A Deadly Education is a dark school-of-magic book, where magic users are targeted by all the darker creatures of the world during their pubescent years. Their safest option is… not that safe: a boarding school literally set apart from the world, with no oversight and only slightly fewer things that want to eat the students.

The protagonist, Galadriel, is fierce. Her great grandmother foresaw a prophecy about her that has skewed her life, but Gal’s mother has always been dedicated to Gal and to using mana-based magic (ie. power generated by time and hard work). No ‘cheating’ magic for this family! No, seriously — Gal’s affinity for deadly and destructive magic means that she can’t ever use malia (which draws power from the lives of other creatures) as a magic source, or there will be no turning back.

Whisked away to the Scholomance, Gal has spent most of the last three years looking for her big break — a way to show off her magic without killing a whole bunch of other students. Then she’ll receive the accolades — and protection — she’s always longed for. But stupid Orion Lake keeps bungling into her way and killing the monsters she has in her cross-hairs. So she may as well make use of him, while he’s here.

Gal forges alliances and matter-of-factly makes observations about safety tactics in the school (which is absolutely trying to kill everyone, in a magical Social Darwinism way). This story is chock full of humor, horror, action, and heart.