Galadriel Higgins has the magical affinity for destroying things. Not small things. Cities. Civilizations. Her spells tend toward the apocalyptic. When she reaches for magic, what comes naturally is fire that consumes everything, death spells that could wipe out armies, and power on a scale that terrifies everyone around her. A prophecy says she will bring death and destruction to the enclaves, the protected communities where wizards live.
El doesn’t want to be a dark lord. She wants to survive the Scholomance, a school for wizards built to protect students from the maleficaria, monsters that feed on magical children. The school has no teachers, no adults, and no exits until graduation day. About a quarter of students don’t make it. El is determined to be in the surviving majority, and she’s determined to do it without becoming the monster everyone thinks she is.
Naomi Novik tells the story in El’s voice, which is blunt, irritated, and perceptive. El has no patience for social niceties, partly because nobody has been nice to her. She grew up on a commune, raised by her mother Gwen, a healer whose magic is the opposite of El’s. The enclave kids at school avoid her. She has no allies until Orion Lake, the school’s golden boy who keeps killing monsters and saving people, starts paying attention to her.
The trilogy follows El through her final years at the Scholomance and into the wider world beyond. The books question whether a system built to protect some people at the expense of others deserves to survive.
Reading Order
See the complete Scholomance reading order for all books featuring El Higgins.