If I were to sum this book up quickly, it would be "Harry Potter meets Gideon the Ninth." There’s even a moment early on where our decidedly-not-Harry-like protagonist makes a point of telling the reader how much she hates treacle tart. I see what you did there, Novik.
Our protagonist is a junior at the Scholomance, a magical academy for wizard students from all over the world. Her name is Galadriel (not her fault; her mom is something of a hippy) and she goes by El. El is focused on a single goal: surviving to and through graduation. Because as the title of the book suggests, the Scholomance is not a safe place. Monsters of all sorts (called “mals”) are attracted to young wizards, and Scholomance was built as a relatively safe place for young wizards to learn. The “relatively” bit is key here - even with all the protections built into the school, mals are constantly finding their way in. Managing the day-to-day routines of class, the cafeteria, and going to the bathroom requires constant vigilance. Graduation is even worse - the mals know where the exit to the school is, and know that a few hundred tasty morsels brimming with mana will be leaving the school’s protections. The fatality rate at Scholomance is high (though much better than the 60% or so it is for young wizards outside), and to make it out of graduation alive requires having allies to watch your back.
And this is where things get tricky. Everyone at Scholomance wants to survive, of course, and as the old saying goes, if you and your classmate are desperately trying to escape a horrible tentacled monstrosity from deepest nightmare, you don’t actually need to outrun the horrible tentacled monstrosity from deepest nightmare - you just need to outrun your classmate. Nothing personal, but better you than me. And if I happen to trip you, well, do unto others before they do unto you.
Many of the students come from wizard communities on the outside, and as such, come with alliances pre-arranged. All the students from the same wizarding enclave will support each other. For independent students, getting allies is key. The preferred way is to find a group of enclave students that will take you on, with the possibility of being admitted to the enclave after (hopefully) making it out alive.
And here’s where our protagonist has a problem. El is snarky, sarcastic, has a huge chip on her shoulder, and is constitutionally incapable of doing anything that might possibly be viewed as sucking up to the enclave kids. Given the depth of her talent, she should have the various enclaves in a bidding war over her. Instead, she conceals her talent and hopes to … well, she’s working that part out, but she’ll think of something.
And then Orion Lake, mal-slayer extraordinaire, protector of the student body, scion of the peerless New York enclave, burts into El’s room one night and “saves” her from a soul-eater even though she would have been fine, she didn’t ask him to save her from anything, and now everyone will think she’s just the latest of oh-so-great-and-wonderful-Orion’s damsels-in-distress. Big shot has been in classes with her for three years and he doesn’t even know her name. Asshole.
Things develop from there, and it’s a pure delight to read. It’s got all the angsty teenage drama you could hope for, with a backdrop of absolute mortal danger at every turn that is nonetheless completely banal. I called it “Harry Potter meets Gideon the Ninth,” and seldom have I ever seen an X-meets-Y that fits so perfectly. Naomi Novik hardly needs me heaping more praise on her, but holy hell was this book awesome.