A review by mcgbreads
Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

Did not finish book. Stopped at 27%.
Thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, and Ballantine | Del Rey for the access to this ebook.

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, I didn't like it at all. Like, I get it, I really do, there's no need to spell things out for me when they're already so in my face. 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.