This book started off with SO much exposition, like, three chapters of it, which is really a poor excuse for world-building. I stuck with it only because I like Novik a lot, and thought it would get better. Eventually the plot picked up and it did. In a vacuum, much of the details of the magic school were cheesy and ridiculous. However, when I think about it more as a tongue-in-cheek response to Harry Potter, it becomes kind of a clever world. I just wish Novik didn’t give us big info dumps every few chapters, because this was an otherwise fun (and in spite of all the death, pretty light) read.