A Deadly Education – Naomi Novik

Read it in one sitting and enjoyed it all the way.

The premise has problems. In order to make the days covered by this story exciting, the author makes the school unsurvivably dangerous. And, for reasons that are never given, the school itself behaves maliciously. (Geek hat on: If the non-school survival rate for magical teens is 10% then the average couple must have had twenty or more children. We are given to understand that some magical children are born to non-magical parents, but that this is not the norm.)

The book revolves around the protagonist and narrator, Galadriel (prefers ‘El’ for obvious reasons), who cannot seem to catch a break. She is too powerful, but in the wrong way, with an outstanding affinity for dark magic. If she asks for a spell to clean a stain off the floor, the school is likely to give her a spell that will clean the stain by vaporizing the floor - and the surrounding city. Her life goes from hard to exasperating when she catches the attention of Orion Lake, the school hero. She still cannot seem to catch a break.

A sequel - this appears to be a two-book series - is due in July.