Wow, this book absolutely crushed me. I usually don't like books that end this way (no spoilers, don't worry!), but M.L Wang did this book beautifully that I could not help but give it five shining stars.

The book follows Sciona Freynan, the first woman of Bright Haven, her society, to reach the prestigious highmage rank - someone who can siphon magic from a place called the Otherrealm. We watch as she gets into the High Magistry, awkwardly receives an assistant, and the proceeding story of how they uncover an ancient secret hidden in plain sight. Thomil, Sciona's assistant, is known as a Kwen who emigrated to Bright Haven due to absolute necessity (and literal carnage known as the Blight). First a janitor, now a highmage assistant, Thomil finds himself in the thick of explaining a treacherous society to Sciona. Together, they uncover something they never thought they would find in their respective communities within Bright Haven.

This book swept me away. While some of the beginning was a bit tough to immerse yourself into because M.L Wang does an incredible job at describing the magical system (it's complex!), but overall, the prose and writing style were impeccable. Wang made this story believable - we have a society founded on men's claims that they heard from God about what to do with Bright Haven, and therefore created a power shift over communities who had likely been in the area thousands of years. It is also an incredibly patriarchal society that thinks women are too emotional to be part of the High Magistry - those who can "do" magic and help create all the incredible technology for Bright Haven that prevents the Blight from capturing them all. Sciona is determined to rewrite the story for those who are of the same gender, and we watch as she battles awful sexism and misogyny. However, on top of that, we also see her go through her revolution about the Kwen people and how they also have been historically marginalized. While it was hard to see Thomil explain so many apparent things to Sciona about her unequal and inequitable world, this book was beyond necessary and relatable to many of our world conflicts today. I just loved how Wang incorporated a magical component, socioeconomic factors, and colonialism into one book. There was also a dash of a love story that I found so beautiful.

While this may have been slightly predictable, I enjoyed every second, even when some tears were present. Wang is a phenomenal writer and can't wait to read more of her works!

I went into this book with the very little knowledge of what it was about besides having a dark academia setting, and I appreciate that as it afforded me the opportunity to experience it at firsthand.

My favorite thing about M. L. Wang’s works however shall always be her unique ability to seize the most specific, unsettling, and devastating emotions and bring them to life through her words. Before I had any inkling of what the plot could be about, I cared about the characters she introduced me to and what would happen next. Unfortunately except towards the beginning, while I was interested in the events that would happen next I rarely found myself genuinely invested in the stakes. Perhaps, it’s easier for me to feel emotionally connected to smaller-scale, more personal conflict. Luckily, despite not relating to the main character, Sciona, much at all, I found her perspective and thoughts to be captivating, her boldness and willingness (stubbornness) to stand by her values admirable. The great character work really did a lot of heavy lifting in this book.

While I do think the messaging about sexism and colonialism was a little heavy handed, I don’t think that it’s any less enjoyable or important. I think her depictions of the truths and emotions that underly these things were realistic and necessary for to get the purpose of this particular book across. To compare it to Sword of Kaigen would be doing a disservice to both novels because they are fundamentally different in what they are trying to accomplish. 

This woman-in-STEM approach to the story and world was surprisingly interesting considering I generally prefer more traditional fantasy environments. Still, my heart is set on softer magic systems that bring wonder to my eyes and heal my soul. 
Overall, it was a good experience that I’d recommend.