Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang is one of the best books I’ve read this year.
It manages both to make satisfying use of popular tropes, and yet also go in a totally unexpected direction.
It delivers a sucker punch to the reader’s emotions, without being bogged down by “woe is me” wallowing in trauma. The characters are simply way too busy trying to find a way out of their predicaments.
I can’t even tell you how I feel now, right after finishing it. It’s a wild combination of hope, pain, rage and philosophical wonderings about guilt, intent, societal structures and more – which all leaves you with a real book hangover, still thinking about it hours after turning the last page.
This is a book that would appeal to fans of Trudi Canavan’s Magicians Guild, though a lot darker in parts, and there is also a lot more to it.
The main themes are not just a gripping new world with lots of magic and a university, but also misogyny, colonialism, racism, exploitation, faith, guilt, injustice, and more.
However, it was written in a way, which didn’t feel like it was trying to “teach” the reader, it was rather simply that this is the world the characters faced. This worked incredibly well for me, and I was totally hooked.
There are two big twists I didn’t see coming at all, and they are perfect. It might be a bit soul wrenching, but in the best of ways, you know…
Sciona is a woman with a clear goal, she wants to be the first ever female to reach the rank and title of highmage. She might come across as rather self centered at times, though to my mind she definitely felt slightly neurodivergent, which only made me (autistic) empathise and understand her all the better.
The other protagonist, Thomil, is a refugee who cares for his niece, and while he still seethes against his fate, he has kinda resigned to being basically a slave. One of those “not even humans” you can throw out of the nice, magical city, into sure horrible death, if they aren’t able to work.
The contrast between these two was fantastic. Written so incredibly well, you could absolutely see both of their sides, and understand how – to them – their views and perspectives seemed not only rational but reasonable based on the information they have. It emphasises for me how everybody thinks they’re the good guy making the best/only choices appropriate for the circumstances they are in.
Wang creates such fully developed characters who can grow and change that they feel like real people to me. I might not always agree with them, but I can understand their motivations.
I also loved the magic system. Training sequences and learning how new abilities and spells work is one of my favourite story aspects. And the spellographs were fascinating!
You’d think then that Dark Academia should absolutely be my genre, but usually I find them way too steeped in romance for my personal taste. While there is a bit of romance in Blood Over Bright Haven, it doesn’t feel forced at all – it is just a natural organic part of the characters’ relationship, which neither forms nor distracts from the main plot. Both characters are perfectly able to ignore that attachment, to focus on the bigger issues, which I really enjoyed! I have always hated the “We have only five minutes to save the world, but wait, we need to boink first” scenes. Here the romance felt well handled and realistic.
I seriously can’t think of anything I didn’t like about this book, and this is very rare.
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