louhitar 's review for:

Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

5.0

dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I loved this book. It was incredibly well thought out at every turn, the characters were compelling, it covered strong themes of oppression on multiple fronts in an intelligent and creative way.

I loved the core themes of overcoming a system designed to oppress others based on race, gender, and class, as well as the more subtle details like the magic system working a lot like programming. Major spoilers:

the direct siphoning of life to fuel industry was a great analogy for the way the real world works, all the comforts we have being at the cost of other people... But the book also highlighted the indirect way the lives of those deemed "lower" than the ruling class are sacrificed for the sake of progress and comfort.

Easily my top read of the year so far.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Bullying, Cannibalism