Just read A Deadly Education.

[conuly]

Dammit, it should be a crime to leave readers on that sort of cliffhanger!

Also, though the narration is appropriately snarky and fun, the actual setting is relentlessly grimdark - even if you survive the school (which is carefully engineered to give the overprivileged rich kids the best chance at the expense of the rest, who can't complain because their chances on the outside are even worse), life on the outside still isn't great for most of the graduates, certainly not if they plan for their kids to have an even chance in another few decades. If you're not in the mood for that, pick up some other book.

Comments

[nrgburst]

According to my Libby I will get this book in 26 weeks but nooo not a cliffhanger! I wonder how fast she writes her series?

[conuly]

A cliffhanger, and a cheap one, too.

If you have a kindle, I may be able to lend it to you.

[nrgburst]

! I use the Kindle app on my phone- not sure if that’s the same thing?

Sent from my iPhone

[conuly]

So long as you have an account it should work. But it does look like this book isn't currently available to be lent out, so.

[kengr]

According to amazon book 2 will be out on July 6, 2021

[conuly]

And the description does make it sound like they'll do more than simply survive, but may actually make strides in fixing their messed up situation. (Hopefully, all prophecies will turn out appropriately twisty, in a way that shocks and satisfies.)

[delight]

Thank you for the warning. Darn, I had been looking forward to this, but grimdark is intensely not my thing.

[conuly]

Perhaps it's a bit more crapsack. Your only hope to survive the deathworld that is high school - if you make it to high school in the first place, which is not a guarantee - is to suck up to the ultrarich crowd. IF you sufficiently suck up, and then sufficiently pull your weight and theirs while escaping the death trap that is "graduation", they might ask their families to let you into their enclaves, which are slightly safer than the outside world. And then your kids will get a better shot at surviving high school, because they'll be from the enclaves.

[conuly]

Also, everybody is very careful not to make too many emotional ties, because their classmates will die anyway and what's the point, and while there's safety in numbers you only get into the better groups if you're connected or powerful (but not too powerful, as then you lower the odds for the better-connected to get out at the end), so they're all pragmatically calculating their odds at every second.

It sounds like a recipe for generation upon generation of PTSD, amplifying with each round, and this is the better alternative to near-certain death for anybody not in a powerful enclave and a coin toss for those within one.

[readerjane]

Oh dear. I've just started it, and have been dismayed to find that I'm not enjoying this story nearly as much as her previous novels. I'd been looking forward to this as stress relief, and so far it's just not.

Given what you've said (I'm carefully shielding my eyes from potential spoilers in the comments), I think I'll set this book side for a less fraught time. Thanks for the advance warning.

[conuly]

Yes, the setting stays awful right up to the end, but I have hopes for the second book ending on a better note. If it does, I'll be sure to keep everybody posted.