Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

106 reviews

midwichtriffid's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Infertility and Sexual assault

isi__1's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

M.L. Wang did it again. I read The Sword of Kaigen last year and absolutely loved it. I finally got around to reading Blood Over Bright Haven and it didn’t disappoint.
This book was depressing as hell, but it also manages to capture this little bit of hope. The perfect mix to make me cry without fail. 

Even though I’m generally super skeptical about epic fantasy standalones, because I feel like they’re often missing necessary world-building and/or character development, this book was written very satisfyingly and didn’t leave me wishing for more. In a standalone, the author has to flesh out the characters, the world, and the magic on a level that other authors are trying to accomplish in a duology, trilogy, or even longer series. This is extremely difficult, in my opinion, which is why standalones often leave me feeling like many things were missing or were too rushed. This isn’t the case here. I don’t know how M.L. Wang does it, but I don’t care as long as I get to read more books like this by her. 

I’m not even going to go into too much detail about anything else. Just know that I adored the characters. Thinking about it, there’s a relatively small amount of significant characters, but the ones that are there are well-realized and serve an important purpose for the story. 
Furthermore, the magic system is incredibly unique, unlike anything I’ve seen before. Basically, the magic works by writing code for these special typewriter-like machines. It’s so creative! 
The world itself was set up well. I don’t feel like I was missing any important background information and the descriptions were good enough to imagine the setting well. 

Excellent book! It’s definitely getting the strongest recommendation from me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, and Classism

Minor: Bullying, Gun violence, Infertility, Rape, Cannibalism, and Alcohol

ljp817's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

Another day another masterful book reminding me of my hatred for the US empire. This was incredible and beautiful. I don’t have the words to describe it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Grief, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Death of parent

katrinarose's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I think if this had been a few hundred more pages, it could be a 5 star for me. The magic-system and plot were brilliant, and most characters were very realistic and well developed. However I felt it was missing a bit more political world-building, a few extra characters (maybe another POV?) and character relationships which left it feeling a bit simpler than it could’ve been. The themes were so relevant and painfully real, but they were also overly blunt and I feel Wang could have written them with more subtlety and trust that her readers can make the connections themselves. Despite these things, this was an excellent, unique book that I would recommend to anyone wants more of themes in Babel by R. F. Kuang, or a short standalone fantasy that is very unique and packs a punch.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Infertility, Rape, Suicide, and Cannibalism

carrietherose's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Racism, Sexism, Blood, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Car accident, and Pregnancy

margaretha_eostara's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

For me, this was one of those books that gets under your skin in both the best and worst way possible. I did NOT see that plot twist coming and sat on the edge of my seat to see how Sciona would deal with it. Seeing a FMC having real flaws with real consequences was incredibly refreshing. I can't think of many other books which blend themes like power, religion, classism, racism and misogyny so seamlessly into one cohesive narrative that is still a pretty dang good story.
There was only one point in the book where the conversation between the main characters dragged on for a bit too long.

The falling in love bit could have been left out but I didn't find it distracting as, in the end, it was only a bit of a sidenote rather then a whole plot point.

I did love the addition of small excerpts from the "sacred texts" at the start of each chapter, even though they made my physically repulsed (more so because I know there are many real people who believe this exact same crap).

Finally, it was also very refreshing to see the bad guys just get ripped to shreds at the end, with no other reason than revenge. Was it ethical? Probably not. Was it satisfying to read? Hells yes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Infertility, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Cannibalism, and Cultural appropriation

petitepapier's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious tense fast-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

4.75

This book required me to think for a few days before coming up of a review, despite me devouring it within a week. It definitely gives off Babel vibes (dark academia, social justice), however it was refreshing to see a female lead who is so flawed despite having power, and how she navigates through themes of feminism in a field of misogyny, religion, classism, patriarchy, racism and

ethnic cleansing for the sake of power

which is so relevant in our times. The magic system was a bit hard to understand, and whilst I listened to most of it on audiobook, I had to go out and (willingly!) buy a hardcover copy in order to reread through parts. The physical copy also had a handy glossary which I highly recommend people to read before starting on the book. 

The only 0.25 I knocked off was due to the ending and last 20% of the book. Everything was a bit too rushed for me (although the build up was done so well) and I couldn't help but feel that there must be more to it. What happened next to the characters? If M L Wang ever writes a part 2 or makes it a duology, I'll be eagerly reading its pages. It's only February but I feel like this book is a top contender for my book of 2025!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Death, Genocide, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Classism

lanctot's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Sexism, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Violence and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Body horror, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Cannibalism, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

hopeless_ash's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-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

4.5

There were parts of this book that I really enjoyed, and other parts of it that I really did not. I feel that it dealt with some very heavy real world topics in a good way. I also feel that is was very difficult to get into, and that it gave away the ending very early into the book which was my biggest issue with it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal death and Miscarriage

ladyettejin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism