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A review by iellv
Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
4.25
Ack. I’m devastated. There are so many things to process. But let me just say that this book achieved what Babel couldn’t. It's a thematically dense book, but it was handled expertly when it could easily be bungled by a less skilled writer. ML Wang's craft is precise, and most of the time her writing style is practical and straight to the point, considering we spend most of the time in Sciona's head, but when the time is right (and in every single Thomil chapter), she goes for the neck. The magic system is great, btw. I'll add a spoiler tag to my notes because I can't be bothered to edit the word vomit below.
There are so many things to love about this book, but I have to applaud ML Wang for portraying rebellion with enough nuance and lingering in that discomfort. Blood Over Bright Haven shows you the fallout and the loss of Kwen lives. And forces you to look at the damage. Yes, what Sciona did was necessary, but her actions caused so much destruction. And that is the terrifying truth. It takes great violence to shake the foundations of a nation that was built on violence and continued to thrive through violence. It takes an even greater devastation to destroy those foundations. And even then the aftermath might not yield the desired effect. It might be worse. But you can trust that at the very, very least, the destruction will usher in light and if I think about Thomil and the Caldonnae for too long I might actually lose it.
I do have one question though: did the Kwen not organize? Were there not underground groups or something? If not resistance groups then support groups? I find that hard to believe, but I'll give this the benefit of the doubt because Sciona didn't get to see much during the fallout. And unfortunately, we didn't get a Thomil chapter during that time. I can see why so I'm not docking points for that
Lastly, I wanna say that I do have some notes? Thomil was too much of a background character for my taste. Although, to be honest, I did have low expectations of his involvement (I'm still annoyed about Griffin, aka RF Kuang's mouthpiece, just... dying after he said his piece), but ML Wang edged toward making Thomil the marginalized character who serves to educate main character. I'm glad we got to see his anger and his grief but that also ultimately served to further Sciona's character development.
We absolutely could have had two Thomil chapters before they executed the plan, because who really is he outside of his work? Outside of his relationship with Carra? How does he interact with other Kwen? What's the Kwen community at the Kwen Quarter like? And again, did the Kwen not organize? lmao. A broken person can still have a life... The man is pretty friendly, charming, honest, and kind. I'm sure those qualities would have shone if he had been given the chance to interact with people from other tribes before the last crossing. Can you tell that Thomil is everything to me? Man, even his hunting skills were mentioned to supplement Sciona's work. Tell me more about his relationship to his gods!!! To nature!!!
I also have some notes about the middle and how Sciona reacted to the truth. I wish we could have sat with her emotions a bit more before the suicide attempt because that felt kinda drastic for someone who didn't really care much about the people in her own neighborhood let alone Kwen lives. Better yet, just do away with the suicide attempt, because I think that detracted from the weight and truth of the assessments leveled at her in the final arc.
Actually, I'm not done. I think the sexual assault scene was handled a little bit weirdly. ML Wang could have written in Renthorn's true nature in a more convincing way than sexual assault, just as the misogyny could have had more layers to it. I agree with the critiques about the misogyny being mostly limited to underestimating Sciona's abilities and staring. It was infuriating, yeah, but it was so flat as to be relatively benign that I forgot that 1.) They only let women take the test every 10 years and 2.) Sciona is the first woman highmage, full stop. It's funny that it didn't even break the immersion too much because I genuinely forgot about those two facts for much of the book.
I do have one question though: did the Kwen not organize? Were there not underground groups or something? If not resistance groups then support groups? I find that hard to believe, but I'll give this the benefit of the doubt because Sciona didn't get to see much during the fallout. And unfortunately, we didn't get a Thomil chapter during that time. I can see why so I'm not docking points for that
Lastly, I wanna say that I do have some notes? Thomil was too much of a background character for my taste. Although, to be honest, I did have low expectations of his involvement (I'm still annoyed about Griffin, aka RF Kuang's mouthpiece, just... dying after he said his piece), but ML Wang edged toward making Thomil the marginalized character who serves to educate main character. I'm glad we got to see his anger and his grief but that also ultimately served to further Sciona's character development.
We absolutely could have had two Thomil chapters before they executed the plan, because who really is he outside of his work? Outside of his relationship with Carra? How does he interact with other Kwen? What's the Kwen community at the Kwen Quarter like? And again, did the Kwen not organize? lmao. A broken person can still have a life... The man is pretty friendly, charming, honest, and kind. I'm sure those qualities would have shone if he had been given the chance to interact with people from other tribes before the last crossing. Can you tell that Thomil is everything to me? Man, even his hunting skills were mentioned to supplement Sciona's work. Tell me more about his relationship to his gods!!! To nature!!!
I also have some notes about the middle and how Sciona reacted to the truth. I wish we could have sat with her emotions a bit more before the suicide attempt because that felt kinda drastic for someone who didn't really care much about the people in her own neighborhood let alone Kwen lives. Better yet, just do away with the suicide attempt, because I think that detracted from the weight and truth of the assessments leveled at her in the final arc.
Actually, I'm not done. I think the sexual assault scene was handled a little bit weirdly. ML Wang could have written in Renthorn's true nature in a more convincing way than sexual assault, just as the misogyny could have had more layers to it. I agree with the critiques about the misogyny being mostly limited to underestimating Sciona's abilities and staring. It was infuriating, yeah, but it was so flat as to be relatively benign that I forgot that 1.) They only let women take the test every 10 years and 2.) Sciona is the first woman highmage, full stop. It's funny that it didn't even break the immersion too much because I genuinely forgot about those two facts for much of the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Mental illness, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Genocide and Vomit
Minor: Cannibalism