Sciona was so unhinged at times, I loved her. Her character was so raw, realistic and well-written. Her need to have more power was immense. She was selfish, and a displeasing character which made me like her even more.
I loved how the book started off with Thomil and Cara running away from their home due to the blight and in the end, they ran back to their home and this time, to finally be free. 
Every chapter was so interesting to read and the plot was build up perfectly, the pacing was also adequate. An overall really amazing book and I'm amazed as to how the author fit all this in a 500+ page book, it's truly outstanding! (Make sure to check the TW before reading this book)

Pesado, emocionante e levou o fuck white people bem a sério (é sobre). Se você gostou de Babel você vai gostar desse também.

ML Wang does a brilliant job forcing her readers to reflect on the cruelty of humanity and tackles the helplessness that I think a lot of people feel when confronted with the horrors of what people are capable of to those they deem as less than. The question of what really make a good person is explored by our main characters and it is so heartbreaking watching them grapple with the realities of their world. The book is incredible at building a completely new and fleshed out world and magic system while dealing with topics that are relevant our world today like xenophobia, classism, sexism and the intersectionality of these.

I highly recommend this book as I personally enjoyed every single aspect of it. I loved flawed characters and strong character development and ML Wang is great at delivering that. 

“In this city, girls like that get themselves killed.”

Positives

This book is definitely the best one I have read this year. It was well written, fast paced and ingenious. It had me in the chokehold from the very first chapter. I saw Emily fox on bookTube recommending it so I decided to check it out and the book did not disappoint. M.L Wang has become my new favorite author and I am interested in checking out more his book soon.

I shedded a few tears around 40-45% mark. There was some painfully beautiful writing there.


The book starts with the last 40 survivors of a tribe that once numbered in tens of thousands, migrating towards a city where powerful and wealthy people have created a barrier to shield themselves from blight, using magical technology.

In the city, we follow a 27 year old girl, Sciona, who is about to face the greatest test of her life that will determine if she is worthy to be a Highmage. If she succeeds she will become the first female highmage in history. On her journey to prove herself to a magistry dominated by men, she befriends a person of an "inferior race", Tommy, and together they discover the ugly truth about the magistry, the values her city is built upon, her past, and the cost of magic. She is confronted with a big question: Is having good intention at heart enough in the grand scheme of things, or does one need to consider the consequences of their actions as well?

"Is it better to be safe and broken or dead?"

The book is thought provoking. It clearly draws inspiration from the real world where privileged people, in general, have a history of exploiting and oppressing the poor, people of color and women.

The ending was the most amazing part of the book. I was on pins and needles during the last 20-30% of the book. Most books disappoint me at the ending, but the author did a superb job with the ending. It was so masterfully knitted into the fabric of story. It didn't seem like an after thought where author tries to make everyone happy by writing an ending that doesn't go with the vibe of the book.

"When you said ‘symbolism,’ I thought you were going to say it was a penis thing"

The book is fast paced, easy to read and cleverly conceived. The magic system is one of the best I have read in a while. In this world magic isn't something you inherit, it something that can be learned. Mages draw energy from other realm that is used, after coding magic formulas into a spellograph, to do magic. Drawing energy from other realm is complicated as both drawing too much or too little enegery can have negative  consequences. Sciona is an expert in mapping energy sources in the other realm. Mapping is crucial because energy is a limited resource, but mapping is hard since no one can see the other realm clearly.

The author has created a rich and  complex world, inspired by steampunk, that is both fascinating and horrifying. There is bit of info dumping but it is done in a very classy and interesting way. I had a great time learning about the magic system. I wish we had more books set in this world, but for the sake of the people in this book, I am glad it’s a stand-alone.

Her only distinction among these mages was that she was a more honest monster than any of them

Critiques
My only critique is the feminist message in the book. The problem is not the message but the explicity of it. I am not giving it 5 stars because at times the author was being too preachy and pushing his believes on the reader.  We also kept hearing about the absent father but that story arc didn't go nowhere. I'd have liked more explanation on that.

Favorite Quote

“Because good people can turn desperate when the horrors are upon them—especially people whose culture of plenty has left them with no systems to cope with scarcity or cataclysm. Good people will turn monstrous when it’s down to their survival or someone else’s.

This is such a powerful statement. I wish more people could understand this. The world would be so much more peaceful and harmonious if we did.

Trigger Warning
Sexual violence, suicidal thoughts, racism.

4.75
Writing:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐ 
Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐ 
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
World Building: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 

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!

4.5 stars!

video review | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCUSn7t6IOY&t=141s

for fans of fullmetal alchemist? the way i bought this immediately.

oh mannn... there's so much to say but also so little. this book is incredible. it's an amazing example of standalone fantasy, an amazing eample of a straight up well crafted novel, and I think the standard to which dark academia should be trying to reach as a genre.

to me, dark academia is more than a Pinterest aesthetic, but should be about works confronting the violence or corruption of institutions, using academia or an academic setting as a vessel, and this book does it wonderfully.

the reason this isn't a 5 star read for me is because there were a few things about the ending I didn't love, most of which have to do with my penchant for hopeless romanticism. the ending of this book suits the story that came before it, but like many outcomes in real life, I wish somehow it rose to something happier.

not to say that this book has a tragic, grim-dark ending, it doesn't. but I do think M.L Wang was aiming for a more hopeful feel than what I felt.

this is a novel about the violence in the world around you, and what it takes to confront it. the story unfolds and ends in a way that makes sense, and feels inevitable. and the mid-way reveal/ plot-twist in the book is PHENOMENALLY done. i can't stress that enough, one of the best reveals I've ever read.

there is so much to think about in this novel, I can see myself re-reading it to fully absorb some of the passages. it's brazenly political, anti-colonial, and anti-imperial, and confrontational of the complicity those in society have in the violence of their systems. it's fast-paced with excellent characters, and a world that I would love to see Wang explore more of. 

this is a book that should be on the radar of any fantasy reader, especially those that like political fantasy, and I highly highly recommend it.

blood over bright haven is a powerful book that meditates on important and relevant themes of truth, power and survival through a magic system that makes physically literal the horrors of societal development at the price of human lives.

through her opposing tiranish and kwen characters, wang masterfully explores the warped logic the powerful uses to justify the exploitation of the powerless, and the toxic dynamic between them. it is nuanced and fully fleshed out, satisfying in its truth and takedown of the hypocrisy of it all, as are her main characters, esp sciona. all this is further propped up by the strong writing and distinct worldbuilding. 

the novel could be a bit shorter, however, and some of the plot points are surprisingly predictable for me, thus lessening the impact of their reveals overall. this book also makes me realize that dark academia isnt for me - this being my second time reading one - as i find the incessant loop of studying and research dull for the most part. in capable hands like wang's, though, this book is a must read regardless of genre preferences.