Captivating, poetic, and powerful. The political intrigue aspects of this book were top tier, as well as the magic. If you’re looking for a romance-heavy plot, you won’t find it here. What you will find is a brilliant story, that is both poignant and bittersweet. Filled with complex characters, heart shattering moments, brutal social commentaries that will leave you questioning society at large, Blood Over Bright Haven is a must-read.

I have never read M.L. Wang's books before this one, but I had heard great things. This booked surpassed those expectations.

The book started out with two completely different scenes, but merged them into one moving storyline. I thought the book would end completely differently; but I was happily surprised and more impressed with what was written. Sciona was my favorite character, always obsessed with magic and becoming a major figure in her society. She grew as a character, slowly but surely; by the end she was a role-model. Thomil was a needed counter point/character to Sciona; jaded and from the dregs of society. He grew as well and acquired hope from Sciona.

The book had an interesting take on a magic system; something I've never seen before. The world was not detailed, but had everything needed to create a wonderful story. I loved this book.

My favorite thing about this book was the strong female lead, she might be one of my favorite characters. M.L gave us writing that felt real, took real life issues (sexism, misogyny etc…) made a book that makes you think, self reflect on your own self. If you like dark academia, I highly recommend this book.

I received the ebook as an Arc from NetGalley. Thank you NetGalley!! I purchased the audiobook and physical book myself.

This book . . . I knew going in this was going to hurt my feelings and I was not wrong. The first night I began reading, I fully planned on being done within 2-3 days. Nope. After the first few chapters, I had to stop to process. The themes in this book require reflection - both of yourself and of society. It is amazing how the author is able to weave important, relevant topics into a story without overwhelming the reader. Most of the time when you read about discrimination, oppression, and religion being used as justification to commit horrible atrocities, you take the info in and move on. This was something more. I wasn’t just reading about this, I was living it with the characters. I got angry and sick to my stomach over the rationale used by so many of the “good” people of this world. I felt hopeless when she was learning that the people she trusted weren’t who she thought they were. It just felt so impactful through this story.

The story is about a woman, destined to become great in her field by shattering glass ceilings and surpassing her male peers, running head first into the corrupt, wicked truth of the world. It’s also about a man who has experience this wickedness firsthand and is torn between keeping his head low as a way to survive and standing up for his people.

It took me much longer than 2-3 days (more like 17-18) to take in this story and give it the time it deserves but it was worth it. 5⭐️

Start of this book was strong allowing me to dive in easily.

Thomil is part of a clan of people surviving in a frozen land of little hope, survival with his family.

Upon a far shore,hope lights up. Why? A metal metropolis with whirring machinery and magic with a barrier to keep out the cold. Protected from winter and blight that his clan (few others as well)have been brought to the edge of extinction by.

Nervous emotion made him fully aware that the city's magic could be a possibility of safety but it wasn't the easiest thing to accept.

With no other alternative but to cross the icy water of the thick river between the tribe and the city, they made way knowing they could drown or freeze but held to hope of survival. Dropping all weapons behind them.

Sciona is determined to prove that females can be mages. Determined to succeed. Yet, she initially lacks the social attention span to pay attention to some of the people around her. Alba comes with the point or realization that it's not necessarily about other female mages succeeding but about Sciona succeeding and if she can become apart of the High Magistry.

Determination from Sciona as a character is strong as is the immediate immersive quality of the world-building.

The City of Tiran was reminiscent of another fictional city. The City of Ember if it were above ground, it's foundations made from alchemist made materials as well as gears & bulbs. With wealthy citizens protected by a magical bubble surrounded by harsh cold that cannot touch them.
Picturing the majestic nature of the world-building was easy. Written clearly.
Impeccable job on the authors part.

Much a testimony to the struggles of women to make an impact especially in a male dominated role and in a society where it limits the paths women can take.

I'm especially interested in the academic angle on magic. It gives an interesting perspective with industrial revolution mixed with temple mages. A perfectly unique blend of magical mages and university scholars.

There's so much about this book that can't be explored in a mere review so I do recommend this one for sure.

If you enjoy the following this book is for you:

🔹️Female MC struggling in a male dominated field
🔹️Academia, Religion, & Magic
combination into a study
🔹️Uniquely crafted world-building of immense detail
🔹️High Fantasy
🔹️Classism nods & broken patriarchy
🔹️Barriers to keep out cold & blight
🔹️Long flowing robes & typewriter/calculator spell casting

I'm happy to be able to give my honest opinion on this book.

I’ll admit I made a mistake in the timing of reading this book. I thought it was a light romantasy that I picked up to read while I waited for my family to finish the turkey trot.

It was not that.

It was, however, excellent. I think the character of Sciona is really interesting and the world building is deft. I ended up caring a lot about all our major characters and wanting to know more when the book was done, which I don’t always. It’s also deeply hopeful for a book that made me cry so much

This was an insanely good book about a character who finds out that everything she has been fighting for and working toward (and having to crawl her way to the top more than a man would) has been a lie. The magic that the city runs on is killing everyone outside of the city, and her colleagues, including the ones she has looked up to, know about it and don’t care. She’s constantly expected to just let it go, and when she tries to do something about it instead, she’s met with “that’s what we get for letting a woman do this”.

Blood Over Bright Haven was a fun and quick ride for me. The magic system and tone of the story reminded me a lot of Divine Rivals, I think if you enjoyed the magic in that, you will find a home with this. However, the romance was built well but dropped at the finish line. Overall, the themes of this story were really strong and empowering. I would absolutely recommend this.

Blood Over Bright Haven was my first ML Wang book, and after this I will definitely be reading any of their other books! I was instantly hooked by the first chapter with Thomil and his family. The development of his relationship with Sciona had me squealing and giggling. The magic system is interesting and actually makes sense. Even my husband, who is not an avid reader, got into this story with me.

My one hangup is that the racism allegory is incredibly on the nose. It feels a little bit like the YA genre, how close to our own world’s history this book comes- the deliberate segregation of the Tiranians from the Kwens, the way the Kwens are treated as second class citizens. and the big reveal about the Blight that is revealed halfway into the book.

In a world where the boundaries between science and sorcery blur, Blood Over Bright Haven’s world is a place where magic wielders are not only scholars of the occult but engineers and scientists, harnessing magical energies to fuel every aspect of their lives.
The result is a vibrant, dynamic world where innovation and sorcery are intricately linked.
But, as the first female highmage and her unlikely assistant discover the ugly truth behind their magic they learn that with every new breakthrough comes as much peril as promise.

Blood Over Bright Haven forces readers to confront the most unsettling aspects of human belief, identity, and prejudice. Raw and deeply emotional, the narrative challenges everything we thought we knew about morality, justice, and religion.

At its core, this book explores the seismic impact of a life-altering revelation—one so profound it shatters everything familiar and compels us to reconsider our entire worldview. The protagonist’s journey is a reflection of how each of us might react when confronted with the uncomfortable reality that everything we’ve been taught or believed could be wrong. It’s a haunting exploration of the human psyche under pressure, and it’s bound to make you think long after you turn the last page.

The book doesn’t shy away from exposing uncomfortable truths.
The book’s protagonist is a woman navigating a male-dominated field of magic and science, where she faces daily sexism and discrimination. She works tirelessly, proving her worth in an environment that constantly reminds her she is seen as less-than—whether it's in her professional achievements being dismissed, her expertise undermined, or her ideas overlooked in favor of her male colleagues. The sexism she faces is painful, personal, and relentless, and it shapes her every decision, both in her career and home life. Yet, she still has her own prejudices. Acting better than the MMC just because he comes from somewhere else and holds different beliefs than her.
This really lays bare how even the most marginalized groups are not immune to prejudice and discrimination, a painful but necessary reminder that no one is free from bias.
The author deftly weaves in themes of systemic injustice, showing how religious zealotry often becomes a tool for oppression—how those with unwavering faith in their god justify atrocities, believing they’re divinely ordained to enforce their beliefs upon others. The characters are complex and imperfect, and they wrestle with the deep moral contradictions within themselves and their faith.

What makes this novel truly powerful is its exploration of the consequences of blind faith and the unquestioning belief in superiority. It critiques the forces that have historically stolen land, condemned lives, and justified these actions with the misguided belief that their god’s will legitimized their actions. It forces us to face the reality that the oppressors of today may be the ones who claim moral superiority tomorrow, regardless of how much harm they’ve caused.

Perhaps the most difficult part of the book is its focus on how difficult it is to change when faced with facts that challenge our deeply held convictions. It challenges us to accept that we are wrong sometimes—to be able to acknowledge when our beliefs are based on lies or misconceptions and have the humility to change. This theme is as uncomfortable as it is vital. The book shows that personal growth is often painful, especially when it means letting go of comforting falsehoods and confronting the harsh realities of the world.

Ultimately, this is a book about accountability—about accepting the parts of ourselves and our histories we would rather ignore. It’s about coming to terms with the ugly truths we prefer to hide from, and finding the courage to face them head-on. It’s not a story that provides easy answers, but it’s a story that asks the hard questions we all need to answer for ourselves.

Sexism, racism, religious abuse? This book covers it all, holds back no punches, and does so FLAWLESSLY without sacrificing an ounce of plot.
M. L. Wang is SMART. Seriously, I’m in awe of her skill with world building. It’s one of those worlds in which the magic system is complex but easy to understand simply by the skill of the writer. A side note about the magic system: I really, really liked that it was something that ANYone could learn to use, socioeconomic hurdles aside, rather than a special “chosen” few.
The characters are so vibrantly written, I feel as though they are in the room with me as I read. I feel their emotions, I feel their struggles. They’re just so addictively likable.
We’ve come to the end of the year, and I think this one may take the award for favorite of the year.
GO buy this book for everyone you know. It’s an absolute MUST HAVE for any fantasy-reader’s shelf!

Oh wow.

I like my books to hurt me, make me cry, fill me with rage, give me hope, make me feeeeeel. I went into this book completely blind, and I was not disappointed. The emotions I felt and the pain this book brought me immediately make it a five star read for me. Both Sciona and the magic took a minute to really grasp, but once it all came together, it's so so worth sticking with it. This story as a whole was, in my opinion, incredible and will live in my brain for a really long time.

Rating: 5 stars

This book was an incredible representation of feminism and the discovery of injustice. Sciona is a well-rounded female main character who has flaws and is naive in her belief of good in the world. Thomil regularly combats this long held beliefs leading to discoveries that threaten Sciona’s worldview and mental health. This book has everything I’ve ever wanted: feminism, mental health representation, a world of ignorance combated with knowledge and science, and an unlikely love story. I am utterly impressed by M. L. Wang’s writing style and I look forward to reading more of her works in the future.

5/5

With one of the most fraught opening chapters, M.L. Wang signified the true excellence awaiting in her academic fantasy standalone, Blood Over Bright Haven. From those first moments I knew this book was going to wreck me, but I didn’t know to what degree. Sciona, a young mage, has become the first woman to take on the mantle of highmage, but when she enters her new ranks she discovers more than the expected animosity with her peers but a flawed reality behind her city’s power that could cost her everything if acknowledged. Unflinching in its look at exploitation at the heart of progress and academia, Blood Over Bright Haven flawlessly details the descent into disillusion and Sciona’s rebirth as she resolves to bring the fetid truth to light. Part of what makes this book so brilliant is how frustrating it is to read from Sciona’s perspective – someone who while marginalized as a woman in academia, still benefits from the system in place and struggles to decenter herself when she learns the price of that power. The connection between her ambition, her underlying biases, and the desire to be seen made for a fascinating character arc, one that culminates in a rage nothing short of spectacular. In the face of this masterpiece, words really do fall short but it is brutal, powerful, and a necessary piece of fiction for modern times.

This review is featured up on my blog!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It felt very real and similar to life as see live it now. That part was a little hard to swallow. I do wish some of the romantic interests had been stronger. However I do understand that the story is better off that it wasn’t.

Overall, I loved the main characters and I grew to love them both even with how vastly different they were.

4.45!

Very close to being a masterpiece! this was so well-crafted and it also gave me major the poppy war vibes while both are very different, the overall vibe and the way the characters think really made me resemble them and I loved it because I loved the poppy war! I initially wanted to read 'The Sword of Kaigen' first but I got an arc of this book and I was so excited!! so obviously I dove into this one first and it's one of the best decisions that I have ever made. It was slow paced but whenever I picked it up, my soul would be consumed because I would actually be breathless by the time I looked up from my screen, it was that captivating, Wang's writing style was perfection it made me feel everything, laced with a thin layer of Hun our was maybe all that I wanted and hoped for because the way it was crafted and thought out was so brilliant that I actually want more, this is such a bittersweet story but a one that has such important themes. My only complain was the pacing but it still so worth the story.

Basically, we enter an enriched world where theres this high magistery which is basically fueled with institutional sexism where like theres literally no women and during the admission only one woman get a chance to enter so here we follow our main character Scoia who's just out of the world brilliant and observant and like thinks out of the box and wants to like do well for the future of more woman (this isnt really based on feminism lol but it was an aspect) so she goes there and obviously gets admitted. So like there ever highmage gets a kwen assistant and Kwens our basically the lowest race, possible the 'untouchables' who follow a different religion and out persecuted for that and tirens(?) are like the highmages and the upper-class who treat the Kwens like shit so Sconia gets this really amazing, well informed Kwen named Thomil and omg the things that he unraveled were absolutely amazing. After this event the story starts to progress so muchhh.

Theres minimal romance, high institution politics, magic, ruthless fmc, heartbreaking and obviously well themed.

Sconia, Our main character is the perfect example of someone brain fed with propaganda to the point where they are so infused with it that they follow it without question and blindly following a religion is also a main theme of this book, the main character is also an example of someone who has been raised to follow a religion without the ability to question it, they are just made to follow it and not question it and like I loved it because Sconia was so brilliant, easily one of the smartest characters and it shows how easily she was manipulated and a major reason for this was everyone she trusted was feeding her this so like it really makes you think how propaganda can be s dangerous but also I loved how she bordered the limits of her potential and sometimes crossed it and with the help of her assistant unlocked the truth that everyone is hiding and I love, love, loved how ambitious she was and how when she set her mind on something she achieved, mercy and second thought be damned (lol runin vibes) but yeah it also showcases how when someone is fueled by anger and hate they dont think twice and act on their impulse to free the minority and often in process forget the innocents that live among them and I feel like this was so complex and so beautifully written!!

Thomil, was such an integral part of this story. He was the balance, he was the truth, without hijm we would've blindly followed Sconia along her journey both of us being blind to the atrocities being committed while he was scheming and plotting and helping her, struggling with keeping his niece safe and trying to make their lives better. The complexities that his character provided for our main character were so beautiful I liked how she didnt blindly accept him and went through so many emotions to accept it, felt very realistic and I love Thomil for being the way that he was.

The ending was truly heartbreaking, it was so poetic, it was so beauty, it was carnage, it was chaos and it was peace so I am satisfied and I am in love with this book.

Overall, I would recommend this!!
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I am soooo excited for this 🤭🤭 let's see how it goes!! I've heard the best things.
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I really thought 'The sword of kaigen' was going to be my first Wang book but then I got an arc of this and it's so beautiful and interesting that this has to be read first!!

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher- Del Rey for an arc of this book*

How am I suppose to read anything else after this masterpiece? How do I move on from this amazing book?! M.L Wang is such a gifted writer and holy shit no one can write an action scene like her.

Blood over bright haven is about Sciona who gets accepted in this society of high mages, and they’re are extremely patriarchal, there’s discussions on class , race, immigration and systems of oppression. If you love dark academia and fantasy this is the perfect blend of both the magic system and world building is top tier. This is a book that I couldn’t put down and had my attention from beginning to end.

Another fanstastic ML Wang book that will always stay with me

Thank you NetGalley, M. L. Wang, and Del Rey for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

4.75!

I’ve been meaning to read Sword of Kaigen for years at this point, so I was excited to get to Blood Over Bright Haven. I loved this and thought it was fantastic, though at times maybe a touch heavy handed (not that I thought this was bad, all things considered). Wang still managed to write the nuances of colonialism in academia well, though, and I really liked that Sciona was forced to put in the work.

I loved the world and the world building; I am weak for steampunk settings and I liked the texture of the world Wang created. I thought the opening and end were the strongest points, but I also thought Wang did a good job with the pacing. Sciona is, at times, an unbearable individual (though not the most unbearable, since there are also men who are actively next level evil) but her character arc was satisfying. I mean, I wanted to slap her upside the head 80% of the time, but it’s fine. Thomil is great and easy to empathize with. The novel ended the only way it really could have, and but I appreciated the journey to get there. The only thing I felt very whatever about was the… romance, I guess, though I think this is the most accurate word. It is such a teeny tiny part of the back half of the book that it almost doesn’t matter, but I digress.

In any case, Blood Over Bright Haven was excellent.

What a BRUTAL and unapologetically subversive work of standalone fantasy. This reminded me of R.F. Kuang's Babel, which I LOVE, in that it has a really fascinating and highly academic magical system, that doesn't try to handwave to the reader, with protagonists who are trying to succeed in a system that simultaneously others them and also preys on them. There is much self-reckoning on part of the main characters about a system that they idolized and derived self worth from, which is at times hard to stand by and watch someone actively unlelarn biases. And then when the grander reckoning for the colonial and patriarchal power structure comes, it is NOT pretty, the heroes don't make it out unscathed, but damn it, they live hard till the end and make their tragedy and rage count. I am in awe of how the author's deployment of this ever relevant rage in a world where we are constantly confronted by our complicity wihtout consent in systems of power and progress at the expense of the humanity and agency of peoples and lives in the nebulous elsewhere. And how even confronted by the realities of what is being done in our names, our humanity runs out when we are aso held in a desperate game of survival by the same system. This is by no means is an easy read, especially in current times, but if you're in the mood for a cathartic and excoriating read about a brilliant, barrier-breaking woman, who goes about in the most unhinged way with her immigrant assistant and his delightfully violent teenage niece, this story is a masterfully consicse sublimation of rage against the immovable machine.

Blood Over Bright Haven is (sadly) very applicable to the current political environment: a woman fighting to prove herself in a male dominated society only to find out the true cost of power. While the amount of misogyny, racism, and colonialism can be frustrating to read at times, Bright Haven still ends on a relatively hopeful note — which is something we could all use right now.

I absolutely loved this book. The way that racism, sexism, colonialism, and socioeconomic divides were approached in this book was so masterful. I always prefer my fantasy to have some sort of social commentary, or to be at least cognizant of issues going on in the world, and Wang always hits the mark. Being able to incorporate that, underneath the layers of a well written and compelling story, shows just how great of an author they are. Blood Over Bright Haven solidified M L Wang as a go to author for me, because I can always trust her to write a beautiful story through a feminist & decolonial lens.