Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

36 reviews

rebeccakoury's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

First 5 star of 2025. This book blew me away. There are so many important messages interwoven. The magic system was mind blowing to me and my jaw was on the floor multiple times. I often wondered how this story would fit in it's 400 pages but wow, just wow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

lisabrune's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

There were many aspects of this novel that I really enjoyed: the development of the central characters who remained flowed, complex, but lovable throughout; and the philosophical questions at hand – whose pain and what violence do we benefit from as a society? Is violence necessary to counter such pain? What makes an act good – the outcome or the intent? However, I had some problems with the pacing. While I was never bored, I really felt like the action of the plot only got underway at the end. The ending left several of my questions unanswered and also left me wanting more. If this is the start of a series, I think it really successfully sets up interesting characters to return to and an interesting magic system that has potential for more exploration. If this is a standalone, I think it honestly could have benefited from being longer. Overall, I still do recommend this book, especially for fans of Babel, A Study in Drowning, even The Golden Compass, and other historical dark academia tales. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Murder

Moderate: Self harm and Sexual violence

judenbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

HAHAHA OW OKAY THAT WAS BEAUTIFUL AND PAINFUL

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Blood

Minor: Sexual violence

cb1984's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Really really good. It's weird because it's basically a book where the magic system is the plot, which could be really really dull - especially as most of the book is basically a mage in a lab learning about magic. But it's done in such a good way that it works really well. 

It helps that the magic system is really well done and creates intere ting quandaries - sign ficant consequences to using magic, but they are borne by other people. There's quite a lot of interesting social commentary on the world they've created too.

I think the only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars was because there was a bit of a lull/artificial falling out before the finale that I didn't love. But this was a really really good book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Racism, Rape, Sexism, and Sexual violence

Minor: Infertility, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, and Cannibalism

kristakp's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

So, this book being marketed in comparison to Babel did it somewhat of a disservice. It was not as expansive in world building--although with deeply different settings maybe that's not a point that detracts from the overall story. Over all, this book is incredible and challenging and leaves me with a lot to think about in regards to my own culture and society. This is the point of the book, I feel, to make readers think through these things in new ways (or for the first time for some).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, and Colonisation

Moderate: Genocide, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Child death, Chronic illness, Miscarriage, Cannibalism, and Medical trauma

maggiereadz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, and Suicide attempt

ashley_mrose530's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book deserves every bit of hype that it has gotten.
To start off, Wang's writing is so poetic and detailed, it left me in awe in the very first chapter. She had a way of making me feel for these characters that I didn't even know yet as I watched them all die, in the first chapter! The imagery was beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time in that chapter and it just kept on going from there. The world building was also fascinating. The magic system was set up almost like a computer animation programming system which was so interesting and inventive. I loved learning more about it as I read. 
The character arc that Sciona goes through is phenomenal honestly. She starts the book of completely driven and focused on one thing to the point that she ignores everything else including her family and even her own self - her emotions as well as her well-being. But as she gets closer to Thomil, she develops more empathy for those around her and starts paying attention to the structures her society has in place and how they affect people who are different from them and that changes how she sees everything. Her arc is just perfect. 
I also really loved the book ends and full-circle feel we had at the end.

At the beginning we had Thomil and his tribe running toward Tiran under a barrage of blight killing them. It was chaotic, tense, and heartbreaking, but Thomil and Kara made it so there was a little bit of hope there too. And at the end we have a very similar scene where Thomil and Kara are running with their tribe, but this time they are running away from Tiran and the guards that are trying to stop them and it's still chaotic, but it's much more hopeful as you wish for them to be able to start a new life without the plague of blight and all the harm the Tiranish had caused.

It was really poignant and beautiful to have those two scenes match and book end the story.
In short, Wang's writing and storyline kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time and I loved every minute of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Sexual harassment

kbowles24's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and War

kayceeisbookish's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS! This book is going to be one of my favorites of this year. It's so masterfully written and touches upon so many dark topics that need to be brought to light instead of hidden away into obscurity. I love how abrasive and raw this book is to all the senses. The big plot reveal had me floored, and it will take a while to recover from this amazing piece of literature.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Genocide, Infertility, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Classism, and Deportation

tinkazoid's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Genocide, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism