#(l. // haven.)

[bubblesandpages]

Magic systems contingent upon the suffering of others are SO delicious as narrative devices *chefs kiss*

[imjustheretomooch]

'Dark Academia Fullmetal Alchemist' doesn’t exactly describe Blood Over Bright Haven. It’s not a ‘girl takes down the empire’ nor is it mystery or action. It’s a little of all of these things, but really thinking about it I've come to the conclusion that it’s best described as a fusion between a scathing criticism of American counterterrorism and a power fantasy for people who really fucking hate their coworkers 

[teeth-draws]

When u wanna fall in love but he can’t stop thinking about the plight of the common folk 😔✊ @shepherds-of-haven

[hananoami]

ᯓᡣ𐭩 ⌞ 𝑭𝓪𝓻𝓼𝓹𝓪𝓬𝓮 𝑫𝓮𝓹𝓻𝓲𝓿𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷 ⌝

⊹ ࣪ ˖ Illusio with CALEB dressed in [Misty Haven] ⊹₊ ⋆

requested by: anonymous hunter & @anxiousgoddest

HAVE A REQUEST?

Want to see your love interest of choice wear a specific outfit in a kindled memory, but don't have them in your collection? I'm currently open to taking ILLUSIO REQUESTS until 02/28!

✧ ILLUSIO MASTERLIST ˚ 𝜗����˚⋆｡☆ REQUEST STATUS ✧ ✧ MEMORY + OUTFITS CATALOG ˚ 𝜗𝜚˚⋆｡☆ REQUEST ? ✧

[kertikavics]

“Blight didn’t start until the year five Pre-Tiran,” Thomil said. “After Leon saw fit to take magical knowledge from its rightful home. We Kwen have a word for that—taking ancestral items from people who aren’t dead. It’s called stealing.”

Blood over bright haven by M.L.Wang

[bigbookblog]

Blood Over Bright Haven - M. L. Wang

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 5/5

“So many parents will try to kill everything brilliant about a girl in the name of giving her a good life, a safe life, a chance at happines”

The best book I’ve read in 2025 so far. Fantastic world building for a stand alone, wonderful characters, twists and turns everywhere, romantic tension, workplace anger, a beautiful book so wonderfully written. Would recommend 100 times over.

[nephelesthoughts]

HE MAKES ME PHYSICALLY. FUCKING. ILL. OH MY GOOOOOOODOIDDJJDNDN

[artist-issues]

if someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to?

Read:

The Abolition of Man- C. S. Lewis

Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery

Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Brontë

The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis

The Were-Wolf - Clemence Housman

Invisible Ink - Brian McDonald

Watch:

Lilo & Stitch (2002)

Signs (2002)

Beauty & the Beast (1991)

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

Cinderella (2015)

East of Eden (1955)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Listen To:

Blue Flower - The Gray Havens

Addict With a Pen - Twenty One Pilots

Heavydirtysoul - Twenty One Pilots

Vignette - Twenty One Oilots

Holding Onto You - Twenty One Pilots

Hometown - Twenty One Pilots

The Producer - Travis Whittaker & Tyler Joseph

Washed By the Water - Needtobreathe

How It Sets You Free - Gable Price & Friends

I Need You - Gable Price & Friends

Dust - Kings Kaleidoscope

Do Not - John Rueben

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook2]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book. vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

[imjustheretomooch]

ahhh. love a good mid-book crash out.

Lol i also just realized Sciona was majorly sleep deprived for literally 80% of the book. 

[wingsofhcpe]

Just finishes Blood Over Bright Haven, went to check some goodreads reviews, and people are shitting on M. L. Wang and calling her work "white saviour complex" and "coloniser romance", also saying that her work is a copy of RFK.

And this is why I think reading comprehension is dead, because if you read BOBH and THAT was your take from it, I'm pretty sure you read it with your eyes closed.

Anyway, if yall actually want an amazing dark academia and steampunk-y book with nuanced discussion about societal issues, amazing writing, a morally grey female protag and unique kickass worldbuilding, you should read BOBH by M. L. Wang.

[hey-haven]

The realistic option: Matsuda falls for L first

The totally better and more fun option: L falls for Matsuda first

[hananoami]

ᯓᡣ𐭩 ⌞ 𝑬𝓷𝓭𝓵𝓮𝓼𝓼 𝑺𝓾𝓶𝓶𝓮𝓻 ⌝

⊹ ࣪ ˖ Illusio with CALEB dressed in [Misty Haven] ⊹₊ ⋆

requested by: anonymous hunter & @sylusslittlekitten

HAVE A REQUEST?

Want to see your love interest of choice wear a specific outfit in a kindled memory, but don't have them in your collection? I'm currently open to taking ILLUSIO REQUESTS until 02/28!

✧ ILLUSIO MASTERLIST ˚ 𝜗𝜚˚⋆｡☆ REQUEST STATUS ✧ ✧ MEMORY + OUTFITS CATALOG ˚ 𝜗𝜚˚⋆｡☆ REQUEST ? ✧

[books-to-add-to-your-tbr]

Title: Blood Over Bright Haven

Author: M.L. Wang

Series or standalone: standalone

Publication year: 2024

Genres: fiction, fantasy, science fiction

Blurb: An orphan since the age of four, Sciona has always had more to prove than her fellow students. For twenty years, she has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fuelled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry. When she finally claws her way up the ranks to become a highmage, however, she finds that her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues will stop at nothing to let her know she is unwelcome, beginning with giving her a janitor instead of a qualified lab assistant. What neither Sciona nor her peers realise is that her taciturn assistant was once more than a janitor; before he mopped floors for the mages, Thomil was a nomadic hunter from beyond Tiran's magical barrier. Ten years have passed since he survived the perilous crossing that killed his family...but working for a highmage, he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the Tiranish in power. Through their fractious relationship, mage and outsider uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever...if it doesn't get them killed first. Sciona has defined her life by the pursuit of truth, but how much is one truth worth with the fate of civilisation in the balance?

[rhetoricandlogic]

Blood over Bright Haven - M. L. Wang

BLOOD OVER BRIGHT HAVEN had a really strong start that literally had me shedding tears in chapter one. So I'm sad to be here now, alongside Micky's shiny review, and not be singing it's praises. Because there are a lot of things about this book worth championing. Where I think for me it failed to find footing was, mainly, the lack of tension. And I mean that in a variety of ways.

First of all, the concept of this may not seem all that rare but the unique way that Wang spun her tale, her particular brand of darkness at the heart of this utopic world, definitely made me sit up. I did sorta see the potential for this to be the conflict but it still shook me a bit. I loved that, even though, of course, it is so vile. What shook me more, and what I really appreciate that Wang did, was how at every turn, we got to witness the apathy, the complicity, the acceptance, instead of, in similar stories with similar turns of events, becoming a surprise reveal that necessitates action. I was less appreciative of the constant haranguing and rehashed dialogue of it all -- it got a little (lot) tired after the initial realization that an argument for being a better person wasn't going to have any positive result, and yet we still had to suffer through it anyway. But I think the author was just trying to hammer it home. And I use hammer purposefully because some of the constant banging on, well, yeah, it was painful.

Much like Sciona could be. Her lack of self-awareness made her the perfect conduit for this story because she was so self-righteous, so oblivious, so imperfect, and her arc is hard won because of this. Even in the throes of coming to terms with what must be done, what she can't not do, she still drops hurtful generalizations and prejudiced offhand comments, and it was agonizing. But I suppose it made her human, more real, less the idealized champion. Her character represented so much of what we see in the world around us and it was tough to endure. But where the end of this book leaves her is a triumph.

But back to the tension. The sense of being under threat was very much missing. I felt, well, almost no tension at all. Not in the stakes or the brutality or the resistance or even the aftermath. Even the touch of romance had very little. It all (excepting chapter one, of course) felt a bit dulled. And the magic, well. I think it would've been better had it felt.. fantastical. Instead of, like, keyboard typing? It took some of the impact out of it all.

Having said that, I did peruse a few reviews and it seems as if many of the themes -- the overwhelming sexism and conservatism, patriarchal structure, racism and xenophobia, colonialism, and so much more -- are also present in the author's big hit THE SWORD OF KAIGEN but done better. I had planned to read that anyway but after this experience I may make more of an effort to get to it sooner than later. Because, again, there's a lot of strength and important and critical dialogue being said here. Speaking for myself, I just don't think the execution worked -- but I hope it does for you.

[satorugojjo]

My review of Blood Over Bright Haven by M L Wang - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

20 out of 10 stars. It's one of the best books I've ever read and I think should be compulsory reading for every fantasy fan out there. Saying it's a dark academia is doing it so much injustice and trivializes how tragic, philosophical, multilayered and relevant this book is. BOBH explores such heavy themes from many unique view points, especially the MC’s!

Sciona can be so egotistical and arrogant and downright unlikeable at times, but she is a good person with good intentions and you end up rooting for her, and crying for her, and believing in her ideals until the very last page. The deuteragonist to her is Thomil, who is a "second-class" citizen (refugee) in the city of Tiran, and holds up a mirror to all her prejudices and ignorance. Sciona is blisteringly intelligent, and that ends up creating this gorgeous perspective of someone who has the earned ego from intelligence warring with a heart she didn't think she wanted to have. The backdrop is lush (I'll get to the fantastical elements in a second) with layers of institutional oppression that is very obvious to Thomil who is a direct victim of it, and is only half obvious to Sciona who has only had to deal with the misogyny aspect and not the systemic theologically driven racism. We are treated to her genuine curiosity, pursuit of truth, and her ego leading her to constantly unravel the things she didn't want to know, unlearn generations of indoctrination, and act on her intuition that what she's a part of is inherently rotten. Her character development is top notch, especially considering where she started as someone who “lacked empathy”.

I've never read a perspective like this - it's like reading Letty's POV in Babel if Letty was actually a good person lol with sprinklings of Robin? (I'm on the I hate Letty squad until I die). Sciona is both a victim and a perpetrator. A damsel and a demon (I'm not being pretentious that's actually one of the chapter titles kjsfghfskjhg). It makes for such an interesting read, sometimes exasperating, sometimes poetically tragic and hopeful and most of the time full of the joy and passion of discovery. Sciona believes at her core she is egotistical and while I do agree, I think her core is curiosity as her fatal flaw. She doesn't shy away from the truth, she invites debate, she loves being challenged and having the opportunity to defend herself but is also quick to embrace when she's wrong and will change her perspective. In that way, I felt really represented by her curiosity, and felt her rage whenever she was told its unwomanly to ask questions and look under rocks and be unapologetic in ENJOYING her work. Even the insinuation that she is just as selfish as the men for wanting a legacy was fascinating because while she is egotistical, Sciona wanting to leave a legacy behind in a society where women are not allowed to have any power or legacy is inherently different than the men around her.

The Thomil POV chapters are just incredible to read. Both of them together really represent that intersectionality between racial oppression and systemic patriarchy because while neither of them are wrong, Sciona enjoys the privilege of her race and therefore it makes her blind to the horrors that Thomil and the other Kwen face in the city. Watching her unlearn all that is fascinating because just like Thomil, it’s obvious to me as a reader why she’s wrong (being a WoC myself) but trying to explain it to someone you care about and know isn’t a bad person is a very uniquely infuriating experience to both be in and to witness. And the way the romance develops between them is so organic, realistic, subtle and fluttery - it actually does a really good job in highlighting the fragility of hope in such a rotten city, and therefore it’s importance.

Because the setting IS in academia where Sciona is doing research and Thomil is her assistant, it gets given "dark academia" as the genre but in reality it's absolutely riveting because it's full of theological, philosiphical, ethical and moral debates between Sciona and Thomil that flow so naturally and don't feel gimmicky or preachy. The worldbuilding is so lush and rich, the magic system is intricate, complex, and rule-based, and the lore is very well thought out where it actually feels like I'm reading about a civilisation in OUR world. The pacing is BLISTERING but it never once feels like it's too fast - Blood over Bright Haven is only 450 pages or so but it feels like I've just read an expansive trilogy which just makes ML Wang a genius.

I can't stop gushing about this book, this is my first MLW book (haven't read Sword of Kaigen yet) but I will be a lifelong fan of her. If I had to really explain the vibes of what this book is, it has the same feelings as The Hunchback of Notre Dame x Attack on Titan x Babel. It's a lot of tragedy, a lot of institutionalised secrecy and monstrosity, and a lot of religious philosophy, but at its core it's a story about love, hope, and the desire to leave a better and more honest world behind.