Bodies of Magic by Freya Marske was an absolute standout of a book!

From just the description I was completely hooked and that carried on throughout the entire book. The mystery and twists were incredibly well written, I was both surprised and happy with the answer to who did it and reading back, it made complete sense.

Each character comes across so differently and each had a unique and interesting personality and plot. I absolutely adored the romance between some of our main characters!

It was so interesting to read about each characters different interactions and views on Ysabel and the ending came together perfectly.

An absolute hit of a stand-alone that felt super well rounded with a great ending. I will definitely be reading Marske’s future works!

5/5

Oh man this was an incredible read. I don't think I've felt this moved by a book in AGES! Just great from start to finish.

The premise of this book was so unique and I was immediately drawn into its world. Marske did a commendable job with the worldbuilding and it was well-thought out and explained - which was remarkable for a standalone! Although the world wasn't that complex, the magic system was definitely nuanced and Marske explained it well without making it too exposition heavy. The magic system itself was so interesting and I was so taken by the way magic was yielded for healing. I found myself greatly invested in the small cases and how magic helped heal them.

The plot was well-done. From the start, the intensity was high and basing the book over the course of the exam period of five days heightened the intensity. Every chapter was full of action or information and not once did I feel that pacing was an issue. Further, the murder-mystery aspect lent itself well to this genre. A fantasy murder-mystery is a treat in itself, but the way Marske elevated this mystery to draw in further strands - impeccable.

But my heart belongs to the characters. Although I only knew them for the duration of this book, Alys, Clement, Moyna, Jehan, Estiene and Ysabel wormed my their way into my heart and now have a permanent place in it. For a standalone, the characters were developed quite well and were given space to grow and mature. I appreciated Marske's use of multiple POVs, granting us access to every main character's inner thoughts and motives. Yet, usually when this happens, I find myself drawn to 1-2 characters, but here, I cared for every single one of them. I also found that Marske gave proper justice to each character's arcs - none of them felt rushed or incomplete to me. The best part about their characterisation was how they came together and I'm just a sucker for found family.

The writing itself was straightforward and accessible with an occasional flair that added to the overall experience. Also really liked the use of epigraphs at the start of chapters!

More importantly, at its core, Marske has written a startling commentary and reflection on how burdened the medical system is. I always love how fantasy expresses the reality of our world and in Bodies of Magic, Marske lays bare the complications of getting into medicine and then sustaining a career in this field. This was a great read and I really cherished my time with it.

Bodies of Magic is very different to Freya’s previous books in that this story is largely plot driven and focused around both the murder mystery, and the trials of medical school as opposed to the romance.

Overall, I really enjoyed it! The five POV characters were all unique and interesting - Freya’s phenomenal character work once again shines through - and the world felt real and established. If I’m being picky, I do think having five POV’s, coupled with the timeline of the book only being five days sometimes made it feel as though the plot was progressing quite slowly but that’s really my only critique. Everything felt very fleshed out, the writing was gorgeous, and I would certainly read more books set in this world!! A sequel perhaps? 🥹

(I also think for my personal tastes I wanted a tad more romance. I adore the way Freya writes love and intimacy and I just wanted more more more of it in this book.)

Frankly I would have loved for this to have been a series of books with each one being dual POV and focusing on a different romantic pairing as well as the main plot but maybe that’s just my tastes skewing things 😅

A note on the characters: (AKA my close personal friends)

Alys, you are so wonderful I adore you. Clement, I possibly have a slight crush on you. Estiene, you reminded me of a mash up of Edwin Courcey and Jack Alston and therefore are one of my favourite characters ever written. Jehan, you’re such an idiot but I adore you. And Moyna, thank god for your ending is all I’ll say!!

Oof this book had me somewhat in a chokehold!

I read this one frustratingly slow (damn life getting in the way of my reading time- how dare it!) so my few chapters of this a day I really looked forward to. I kept trying to second guess the story or see where it was headed - I couldn’t wait to see what else would unravel or how their next case was going to go.

It took me a few chapters to get to grips with the world and the characters in the book but once I got the lay of the land, I was so intrigued. I really loved the murder mystery element and the academia vibes - the medical/ healer aspect but coupled with fantasy and magic definitely made it novel for me.

It was split into the five cases of their final year healer exams, with the group stumbling across the dead body of one in their cohort - was it murder, burnout, a cover up? They had to juggle getting to the bottom of a crime AND pass their all important final exams, I mean, that’s a lot for anyone’s plate. I couldn’t get enough and the steady pace really kept me going until the end. I really enjoyed this read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for this ARC!

“Bodies of Magic” is a stunningly creative fantasy novel. We follow a cast of five characters as they get ready for their final exams. In this case, however, we aren’t talking about pen and paper – instead, these healing mages have to examine five medical cases in five days, only allowed to fail one of them or be forced to repeat their fifth year studies. But what was supposed to be a routine situation quickly escalates into a murder investigation when the five members of one exam group discover a dead body. The body is Ysabel Caudotte, a fellow fifth year student, and the best in their cohort. All five students have a connection to Ysabel. All want to find out what really happened. Can they?

This book was incredible. The worldbuilding is rich and expansive without being overwhelming or feeling like a lecture, and the world it creates feels real and compelling. This book is being marketed as “dark academia”, which I find generally pretty reductive but does fit in this case. It is even used correctly for once! Because this book doesn’t just use its setting in an academic institution as its reason for why it qualifies as “dark academia”, it actually includes the criticism of academic institutions and culture I view as being inherent to this “genre”.

One of this book’s strongest aspects is its characters. We get to go through this world Marske has created in the minds of five different characters, all of which have a distinctive voice and feel real and complex, multilayered. I don’t really want to get into each character too much because I think some of the fun of this book is getting to meet them all yourself, but I do have to speak about Alys. Alys is autistic (this is never specifically said as I am pretty sure this condition does not have a name in this world) and this is represented in a way that feels wonderfully real, including the negative aspects of the condition. In general, there is a variety of representation with these characters. Luxury and poverty, being an outstanding student and being left behind, being native to a place and having roots in other places, different sexualities and different gender expressions. There is also great, accurate representation of chronic illness with a side character which felt very refreshing to see.

The romantic relationships depicted here are also absolutely top notch. Strong chemistry, beautifully written and developed.

I also really enjoyed the murder mystery aspect of this book, which was super well written. It left me in the dark exactly up to the point Marske wanted us to be left in the dark, and it was great fun to follow along as the characters tried to find clues and piece them together. I generally enjoy a fantasy-mystery combination, and this book is a great example of the perfect execution of this subgenre.

This book really dives deep into examining different societal structures, who they serve and who they do a disservice to. Not only within the rich-poor divide, but including those who have different skillsets or who come from a different place.

This is the kind of book you will keep thinking about and run around trying to get everyone to read it. I truly cannot praise it enough. Read it, you will love it.

I absolutely adored this book. As someone who has been to university to study (vet) medicine, the story rang so terrifyingly true for me with the ways the healthcare systems are run, and the pressures put on Scholars and qualified Healers alike, as it is very similar to reality. I could tell the author was from a medical background from the wishes of the characters of an ideal world in Healing, because I too have those wishes. It showed the realities of the work from the side of the Healers and Scholars and how each character coped differently with the stress and pressure of it all.

And the characters, my gosh I love them all so much. I can’t even pick my favourite, I’m here trying to debate if there is one I liked more than the others, but I can’t, they all stole my heart. They were all different and real and layered. All of them have their flaws and they grow so beautifully from them, and seeing them all slowly lower their highly guarded hearts for each other was an absolute joy to read. It really highlighted how much you need good people in your life, and how you can be so much better together than alone.

The magic system was just awesome, truly, and was so well described and not brushed to the side at any point, a true focus of the book. It again showed me how the author was from a medical background with how that magic was so accurately related to body systems and it was so cool to read about. We got more than one chapter simply dedicated to the healing arrays during the exams and I was obsessed by them.

The mystery aspect was brilliant and it kept me guessing right the way through, and also seeing the deeper plot lines all coming to a head at the end was beyond satisfying.

It was just a beautiful book, both in writing, plot, and characters. The pacing was slow, but it 100% worked and I was invested the entire time.

Thank you so much to Net Galley for the arc. All views are my own.

Holy shit that was incredible. This insane and amazing book combined a locked room murder mystery, a magical medical school, politics and hierarchy, and a gang of misfits the likes of whom I haven’t seen and loved since the Six of Crows Duology.

The worldbuilding was both simple and incredibly in depth. It’s focussed mainly on the City of Sieuxerr; children born in Sieuxerr usually inherit the power of healing, and are therefore incredibly sought after, but also lose almost all of their autonomy - they are required to study healing, no matter their own preferences, and even in death their bodies belong to Sieuxerr academy. I felt so many emotions at the world; the unfairness the healers face, the shortage of resources, especially after a mysterious disease gutted the healer population a generation ago and the suffocating expectations that are put upon them.

The book is told from the five POVs of five students sitting their final exams as a cohort - they pass together or not at all. When one of their graduating class is found dead on the morning of their first exam, the group have to work together to not only graduate, but find out what happened to her. I loved all these characters and their mess passionately. There’s Etiene, rich son of a high ranking healer, and Jehan, poor son of an overworked medic, who are madly in love either each other but fighting against it every step of the way. There’s Alys, a beautiful socialite who is expected to simply smile and be pretty, useless and pampered. There’s Clement, whose family hates healers, and is trying to survive whilst grieving their best friend. And finally Moyna, who doesn’t want to be a healer, but whose parents sacrificed so much to make her one.

This is a queer normative world, which I absolutely loved. Being genderfree is recognised and accepted, with one of the main MCs, Clement, embodying this. I loved hearing about all the different regions with different types of elemental mages and the cultures that all band together in the city.

I could talk about this book all day and night; I haven’t been this sucked into a story in ages. I loved the murder mystery element, which had me guessing well into the last part of the book. Marske’s writing is absolutely masterful, and I cannot wait for whatever she brings out next!

Thanks to the legends at Tor for giving me a chance to read an eARC of this via NetGalley. ILY 💕

Read Bodies of Magic for:
✨ Locked room murder mystery
✨ Magical medical school
✨ Queer normative world
✨ Incredible world building
✨ Queer romance sub-plots
✨ Politics of medicine
✨ Flawed but loveable MCs
✨ Immersive storytelling
✨ Alternating POVs

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for this arc! So glad I got this one – I was immediately into the synopsis and initial set up, and it followed through! A cohort of magical medical students, five days of a final exam they can only pass or fail as a group, a lil murder mystery at the same time, what’s not to like?

Ultimately I really enjoyed this. I would hesitate to call this ‘dark’ academia though, if only because, in spite of the murder on the whole it felt lighter and less twisted and tragic than your staples of the genre. Kind of ~new adult, and a bit Leigh Bardugo in vibe... but more Six of Crows loveable group dynamics than the dark/bleakness of Ninth House (or, like, TSH). The plot is well-woven and neatly structured over the five exam days, and has no dearth of culture-building for Sieuxerr and its neighbours in the background. It launched a lot of names and places and elements at you, but in the way I love in fantasy, and an emphasis on history and traditions and foods and festivities made it feel like a world fully lived in, beyond the medical Academie. (Shoutout to the in-world literature extracts at the start of each chapter, I’m a sucker for that stuff.) So while this worked perfectly as a standalone, I would be sad not to read more works within this universe: it could have easily been a series; if not, there’s definitely scope for more exploration.

Most importantly all the characters were extremely fun and loveable, I enjoyed all their POVs in equal measure (maybe this is what gave me SoC flashbacks) and had a great time watching them interact and develop as a group, I can’t even pick a fave. Very queer and inclusive and a genderfree main character (and more), all written with ease and without fanfare! (See Legally Blonde: what, like it’s hard?) Again perhaps a little more fluffy/cute/happy than I was expecting, and less tense, possibly because this had the whiff of a college AU fanfic. That’s not to knock it at all, just a note on style; I was both into the characters and the magical/medical plot all the way through, it was generally a delight! 5 stars.

Superb murder mystery in a magical medical school setting -- LOVED this!

What would I have liked to know, as I went into this book? I definitely needed to know that it had five POVs. Because the first chapter demonstrates the deep level of everyday detail that is going to ground us in the world throughout -- and I, remembering almost nothing from the book blurb, was a bit jolted when we moved to another POV in chapter 2, and I realised I needed to be paying attention to ALL the main characters. It took me a little while to get my head around that, especially since the differences between their interior thoughts and what others are thinking about them are significant and fascinating.

The mystery unravelling is well-paced, there are SO many elements to it. Life keeps going on even when you've got your Finals and A Murder, and I enjoyed that too -- the world never shrinks to just one plot-line for reader convenience.

I kinda want to reread again already. And would absolutely adore more standalones in this setting ... I do love a good medical fantasy, and there are so many themes and possibilities given how magic is set up here.

Very much recommend!

Readers seeking their next dark academia obsession are in for an absolute treat with Freya Marske’s Bodies of Magic.

It features five medical students at a magical academy. When their classmate is murdered at the start of a five-day exam, they must work out what happened before the five days are up. It’s an engaging plot with clear stakes and convincing but never laborious world-building, but as the entire narrative rotates through their five alternating perspectives, this book hinges on their distinct personalities and motivations. Marske nails this aspect, controlling the amount of time we spend in each point of view with precision, If I experienced a pang of disappointment as we left the perspective of one character, I found myself relaxing into the next within a paragraph.

Marske also delivers on the slow-burn romance that dark academia fans are hoping for. With multiple central characters and a pacy plot, the romance is necessarily secondary, but nonetheless offers the exquisite tension of longing, and ultimately contributes to an excellent ending.

Bodies of Magic is a captivating dark academia fantasy set at a prestigious academy for healer mages. There's a gripping mystery, an intriguing academic plot, brilliant and nuanced character development, and some sweet romance on the side, all equally compelling. It just works so well.

The story is told from five different perspectives; five scholars grouped together for the week, each with their own secrets. I really enjoyed all five perspectives, and because they were working together, it never felt like there were too many different threads to follow. I cared deeply about these characters who were all complicated, but likeable and easy to root for. There's also plenty of queer representation, along with implied neurodivergent representation, in a queer normative world.

I've enjoyed everything I've read by Freya Marske before, but this is my favourite yet. Highly recommended to fans of dark academia fantasy.

I NEED ♾️ MORE BOOKS LIKE THIS RIGHT THIS SECOND!!

<img src="https://static.klipy.com/ii/8ce8357c78ea940b9c2015daf05ce1a5/ba/32/Lpaq43yT.gif" width=300 />

​I am so incredibly glad I requested an ARC of Bodies of Magic by Freya Marske, and so grateful that I was sent a copy! 🙏
This book was like a 200-step recipe with completely random elements that didn’t seem to make sense together—until the very last moment when your mouth exploded with flavor! 💥

​Why you need this standalone on your TBR immediately:

📖 Magic medical school & a high-stakes murder mystery

📖 A brilliant, chaotic motley crew to found family dynamic

📖 Refreshing, closed-door queer romance in a world where it’s completely normalized

📖 Complex, intense magic systems that feel both dangerous and fascinating

​If you love dark academia vibes, incredible character growth, and stories that leave you screaming for more, do not skip this one.

<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DaabVNyDMKb/?img_index=1">CHECK OUT MY FULL IG CAROUSEL</a>

Fantastic! Thoroughly enjoyed this from beginning to end. It was atmospheric, clever, and extremely well written, quite possibly my favourite Freya M to date! The setting immediately pulled me in with great world building. The characters were extremely well fleshed out and i loved getting to know the whole group and watching their relationships develop and shift as the story unfolded.

Bodies of Magic is a brilliant fantasy book that blends beautifully a murder mystery worthy of your favourite procedural TV shows and the core themes of The Pitt, in a captivating dark academia-ish story that had me hooked from the start.

Bodies of Magic is a fantastic standalone mystery set in a fantasy world. I really love mysteries in fantasy or sci-fi worlds as they usually have a really deep world because you have to really see the details of the world in order to show how the perpetrators are trying to bend or take advantage of the rules of that world in order to keep their crimes hidden, if that makes sense.

Bodies of Magic is a great example of that, as you do really come to understand the magic system as a result of the murder mystery and the Grand Trials that the students are put through for their final exam. There's a great mix of characters in the exam group and I was rooting for the two romantic relationships within the group. The POV switches between the five main characters and since I enjoyed all of them, I was happy everytime we moved to the next character!

Setting up this magical world, introducing five main characters and keeping all of their individual plotlines compelling was a lot to do within the <500 page count, but it completely succeeded for me, and I really didn't want to put it down!

Disclaimer: I received an Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley this is my voluntary and honest review.

I was granted early access to a copy of the book, thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher - I loved this one!

Set in a university that trains magical healers, the story takes place during the students’ final exams, when five classmates stumble across their first observed case study: the body of a dead fellow student. What follows is a dark academia whodunnit that I absolutely flew through.

The cast of five main protagonists was one of my favourite things about this book. They’re a wonderfully diverse group, and each character feels fully fleshed out, with their own distinct voice, perspective and motivations. I really enjoyed watching their individual stories come together as they worked to uncover what had happened.

I also loved the magic system, particularly the way healing magic is explained. There’s enough medical terminology to make the magical healings feel immersive and believable, but never so much that the explanations become overwhelming. It struck a really nice balance between the magical and the medical.

I particularly appreciated the way gender is handled within the world. The first healer is gender-free, and gender nonconformity is treated as a completely ordinary part of society rather than something that needs to be explained or made into a plot point. This felt like diversity done right, and I loved seeing it woven so naturally into the world.

Freya Marske has officially solidified herself as an auto-buy author for me. I was so pleased to have early access to this one, and I can’t wait to see it get the hype it deserves!

Oh, what can I say? It is not easy to write five distinct POVs but Freya Marske managed it here. Each of the characters in this book gave me such joy and I couldn't get enough of them all coming together in friendships (and more). They were the glue holding everything else together.
The world-building and magic also really delighted me, and I imagine the author's own medical training really helped to shore it all up.
I loved everything with Ysabel and how the plot came together, though I was mildly surprised at the when of it coming together. Overall I think it worked, but I had expected more of a grand reveal than we got - perhaps this was a matter of misguided expectations, thinking this more of a murder mystery than it was. Still, the journey was immensely satisfying as were all the pieces sliding into place.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for an eARC of this book in exchange for honest review.
From the first few chapters I had a feeling this would be a 5 star read and Bodies of Magic did not disappoint. My favourite read of the year so far, and my favourite of Marske’s work to date.
Bodies of Magic blends the stresses of final year medical exams with a hefty dose of magic; a symphony of dark academia, mystery, magic and music.
Moyna, Estiene, Alys, Clement and Jehan are in their fifth and final year at the Academie Sieuxerr, in the only city that can produce mage healers. Grouped together for their final exam, they must pass or fail together. This could prove harder than expected when they walk into the exam room on the first day of five, and discover the body of their classmate (the brightest spark in their cohort) on the floor. They have five days to pass not only the hardest exam of their lives, but to solve a murder.
The worldbuilding is so vivid and vibrant it feels real. Readers are plunged into a magical/medical lexicon that is complex but easy to follow. There is musicality to the prose that fits the story perfectly.
Marske is the master of writing the most beautiful magic systems, they are a sensory experience that would have the reader believing they were part of the magic themselves. Moyna’s magic in particular is really interesting, it defies expectations just like Moyna herself.
Jam packed with the lgbtq+ representation you would expect from a Marske book. The story also examines academic competitiveness, sexism, corruption, privilege, migration and neurodivergence in a way that feels subtle and sensitive. The chronic illness discourse is clearly inspired by Covid and the way it decimated health systems world wide and hit healthcare workers hard.
Each character POV has a distinctive voice. It is impossible not to fall for each and every one of them. The found family dynamic is excellent, and like Alys wishing they had come together sooner, I wish I could read more about them. For a dead girl, Ysabel very much feels like one of the main characters. She is the conductor of our quintet which fits everything we learn about her throughout the story.
The romances are a delightful bonus to the story. Jehan and Estiene’s palpable yearning is top tier and had me kicking my feet. The spark kindling between Alys and Clement is quiet and beautiful, just like the characters themselves.
I thought the pacing of the story was great. Broken up into five parts for the five exam days, it gives enough time to flesh out the world and the characters while the ticking clock to solve the mystery drives the pace on. The ending did feel sudden, but only because I can’t get enough of these characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for a chance to review this book.

I really enjoyed this! It started off a little hard to get into, the way a book with 5 POV characters can be. But I very quickly became very invested in each and every one of them. The character development was strong, the developing connections and revelations of backstories was perfect, and the world of magic was well thought out and interesting. I’d be more than happy to read more stories set in this fantasy world. In fact, I need the the author to expand this universe!

Freya Marske never fails to completely surprise me with her impeccable writing style and her phenomenal characters and plots. I loved this.

The Last Binding trilogy is among my top 5 books of all times so I was beyond thrilled when I got an ARC of Bodies of Magic. It did not dethrone TLB (and I haven't expected it to) but it is still solid 5-star read from one of my favourite authors! It also shows Marske's levelling up since Swordcrossed when it comes to a secondary-world worldbuilding. I feel like I got enough information to get going, withouth overwhelming me and yet it also shows the richness of the world beyond the actual story that could (hopefully) be used for more stories in this universe (similarly to Addison's The Goblin Emperor). The magic of healing is original and well thought.

There are two romantic subplots, very different from each other in vibe but both signature Marske. I enjoyed them immensely and I'm glad they are there. All the MCs are interesting, I think my favourite is Jehan but it's hard to decide as I liked them all, as well as the supporting cast.

This was a masterpiece. A heartfelt, ingeniously-woven masterpiece.
I am truly so excited to see its reception when it is properly released.

This has the cleverest most unique magic system i’ve ever read, it was so detailed, so anatomically correct, there wasn’t a single nerve or blood vessel out of place. Finding out that the author is a doctor made so much sense, especially when learning about the serrage. I was struck by the truth and pain in the way the author describes the disease, so clearly reminiscent of the effect covid had on the healthcare system. It was so vivid and hit close to home. You can clearly feel the authors own experience informing this.

The writing, the opening of each characters thoughts and feelings to the reader is so poetic and powerful, so raw and exposed. I fell in love with all the characters so quickly, felt like I knew them so deeply. Each of them has their own defined past and their own issues, and this got me so invested. Their growth and journeys delighted and devastated me in equal measure.
I loved all of their endings, and the emphasis that not everyone needs a love interest.

But speaking of love interests, I was so obsessed with this books use of tension over smut, I was kicking and screaming at certain characters’ interactions, and the wait was so so worth it.

The pacing of this book was perfect, the laying of the foundations, the continued emphasis on healing magic, and the momentum through the second half to the finale was incredible.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC, all views are my own

An absolute triumph of dark academia and easily one of the most brilliant, intricately plotted books I have read all year. Pitched as a magical Grey's Anatomy meets A Deadly Education, it effortlessly delivers on that promise while bringing Marske’s signature sharp wit, incredible prose, and deep emotional stakes to a medical fantasy setting.

The story drops us straight into the high-pressure final year at the Academie of the Grand Duchy of Sieuxerr, where healing mages face the brutal Grand Exam; a five-day trial that completely dictates their future.

What makes this a five-star masterpiece is how perfectly Marske balances a fast-paced murder mystery with a deeply profound character study. The book is divided into five parts to mirror the five intense days of the exam, and the ticking-clock element keeps you completely glued to the pages.

Every single member of the five-person exam group has a hidden connection to the dead girl and a massive secret of their own to protect, making the internal dynamics incredibly tense and fascinating. Marske slowly peels back the layers of these characters, exploring themes of generational trauma, unrequited love, and intense academic burnout in a shrinking workforce ravaged by disease.

The romance subplots—including a beautifully handled relationship between two men, and another between a woman and a nonbinary character—are woven seamlessly into the narrative without ever distracting from the primary mystery.

The world-building is where this book truly shines, introducing a thoroughly immersive, queer-normative society with a highly unique, rigorous medical magic system. Watching these students puzzle out complex magical healing arrays under the worst possible circumstances felt incredibly clever and fresh. It is a story where seemingly minor, throwaway details return later with massive plot importance, showing just how masterfully constructed the entire narrative is.

By the time the final act hit, the momentum was completely unstoppable, offering an incredibly rewarding payoff that left me entirely breathless.

If you are looking for a perfectly executed, atmospheric, and inclusive mystery that demands your full attention, you need to grab a copy as soon as it becomes available!!

Thank you SO MUCH for allowing me to read it early! It is easily on my top 3 books of the year.

Perhaps a body was all you ever were.
Perhaps a body was the least of what you were.
They were days away from becoming a fully-fledged healer and they still didn't know which was true. Or if both were, somehow. [loc. 2776]

Five medical students at the Academie of the Grand Duchy of Sieuxerr are about to begin their final exam -- a week-long trial of five medical cases, which the five healers will have to work together to diagnose and perhaps treat. They will pass together, or fail together. And this particular exam group (randomly chosen, of course) comprises five very different individuals, each with secrets, each with complicated emotions towards the others. Moyna is the daughter of ambitious parents who moved to Sieuxerr so that Moyna could be trained in the healing arts, and serve her community. Alys is an aristocratic beauty with little magical aptitude. Estiene is the son of the Head Healer. Jehan comes from a working-class, single-parent family. Clement is non-binary, and the best friend of the most gifted student of their year, Ysabel Caudotte ... and Ysabel is found, dead, in their exam chamber on the first day of the exam.

She's not their case: they don't have to diagnose or treat. But each of the five has some connection to Ysabel, and each has secrets to keep, complications to manouevre, expectations and fears and hopes. As the week progresses, it's clear that Ysabel had been planning something: but what? And did it lead to her death?

The gradual fleshing-out of each of the five, as the novel rotates through their viewpoints, is brilliantly and effectively achieved. Each begins the week distrusting one or more of their fellow candidates: each ends the week with a better understanding of the others, and of their own skills and weaknesses. The medical cases are interesting, too, and the author's medical background is evident in the details of diagnostic techniques.

Marske's worldbuilding is understated but sound: I liked the little details of Sieuxerr, from the lingering horrors of a terrible pandemic (the serrage) to the almond-paste 'sweetmice' that are eaten to celebrate Mathe's feast; from the artificers' strikes to the bestselling popular novels about Healer Chambeley. The themes of class, of institutional corruption, and of medical diagnosis are thoroughly explored, but there's also room for romance(s) as well as the core murder mystery. I liked this a great deal.

Read because: I checked Netgalley as soon as I heard that Marske had a new novel on the way: I discovered her via the Be the Serpent podcast, and have very much enjoyed her other work.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK Publication Date is 17th September 2026.

Intrigued by the concept of medical magic, I knew I had to request this read and was blessed with a physical arc from the publisher. Set at the Academie of the Grand Duchy of Sieuxerr in rainy paris, the setting matched our story perfectly as our exam group of five students face an unexpected twist to their exam week which brings them an additional problem requiring diagnosis - a murder mystery.

The whole story takes place over the five days of their final year exam, and each of the students gets their own POV. This wasn't something I had seen before but found I really enjoyed as it brought a deep understanding to the reader of each character as well as explored their connections to each other on a deeper level than would've been possible with only one or two POV's.

The magic system, and especially the way its specific rules fit into the story, was something I really enjoyed. Not everyone in this world is born with magic, and the kind of magic you have depends on where you were geographically born. Sieuxerr where our story takes place, is a birthplace of healers, which means that anyone discovered to have magical abilities is required to study at the medical academy. This locational aspect is central to the story as many people in this world abandon their heritage to have their children born in specific areas to increase their options should they come to develop magic. There’s no choice involved for each person blessed with magic and that setup has some interesting consequences for the characters, especially since being a healer isn’t necessarily the path everyone would’ve chosen for themselves. In particular - this is something our somewhat lead character Moyna battles with through our story.

Ultimately the book was a bit long and not a particularly fast read but the concept and its delivery made committing the time to this read worth it and I would love to read more from this author, especially if focused on similar dark academia fantasy or mystery.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. Brilliant. This ticked every single box for me, imaginative magic system, immersive world building and great characters. Loved every moment of it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Pan MacMillan for the early copy of this book.

I think I described this book to my friends and family as “Like Grey’s Anatomy crossed with a murder mystery, but the healing is MAGIC.” And after finishing it, I’m sticking by that description!

It was awesome, I think I only even guessed at the murderer at around 60% and that is probably more to do with my many years watching Agatha Christie and Poirot than it is about any foreshadowing really, it was kept well under wraps.

It somehow managed to weave many plotlines together without making any feel thin on the ground. The blackmail/fight club that Jehan had going on, the expectations of both Estienne and Moyna in very different ways, Alys’ class expectations alongside everyone not expecting much of her, and Clement’s grief over the loss of her best friend. I’m just so impressed they managed all that AND the exams AND the murder mystery without somehow making this book over 500 pages.

The characters were all lovely and felt like real people, I genuinely cared about the future they all ended up with.

It would be quite cool to see some more stories in this world, maybe focusing on the Artificers who seem to be treated like second-class citizens but have such strong abilities of their own, or maybe showing a whole new part of this world.

I had heard of this author going in, but haven’t actually read any of their books yet. After reading this one, I’m definitely going to.

This book has everything I love ! The story was a bit slow at the beginning and it took me a little while to get use to the writing but I ended up loving it and staying up late at night to read “one more chapter” which turned into 10.

🏫 World and magic system were super interesting and had a lot of depth. I won’t pretend I understood everything about how magic healing works but I guess that’s why they need to study so hard.

✍️ Multiple POVs: Each of the five character gets a POV, I enjoyed some more than others (I particularly loved Jehan and Alis) and it was very interesting to get to know their backgrounds, as they come from different social classes and have their own family issues. I grew very found of this group of students and I will miss reading about them.

👩‍⚕️ Social commentary: In this world, there is shortage of healers due to an illness that affects them more than the rest of the population. This adds a lot of pressure and workload for working healers and students.
On the other hand, healers are not especially well-liked among the population due to their privileges compared to other mages.

🔍 Mystery solving. None of the 5 students are detectives so they are not particularly good at it at first. I enjoyed their discussions and arguments as they follow every possible clue, as well as the mistakes they made along the way.

💗 The romance: There is a little bit of romance which I enjoyed a lot. Two of the characters ended their situationship before the story starts and are now glaring and ignoring each other. There is so much unresolved feelings and so much yearning every time they tried to talk. It was great. I couldn’t help but to kick my feet at their scenes, even though they are both idiots.

Since her ‘The last binding’ trilogy, I trust Freya Marske to write enjoyable, rich books, led by great characters. Still, ‘Bodies of magic’ sounded a little different from her previous published work, so I was curious to see how it would turn out and how I would enjoy them.

A lot, is the answer. Thoroughly, even.

Different from ‘The last binding’, of course. This isn’t a historical fantasy with very heavy romance elements. It’s not a romantasy/cosy fantasy like ‘Swordncrossed’ either. ‘Bodies of magic’ is a little more ambitious, with more POVs, a huge amount of thought and personal knowledge but into the magical doctor side of things. There are, of course, similarities with her previous work: the prose (she loves metaphors, more internal narration and feel focused than plot focused, though the plot is there and followed), the murder mystery, the archetypes of characters. Note that if the archetypes are familiar, it doesn't mean the characters aren’t their own. They simply share elements in their dynamic and psyche with some other characters of Marske, as will always happen.

So, what’s ‘Bodies of magic’ about? Medical school, with a magic turn. In this world, people might get magic linked to the place they are born. And where people can have healing magic, there is a faculty/university to learn how to control and use it, depending on their ability. We follow five students during their Grand Exam (their last exam to become Scholar, aka doctors). Unfortunately for them, they find a body on their first exam, from someone they know, and decide to investigate it, since it is slightly suspicious. If all five characters know each other, they aren’t necessarily friends. Some of them might, though, have a complicated romantic history, and all of them have their secrets, of sorts.
Obviously, all of that is good material to investigate, create bonds, and have two side plots of romance (one between two men, one between a woman and a non binary person). It is NOT the focus of the plot. It doesn’t take much place, at least not frontally, but it does inform a great deal about two of the characters in particular.

The book takes place only on five days or so, which isn’t a lot and does ask for some choice in characters, developments and pacing. It might stretch suspension of disbelief too, but it didn’t bother me too much. Marske does it well, in my opinion, creating an engaging story. Having characters from different backgrounds and hopes, goals and fears help to give the story a bit of an edge and convey a lot of information about the world in a natural way, with the confrontation of different life experiences.

I’ll say, I would have liked to have one more chapter or an epilogue of sorts, just to see the characters some time later. We have a good idea of what their lives could become, Marske indicates it well enough, but I’m a sucker for having a glimpse into the future like that. Especially for Jehan and Etienne, I’ll be honest (Clement and Alys’s future is pretty clear cut, same for Moyna. If you can say the same for Jehan and Etienne, they have it a little less easy, in a way).

This was so fun ! Well not for the characters but I always enjoy a mystery, and in this one, the victim is still an active participant in the mystery solving, despite you know, being dead.

I really liked how the book was set up, with each medical case linked to one character, and each being a piece of the puzzle. It all made sense at the end and you can go back and see how everything lines up. It was also a clever way to make the characters grow and give each of them their own time while also providing us with context of their past that we don’t as lectors don’t know.

The little excerpts at the beginning of the chapter were particularly useful to understand the world, the struggles of the healers and the incurable illness they call the serrage.

It is dark academia in the true sense. Yes, there is talk of the difference of class, privilege and also how ambition can drive a person to commit murder. There is also talk of burn out (which in this world is in most cases deadly), academic pressure, and being lost, not knowing if we really want to be in that field of study.

Estiene, Jehan and Clement were my favorites from the beginning, I love them.

Clement is the one I related to the most, the quiet introvert, more comfortable when not being perceived and more than happy being in their best friend’s shadow. They didn’t magically become extroverted or anything like that but they grew into their own and slowly became more confident and comfortable with people’s attention.

Jehan and Estiene I loved individually of course. Jehan, ambitious and unorthodox, who seems like chaos incarnate and always sunshiny despite actually caring very deeply and hiding his true feelings under a mask and Estiene, rude and entitled but also kind in his own way and maybe not so eager to follow into his father’s footsteps.
But I also loved their dynamic, how they bickered and taunted each other, how stupid they were (mostly Estiene) which had me banging my head against the wall (in a good way). They are disastrous and I’m so glad they learned discovered this great concept called communication.

Alys, I didn’t care much about at first and then as we delved deeper into her character, she ended up really surprising me. I could relate to her, her feeling of being useless, of not mattering and now she is finally surrounded by the right kind of people who support her no matter what and even without her using her magic, because power sometimes isn’t magical, sometimes it’s just who you are.

Moyna really spoke to me as someone who dropped out of college. When you’re studying something that you don’t want to and you’re torn on whether or not to give up because well you kinda like it but at the same time you’re not really doing it for yourself and more out of obligation toward someone else. I’m so glad she finally found herself, and what she wants to do with her life.

I don’t know if I have just been blessed by the Dark Academia powers-that-be or if the Dark Academia releases I have picked up have just been especially good this year, but I had such a great time with this! Also it features another non-binary MC, perhaps thats the trick to a good Dark Academia? Must include a well written NB character lol?

The Academie of the Grand Duchy of Sieuxerr is a medical academy where students who test positively for healing magic are subjected to a gruelling and competitive 5 year curriculum to prepare them for a future profession as a healer. The final exam is a series of 5 practical exams performed by assigned groups designed to challenge the participants, but no one expected the challenge this year to include the dead body of Ysabel Caudotte, the student in line to achieve top marks and the Dux Scolaris of the graduating class.

The students who found Ysabel include Estiene Marcelle, from a prestigious and powerful family of healers, Alys Tixerrant, a wealthy socialite who is underestimated due to her good looks, Moyna Apprice, the reluctant healer with no choice in her future, Jehan Fortier, the gifted student and incorrigible flirt with his own secrets and Clement Savoye, Ysabel Caudotte’s best friend. Following the first exam and the discovery of the body, The exam group receive a letter from Ysabel, indicating that there is more to her death than just a student burning out under the pressure of exams and taking her own life and triggers their efforts to come together despite their differences and prejudices and try to solve the mystery of Ysabel’s death.

As much as I enjoyed the mystery and the world building of ‘Bodies of Magic’, for me the place where this really shines is its character work. Each of these characters had their own distinctive personalities and motivations that felt organic, but also had unique dynamics and relationships between each of the other members within the group. I would regularly find myself cycling through each character feeling at times frustration, affection and pride for each of them. Moyna was probably the one who took me the longest to warm up to and even she won me over by the end.

There are two close door romantic subplots present here and I adored both of them. I have to admit that there were times where the development of these two subplots had me frantically turning the page more than the murder mystery did lol.

I have long held a bit of an old man grumble over some of the bullshit and inaccurate comps publishers pull out of their assess and link to their books and I really have to side eye the Grey’s Anatomy comp? Like I guess maybe they want to make readers know that there is a medical element here, but honestly I would have thought it closer to something like Veronica Mars, with the murder mystery of a best friend with a secret speaking from beyond the grave elements.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pan McMillan for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.


<b><i>Planned release 15th September 2026 ❤️</b></i>

I was super excited when I got approved for this, having loved everything Freya Marske has put out so far, and even more excited when I read it, because I think this might be one of her best, if not her actual best yet.

It took me a tiny bit longer than normal to get into the story, mainly because so many of the names were so idiosyncratic (the author told me on Bluesky she got most of them from 15th century French censuses, which absolutely makes sense). But in the end, I really loved just how much personality it gave everything. And, as a French person myself, I always appreciate an author using French names that have the correct vibes.

I'm not going to reiterate what the book is about, because I assume you know how to read a book. Instead I'll tell you how it made me <i>feel</i>:

It feels, most of all, like an incredibly personal book. For all that it's entirely fictional, set in a secondary world with a lot of fantasy elements, throughout reading it, I could tell how much of her personal life experiences Marske had put into it. I couldn't explain to you how exactly, but it really spoke to me.

It spoke to me as someone who has had a lot of contact with the medical system. It spoke to me as a disabled person, as someone who has cared for disabled relatives, as someone who is in the middle of burnout recovery. It isn't that the book is primarily <i>about</i> all these things, exactly, but it has all of those in them, and some of the most convincing writing about music and choral work I've read in a long time (I often find writing about music falls kind of flat, this really really doesn't). So much of it felt written from experience, and I found that deeply touching, in a way that I struggle to put into words.

All the characters are flawed and disastrous and yet they are precious and wonderful and I loved them all so much. They all matter and they are all unique in their personalities and experiences and thought processes. They are all significant and their narratives intertwine in a lot of interesting ways, and all of them are essential in their differences. And that is honestly a feat of writing. Juggling five POV characters, and making all of them so distinct? As a writer, I can tell you, it's a really, really difficult task.

I was going to read this one a bit more slowly, but in the end I slammed through the book at high speed, because between the frequent POV changes and the mystery, I simply couldn't put it down. None of it was boring, the entire worldbuilding aspect of the book was incredibly well-integrated into the narrative, it never had to slow down or hold the reader's hand excessively to explain things but it also was always very clear. I loved all the secondary-world equivalents to medical terms (phantomes, traitor illness, etc) and could tell that the "medical school" aspects were from someone who had gone through that type of education and knew what they were on about. (And what do you know, yep, Freya Marske mentions having gone to med school in the acknowledgments.)

Anyway, I could wax lyrical about this book for an age. I genuinely think it might be Marske's best yet. You absolutely want to read it.

This is a quite unique take on the murder mystery theme, conjoining with fantasy and magic.

The author has given us a very different magic system. One used to heal and perform the miracle of surgery.

A group of students sequestered for their final exams find a murdered women. Another student, who they all have connections with.

Verbally bound and unable to discuss much with anyone outside their exam group, the police seemingly unable to investigate. They decide they must find out who did it?

The threads that bind them, their worries about their medical futures, their strains of needing to collectively pass their exams, and the ending reveal, are slowly laid out for the reader.

The ending is well worth reaching, although until half way through reading the book I found myself delving in and out. But that midway point lit up my need to finish, and I found myself rushing to read to the climax.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.