Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

> FAQ Home
> Tag: magic school

It’s kind of like if Harry Potter was destined to destroy the world, crossed with the Hunger Games, and Hogwarts was actively trying to kill you

Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

by 4 Comments

Naomi Novik burst on the scene with her Temeraire series but around book 4 or 5 I lost interest.  Then last year I finally read Spinning Silver and was reminded what a good author she is and was excited to find out that a new book was forth coming in the Fall, Deadly Education.  Attending one of her virtual release events whetted my appetite and I have been eagerly waiting for Deadly Education to rise to the top of the TBR, I’m happy to report it lived […]

A really good premise ruined by casual racism and poor characterization

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

by 4 Comments

The Scholomance is not your typical school. And not just because it’s a school for magic. No, this school is not your average school because it will straight up try to kill you. Students have to stay alert constantly and travel in packs everywhere lest one of the evil creatures, or malefecaria, who live in the school try to kill them. Galadriel, or El, is a student at the Scholomance determined to survive all the way through graduation and do so on her own terms. […]

Hogwarts, but even MORE racist!

The Black Mage by Daniel Barnes, D.J. Kirkland

by Leave a Comment

I was intrigued when I saw this book come up on NetGalley, so I picked it up, but then forgot to read it, and then I was sad.  And I met the author and illustrator at the New York Comic Con, and they were really nice!  And then the library I work at got a copy, so I was the first one to check it out! Anyway…   On first glance, this looks like Harry Potter, but if Harry Potter was the only black kid.  […]

Imagine if high school graduation was a Hunger Games competition

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

by 2 Comments

Bingo Review #25 Reader’s Choice in place of Gateway, and Blackout! I was rather hoping to use A Deadly Education for the Gateway square as the introduction to Naomi Novik. I have changed my mind upon completing the novel, but thankfully I still had the Reader’s Choice square open. I was kind of hoping to not use it, but oh well. The premise of this novel and apparently series is brilliant; think Harry Potter’s Hogwarts crossed with Hunger Games. That’s what this is. El is […]

For a fantasy novel, these characters are a little too real

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

by Leave a Comment

The Magicians by Lev Grossman follows Quentin Coldwater through his education at Brakebills, a college for magic, and his post-graduation life. Quentin is a depressed, maladjusted jerk. He is not a wholly good person. No one at Brakebills or any magician seems to be a good person. Not Quentin’s best friend Alice and her family trauma that weighs her down to the point of never standing out, not Eliot and his ostentatious proclivity to exclude, not Janet and her razor-sharp tongue that inflicts lashes wherever […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo