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eldabeOk, so, I read Naomi Novik's A Deadly Education. Well, actually I read it twice, as soon as I finished I started again. I had a lot of thoughts ok!
It thrilled me how this book was both in conversation with Harry Potter and stood on its own. There were little fun things like El, the main character, not liking treacle tart, which made me laugh out loud. There was a concerted effort to make the school and the characters more diverse, which has long been a critique of Harry Potter.
And as a reader of Astolat's Harry Potter fic*, I could literally recognize the tropes she borrowed from her own interpretations of the characters.
(*I've read them all despite not being a shipper of Harry/Draco. Astolat just does such staggeringly good world building I literally could not resist. I reread them frequently.)
El is positioned as evil through no fault of her own. She actively resisting her natural inclination to evil, and has a mother who loves her unfalteringly and strongly. It took me a bit to realize it was Draco, and I only realized once it because BLAZINGLY clear that Orion, the boy who can be a bit dim but also is the self-proclaimed hero of the school, was a Harry expy. And frankly, I only put those pieces together because I've read Astolat's HP fic and recognized the Draco from Slithering (as well as other fics), the proud, selfish, lonely boy seeped in constant cunning and dark magic, desperate for the clean relationship with Harry he know he can't have and doesn't deserve.
I mean, they don't line up perfectly, because El is stronger than Draco, and gets the real friends she deserves by the end of the first book, but the longing and the emotions hit me right in the same soft squishy place that pulls me back to rereading Slithering every once in a while. And also I laughed out loud when I realized it.
Also, JKR implies in the books that Hogwarts is a dangerous place, full of scary magic only partly controlled by the untrained youth. But she never really embraces that idea, because the literary genre of "British boarding school" might be a place of deep unfairness and mild dangers, but people dying is still a big deal.
Naomi Novik has no compunctions about going full throttle on the "Deadly" in her title. Kids are dying all around and their parents don't even know. Novik drew a lot of her inspiration from the Scholomance of folklore** and she talks about how the Scholomance is always placed as dangerous and terrible, and she was puzzling through why people might send their children there. Which means the world building in this book is a lot all at once, but it's also fascinating all at once.
(**Huh. I figured out why the dragon reserve in Harry Potter is in Romania.)
(**Also, Astolat has a Harry Potter fic in which Draco goes to the Scholomance, and it's not the same place as in A Deadly Education, but you can see she was already puzzling through how to make the Scholomance a place that works in a fleshed out story.)
I don't even know if Novik thought of the violence of the Scholomance was in conversation with the implied but rarely explored violence of Hogwarts, but I sure thought of it.
In many, many more ways, to be clear, A Deadly Education stands on its own. There are characters with no Harry Potter equivalents, and Orion is American and fully integrated into the magical world from his youth. The story is grim in a way Harry Potter never is, brutal and gritty in ways that make it less escapist, to be honest. The magic system is a little more codified and sharpened, but with a lot of soft edges that I enjoy. The school's individual locations are really well described. And you pick up a surprising number of characters, with different sensibilities and backgrounds and ideas, and I really hope that fandom has fun with it. So far there are only a few fics, but it did just come out!
Also, it has supportive girl friendships. And I am always, always here for that.
I'm a little curious to see where the next two books in the series go. I haven't bought it yet (libraries! Support libraries!) but I'm strongly considering it. I got to have that third re-read you know. :D
Basically, highly recommended, with the caveat that if death of teenagers is a no, it's ok to give it a pass.
(Also, I should clarify, as I think this is my first HP post in a while, that I'm not at all ok with JKR's bigotry and I'm still figuring out what that means for me as a fan, but I can't just...turn off the fandom hyperfixation, and I'm working on being a more critical fan and vocally supporting the trans community in particular, but giving up isn't happening here. You CAN block my "fandom: harry potter" tag if you have an advanced account; I'll make sure to tag everything.)
It thrilled me how this book was both in conversation with Harry Potter and stood on its own. There were little fun things like El, the main character, not liking treacle tart, which made me laugh out loud. There was a concerted effort to make the school and the characters more diverse, which has long been a critique of Harry Potter.
And as a reader of Astolat's Harry Potter fic*, I could literally recognize the tropes she borrowed from her own interpretations of the characters.
(*I've read them all despite not being a shipper of Harry/Draco. Astolat just does such staggeringly good world building I literally could not resist. I reread them frequently.)
El is positioned as evil through no fault of her own. She actively resisting her natural inclination to evil, and has a mother who loves her unfalteringly and strongly. It took me a bit to realize it was Draco, and I only realized once it because BLAZINGLY clear that Orion, the boy who can be a bit dim but also is the self-proclaimed hero of the school, was a Harry expy. And frankly, I only put those pieces together because I've read Astolat's HP fic and recognized the Draco from Slithering (as well as other fics), the proud, selfish, lonely boy seeped in constant cunning and dark magic, desperate for the clean relationship with Harry he know he can't have and doesn't deserve.
I mean, they don't line up perfectly, because El is stronger than Draco, and gets the real friends she deserves by the end of the first book, but the longing and the emotions hit me right in the same soft squishy place that pulls me back to rereading Slithering every once in a while. And also I laughed out loud when I realized it.
Also, JKR implies in the books that Hogwarts is a dangerous place, full of scary magic only partly controlled by the untrained youth. But she never really embraces that idea, because the literary genre of "British boarding school" might be a place of deep unfairness and mild dangers, but people dying is still a big deal.
Naomi Novik has no compunctions about going full throttle on the "Deadly" in her title. Kids are dying all around and their parents don't even know. Novik drew a lot of her inspiration from the Scholomance of folklore** and she talks about how the Scholomance is always placed as dangerous and terrible, and she was puzzling through why people might send their children there. Which means the world building in this book is a lot all at once, but it's also fascinating all at once.
(**Huh. I figured out why the dragon reserve in Harry Potter is in Romania.)
(**Also, Astolat has a Harry Potter fic in which Draco goes to the Scholomance, and it's not the same place as in A Deadly Education, but you can see she was already puzzling through how to make the Scholomance a place that works in a fleshed out story.)
I don't even know if Novik thought of the violence of the Scholomance was in conversation with the implied but rarely explored violence of Hogwarts, but I sure thought of it.
In many, many more ways, to be clear, A Deadly Education stands on its own. There are characters with no Harry Potter equivalents, and Orion is American and fully integrated into the magical world from his youth. The story is grim in a way Harry Potter never is, brutal and gritty in ways that make it less escapist, to be honest. The magic system is a little more codified and sharpened, but with a lot of soft edges that I enjoy. The school's individual locations are really well described. And you pick up a surprising number of characters, with different sensibilities and backgrounds and ideas, and I really hope that fandom has fun with it. So far there are only a few fics, but it did just come out!
Also, it has supportive girl friendships. And I am always, always here for that.
I'm a little curious to see where the next two books in the series go. I haven't bought it yet (libraries! Support libraries!) but I'm strongly considering it. I got to have that third re-read you know. :D
Basically, highly recommended, with the caveat that if death of teenagers is a no, it's ok to give it a pass.
(Also, I should clarify, as I think this is my first HP post in a while, that I'm not at all ok with JKR's bigotry and I'm still figuring out what that means for me as a fan, but I can't just...turn off the fandom hyperfixation, and I'm working on being a more critical fan and vocally supporting the trans community in particular, but giving up isn't happening here. You CAN block my "fandom: harry potter" tag if you have an advanced account; I'll make sure to tag everything.)
no subject
Date: Nov. 30th, 2020 02:12 (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 30th, 2020 02:32 (UTC)And if you, uh, want a friend to talk to about it. I will still be thinking about this book, I promise. XD
no subject
Date: Nov. 30th, 2020 02:35 (UTC)I am now on the waitlist for two libraries so we shall see :D
no subject
Date: Nov. 30th, 2020 02:40 (UTC)Yesssssss