A review by napathetic
Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

adventurous dark tense medium-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

4.25

It took maybe 100-150 pages for me to get into it, but then I flew through it. Ultimately it was worth it. Well-developed and creative “magic” system (think coding), religion, and culture, even though I thought it was a bit over-explained at times. Like, it didn’t seem necessary to go over every single detail of the mechanics of spell-casting in the beginning portion, and I don’t know that I fully understood the Leonite/whatever distinction in the Tiranish religion or thought it was important to the story. 

Thematically, the story is similar to The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas— individual comfort vs. social conscience. There are aspects of the plot that were a bit predictable, but it didn’t take away from the story for me. I loved the ending and thought it was so impactful.
In my opinion, Sciona had to die to be redeemed, and it ended up being devastating even though she was so self-centered and unlikable at the beginning.
The romance was just okay— it was nice to have a romance subplot, but I felt a little weird about the dynamics involved, given Sciona’s prejudices in the beginning. But I loved Thomil and would have liked to read more from his POV.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings