Hello, everyone! Today I’m reviewing Bodies of Magic by Freya Marske. I’ve enjoyed this author’s other work and have been quite excited to read her take on dark academia, especially since the setting is a medical school. Did this book end up being a new favorite? Read on to find out!

Grey’s Anatomy meets A Deadly Education in this dark academia fantasy from USA Today bestselling author Freya Marske.

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.

***Thank you to Tor Books for providing an advanced copy of the book via NetGalley. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.***

So… it shouldn’t come as a shock when I say that I loved Bodies of Magic. I’ve enjoyed all of Marske’s other books, and The Last Binding trilogy is one of my all-time favorites. She managed to create something with this work that managed to be both a scathing criticism of and a love letter to the profession of healing. As someone whose entire adult life has revolved around that profession, the story really made me feel seen and truly captured the nuance of my own feelings about the medical field and its training regimen.

Bodies of Magic had SO MANY POVs. I loved each of the characters, and they all had distinct personalities and backgrounds that allowed the reader to explore the murder mystery from different angles. Every character also had their own secrets that complicated things, and I really enjoyed seeing them all grow so much over the course of their exams. Each of their paths felt different while also being tied together in important ways. At first, I thought this would be the group project from hell, but they came together despite their differences to accomplish great things, albeit with plenty of speed bumps along the way. I did have a little trouble keeping track of all the POVs at first, but once I got to know the characters, it was easy to tell whose perspective things had shifted to. Marking the chapters with the POV would have probably been helpful, though, especially in the beginning.

The plot of Bodies of Magic was a really fascinating murder mystery. Why would anyone kill a star medical student who was about to graduate at the top of her class? Was it her peers, professors, a secret lover, burnout, or something else entirely? The story took me on a journey that explored corruption, infidelity, class differences, and the power imbalance between professors and students. It made great use of dark academia themes and applied them to the medical school setting in a way I’ve never read before. The number of POVs did slow the pace down a bit in the first half as things got established, but I finished the latter half of the book in just a few sittings because of how obsessed I was with the mystery and the characters.

One of my favorite things about Bodies of Magic was the healing magic. It had so many cool components, including music, drawing, and visualization. The writing did a great job of making me feel the magic when it was being used. I do wish there’d been a deeper explanation of each component and how they fit together, though. It wasn’t always explained super well. The rest of the world-building was fascinating, too, and I really liked how the type of magic someone inherited depended upon the location they grew up. It added some interesting complexities to how this society functioned, and I’d love to get more stories set in this world so that the idea could be explored even further.

Finally, I really loved how Bodies of Magic explored the impacts on medical practitioners of the COVID19 pandemic and the rise of anti-science rhetoric. This story gave readers a peak into how changing attitudes have made life so much harder for those who dedicate their entire lives to helping others. The pandemic disrupted so much while also permanently disabling a huge swath of workers, and the author did a great job of illustrating the different ways it changed the training and day-to-day life of practitioners in a way that is easily approachable for the reader.

All in all, there’s so much to love about Bodies of Magic. The murder mystery had me on my toes, and the characters were such fascinating people to get to know. The social commentary and use of dark academia themes were also top notch. I can’t recommend this book enough. Therefore, I rate it 4.25 out of 5 stars.

There you have it! My thoughts on Bodies of Magic by Freya Marske. I’m a sucker for dark academia, and I really thought this one delivered something unique. Have you read it yet, or do you plan to? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments!