Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

150 reviews

dark emotional hopeful 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 emotional 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

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dark emotional reflective 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: 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 hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-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: Complicated

This was spectacular.
I knew it was a story about deep seated chauvinism and its impact on the society and even the greatest minds when those are raised with such beliefs. 
I knew that it was an introspection on privilege — Siona who is treated badly by her male colleagues is treating Tommen equally bad if not worse. How easy it is to forget that other people have it worse when you are focused on your own issues. It doesn’t make your issues less; it just puts things into perspective.
I knew that it was about choice — whether you are willing to question your ideals even if they actively benefit you. How eager people are to ease their burdens at the expense of other people. And how hard it might be to even comprehend the evil around you and inside of you.
But I still wasn’t ready for where the plot of blood over bright haven took me. I wasn’t expecting it to be that clear on the mission of getting to the point. I feel like I walked this road with Siona and cried with her and raged with her. I love how the story is not sparing us any suffering along the way. It had to be done like this, like a mirror that she created, that opens right in front of your face and shows you the truth how uncomfortable it really is. 
I have a feeling I will be thinking about this book for a long time 

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

I feel like the author decided to try and explore many different real social issues in a fantasy setting, but since it's a standalone and so many issues were involved, none were really explored well.
Cool magic system? Yes. Entertaining? Sure. 
a good commentary on the patriarchy/colonialism/industrialism/etc? Hell no

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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 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

This was excellent, such an intriguing and horrifying magic system, but you can also see parallels with our world reflected in it. I liked the ending
having sciona die but be ambiguous for carra and thomil was excellent


Wanted to absolutely hit someone with their sexism and racism, and I loved her rants to
the doctor for example


Kind of sad
that her aunt and cousin abandoned her but also realistic...


Would recommend to people 

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i love when exposing corruption stories are done right 
this story and Babel are cut from the same cloth in terms of theme (exposing corruption, racism, xenophobia, etc) but I think where this story lacked a bit for me was the confrontation scenes and the info dumping. 

It felt good to read about going up against powerful people and putting them in their place but it also felt almost too cathartic? very much like a "i thought of a fantastic one-liner after the moment happened" type of scenes and although I really enjoyed it, I feel like for how much this books was grounded in reality, it should've shown more people trying to cut ziona off in her justice speeches cause these men that she was going up against would never have let her go on for as long as she did

other than that, God, what a fantastic story. perfect pacing, character arcs, believable politics, worldbuilding, action, and so much more. quite literally would've been giving this book a 5 star if not for the scenes that I mentioned above because this story wasn't just fiction but a mirror to what our world is currently turning into and it didn't really shy away from how twisted people in power's logic is

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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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