people who call themselves straight but talk about their same sex "exceptions" (like, "oh I'm definitely straight but x actor is so hot that obviously anyone would be into them") and I'm like, are you sure this isn't just internalised biphobia convincing you that you must be straight?? But I wouldn't tell people that to their face unless they were genuinely asking my opinion.

[lirazel]

Right. Exactly. Even if I have my doubts, it's just none of my business unless they ask me.

[aria]

Omg I love this vision for them <3

And I'm honestly not sure what the deal is with Orion -- like, the vibe I got from Deadly Education was EXTREMELY "Harry Potter with the serial numbers filed off/text as argument with that kind of magical school story" and I just got the impression that she doesn't really care that much about Golden Boy Chosen Ones as an archetype but she was committed enough to deconstructing the text that she decided to stick with that trope instead of just dodging it entirely? I might be way off base but that was my basic read of that situation, and I still think it would have been better to do that exact thing if Orion had been a girl.

[sophia_sol]

Yeahhh Orion doesn't seem to be the kind of character she's usually interested in at all, which makes it very weird then that she chose to make him such an important part of the book. Tbh I wonder if this is part of why the book didn't engage me emotionally, because the author wasn't engaged in the characters/relationships she chose to focus on. If you care enough about a genre to write a book in conversation with it, why would you include the bits you don't care about?? That's never going to go well!

[lirazel]

Huh. I wonder if the rest of the books in the series will be a deconstruction of that trope?

Anyway, I hope she finishes this series quickly and gets back to writing things I actually want to read.

[cahn]

Yessss I super got that vibe (and I think that kind of deconstruction is hilarious, so I loved this book) and I additionally got the vibe that she was also deconstructing Dystopia YA, which usually comes with a het love triangle, so that was sort of Orion's function in the book, only she couldn't really decide whether she wanted him to actually be a love interest or just make fun of the whole love interest thing, so it came across as weirdly wishy-washy. I loved it but only from my glasses of "this is making fun of het YA," which I'm sure will be shattered in the next book because that's how Novik rolls.:)

...also, it also weirded me out that it was so clearly H/D serial-numbers-filed-off but then why just change only one of them into a girl??

[sophia_sol]

ohhh TOO accurate, ugh. I also remember reading somewhere about her wanting to write women with sexual/romantic relationships as an example for her daughter? (I think as an explanation of why she doesn't write dudeslash under her real name) but like. THAT DOESN'T PREVENT LESBIANS, NAOMI!!

[lirazel]

I really just think that the idea of lesians doesn't even occur to her and I would like to follow her around with a bullhorn yelling "LESBIANS, NAOMI! LESBIANS!"

[sophia_sol]

LESBIANS, NAOMI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[aria]

Yeah, I 100% get wanting to write interesting women and not just a bunch of dudes banging, but also: MAYBE THE INTERESTING WOMEN CAN BE IN ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS WITH EACH OTHER??

[sophia_sol]

PLEASE!!

[chestnut_pod]

This particular quote haunts me. "In my pro work, I want to create women characters who are independent protagonists, and relationships where the woman is allowed to get laid and to love (and to have an orgasm!), and also to continue to place equal value on her own work and her own life."

Ms. Novik… Naomi…

[sophia_sol]

ohhhhh I had forgotten how bad that quote is. Dear Naomi Novik: have you considered that LESBIANS would also fit your stated mission!!

tbh the degree to which she fails to write wlw either in fandom or in her published work is so blatant it is kind of upsetting. As far as I'm aware she has written all of one fic that involves sexual contact between two women, and it is entirely about a man and only occurs in one scene of a fairly long fic.

[lirazel]

Yeah...as much as I adore SS and Uprooted, I just haven't been able to bring myself to read this one yet. I'm sure it's well-written but...idk. We'll see if I ever give it a chance.

Novik does also continue her tradition of writing books that clearly and obviously need lesbians and have no lesbians, much to my dismay (and, okay, some amusement).

RIGHT?????????

[sophia_sol]

I mean, maybe you'll enjoy this one more than I did! Some people I know certainly have! But....I'm not going to be the one encouraging you to make time for it in your reading schedule :P

[lirazel]

Fair enough!

[feast_of_regrets]

I have had the hardest time putting a finger on what bothered me about Novik's original work and this whole thread has finally put the explanation in my hands. (It's always been a mystery to me because I have thoroughly enjoyed some of her fanfiction.) It is indeed the particular kind of het romance she writes. Lesbians or aspec main characters would resolve almost everything that has made me DNF all her work to date. Or just write the dudeslash!

[sophia_sol]

I'm glad this could help clarify! It really is very frustrating, isn't it. She has options! But she keeps writing the same kind of thing anyway.

[chestnut_pod]

Novik literally forgets lesbians exist, so like. There we are. *goes back to polishing the serifs on my Wanda/Miryem fic*

Anyway, I am constantly bewildered by Novik and everything she writes, because it really is the same person writing Temeraire (but Scholomance) and Spinning Silver (but Uprooted) and -- I mean, I have nothing with which to pair the slash fic with distinctly YKINMKAT… maybe… OK dynamics, but I mean, THAT. Why? How? Fascinating…

[sophia_sol]

do you....do you have a Wanda/Miryem fic I could read? because if so PLS LINK

she truly is a bewildering author you are NOT wrong

[chestnut_pod]

Voila le Spinning Silver femmeslash: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21487645

[sophia_sol]

yessss thank you!

[cahn]

Ha, yeah, I didn't find the horror very scary either (which is why I forgot to warn you about it until weeks later) but... maybe I am the only one who finds all the horror hilarious, because as far as I can tell it is trying to over-horror Over-The-Top Horror Dystopia YA :)

[sophia_sol]

tbh it was boring to me rather than funny - "this thing but more so" doesn't feel to me like an effective form of satire/commentary unless it's doing something with it, I think! I'm glad it worked for you though!

[cahn]

Mmmmm, I can see that. For me it was all mashed up in "hello let me do Harry Potter commentary where I explain everything we see in the HP world by GRIMDARK" which I found hilarious! But I think I'm the only person in my DW list who thought it was hilarious, so it is probably just me :D