Blood Over Bright Haven

Blood Over Bright Haven is considered a dark academia novel, a fantasy subgenre and cultural aesthetic created around 2015 and popularized on websites like Tumblr and Pinterest. Works within this genre focus on academic life, classical architecture, literature, and art, and education, with attention typically paid to the potential secrets and corruption within the glamorized life of an academic. Critics of dark academia describe it as overly Eurocentric, due to its overt attention to Western literature, culture, and history, with little acknowledgement of colonialism or class differences. They also argue that the genre typically highlights the surface style of university life with minimal interest in the rigor or labor of research.

In response, writers working within the genre have added more nuanced portrayals of these rarified worlds, such as can be found in R.F. Kuang’s Babel. While Blood over Bright Haven follows genre convention by taking place almost entirely at a school and research center and by offering the familiar aesthetic of dark academia, it also portrays its characters as privileged and blinkered. Character arcs speak to this nuance. For example, Sciona at first idealizes her academic life without recognizing the broader impact of the mages’ actions and power over others as part of the cultural elite. However, as she understands the source of her magic, she grows determined to undo the damage caused by her peers. The novel also attempts to portray prejudice and bigotry. In the world of the novel, Tiranish women and the Kwen are barred from access to academia, reflecting the barriers to education that marginalized communities and women have faced in the real world. As such, the novel is both dark academia and an explicit critique of the glorification of an aestheticized past.