A Deadly Education (2020)

At a school where survival depends on stored magic, useful skills and alliances, generosity has an immediate cost. El’s choices test whether she can escape the logic that sorts privileged students from disposable ones. The first Scholomance book begins a longer examination of collective safety, rather than completing it here. It is full of monsters and mortal danger; the appeal is seeing cooperation become a practical alternative to a system designed around scarcity.