I’ll read anything Marske writes, so when I saw this medical school dark academia meets fantasy, I said “sign me up!” I loved the stakes and the medical fantasy. It’s such a unique concept and the character work was really detailed. Keep reading this book review of Bodies of Magic for my full thoughts.
Summary
At the Academie of the Grand Duchy of Sieuxerr, every mage with the healer’s gift has five years to master their power and to prepare for the infamous Grand Exam—a five-day trial whose results will determine their entire future.
The list of exam rules includes:
• You will perform five practical cases.
• Your exam group is chosen at random.
• You pass together, or fail together.
It does not include:
• On the first day, your exam group will find a classmate’s dead body in the exam hall.
And as they will soon discover, this particular group all have something to hide… and all have a connection with the dead girl, a brilliant scholar who would have been first in their class.
Five scholars. Five secrets. Five days in which to solve a murder, pass the most important exam of their lives, and uncover a secret larger than all of their own combined. One with the potential to change the world.
Are you ready?
Let’s begin.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
I love the concept of medical fantasy magic. It makes so much sense and I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve seen it. But of course we’d need training. And Bodies of Magic is a fantastic take on medical magic and dark academia. On the sacrifices we make in order to guarantee a future, to escape a future, or to reach for the stars. While I initially was drawn to the medical magic, I ended up really enjoying seeing all of these characters. Their perspectives allows us to see all their secrets, the things they’ve hiding, and the lies they tell to each other – and themselves. All of this is revealed as they figure out if they can trust each other enough to work together.
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If they all pass or fail together it introduces these stakes, and consequences, as they ask each other about motives. Bodies of Magic is a magical murder mystery where we have to unravel the past. And for each of them, there are real stakes besides passing or failing. I ended up needing to read every day to figure out what would happen and the twists and turns. It reminds me of why I loved A Restless Truth with the mystery and now it’s even more high stakes and with unique magic! Find Bodies of Magic on Goodreads, Storygraph, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.