Review by justkrissaying - Blood Over Bright Haven

justkrissaying 's review for:

Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

4.75

challenging dark emotional tense fast-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

Things I Liked:
- SCIONA FREYNON. Truly the spiritual successor to Edward Eric that I never knew I needed. She’s insane [affectionate] and a bitch [super affectionate] but man. She’s brilliant. I really loved following her character growth throughout this entire book. Just literally such. Such an incredible character. The little egomaniac will live on in my heart.
- I REAAAALLY loved how

the book openes in a similar way it began: with Thomil and Carra running towards a better, new hope.

Like it really thematically brought everything together full circle—literally, in some ways. Same with the Deep Night too, if I’m recalling correctly!!
- Speaking of the ending I’m also obsessed with like

where Mordra’s character is gonna go from here BWAHAHAHA. Like that narrative has so much potential for me. In the power vacuum left behind, does he manage to still be kind? Has he truly unlearned anything or will convenience of his new surprising position and power get to him like it has to those before him? I’M CURIOUS MAN.

- I did call SUPER early on the big twist/secret that Sciona and Thomil discover but I honestly think the reason for that is because of good foreshadowing. So kudos to Wang for that.
- I love how unabashadly brutal this book is especially when its dealing with the themes it does, here. It’s so relevant and it’s so harsh and it hashes it out in your face. I think that works in its favor, even if…

Things I Didn’t Like:
- … even if the narrative voice/dialogue got a little hand-holdy and on-the-nose at times. Like yes let’s

call out systems of oppression for the visceral, murderous cogs of the larger machine they are

but also, I would love to have just a little room within the narrative voice to have these thoughts breathe; it felt oftentimes like the narration was just repeating what the character just said but in different words, or telling you outright what to think/how to feel about a given character. A minor nitpick really, all things considered, but still messed a little with the pacing for me.

Anyway, I REALLY enjoyed this book and the more I think about it, the more I like it. It’s not a perfect book, but I still think its a really important and intentionally challenging one. I loved The Sword of Kaigen so, so much, and it’s so great to see that M.L. Wang has churned out another banger I’ll be thinking about for a long time. Thanks, Wang.

Content Warnings