People say that the themes of Blood Over Bright Haven are too heavy-handed - i'm very biased about Blood Over Bright Haven because i love books where the pov character has cognitive dissonance. And this book is a 10/10 if you like that, but admittedly it's less so if you go into it wanting very in-depth discussions on the effects of oppression and capitalism and eugenics and gentrification. It touches on it, but this is primarily a story about someone who has been indoctrinated to never think about political issues in a complex way, and just can't see it. Sciona's whole worldview is just black and white, good and evil, succeed or die, yes or no, forward or backward, love or hate, true or false, divine or disgusting, etc... and she's thrust into a world that requires her to see in shades of gray to remain sane. That. That is the drive of the story that pulls you from page to page. The ending of blood over bright haven can be torn apart by some imprudently handled issue or another, but! sciona's story itself is one of the most satisfying ones i've seen. you can infer every single choice she will make, but you'll also know how hard it'll be to make those choices, and it's choice after choice after choice after choice....she can't go back but it never gets easier....and what tension!! I keep going back to it, month after month after month...
