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A review by millie
Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
2.75 out of 5.
It was ok.
This one is a disappointment and i hadn't even expected much from it to be honest. I can understand why people loved it but i did not. I'm not sure i'll be able to summarize my thoughts in a coherent manner but i'll try.
In essence, i understand what the story want to say, i understand the main themes and i want to give the author this : first, this a well crafted world, the writing is good and Blood over bright Haven is a dark academia story exploring sexism, misogyny, bigotry and the moral ambiguity in the pursuit of knowledge and at time, goes into "mad scientist" territory but also ? this story is boring and hand you its themes in such a heavy handed manner that it felt as if the author thought i was stupid.
The pacing was troubling : months, weeks and day seems to passes in a matter of a few words. The technology itself was never explained and was contradictory : this world had high speed train but the main character is a at point surprised to see a carriage without horse ? but at no point is it demonstrated that carriages have horses. we don't see much animals and we don't see much carriages either.
sciona as a character is. oof. i generally am fine with unlikeable protagonist, i do like them but sciona isn't a unlikeable protagonist, she is properly insufferable and to me, she doesn't work as a protagonist. and i fully understand her character, she just ... does not work. if we were talking about a movie, i would describe sciona has a bad casting for the production she is in. and it's a bit funny because the book become sort of self-aware toward the end because everyone look at sciona like "why do you care? you never cared before. you only care about your ego." and that's just it. why does sciona cares ? her character arc is messy.
i don't mind magic as a science but it felt as if the story would lose itself in the intrisecacy of its science. i'll give M. L. Wang this because her worldbuilding and magic system was carefully crafted, maybe too much and rendering it at time incomprehensible.
Also, this book had been recommended for people who liked FullMetal Alchemist and i'll say this as someone who love FMA, the comparison begin and stop at government conspiracy and human sacrifice that's pretty much it.
and the ending is... fine, i guess. i usually like open ending but towards the end, the character's goal became incomprehensible to me and i just wanted to close the book.
TL;DR : a dark academia with good ideas but a mediocre execution.
It was ok.
This one is a disappointment and i hadn't even expected much from it to be honest. I can understand why people loved it but i did not. I'm not sure i'll be able to summarize my thoughts in a coherent manner but i'll try.
In essence, i understand what the story want to say, i understand the main themes and i want to give the author this : first, this a well crafted world, the writing is good and Blood over bright Haven is a dark academia story exploring sexism, misogyny, bigotry and the moral ambiguity in the pursuit of knowledge and at time, goes into "mad scientist" territory but also ? this story is boring and hand you its themes in such a heavy handed manner that it felt as if the author thought i was stupid.
The pacing was troubling : months, weeks and day seems to passes in a matter of a few words. The technology itself was never explained and was contradictory : this world had high speed train but the main character is a at point surprised to see a carriage without horse ? but at no point is it demonstrated that carriages have horses. we don't see much animals and we don't see much carriages either.
sciona as a character is. oof. i generally am fine with unlikeable protagonist, i do like them but sciona isn't a unlikeable protagonist, she is properly insufferable and to me, she doesn't work as a protagonist. and i fully understand her character, she just ... does not work. if we were talking about a movie, i would describe sciona has a bad casting for the production she is in. and it's a bit funny because the book become sort of self-aware toward the end because everyone look at sciona like "why do you care? you never cared before. you only care about your ego." and that's just it. why does sciona cares ? her character arc is messy.
i don't mind magic as a science but it felt as if the story would lose itself in the intrisecacy of its science. i'll give M. L. Wang this because her worldbuilding and magic system was carefully crafted, maybe too much and rendering it at time incomprehensible.
Also, this book had been recommended for people who liked FullMetal Alchemist and i'll say this as someone who love FMA, the comparison begin and stop at government conspiracy and
and the ending is... fine, i guess. i usually like open ending but towards the end, the character's goal became incomprehensible to me and i just wanted to close the book.
TL;DR : a dark academia with good ideas but a mediocre execution.