Welcome to season 7 of ‘The Dark Academicals’! We’re so grateful to see you back for another season, and we’re excited to be recording again.

Our first book of the season is one that seems to have so much hype across social media, but it also has rather mixed reviews, so we were curious how it would hold up under our examination.

Enter a school of magic unlike any you have ever encountered.

There are no teachers, no holidays, friendships are purely strategic, and the odds of survival are never equal. Once you're inside, there are only two ways out: you graduate or you die.

El Higgins is uniquely prepared for the school's many dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out untold millions - never mind easily destroy the countless monsters that prowl the school.

Except, she might accidentally kill all the other students, too. So El is trying her hardest not to use it . . . that is, unless she has no other choice.

With flawless mastery, Naomi Novik creates a heroine for the ages - a character so sharply realized and so richly nuanced that she will live on in hearts and minds for generations to come.

‘A Deadly Education’ by Naomi Novik promises a boarding school, dark academia fantasy and monsters - who are we to say no to that?

In this episode we discuss:

• Lacking and problematic representation of people of colour

• The impact of a lack of scene setting and sense of place

• ‘A Deadly Education’ by Naomi Novik

• ‘The Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins

• ‘The Mortal Instruments’ by Cassandra Clare

• ‘Mean Girls’ (2004)

If you fancy taking a chance on ‘A Deadly Education’, we’d love it if you considered using our bookshop.org link below to purchase your copy of the book which helps us fund ‘The Dark Academicals’ and gives back to independent bookshops at no extra cost to you.

You can also sign up to The Dark Academicals Book Club mailer for exclusive book club content, extra episodes and author interviews!