Book Review: A Deadly Education

Naomi Novik understands the importance of a gripping first line: "I decided Orion needed to die after the second time he saved my life." It's even quoted on the back cover, albeit with Orion's surname Lake added. Does the narrator, Galadriel "El" Higgins, have totally backwards values? Not exactly. To understand where she's coming from, you have to know a few things about the Scholomance, the magic high school whose name is also the title of the trilogy that this novel kicks off.

( Cut for length )

This might have been my cue to pick something less recent and/or less intense. Instead, I've started Upgrade by Blake Crouch. Wow, a new sci-fi that both my parents read ahead of me.