Bodies of Magic, by Freya Marske, is a fun, clever book that’s a little rough around the edges but will be a new all-time favorite for a specific kind of reader. The book is an explosively successful mix of popular subgenres (medical drama, dark academia, and murder mystery) that feels different from many of the releases this year. While it has some flaws, the novel passes them by focusing on fun and keeping the reader entertained.
The Duchy of Sieuxerr is a small city-state nestled in a nondescript valley. Despite its small size, it is a political powerhouse thanks to one strange quirk about those who are born on its lands: it is a cradle of magic that produces individuals with healer magic. If you are born within the borders of Sieuxerr, there is a small chance that you might awaken healing magic, and it is the only known location that produces healers. Healing magic is one of the most coveted magics in all the lands, and becoming a healing magus opens endless opportunities. But in order to become a healer, every mage with the gift has five years to master their power at the Grand Academie. At the end of their education, they must prepare for the infamous Grand Exam as one final test before graduation. It’s a five-day trial whose results will determine your entire future. The list of exam rules includes: You will perform five practical cases, one each day. Your exam group is chosen at random. You pass together, or fail together. When a group of high-prospect students arrives at their final exam, they are all thinking of ways to fight for the top rank at graduation and feel confident they can tackle any case thrown at them, regardless of who their teammates are. Yet, each of them is wildly unprepared when what greets them in the testing theater is the dead body of their class prodigy instead of an exam.
Bodies is an odd duck, defined by its attempt to do several sub-things simultaneously and pull them together into one grand interwoven story. Starting with the one major strike against the book, I don’t think all the subsections of the book really pull together in the end. Each sub-element is surprisingly well executed, and I will shortly go into detail as to why each of the different things Marske is doing work very well in isolation, but at the end of the day I don’t think everything pulls together into a well-balanced whole. There are parts of the book that feel noticeably uneven as the murder mystery takes a back seat to the school drama or vice versa due to the needs of the pacing. Yet, the pacing always feels fast and fun, so those needs are absolutely being met. The multiple threads interwoven throughout the book are not explored with an even hand. Some get resolved surprisingly early and just sit around and wait for the others in a way that feels awkward if you spend a lot of time inspecting and analyzing them. Yet, all the threads in isolation are captivating, and I couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen next.
The book’s unbalanced nature is obscured by the fact that everything else is so fun that you aren’t inclined to think about it too much. The atmosphere of the story is stunning. I love books that actually encapsulate the vibes of school: classes, studying, tests, academic life, etc., and don’t just use it as window dressing for students to have a teen drama. Not only does the Academy feel very convincingly like a real medical school thanks to just enough detail about different specialties, tests, assignments, and rotations–but Marske compounded the atmosphere even more by having the story focus almost entirely on finals. This book captures the insane, manic feelings of stressing about finals brilliantly and uses that atmosphere to fuel the development of one of its other strengths: the characters.
The protagonists are perfect vessels for the narrative, and the cast’s growth and bonding are absolutely delightful. Each of our five students is one of the top candidates in their class, but each carries a piece of significant baggage that keeps them from becoming a full-fledged star. We explore all their traumas over the course of the book, and Marske does a great job showing how each painful foundation shaped the doctor they have become. All five start as slightly unlikable, but they naturally come together thanks to the murder mystery hanging over their heads, and their problems are set up like clever dominoes that nudge each other toward becoming better. As each member of the squad helps another find a piece they were missing, their chemistry grows and grows. By the end, I loved them all and was extremely invested in their futures.
The murder mystery at the core of the story is good. The clues are interwoven into all five parts of the test the team must pass in a clever way, so the dissemination of knowledge feels well-paced without veering into an exposition dump. The problem is that the mystery itself isn’t that interesting. At the start of the story, it’s a murky, scary thing that looms over this very stressful test. However, as the story moves forward, the mystery starts to take up more page space, stealing the spotlight from the test. This was a bummer because I enjoyed the test element of the story more, and as the mystery moves closer and closer to the forefront, it also becomes a lot less mysterious and captivating.
Although I have been nitpicking over the course of this review, it’s hard to express how much I enjoyed reading Bodies of Magic. Although imperfect, it is such a fun and exciting book to be immersed in that I doubt half of the readers will even notice any of my mild complaints. Lovers of medical dramas will likely eat this up, and it was so fun to see a well-written magical academia story set in a med school for once. Now all I need is someone to write a book that combines magical law schools, quest fantasies, and body horror.
Rating: Bodies of Magic – 8.0/10
-Andrew
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. The thoughts on this story are my own.
