Book Review: Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

Blood Over Bright Haven By M.L. Wang

 Book title: Blood Over Bright Haven
Author: M.L. Wang
Genre: Fantasy, dystopian
Published: July 25, 2023
428 pages
My rating: 5/5

“Brilliant men—even moderately intelligent men—in this city get showered with opportunities to succeed. Brilliant women have to fight for those opportunities, and, when we get them, we have to defend them tooth and nail, or they’ll be snatched away.”

27-year-old Sciona Freynan has worked hard to become a Highmage at the University of Magics. When she finally becomes the first woman to get a position there, she finds herself undermined by her colleagues. Instead of getting a lab assistant, she is paired with Thomil, a janitor. But Thomil turns out to be exactly the assistant Sciona needs to succeed in her research and uncover centuries-old secrets.

Blood Over Bright Haven is M.L. Wang’s adult dystopian fantasy standalone. It has been recommended to me left and right, and I’m so glad I read this book. What an amazing read and worth all the praise it gets! This book is truly dark academia—a story where the academia itself is the source of evil. The story explores the themes of sexism, classism, racism, and the persecution of native peoples.

June Wrap-up and July Hopefuls

Two of my June reads

June Wrap-Up

• Finished: 9
• Started but not finished: 2
• Total pages read: 2,738
• Average rating: 3.944

I had not expected that I’d read so many books in June! I thought I’d have time to finish five books, but I read four more. In the beginning of the month, I read one novel in verse, Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming (5/5 stars), which was also my favorite book of the month. I also read Sarah Brooks’s steampunk fantasy The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands (3/5 stars), which unfortunately was a bit of a disappointment.

Book Review: I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

I Who Have Never Known Men
by Jacqueline Harpman

Book title: I Who Have Never Known Men
Author: Jacqueline Harpman
Genre: Dystopian fiction
First published: January 1, 1995
188 pages
My rating: 5/5

“I felt a surge of grief, I, who had never known men, as I stood in front of this man who had wanted to overcome fear and despair to enter eternity upright and furious. I sighed and left.”

In an underground bunker, thirty-nine women and a young girl are imprisoned in a cage, their every move watched over by guards. As the girl cannot remember life before the imprisonment, the women treat her as an outcast. Until one day, a siren goes off, the guards run away, and a stroke of luck gives the women a chance to escape. In the strange and desolate world above, the girl shows herself to be the key to the other’s survival.

I Who Have Never Known Men (original French title Moi qui n’ai pas connu les hommes; translated by Ros Schwartz) is Jacqueline Harpman’s dystopian novel set in a post-apocalyptic world and an instant five-star read for me. Originally published in French in 1995, this book has found a new success in recent years, and its popularity does not surprise me. This was a gripping and thought-provoking novel.

Book Review: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

Book title: Parable of the Sower
Author: Octavia E. Butler
Genre: Dystopian fiction
Published: October 1, 1993
311 pages
My rating: 4.5/5

“Live! That’s all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don’t know whether good times are coming back again. But I know that won’t matter if we don’t survive these times.”

Teenager Lauren Olamina lives with her family in one of the few safe neighborhoods on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Outside the walls of their defended enclave, chaos reigns and only the rich and powerful are safe. When their compound is destroyed in a fire and her family is killed, Lauren is forced out into the dangerous world with a handful of other refugees.

Parable of the Sower is Octavia E. Butler’s dystopian fiction set in the years 2024–2027. The American society has nearly collapsed due to climate change, water shortages, inflation, unemployment and housing crisis, and dangerous drugs. Newly elected president Donner promises to make United States strong again but might just set the country back a hundred years. Sound familiar?

A lot of people have been reading Octavia Butler’s dystopian fiction this year, and no wonder. First published in 1993, this book is even more timely now than at the time of its publication, and Butler’s predictions about the future are eerily accurate.

Book Review: The Power by Naomi Alderman

The Power by Naomi Alderman

Book title: The Power
Author: Naomi Alderman
Genre: Dystopian fiction
Published: October 27, 2016
341 pages
My rating: 5/5

“It doesn’t matter that she shouldn’t, that she never would. What matters is that she could, if she wanted. The power to hurt is a kind of wealth.”

All around the world, teenage girls discover that they have a power to hurt, even to kill. And what’s more, they can wake up this skill in older women. This power turns the world on its head, with men realizing they have lost control. The Day of the Girls has arrived.

The Power is a thought-provoking and uncomfortable, at times even disturbing dystopian fiction about what might happen if women suddenly gained the ability to inflict pain to others. In the novel, this happens through the development of “skein,” a tissue between collarbones that conducts electricity. The novel is a thought experiment of what might happen next – whether having women in charge really would result in a “kinder, more caring world” like many say.

Book Review: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Book title: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (*Amazon affiliate link)
Author: Suzanne Collins
Genre: Young Adult dystopian fiction
Published: May 19, 2020
517 pages
My rating: 4/5

“Coriolanus released a fistful of cabbage into the pot of boiling water and swore that one day it would never pass his lips again. He needed to eat a large bowl of the anemic stuff, and drink every drop of broth, to prevent his stomach from growling during the reaping ceremony.”

It is the year of the tenth Hunger Games, and eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is given a unique opportunity to win a scholarship to university – a much-needed money, as the once-great house of Snow has fallen into ruin. The problem: he must mentor a tribute from the lowest district, district 12, and a girl no less. But once he meets his tribute Lucy Gray Baird, a singer and a performer, he is certain he can win the audience to her (and his) side.