![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I read A Deadly Education for book club, which was a good thing, because I probably would have DNF'd it about a quarter through otherwise. But by the end of the novel, which I consumed in one sitting, I thought "I'd like to read the sequels", downloaded them from the library, and they sat there for a few weeks. Last night I sat down with my kobo and thought I'd start The Last Graduate.
Reader, I read the Last Graduate through in one sitting, ending at 1:30am, internally screamed at the cliffhanger, and in a fit of madness actually started reading The Golden Enclaves for a few pages, because of that cliffhanger. The next day was a rainy Sunday and I woke up late and did nothing until 4:40pm when I finished The Golden Enclaves.
A Deadly Education starts with El, a student at the Scholomance, a massive deadly magical school. There are no adults or teachers, only the school itself; the school and the students are attacked daily by dangerous maleficaria, "mals", which are attracted to the young students' mana and relatively low power. Students are teleported in with very limited supplies and must survive 4 years before they can graduate, which involves running the gauntlet of mals to the doors. Despite the fatality rate of the school, which is around 50%, it is significantly better odds than growing up on the outside, so parents continue to send their children in.
El is a self-described loser in the school: she has no magical connections like the enclaver kids who have an assured ticket to a safe life after graduation, and she has no social skills or family connections to help her forge an alliance. She is also living with the terrible doom of a prophecy over head: specifically that she's destined to destroy all the world's safe havens, the enclaves. Her penchant for magic is for complete ultra-violent destruction, which only increases her fear.
Spoilery review follows of all three books follows. ( Spoilery review )
Reader, I read the Last Graduate through in one sitting, ending at 1:30am, internally screamed at the cliffhanger, and in a fit of madness actually started reading The Golden Enclaves for a few pages, because of that cliffhanger. The next day was a rainy Sunday and I woke up late and did nothing until 4:40pm when I finished The Golden Enclaves.
A Deadly Education starts with El, a student at the Scholomance, a massive deadly magical school. There are no adults or teachers, only the school itself; the school and the students are attacked daily by dangerous maleficaria, "mals", which are attracted to the young students' mana and relatively low power. Students are teleported in with very limited supplies and must survive 4 years before they can graduate, which involves running the gauntlet of mals to the doors. Despite the fatality rate of the school, which is around 50%, it is significantly better odds than growing up on the outside, so parents continue to send their children in.
El is a self-described loser in the school: she has no magical connections like the enclaver kids who have an assured ticket to a safe life after graduation, and she has no social skills or family connections to help her forge an alliance. She is also living with the terrible doom of a prophecy over head: specifically that she's destined to destroy all the world's safe havens, the enclaves. Her penchant for magic is for complete ultra-violent destruction, which only increases her fear.
Spoilery review follows of all three books follows. ( Spoilery review )
