"This is why I can’t worship your god or agree with the way he measures virtue. He allows this gray space for delusion." a magical rumination on power, magic, and the need for us to see past the shiny bullshit and face the truth about an ugly history. if you like BABEL, you will like BLOOD OVER BRIGHT HAVEN, not only because of the dark academia fantasy backdrop, but because of the themes that are grappled in a beautiful yet terrifying world. the magic system in this story is incredible, and not as difficult to follow after spending an hour or two in it. although the plot becomes a bit derivative of your standard fantasy novel, wang's greatest writing strength is their characterization. sciona is a fantastic character: she is not the most likable, but she is, i think, the most admirable, and deeply flawed but clearly someone who is deserving of her arrogance. there were times when my gut wrenched with disbelief or indignation that she'd think or do something, especially earlier on in the story. her misjudgments about thomil and the kwen people in general are infuriating to read. wang did a wonderful job fleshing out her characters. on a side note, i'm not too keen on reading trauma p/orn about how difficult it is to be a women, particularly a women in traditionally male-centered spaces. as a woman, it just...doesn't interest me in the slightest, not when i live it. however, the heavy-handed sexism in this book isn't present simply to make a point that you can gesture to and say, "see, sexism is bad." so if you're worried about didactic sexism, it'll be there, but it won't be there for the sake of being there. i promise. i almost wish wang had spent an additional 100 pages further developing thomil's character, because he's also very compelling. (mild spoiler?) the story begins with thomil's crossing into tiran, and that first chapter was so incredibly jarring that i set my kindle on my nightstand, and stared up at the ceiling until i fell asleep. the rest of the book is a wild ride, though the plot gets a bit murky, overall it's tightly woven. wang's writing is exquisite, too. there are certain elements to this story that made me a bit uncomfortable; in particular, i don't subscribe to the notion that a woman is more oppressed than an ethnic man, and sciona's actions scream white savior complex to me. the only reason i feel as though the white savior complex reverberates is because sciona exercises far more autonomy, will, and power than thomil gets throughout every chapter. but, of course, that is the point - even the most oppressed group (women) in an oppressive class (tiran) will still be legions above the truly oppressed (kwen). however, the ending made was satisfying and bumps up this up to a near perfect read to me.