I really enjoyed this book and the interesting world-building and magic system. However, maybe it's just me, but the ending felt a bit rushed, unresolved, and disappointing. I wanted so much more for Sciona, especially since we were with her for most of the book and got so close to her. I wanted to see her succeed in life and become something. I get the whole self-sacrificing thing. What she did will forever go down in history, but will it? Who was left alive to retell the tale? Tenth? Will he care enough to tell it?

Also, how things ended with Alba and Aunt Winny breaks my heart. There should have been a POV where we saw them forgive her. But to build this caring and loving relationship and then just abruptly cut it off and only say goodbye with a suicide note was so unbelievably heartbreaking. Being a parent, I feel like Aunt Winny couldn't just disown her "child" like that. And how devasting to learn your child committed suicide and you never forgave her?

I guess the disappointment is just a ME issue, but I need more. Where did Thomil and Carra run to? Are they ok? Did Thomil survive the injury he sustained while running? I NEED MORE ANSWERS!

Anyway, fantastic work, in all honesty. I will be reading more from M.L. Wang now. Thanks!

I first need to say, the fact that the magic system was just coding... I found that highly entertaining! I think this might be the first time I was actually able to follow the magic system (I think normally they tend to follow scientific principles and I don't get that). Brilliant!

As for the actual book, I genuinely enjoyed it. It was really hard in the beginning listening to the main character talk about how uncivilized and barbaric the "lower class citizens" were (second hand cringe), but it was important and honest to the character development. I liked the characters and while it didn't end how I WANTED it to, it still ended in a very honest and good way.

This books was very mid and a bit disappointing for me. The book discusses several important topics such as racism, colonialism, and sexism. The discussions surrounding those important topics were really well done and were discussed in an interesting way. But the rest of the book left a lot to be desired. The characters were lackluster, especially our main character Sciona. I had a hard time connecting to Sciona which really impacting my experience reading the book. This book also lacked enough of a plot. In the first half of the book, barely anything happens and then when we finally do start to get some plot, it was extremely predictable. There was also was a sexual assault scene towards the end of the book that was off putting and slightly triggering for me, so be aware of that. This book just didn't work for me and I'm very disappointed by it.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for gifting me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Move on over, Sword of Kaigen, Blood Over Bright Haven is M.L. Wang’s absolute best work.

“It’s much easier to tell yourself you’re a good person than it is to actually be one.”

M.L. Wang is the standalone fantasy queen and the world-building, character development, and plot she is able to develop in one book is incredible. I found this book completely addictive, especially because I love a dark academia read. I ran through the audiobook so quickly and was shocked by how incredibly the narrator, Moira Quick, brought the story to life.

This story follows Sciona Freynan, who is on the verge of making history as the first female highmage (a magic user of the highest degree). Sciona has been solely focused on her studies and magic her entire life. Sciona lives in the city of Tiran which is protected by a magical barrier. Magic provides the citizens of Tiran modern comforts. People who live outside the barrier do whatever it takes to survive outside but more frequently than not are forced to risk their life to enter the barrier. Where the magic is sourced from becomes a major issues in the story,

Sciona is obsessive about her work and rarely pays attention to the world around her. Sciona’s assistant, Thomil, a refugee, helps Sciona see the truth of her world. Thomil and Scion’s dynamic is so incredibly well done. I was deeply attached to both of these characters. I don’t want to say to much more about the plot because it is important to read this book without much background information.

I loved that Wang explores the themes of racism and elitism in this book. My favorite part was how realistic the reactions of the Tiranan citizens felt after the big reveal. Wang does not shy away from making the hard character choices and this book is no exception. The magical system is well developed and completely interesting. The magical system felt very logical which is atypical to standalone fantasy novels.

This is a really fucking awesome book.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Audio, DelRey, and Netgalley for the advanced audio and e-copy.

One of the best fantasy books I have read in a very long time!! M.L. Wang can do no wrong in my opinion.
The FMC is someone to love and, at times, hate. She is very selfish. She is so focused on becoming the best of the best at magic that she has no time for anyone or anything else. She can't even see when kindness is right in front of her. She takes it all for granted.

Sciona, the fmc, is studying to become the first female ever to be accepted into the high magistry in the magical city of Tiran. She has proven herself to surpass the abilities of her competition time and time again. That doesn't stop the men from reminding her daily that she doesn't belong there, that it is no place for a woman. She works every single day to prove them wrong.

Along the way, she is given an assistant, Thomil, an outsider considered a savage and treated as no more than a slave. Sciona and Thomil form a bit of a partnership and uncover the evils hidden for generations together. Sciona is absolutely destroyed by what she uncovers about the magic that powers her city. The magic, that for years, she has used without giving it a second thought. The reality of what she, and all magic wielders, are doing every single time the siphon power for a spell has sent her into a manic episode and no one will stop her from trying to make things right or die trying. No review or description is going to this book justice. All I can say is just read it!!!

4.5/5
Thought provoking and entertaining. It's a dark story that reflects on social structure, women's rights, religion and overall moral compass along with other things. The book starts off intensely and then moves to a POV that is slower and follows her journey and discovery of the world. It's dark and very much a dark academia vibe for a book. The magic is very unique and thought out. The characters are their own personality and come off strong and sometimes makes you dislike them which makes this book even better. The writing draws you in from page one and is so detailed without too much embellishments. It's a worthy story of reading once and would absolutely recommend it to those who love dark academia.
Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey hooks for the opportunity to read this e-arc. This is my honest opinion.

This was SO GOOD! ML Wang write a mid book challenge (impossible). Honestly, for the first quarter of it I wasn't sure......but then it definitely picked up and the plot twist hit me like a ton of bricks! I'm not sure I've been that blown away by a twist before -- and it just kept getting better from there! Also, I thought it would be less depressing than Sword of Kaigen, but I still cried at the end :( Wang's just a master at making me care about characters in such a short amount of time!

I can't believe I almost DNF'd this book because of how deeply I disliked Sciona in the entire first half. I was a fool.

Sciona having to deal with reconciling who she was before finding out the source of energy and who she was going to be in the aftermath was devastating. I was so glad she finally saw what Thomil was telling her...but the emotional cost of it was devastating; I found myself feeling sorry for the character I had found so frustrating. But she never denied it...even to the end Sciona was selfish, and beyond forgiveness for taking part in a society that so clearly diminished the value of people who were put into that position by people she so admired. I knew it wasn't going to be a happy ending for her, but my heart broke nonetheless. I would love to revisit this world in the future to see what Mordra makes of it, but I don't know if anything would be the same without Sciona.

Oh, I'm sad about this one. That first chapter was AMAZING. So good, I was so into it! But then I kept reading and was met with Sciona, and it all went downhill from there *for me*. I greatly appreciate the creativity that went into the magic and magic system, I really do, but it was overexplained and it made this draaaaag. Meanwhile, the characters felt one-dimensional, and that's my biggest issue with this because I just wasn't invested in them at all. Sciona is unlikeable and she's meant to be, because she reflects the society she's in, but I just couldn't get behind her at all. The writing was so incredibly heavy-handed with its themes as well; it got on my nerves. Like, I get it, I really do, there's no need to spell things out for us when they're already so in our faces. Anyway, I didn't vibe with this at all, but I'm not writing off this author. I'm very interested in checking out The Sword of Kaigen at least.

Omg this was soooooo good. Perfectly executed with an interesting, more science focused magic system and an amazingly developed, fundamentally flawed female main character. This book touched on oppression in a masterful way, interesting race and gender and explored how people in power live in disillusionment to struggle. Excellent commentary about the need for violence in fighting oppression and how it is viewed from the perspective of the oppressor. Amazingly developed world, characters, struggle, and conclusion in a standalone novel. I am very impressed with the ending as well. Can’t say enough good about it, definitely a new favorite book and will be looking into reading more of her works in the future


Thank you to Random House Ballantine and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review

This was IT baby! I wish there was more, the ending make me 😔, time to read the rest of her books. Full disclosure I read this before I got the ARC but wanted to make sure I reviewed it here!

I cannot get over how much I LOVED this book! I devoured the entire thing in less than 24 hours. The author gave us a story filled with magic, politics, history, religion, relationships, and so much more!

The characters were so real! They showed all the emotions of being human and what it means to be selfish and also wanting to do better. Because the characters were real it also had me questioning which direction the story would go. Just like humans, they had choices to make and consequences that go with their actions! The story had me asking myself "Are you a good person? And What makes a person fully good?".

I will be talking about this book and recommending it forever! Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I have so much to say about this read, and yet as I sit here to type out my words, I find myself hesitating to put my thoughts together coherently. Because it was just genuinely that good. I’m practically gobsmacked. So let’s take it piece by piece.

I’ll start with the magic system, since that’s one of the first things that made me realize I was in for a truly unique reading experience. In this world, magic operates a lot like computer programming. Dedicated magical practitioners, called mages, use machines called spellographs. Imagine something akin to a typewriter, with a large hoop attached that can generate a black and white mapping image. The mapping image shows the user where to identify pockets of energy, which they can siphon to generate spells. This kind of distinctive magic system reels me in as a reader, and ML Wang did a great job educating the reader on how it works without ever info dumping – an amazing feat considering it’s a standalone, as well.

Setting was another area in which this book excelled. This story takes place in Tiran, a magically protected city in its industrial era. In Tiran, magehood is considered to be a research field as well as a pathway to city leadership. The magic and the setting combine to create a somewhat gaslamp fantasy mixed with a dark academia vibe.

But despite the magic, it’s a serious read. Blood Over Bright Haven manages to pack in a wide array of themes, including justice, faith, ambition, prejudice, selfishness, and even the weight of a soul. And ML Wang did not pull her punches. The resounding message was clear: our so-called “great” nations do not and cannot exist without the exploitation and genocide of someone else. It’s also an apt exploration about how racism and sexism coincide; where there’s one, there’s always the other.

This story even explores the ways in which religion can be used to oppress, deny, or elevate as it sees fit, and how it can be used to delude others and even oneself.

Blood Over Bright Haven also nails its plot points and pacing. The midpoint has an absolutely sinister plot twist and changes everything, and the second half of the book had me both hooked and dreading what would come next at the same time. I couldn’t look away, even as it ripped my heart out. I cried.

I also have to mention the masterful character-building and growth arcs shown here. Our main character is both likeable and unlikeable – Sciona is selfish, overly ambitious, single-minded, and prejudiced. She admittedly cares little for others. And this is exactly what enables her to rise above her station. Despite her flaws, she also craves the truth, and she’s too intelligent to accept incomplete answers.

Thomil provided a much-needed counterweight to Sciona, both in worldview and in morals. He’s a Kwen, which means he’s indigenous to the world outside Tiran’s borders, and therefore treated as a lower-class citizen. Thomil is a janitor when we first meet him, and he’s only “promoted” to lab assistant because the other highmages think it’s a funny way to protest Sciona’s placement as the first female highmage. Rather than giving her a trained assistant, they give her a janitor. But Sciona, being too proud to back down, accepts Thomil to the role and trains him. What ensues because of their partnership changes everything.

Blood Over Bright Haven was crafted with heart and intelligence. I cannot recommend it enough.

Thanks to Netgalley and Del Rey for the ARC! All opinions are my own. This one releases October 29, 2024.

Blood Over Bright Haven is set in the utopia city Tiran, a haven sheltered by a magical barrier that keeps out the cold and the blight. Sciona is a mage, who has spent all of her time studying magic so that she could attempt the exam that will allow her to become a highmage, a position that no woman has ever been allowed to hold. After passing the exam, she is assigned Thomil, a Kwen janitor, as her assistant. The Kwen are a race of people who come from outside of Tiran, making the dangerous trek into the city in the hopes of finding safety. Thomil's entire tribe was killed by the blight as they came to the city, leaving only him and his niece behind. Sciona and Thomil delve deeper into their experiments and the magical and religious texts about the magical barrier around Tiran. They discover some dangerous truths that have been kept hidden from the people in the city, making powerful enemies for these characters and everyone they love.

The magic system in this book was so unique and detailed. Each chapter started with an excerpt from either books on theory or religious text about the system of magic, which added a lot of depth. It was almost like a combination of magic and computer science, which is something I've never seen before and I really enjoyed. The story started off with a lot of action, but then it lagged a little bit in the middle, only to pick up again at the end. I thought the characters were really interesting and they allowed the story to look at sexism and xenophobia head on. They had arcs that felt realistic and were enjoyable to follow as a reader. Another bonus is that it is a standalone, so the story is all wrapped up in this book. This will be a good one for fantasy readers who like getting into the nitty-gritty of magic systems or stories about schools of magic.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the gifted copy.

Well this is my favorite read of the year! And I know it is going to be my all time favorite book for years to come! I have never ever read a story this deeply impacted me with my whole being into my bones and blood. I do not even know how to write this review because I am still staring into abyss and do not know what to do with myself. Infinity ♾️ plus 6 ⭐️ or moreee!!! My rating system isn’t even fair for this masterpiece! Wow wow wow I am truly blown away!

I was provided eARC by publisher through NetGalley and this review is purely my own opinion.

I want to preface that I am scholar of occult science and a mystic. I perceive every story that I digest in symbolic and archetypal level even if they’re fantasy books so if my review would not make sense to you or I trigger you, I kindly suggest you stop reading!

This storyline is pure archetypal masterpiece. I have never read a story this much mirror to what we are experiencing in this dark age in this time. Yes I genuinely think we are spiritually experiencing very dark age in our current society and societal issues are pure reflection of this!! I deeply believe this storyline is truly a mirror to our current society! We as a society is in very similar position and if you can’t see it well you can stop because I am about to be bold af!

When I read first chapter I started to cry and I knew in that moment this book was going to impact me in soul level and INDEED IT DID! Do you know how hard it is to feel this deep let alone cry for a character in first chapter!??? Not even possible for me at least before this gem.

I am blown away by the character of Thomil. He is the perfect representation of how oppression is so real and one of the most disturbing reality of this magical world but in the same time in our world as well. It broke my heart what Kwen community went through in the story what they endure under the tyrannical Tiran government!!

Magic system was incredibly unique, creative, fascinating and how layered and intelligently crafted was truly fascinating! It took some time for me to fully understand and digest it but end of the book it has glossary I found it little later down in my read. (I didn’t go to end of the book to check because you know it’s ebook lol ) It took some time but when I understood everything then plot started to form which is very connected to magic system! I am truly blow away by it and it was amazing!

Sciona is not my favorite character at all. I disliked her from the beginning. Her lack of empathy and her pretentious attitude was overkill but in the same time I totally understand why the way she was necessary for the storyline and deep perspective towards how brainwashing works in tyrannical/religious system.

Sciona is a highmage which is the best of Tiran’s magic practitioner and she is the only highmage woman in this world! Sexism and how real it was reflected very deeply on her story and it was uncomfortable how real it was but she was also racist and classist through and through and her cognitive dissonance was disturbing and familiarity of it, was uncomfortable especially after what we went through as a society in recent years. She was the perfect representation of how people react when they uncover the truth in the beginning, but her character development was truly fascinating from there.

As a said another deeply mirrored part how brainwashed society reacts through media, politics, education system and religion and in this world people were brainwashed in the same way except we didn’t see a lot of media propaganda here. It was fascinating and sobering how people use religion towards their own gain and power same as our society. (As a I said I am being bold)

The author writes how real evil is in a way that it breaks your heart the reality of it and it’s on your face with thick ass truth. It was truly bold painful truth! (Yeap again mirror 🪞 to humanity) I have cried so many times.

Sciona was annoying but also such an unexpected character because the way she was bold and courageous the way she showed everyone and everything what truth is! Aftermath of her acts weren’t lost on me but author does incredible job again how seeing truth hurts so much and causes great disturbance I am in awe of Sciona’s last act which was truly inspiring and showed deeper occult insight through and through iykyk!

I am just so glad the way this story ended and what a deep message left behind! 🤯This story will stay with me forever as much as it was uncomfortable it was eye opening and inspiring to my core!!!

As I always say “Storytelling will heal humanity” and this storyline is perfect representation of it! 🥹❤️‍🔥

M.L. Wang's *Blood Over Bright Haven* immediately captivates with its complex characters and immersive world. The story of Sciona and Thomil pulls readers in, with Sciona being a brilliant, ego-driven, and flawed protagonist. Despite her faults, Wang masterfully makes her relatable, while Thomil, with his more emotionally grounded perspective, serves as a perfect foil. Their dynamic creates moments of tension and growth, making both characters deeply engaging. The novel’s intellectual depth stands out, especially in the way it tackles themes of morality, good versus evil, and social issues like race, religion, and human rights.

What truly sets this novel apart is its fresh take on magic, described as something akin to coding rather than traditional sorcery. This methodical approach to magic fits perfectly with Sciona’s analytical mindset and adds an interesting layer to the action scenes. Wang also doesn't shy away from tough topics, elevating the novel beyond typical dark academia by intertwining social commentary with the character’s struggles. *Blood Over Bright Haven* is a brilliant, thought-provoking stand-alone novel that challenges the norms of fantasy and offers something entirely new for the genre.

This was a bit of a disappointment. The first part of the book gives you a much darker feeling than the rest of the book, and it seems that will take the book to another place to where is going. After that, the book turned to more of a usual trope and a less darker pace, and I could see the big "puzzles" of the world and the direction of where things were going a mile away. It also bothers me that a character who shows up as someone important in the beginning disappears in the book's second part without even a mention. Finally, the whole "oh my god I don't believe this is happening" also dragged for a long time, and took from the story. In the end, it's a nice story, with an interesting premise, but I didn't love how it was executed, but its worth a read.

This was great! A little bit of Sci-fi with all the magic system! I think fans of HP or Mistborn, and the Magicians are gonna eat this up!

Magic School
Break down the Patriarchy
Social norms and stereotypes
Lab setting


It's hard to explain any part of this book without taking the suspense out of—I think it was the third chapter!
Once again ML Wang hits you right in the feels.

If the Author decided to include a "what inspired this book" page I would very much like to read it! if I had to guess it was directly inspired by several events in the summer of 2020.

I received an ARC thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an honest review. 4.5 stars.

Blood Over Bright Haven is a masterpiece. Watching an imperfect FMC not only fight the social constructs placed on them due to their gender, but then brutally and heartbreakingly come to terms with the evil that is behind the society she fought so hard to be a part of was like nothing else I've ever read.

The way this book discusses oppression in a multifaceted way was truly amazing. I cannot recommend this book enough!

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for the ARC of this book!

This book was previously published but is now being published by Del Rey. I found it originally because it showed up on a list for dark academia fantasy novels, but the selling point for me was the magic being based on coding. Most of the magic is done by using something akin to a typewriter to compose spells in a similar way to how programs are coded on computers. This world is a very patriarchal society, only allowing men to be mages, until Sconia passes the tests brought forth by the society of old man mages. From there she befriends a janitor, which is when our main characters collide. The janitor used to be a nomadic hunter that lived outside the protection of the city. From there we learn the sinister secrets held by the mages and the truths they don't want the public to know. Excellent standalone fantasy, the ending is something I will never forget.