Anexis Matos

Synopsis

Meet El, a dark sorceress capable of massive destruction and student of the Scholomance. This is the safest place for wizards, but their education comes at a price. El, along with the other students must survive the dangers of the school.

Book Information

Genre: Fantasy
Category: Young adult
Explicit sex: No
Explicit violence: Yes, but not extremely graphic
Content warnings: None that I caught. I recommend doing your research.

This is the first book in the Scholomance series.

Review

The prose is great. Very accessible and easy to read.

The pacing is amazing. It’s very slow, but it fits the story and the way its written.

This story reads like slice of life anime. The plot loosely connects the events similar to this type of anime. This is a style that could bother some readers, but I really enjoyed it. Each chapter can be read like individual episodes. If you want to read a book with this style, I recommend American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

Another thing that could bother readers is the amount of exposition. The story starts with several pages of El revealing a lot of information at once. I had a bad relationship with exposition the first time I attempted to read it, but, after dipping my toes into light novels, I’ve appreciated it a lot more. The exposition no longer bothers me.

Themes of friendship and alliance are very prevalent in this story. They’re explored very well along with others. Because its written in a slice of life format, it’s a more character-driven story, so it allows for more exploration rather than a plot-driven one. In my experience, character-driven stories allow for better character development and theme exploration.

The characters are amazing. El is one of the best characters I’ve ever followed. I love how unapologetic she is. I’d love to follow more characters like her.

There’s a little bit of romance, but it’s not a big part of the story. The first time I read it, I critiqued this along with the exposition. However, it no longer bothers me as a reader. In this read, I find that it works so much better than I thought. This first book sets up the romance in The Last Graduate. We see their friendship develop first, making it a slow-burn romance, my favorite kind.

Conclusion

Overall, this is a great story. I had a great time reading it. I rated it five stars.

Author’s Note

Hey, everyone! Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed today’s review.

I had a different perspective reading A Deadly Education this time. It’s been about a year since the first time. Since then, I’ve read more and light novels have given me a new appreciation for telling and exposition. The book Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction and Workshopping by Matthew Salesses also made me rethink my relationship with writing. Now, I read books with this new appreciation and established relationship. I think I’ve become a better reader and reviewer for it.

I have videos on the Scholomance series. My review for the third book, The Golden Enclaves will be out in 2023. To be the first to see it, subscribe to my channel. I usually post on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays at 5:00 AM Eastern Standard Time. That way, you’ll have something to watch when you wake up. To get you started, here are my videos on the Scholomance series.