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Book: “The Last Bloodcarver” by Vanessa Le
Publishing Info: Roaring Brook Press, March 2024
Where Did I Get this Book: NetGalley
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: Nhika is a bloodcarver. A cold-hearted, ruthless being who can alter human biology with just a touch. In the industrial city of Theumas, she is seen not as a healer, but a monster that kills for pleasure.
When Nhika is caught using her bloodcarving abilities during a sham medical appointment, she’s captured by underground thugs and sold to an aristocratic family to heal the last witness of their father’s murder.
But as Nhika delves deeper into their investigation amidst the glitz of Theumas’ wealthiest district, she begins to notice parallels between this job and her own dark past. And when she meets an alluring yet entitled physician’s aide, Ven Kochin, she’s forced to question the true intent behind this murder. In a society that outcasts her, Kochin seems drawn to her…though he takes every chance he gets to push her out of his opulent world.
When Nhika discovers that Kochin is not who he claims to be, and that there is an evil dwelling in Theumas that runs much deeper than the murder of one man, she must decide where her heart, and her allegiance, truly lie. And – if she’s willing to become the dreaded bloodcarver Theumas fears to save herself and the ones she’s vowed to protect.
Review: I feel like there’s been a lot of exciting new Asian fantasy stories coming out this spring, and this one was definitely high on my TBR list, as I’m even less familiar with Vietnamese mythology than Chinese, Japanes, or Korean. The cover art is also very unique and intriguing, and I thought the main character’s magical trait of manipulating human biology had a lot of promise. I also love murder mysteries, so I was excited to see how well these two genres would be blended together. And, well, it was all pretty good!
What first stood out to me was the lush and descriptive style of writing the author employed. The story starts out fairly quickly as far as plot and pacing go, but I was still able to picture the details of this world and character. This felt like a fully realized, fully peopled fantasy world, complete with a culture that felt distinctive and elaborate. Of course, central to the story were Nhika’s bloodcarving abilities, and this detailed style of writing helped to truly flesh out how this power worked. Many fantasy stories devolve to fairly simplistic explanations of their magical elements, but here I felt like we were given a true insiders-look into Nhika’s magic. This felt important as it helped the reader understand why an ability that could be so useful to humanity could also be seen as something to fear and hate.
I also really liked Nhika’s character and the arc she has in this book. Through her eyes, we see the experiences of a diaspora character, a young woman who finds herself in a world that no longer feels like her own. Even more interesting, her experiences as an outsider who does not fit within this world were mirrored in the other main character Kochin who experiences a similar disconnect. But while this disconnection and “out-of-place-ness” might be similar between them, their experiences and views of how they fit (or don’t fit) within this world are very different.
That said, this is one of those rare circumstances where I feel like the story might have been better without any romance at all. I liked both of these characters, but frankly, by the time the romance really started to amp up, I’d forgotten that was even the direction it was heading. These two were very definitely enemies for much of the time, so the change of tone when it came, did feel a bit strange. It was also rather sudden, not feeling nearly as developed as many of the other aspects of the story.
Overall, this was a great debut novel! I had some quibbles here and there with the way the romance was developed, but the writing and world-building were strong and promise of great things to come from this author in the future!
Rating 8: Rich and vivid worldbuilding combined with a compelling vision of the diaspora experience created a fantastic debut all around!
Reader’s Advisory:
“The Last Bloodcarver” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Around The World 2024 – Asia Continent and Asian SSF.
The Library Ladies 