A review by skycrane
Legacy of the Brightwash by Krystle Matar

5.0

Though I ended up really liking Legacy of the Brightwash, it took me a while to read. I got to chapter 5, which starts with the line, "The Directed Breeding Program of Yaelsmuir housed their breeders..." and just had to put the book down for a couple of months. Within the first few chapters it is explained to us that those with magical abilities (generally called "tainted") are tracked by a vast bureaucracy, forced to work in state-assigned jobs, frequently sentenced to life imprisonment for very petty regulatory infractions, and also systematically raped. And our protagonist is part of the authority that enforces those rules. So yeah, this gets pretty dark.

The core of the story is a mystery, but there's also a pretty emotionally satisfying romance, and a couple of compelling character studies. Highly recommend.