Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

103 reviews

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I really appreciate how this author writes humans and human responses. 
i absolutely flew through this book. 
and i really liked the bluntness of it. 

my main critizism is the limitations and faults in the worldbuilding.

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

5 stars in the most devastating way.

I think everyone should read this book. It is excellent commentary on so many real-world issues told through a riveting story of flawed, raw characters that you want to root for. Wang tackles racism—specifically against indigenous people—, colonization, collective liberation, hypocrisy in religion, corruption in government, "benevolent" complicity, white guilt/tears, and so much more with such finesse. She asks us all to grapple with the questions: what is the cost of our comforts, and what is the effect on our humanity of the denial of those costs?

The story is a page-turner the whole way through, and hooked me within the first chapter. The magic system is extremely unique and interesting, and the world-building is so well-done. Both are intricate without being hard to understand (plus a handy pocket guide is included in the back!). The series of events is realistic as it pertains to the world/characters and the IRL issues the story seeks to tackle.
There is a hopeful ending, but not a happy ending
, and I am equal parts satisfied as a reader and devastated as a human because of it. I will be processing this book for a long time. Its questions and themes feel baked into life in inextricable ways.

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I. Loved. This. Book.

Go read it!!

I still cannot put into words the way this book affected me. The premise sounds so simple, but it is interwoven with such complex issues and thoughts that are so brilliantly handled and discussed. The characters are so amazingly fleshed out and morally gray. They are understandable while also being frustrating. The magic system is unique and the world reflects so many different places and times we are familiar with.

It is amazing. Probably my top read of the year.

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dark medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

It was incredibly boring and unoriginal, very predictive and the tragedy was exaggerated.

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challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I have never read anything like this. This is feminine rage. Ego and genius that leads to delusion and madness. Social injustice and oppression that leads inevitably to vengeance and violence. All laid out so brutally and so beautifully that I am in awe.

This dark academia forces the reader to reflect on power and responsibility in a country where misogyny and racism are layered into society and justified through religious belief.


My favorite scene, edited slightly to shorten:

"Witch!"a voice cried out among the screams of the dying... But true witches...  had never practiced such evil magic. They had used their magic to heal the sick and watch over those they loved. Sciona was no witch... She had always belonged here with these insatiable men, her brothers in greed and ego. Sciona's only distinction among these mages was that she was a more honest monster than any of them, and she would die an honest mage of Tiran: finely-dressed and filthy-souled, taking with arrogance what was not hers to take. 
"I will not turn my eyes, though light burn me."

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

It wasn’t a bad book, I just didn’t connect with it that well. It was a very girl power authoritarian government religious fascism book. Yes the government was evil, it was just really really depressing. There was not really any hope at all, the main character dies, the relationship culminates in one night only because she dies. This book tries to by driven by both emotion/passion and logic, but the logic just annoyed me. All of the arguments felt extremely dumb and one sided. Sciona was frustrating and extremely flawed, but I guess that’s the point. I read this pretty quickly, it kept my attention, but I don’t feel the need to read it again. 

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