Bodies of Magic

by Freya Marske

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.

Genres: Fantasy, Dark Academia, Mystery, LGBT, Fiction, Adult, Queer

453 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 15, 2026

About the author

Freya Marske lives in Australia, where she is yet to be killed by any form of wildlife. She writes stories full of magic, blood, and as much kissing as she can get away with, and she co-hosted the Hugo Award nominated podcast Be the Serpent. Her hobbies include figure skating and discovering new art galleries, and she is on a quest to try all the gin in the world.

Reviews

[Emily (Books with Emily Fox on Youtube)]

Murder mystery and magical medical school... need I say more?
Must read!

[Hades ( Disney's version )]

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an ALC of Bodies of Magic by Freya Marske 

🌟4.5🌟

I don't know if I've ever had a book so strongly change my feelings so fast..

It didn't last very long, but for the hottest of seconds I didn't think I was going to like this one ( Nevermind love it).. At first it felt as if it might take the overly safe and beaten path. Then out of absolutely NOWHERE it just takes a sharp turn and starts pounding out its own path. 

I started this wanting to set my head ablaze every time the narrator said " acadeMEE" but before I knew it, it was as if my brain donned a top hat & monical, and started judging those who say they've never heard of the "acadeMEE", while sipping my tea through lips, pursed tighter than a keyhole.. The only way I can think to describe the phenomenon,  is that this is what Dorothy must have felt when she first opened that farmhouse door and discovered she in fact was not in Kansas anymore.. Words such as "bleh" or "boring" have almost an instantaneous moment when they get stomped out by words, such as "bright" "bold" and "beautiful".

This ended up being so refreshing in a lot of ways while simultaneously holding tight to some of our favorite tropes.. Some of the best (IMO) aspects of this  book were the setting and concept.. Its very much giving "Grey's Anatomy meets a Murder Mystery"..If you're a fantasy book lover and medical show TV watcher, you're going to want to be first in line for this one.

The whole balance of this one is really nice as well and I think a huge part of that is because our author does a stellar job of keeping the fantasy with the fantasy and the "realness" with the characters. The characters all have extremely tangible and relatable qualities, making them as easy to connect with as they are to admire.

It did have some moments where it felt as if the pacing dipped. Although I didn't mind as much as I usually might have because I genuinely enjoyed being here.

I especially enjoyed how the story uses the mystery to uncover more than just who did what... There is SO much happening underneath the surface involving privilege, expectations, class, the pressure placed on those in the medical field, and so much more!.. All insuring(while there might be a couple slow moments), there's never a dull one.

 I definitely think this one will be enjoyed by most who read it.. Again I thought this was going to be a low rating from me but it ended up being one of my favorite books of the year.

Until next time 
Hades
🩵

[Evie]

✨Happy Publication Day!! ✨🥳

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. Thought getting approved three weeks before release was a bit cheeky but as soon as I got a free moment I binged the hell out of this.

Planned release 15th September 2026 ❤️



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[Booksblabbering || Cait❣️]

This was exactly what the doctor ordered.🖤
A magical dark academia set in a healing academy with a murder mystery.

Five medical students at a magical academy team up to solve the murder of their brilliant, top-ranked classmate during a high-stakes, five-day exam where they pass or fail together.

At first, I was hesitant. You are introduced to a whole new world with politics, prejudices, and magic systems. There are also alternating perspectives of five characters with different motivations and history.

Nevertheless, stick with it, and you will soon be sucked in to a book that combines stakes, an engaging plot, and amazing character study.

The body is a symphony. A collection of different instruments all placed together within the same skin, working to sustain life. Any one of them might fall away from their assigned tune. So then must a healer be a musician, able to identify the discordant note and correct it.

I truly appreciated the queer normative world. I am getting more and more tired by books where queer identity is the biggest obstacle to fulfilment. I know that’s normally the reality, but give me a fantasy, please.

The tension of the relationships weren’t quite as sizzling as I might have expected from Marske. I suppose that’s because of the existing and new relationships and the five-day timeframe. Also, one of the characters definitely got the short-hand in attention here.

The romances were more background and slow burn which created a better balance considering the highly-packed plot.

A tale of self-discovery amidst magic and mystery that healed😉 my trust in dark academia fantasy.

Physical arc gifted by Tor.

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[Morwen]

Update:
It's been over two months since I've read this amazing book as an ARC and it still lives in my head.
One thing in particular that I still think about very often is about the HEAs.

I hope this is not too spoilery but it deserves a mention if anybody is looking for this kind of rare thing:
One of the main characters is in a place where she had to force herself not to form romantic attachments for reasons you will see. And you know what? It's so cool that her happiness at the end is not finding a boyfriend but her path in life, a job different than what she was forced into and hated. It doesn't mean that she won't find the love in her life (and hopefully we will get a spinoff for that *wink wink* to the author), but I think it's really cool to show that we can find happiness on our own and working on our self growth and fulfillment, instead of just making it like romantic love is the only possible HEA for anybody in any situation! In real life, sometimes we need to find ourselves first, and find a companion after (or never if we don't want to).
___________

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



​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.

CHECK OUT MY FULL IG CAROUSEL

Pre-read

I'm so excited to be starting this! 🤩✨

______________

Jun 8:
REQUEST ACCEPTED!! 🥹✨ I'M SO HAPPY!! 😭 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉

May 22:
🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 This looks very much like a book I'm gonna love. I'm really hoping to be accepted for this ARC! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

[Fernanda (ivyfer_isreading)]

Bodies of Magic is a masterclass on how to write a good fantasy book.
I loved everything about this book.
The characters are so real, each is unique and they complement each other perfectly, so every scene they were all together was a joy to read. I love a queer normative world, especially when we get a non binary main character and multiple queer pairings, and Bodies of Magic ticked all the boxes.
This is straight up fantasy, so while the romance was there it isn't the most important part. What ties the story together is a mystery, and it was so cleverly done I don't think I looked up once I started it, just addictive.
The magic system is so interesting, it's all based on the human body and medicine, and the descriptions of the magic? Mesmerizing. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this, we see so much of the same when it comes to magic in fantasy books that this took my breath away with how interesting it was.
I only have good things to say about this book, I truly loved it so much.

Thank you Netgalley and Tor for the ARC!

[Niki Hawkes - The Obsessive Bookseller]

One of my favorite books of the year!

I know better than to fall for the “for fans of X: this ridiculously popular book” spiel, generally. But in this case what is being advertised (A Deadly Education meets Grey’s Anatomy) is exactly what Bodies of Magic delivers! I’ve never come across a medical fantasy, let alone one with and academic framework, so I knew the moment I first saw it that I needed to read it ASAP. And you know what? It was fantastic.

Here’s the thing, when I pick up a book like this I’m expecting the medical school to play a strong role in the story (it did), I want a lot of detailed magical workings included (there were), and I want the mystery to be satisfying (it was decent). The author really delivered on all of the promises made, producing one of the best books I’ve read all year (and definitely one of my top academic books). It’s worth highlighting specifically what made the medical magic school aspect of this story so freaking good. You really get into the nitty gritty of how the magic works – everything from training on cadavers to experimenting with untested industry-advancing medical magic theory. Then we also get these complete case studies as part of their final exam where we get to follow the process all the way from symptom presentations to diagnosis to treatment plans. These students are brilliant, most at the top of their graduating class, and the amount of detail they get into during these final exams is so satisfying. It ticks all my boxes, and I’ll long remember this book for how perfectly it presented this aspect of the story. It was phenomenal.

So now I’ve explained how completely into the story I was for the medical magic, I’ll admit that the rest of the book was good, more than passable to be fair, but a bit more focused on the interpersonal relationship of the variety of “who is sleeping with who” than I usually prefer in books. It’s part of the reason the book is being likened to Grey’s Anatomy. And I think the main reason it worked for me where other books of the same vein may have not was because of how pertinent all of the social happenings were to solving the murder-mystery case. It felt very fitting and appropriate to include and also enhanced the collegiate atmosphere the story. I also found I was a bit more emotionally invested in the characters than I might have been otherwise. It worked because it was balanced so well with the magic aspect of the story, and the author never forgot to hone back in on the elements that were making the book special. Add to all of that some great pacing, a nice variety of focus, and an incredible momentum to the end of the book, and you can see why I’m so enamored.

Overall this was a huge success for me and I think it has a strong recommendability factor to those who love dark academia, to those who like mysteries in their fantasy books, all the way to the romantasy crowd. It hit a lot of good notes without diving too far into one thing, and I’m sure I’ll be recommending it often for years to come.

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Karen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Poochtee, Kinsey, Alysa, Derek, Kelly, Grace, Carmen, Leticia, and Leah! <3

I’d like to thank Freya Marske, Macmillan Audio, and Netgalley for the chance to read an early audiobook copy of this book!

Find me on Booktube at: The Obsessive Bookseller

Via The Obsessive Bookseller at www.NikiHawkes.com

Other books you might like:

[Carly]

No one is more disappointed than I am that I didn’t love this as much as I thought I would. It has all the ingredients for something I’d devour - fantasy, murder mystery, healing magic, and an academy setting. So what’s not to love? The writing, the pacing, the character development, and the cohesiveness of the story all felt severely lacking. I finished the book and thought “alright, anyway.” Unfortunately, there was just no attachment formed to any of the characters. The healing magic itself has multiple components (singing, drawing an array, physical touch) and none of them were ever explained very well.

The writing was very clunky and the wording/sentence structure felt so awkward. I kept thinking, does this need another round of editing? The metaphors were bizarre. The dialogue was juvenile despite the characters being adults. The entire book is very long for a story that takes place over the course of five days. Too many things happen for it to be believable that this was all achieved in literally just five days. The intentions/motivations of the characters were not very believable to me and I found it so difficult to accept that the police were barely investigating a murder and therefore it was up to a bunch of students taking a final exam to solve the mystery themselves…

As someone who is very technical and needs things to make sense in my books, this was tough for me. There were so many concepts introduced but barely explained and then the reader is expected to just accept it all. As someone in healthcare, I was REALLY excited at the prospect of a fantasy novel where healing takes the center stage but this didn’t deliver what I wanted. I thought there would be more of a focus on the healing magic and the murder mystery, not the romantic subplots. I very much appreciated the queer normative world. I think this will be a hit for some audiences but I’m sad to say it wasn’t a top read for me. 2.5 rounded up to 3. Thank you to Tor publishing group and NetGalley for this eARC.

[Samantha (ladybug.books)]

I found everything about Bodies of Magic to be good, but not great. I enjoyed the read, but I expected it to have more of an impact on me.

The mystery and academia elements were a little lacking, leaving my enjoyment hinging on the success of the characters and their dynamics. It was a fun group to follow, but I never felt that attached, and they didn’t do a lot to surprise me. I often lost track of whose perspective I was reading from because they didn’t feel like distinct characters outside of their archetypes. I think this really could have benefited from having some sort of POV indicator at the start of each chapter.

I feel like this story really wanted to interrogate its magic system, as there are some really great ideas. However, the magic system is too vague and hand-wavy to support the length of the exams or the constant efforts to interrogate the boundaries of magic. As a result, it really started to feel like the story was dragging on at the end. Additional depth and complexity also would have helped to strengthen the dark academia atmosphere. I feel like it thought it was doing enough to achieve that, but I would have liked to see it commit to the world-building even more.

As someone who did a lot of academic research into medical communications during the COVID-19 pandemic, I was really intrigued by the parallels Bodies of Magic drew to healthcare and burnout in our world. These moments are where the book's strengths really shine, and they lead to some touching moments. I particularly appreciated the variety of perspectives the different characters brought to the field of magical healing. This is not a book of grand revolutions or fixing all of the flaws in a broken system, but Freya Marske leaves the story on a hopeful note, hinting at the potential for change within five extraordinary individuals.

Though not my favorite from Freya Marske, Bodies of Magic is a solid fall fantasy read that will appeal to fans of the Scholomance trilogy and Babel.

Thank you so much to Tor for the eARC

Links to my TikTok | Instagram | YouTube | Bindery Books

[Hirondelle (not getting all notifications)]

Freya Marske writes a dark academia fantasy about magical medicine students in exam week trying to solve the mysterious death of another student (and pass their exams also). It’s September, it’s the autumn equinox, the shops are full of back to school stationery, neighbourhoods around me are filled with students with “academic garments” and first years getting hazed (it’s not as bad as all that, mostly). So congratulations to the publisher, it’s a really appealing concept for its release date. All those hashtags and tropes and elements! And I could not resist, not in September...

And it was OK. Solid 3 stars all the way through. I liked it. I did not actively dislike it. It is ambitious regarding the magical healing system and the history of it. It goes into magical versions of several types of medicine (pathology, sports), which was fun to read. The ending was moving and pleasant, and I think the book was at its best at having the characters bonding. And the author is reliably good at the male-male romance subplot, which is the most interesting character interaction in the whole book and the one I had me having the most feelings about (they are cute, and I hope they live HEA). 

But it was not great, not quite. My main issue, and it’s always a thing with me with speculative fiction, is the worldbuilding – it is detailed, make no mistake! But it does not seem consistent to me and is often contradictory. There is something inherently contradictory to the healing gift being magical, random,  very valuable and then making the students study really really hard, potentially fail and many of them are often indentured or in serious debt (but hey, they are valued so much, because religion and we are told so time and time again).  There is more about it, the inconsistency of the system throughout which kept making me think oh wait that does not make sense in a large scale. There is a theme of birthright type of magic which stands in for discourse on immigration, and it is moving on a personal level but it just does not go deep or on the grand scale. So as an ideas focused piece of speculative fiction, it does not really hang together. There is a grand invention and it will be very helpful for their careers, and that is that, the system will not come crumbling down ( like that trilogy which I will not name!). It's not about changing the world, or questioning it, not deeply, even if it looks like it doing it!

 But I read and love books with no wider concerns, and there are several things here I should enjoy (and did enjoy) – the friendship group building, romantic subplots, the mystery of who killed a genius student, grief about it. It all felt slowly paced, confusing at times. The character of the dead student, again contradictory often and well she had to die right for us to have a story right?  (I might be a cynic, but the utter and complete genius, the unfairness of the murder, the sentimental letter, it was all just a bit plastic. Or polyester if that is the more modern parlance, and it is indeed an evocative description). The pacing of the mystery is also off, IMO, by the standards of mystery thrillers! There is none of that stupid withhold-from-the-reader thing (and kudos for that!) but it adds to the oddness of the pacing and it feeling really quite long.


In all, this was OK book. But falling short of some other novels I would classify as similar.

[Robin (Bridge Four)]

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Bodies of Magic is a standalone dark academia tale of five medical students thrown together for final exams covering the next five days. It’s stressful enough trying to solve five cases with people randomly selected to test with you. But when they walk into the first test and Ysabel, the best student in their class, is dead in their magically locked exam room, it elevates to a whole new level. This team of students still has to finish diagnosing the first case if they are going to graduate. What follows is five people trying to both finish their tests and figure out who could have killed one of the brightest minds in a generation.

Each of the students in the test group seemed to have been selected randomly. As the story progresses, though, we understand better how each was tied to Ysabel in some way. It becomes apparent that something else is going on. Their cases don’t appear to be the same as other students’, and the selection of their cohort may not be as random as once thought.

Monya is conflicted about her future and can’t decide if she wants to tank the exams so she has an excuse to do the fifth year over. Jehan is ready to graduate and run away from both some bad decisions and his broken heart. Alys’s future has been set by her family, and while she isn’t excited about it, she is ready to practice medicine privately for the upper crust of society. Estiene is rich and entitled and on the path to replace his father. And last but not least is Clement, devastated by the death of her best friend and desperate to work with this group to find a killer and, hopefully, graduate as well.

The magic for healing was really interesting to me. It combined healing through frequencies, power glyphs, and raw magical talent. I also liked the way the politics and society aspects were explained as each student deals with different members and levels of society. Between the healing festivities, the partial artificer strike, and the murder investigation, Freya Marske was able to show the reader so many intricacies of the world while still building the story. This was my first book by this author, and I enjoyed her writing style, descriptions, and the overall plot.

Bodies of Magic had a good murder mystery with solid worldbuilding. That part was the magic of the story for me. It is a bit heavy on gender ideology for my tastes. There are two same-sex romances happening and a non-binary character, so there is more time spent discussing who you like to sleep with than I care for. I did appreciate that each character had a distinct voice and motivations within the story.

I was happy with how the book tied everything up in the end. It gives the reader a real sense of closure and makes it very clear who the killer is. Freya Marske is an author I would probably try again in the future.

Narration:
Performance: ★★★★
Character Separation: ★★★★
Diction: ★★★★
Pacing/Flow: ★★★★
Sound Effects: None

Saskia Maarleveld, is a well established narrator. I've enjoyed a handful of her other narrations. She was able to capture the characters individual voices well. I did find that I personally was not able to distinguish Clement's voice a few times but overall she was able to keep the narration clean. I enjoyed her pacing and stylizing choices for characters and thought she assisted in bringing the emotion of a highly stressful situation through. Strong vocal performance.

Listen to a clip: https://www.audible.com/pd/Bodies-of-...

[PlotTrysts]

This one is for readers who love The Pitt but think it could really benefit from some magic and mystery.

Bodies of Magic takes pace during the final week of med school in a world where doctors (Healers) are all practitioners of healing magic. Five candidates must work together for a rigorous exam week; they have to work together to diagnose and treat real test cases they haven't been able to prepare for. But our five (Moyna, Clement, Alys, Estiene, and Jehan) find the dead body of their year's top student in their testing chamber. Just as they should be focused on their finals, they all decide to investigate their colleague's death.

All five characters are fully developed, and chapters switch to all of their POVs. While many of them behave pretty terribly, I found it easy to sympathize with them all. I wasn't sure at first about the construction of the mystery (it uses the conceit of the victim leaving posthumous letters), but I ended up feeling that it made narrative sense.

If you're familiar with Marske's other books, this feels like a bit of a departure since it's not first and foremost a romance (although there are two different romantic relationships to keep your eye on!). The world building is really solid without being difficult to grasp or conveyed through info dumps: magical abilities arise from where you're born, so the only magical med school exists where Healers can be born: the Grand Duchy of Sieuxerr. Healers are then sent throughout the rest of the continent based on complex systems of patronage. Some non-natives move to the city in the hopes that their children will be born Healers (which puts its own spin on immigrant children feeling obligated to become lawyers, doctors, etc.).

While the book is a combo of murder mystery, dark academia, and fantasy, it's also a pretty accurate (and scathing) depiction of IRL academia, xenophobia, and the post-COVID medical profession. (Like I said, if you enjoy The Pitt I think you'll find a lot to love here.) Bodies of Magic might be magical, but it's not an escapist read.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

[sophie]

unrated while i think real hard about it but generally, i REALLY liked this. the characters are so real and good and complicated and kind (Moyna i LOVE you), the plot is compelling enough to get you through this hefty book, and the worldbuilding is rich and interesting and I would read another 5 books set in this world, EASY. Plus everyone's gay and funny. Sunshine, rainbows. Yes, I recommend this.

However. The lack of consideration for disability was... noticeable. I think medical school dark academia cannot be complete without discussion of disability. I really liked the choice to use a sensitivity reader (presumably for the nonbinary character, might be wrong tho) but I think this book really could benefit from a sensitivity read from a disabled person. l don't think it would take a lot to fill in this missing piece: just the acknowledgement that disabled people are not given the agency they deserve in a society focused on"fixing" rather than equity and acommodation.

In summary: yay! whee! yay!!! *

[Maddie]

3.75 ⭐️

the premise of healing magic, scholars, and a society that both prizes them and controls them was compelling and i think that it was done well. this book also does a great job of taking a "trials" element and making its relevance to the plot clear. the end is also satisfying, and it's so nice to have a standalone!

however, i do think that the pacing suffered in this quite a bit; there were several sections where i was dragging my way though. i also felt like the characters fell slightly flat at times. i do think that the end makes the pacing / character weaknesses worth it though

**thank you to Tor for the ARC copy**

[Bookshire Cat]

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.

I have received an ARC through Netgalley and I'm leaving a voluntary review.

[Stacey Markle]

Bodies of Magic isn't what it seems. Yes it's a dark academia and yes it's comp'd with Grey's Anatomy but for me, it's misleading. There is a healing medical school but that's where the similarity ends.
This is a murder mystery at it's heart and I think if you go into it with that expectation and no other, you'll be ok. The students going through their 5th year exam's, a set of 5 as a small student group, have to solve the mystery of their fellow students death. That student is Ysabel and when they receive a series of letters from the dead girl, they know there is far more to this than they believed. What ensues is a bit of a loss of focus in the plot of the murder and becomes more character driven but at odd pacing. The story finds it voice again toward the ending which saved things for me.

The narration done by Saskia Maarleveld was a bright spot. The performance was solid and well done. I will definitely look for this narrator again!

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the opportunity to listen and review this title. My thoughts are my own.

[Rishali (thecozy.tbr)]

Bodies of Magic and I unfortunately did not get along.

Honestly, if I hadn't been reading this as part of a buddy read, I probably would have DNF'd it around the 30% mark. The biggest issue for me was the pacing. This book simply did not need to be this long.

Early on, the book introduces its magic system and central murder mystery, and I was excited by the premise. A fantasy murder mystery set against the backdrop of high-stakes academic exams sounded exactly like something I would enjoy. However, after the initial setup, the story seemed to lose focus. Instead of actively investigating the murder, much of the narrative is spent following college-age characters navigating interpersonal drama and everyday school life.

What frustrated me most was how often the murder mystery felt like an afterthought. The characters would occasionally acknowledge it, but for large portions of the book, there seemed to be very little urgency surrounding the investigation. The mystery would briefly resurface before fading into the background again, leaving me wondering why it wasn't receiving more attention.

Then, around the 70% mark, the story suddenly shifts gears and begins seriously pursuing the investigation. Unfortunately, this made the conclusion feel rushed rather than rewarding. The clues and revelations came quickly, but by that point I was no longer invested, and the final reveal did not feel worth the long buildup. Instead of being surprised or impressed, I was left feeling underwhelmed.

I also can't help mentioning the comparisons to The Scholomance series. For me, those comparisons set expectations that this book simply didn't meet. While both feature academic fantasy settings, the execution, tension, and overall reading experience felt very different. Personally, I don't think Bodies of Magic comes close to delivering the same level of engagement or depth.

Thank you to Tor Books for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Iffy]

2.25 stars - this is a dark academia medical fantasy/murder mystery (all things right up my alley) so I am so sad that I didn’t end up connecting with this book at all.

Things I did really enjoy include the premise, the dark/eerie backdrop that anchors the story, and the themes of corruption and power.

The primary element that didn’t work for me was the writing style. There was a heavy focus on dialogue/inner monologues of the characters rather than exploring the plot elements and the magic system. Because of this, the magic system and the academic system were rarely explained enough which causes the reader to have to accept parts of the story that didn’t always make sense. Because of the character focus, I was hoping there would at least be a lot of character development but they remained stagnant and they weren’t very likable. (I don’t mind an unlikable character but I need it to make sense with the plot and it didn’t). At times, this book felt like being trapped in the minds of immature students while not understanding anything that’s going on around you. I also found the overall sentence structure and prose to be choppy and difficult to follow.

My other struggle with this book is that it lacked believability. The entire book takes place within 5 days and these students go on quite a number of side quests while also taking a grand final exam and solving a murder in such a short period of time? And why weren’t any of the faculty or law enforcement involved in investigating? It doesn’t make sense that it would be left to a group of students to solve multiple murders.

Overall, I had really high hopes for this one and unfortunately the story telling just did not work for me at all. That’s not to say it won’t work for others though so I hope this book finds the right people!

[Teresa (blewballoon)]

Honestly, this is more like a 3.5⭐

I did almost DNF this despite loving this author's previous books and this audiobook narrator (Saskia Maarleveld!) I think it was an issue of timing more than anything, but also an issue of taste.

Regarding taste: this book is pitched as "Grey’s Anatomy meets A Deadly Education" and I would say that it's more like The Atlas Six than A Deadly Education. I pretty much hated The Atlas Six (despite trying to give it a positive review because I knew my friend liked it) and I didn't make it through very much of Grey's Anatomy (also something I watched to talk about it with a friend) so it's not a shocker that I didn't get on well with this book. It will probably make a great gift for one of my friends who likes these things.

Onto the timing: When I started the book, a murder mystery at a magical medical school was intriguing, but then my real life took a turn and I found myself thinking more along the lines of: "all of your problems are petty and I don't care!!" The book focuses a lot on the personal issues of the scholars in this exam group. If I cared more about the characters, or the book focused more on the murder mystery, it might have aggravated me less.

The strange thing is that the characters are not actually that unlikable. Maybe they were just a little too bland and underdeveloped? If Marske had focused on a pair of them vs the whole group, maybe they could have fleshed them out better so their stories were more compelling vs spreading thin to cover all five.

Content Warnings:
Graphic: Death, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Chronic illness, Sexual content, Blood, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Infidelity, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Sexual harassment, Classism

[Brandi]

I really wanted to love this book. The premise was so interesting that I requested it immediately. It had medical, dark academia, world-building, and fantasy elements. Everything that I would typically love. However, it just didn’t tickle my fancy in the way I wanted it to.

There were some really good sections, along with some slower ones. Overall, I felt disconnected from the storyline and characters. This greatly saddens me because I wanted to be all in.

By all means, this is not a terrible book. The writing is decent, and it has all the setup and elements for a wonderful storyline. It just fell flat for me for some reason. I’m unsure if it was the writing style, the plot, the execution, or the pacing.

I also found the world and magical system confusing at times, which made it harder for me to connect with the story.

Unfortunately, this one just wasn’t the book for me. However, I have no doubt that there are readers that will connect and love this book.

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillian

[Lea]

4 ⭐️ First off thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this audioARC of the book. I am a little late with this ARC as it released 9/15/26. I enjoyed this one. I've read a few other books by this author and like her style. The narrator was a little hard to follow because of her accent so I had to slow it down so I didn't get lost. It's a dark academia/fantasy/mystery. 5 scholars go into their exams and must pass all 5 segments and hone their magical skills. There's definitely a lot going on but it worked well. Loved all the characters and the storyline. There's healing magic, mystery, murder, conspiracy, friendship, some romance, some LGBTQIA+ representation, secrets and more. Yes I would recommend this book to lovers of dark academia.

[Joyfully Jay]

A Joyfully Jay review.

5 stars

I absolutely loved Bodies of Magic and found myself completely captivated by it. This is a long book and I could barely put it down; I honestly found myself stalling toward the end because I didn’t want to finish it. I think the set up is so clever and I love the way the book combines a mystery, a new adult coming-of-age story, and a magical fantasy. The story is also about community, about the way working together and relying on one another is the path to success.

I feel like there is so much I want to say about this story, but also I want you all to have a chance to experience it for yourselves, and so much of the joy here is in the discovery. I found this one rich and well developed, with really interesting characters and an intriguing mystery element that keeps a sense of energy throughout the book. Consider this one highly recommended!

Read Jay’s review in its entirety here.

[Jamedi]

Review originally on JamReads

A dark academia with a murder mystery at its core and set in a magical medical academy? With that premise, it was impossible to resist the impulse to read Bodies of Magic, a standalone novel written by Freya Marske, that shines especially in its character work and in how it reflects some flaws still present in medical education, all while weaving a well-written story.

Five medical students at the Academy of Sieuxerr discover the corpse of a classmate in the same salon they should be having their Grand Exam. However, as their Exam continues despite the finding, they soon discover that their examination is weird and they all have a connection with the classmate, the most brilliant student of their cohort; apart from passing their test, they will involve in an against the clock investigation to discover who murdered Ysabel and why they are involved in this test.

A story that is told through the POVs of the five students, something that can be challenging to follow at times, but I also felt it was a good way to show us the different origins of the people studying at the Academy; there's certainly a bit of social commentary on how this mimics real medical schools and the different pressures one might suffer (I think this hits harder if you have been in this world). It is true that sometimes it might feel chaotic, especially as we hop from one to another, but eventually the picture makes sense, so just trust a bit of the author.

The healing magic system was quite interesting, especially as it felt a bit like holistic, but also putting the focus on the collaboration among peers, in contrast with how academia foments individuality and competition. It is also nice to have a queer normative setting being central to the novel, including a non-binary character; all feel natural in this worldbuilding.
The pacing might be the aspect I was a bit more wary, as I felt the own healing process might end up feeling repetitive; it is true that, again, Marske uses this formula as a way to emphasize the contrast with the final one, but still. Said that, I think even with that in mind, it's an enjoyable read.

Bodies of Magic is a great dark academia novel, putting the focus through a murder mystery on the formation of those that would end up healing people, an interesting and well-executed premise. It was my first Freya Marske, but won't be the last!

[liz]

A group of collegiate magic healers at medical college who are also HORNY AS HELL!! (Biblically accurate medical school).

3.5 ⭐️

A group of graduating magical healers enter their final diagnostic exam and find one of their classmates dead. After receiving a cryptic note, over the course of 5 days, the bunch decides to put their differences aside and figure out exactly what is going on inside this school and what happened to their friend.

The parts of Bodies of Magic that I loved about it, I LOVED about it.
The characters are queer as hell and I loved the POVs from Estiene and Jehan.
The second chance romance / heartbreak / tension was honestly my favorite side plotline, it always held my full attention.
I also loved that as our cast unravels what happened, they also unravel the things about themselves and grow personally. It’s a big healing inside and outside.

Though it does ebb and flow with the pacing, it ultimately felt pretty stagnant overall. I was vibing with the author’s writing style and her ideas, but not the overall execution of the plot - if that makes sense? I felt like I was not smart enough to like this book. Despite that, I felt the need to finish it to know how their stories wrapped up and I couldn’t rest until I knew exactly what happened. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this story but it didn’t resonate with me personally.

I went back and forth between the ebook and the audiobook and I think in this case, that was difficult keeping track of characters and their nuances. Maybe if I solely eyeball read it I would have enjoyed it more.

I do feel like a lot of readers will enjoy this if you’re a fan of dark academia with mystery and secrets embedded within.


——————————
Audiobook review:
I did enjoy the narrator for the most part however I did find the audio more hard to follow than the physical text.
I would mix up the characters, have to go back and relisten and try to figure out who is speaking sometimes.

However I did like the narrator’s voice and the way they expressed what they were saying.

I LOVEEEEeeee the voice for Jehan.

Thanks to Tor, MacMillion Audio and NetGalley for the eARC and eALC in exchange for my review.

[Me, My Shelf, & I]

This was a bit of a mixed bag for me.

On the one hand, I really like the style of the academia aspect. Similar to one of my favourite series (The Locked Tomb), the tests that the students are subjected to are not just a way to measure their knowledge, but also designed to make them examine the magic system and all that they've learned in a new way. I found the plot to be compelling and worthwhile once it eventually got off the ground.

On the other hand, I found the characters and their dynamics to be really, really flat. Plus it took a looooong time for the plot to kick in enough and had I not heard someone already raving about this book, I'm not sure I'd have stuck it out.

Similarly, I felt like the world building and magic system were both really under-developed. They briefly mentioned two elements that I think could've been explored in interesting ways (how magic of the body can be used to kill instead of heal and how it can also be applicable to sex work), but the book wasn't really interested in incorporating them at all.

The murder mystery was fine, but I felt like it came together too quickly and didn't have the rigorous evidentiary support I'd want to see out of high-level academics.

So overall I thought the plot was alright and I like what they were going for, and while nothing else was bad it also wasn't interesting. Ultimately making this an average to slightly below average read for me. ymmv

Audiobook Notes:
The narrator is very whispery and quite sibilant. I didn't dislike her delivery and thought she did an especially good job with the differentiated dialogue, but I did also find that her voice had a lulling quality and it was difficulty to stay awake for.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for granting me an ALC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Phoebe]

3,75⭐️ rounded up to a 4🥰

Overall, I really liked the concept of this book and I really, really tried to love it, but there were just some things that worked against me a little.

First of all, let me talk about the positives! I really liked Freya’s writing style and will definitely be checking out her other books sometime. The concept of the book was also amazing. Healing magic x dark academia with a murder mystery? Right up my alley!

The story follows five students who are selected to take their final exams together. They have five days to complete five exams, but when they arrive for their first exam, they find a fellow student dead inside the exam room. From that moment on, the book immediately starts off with suspense and mystery. Throughout the story, I kept wondering what had happened and who was responsible.

However, I did feel like the first half of the book was quite slow. There was a lot of information being introduced and, at times, there was so much info-dumping that it became a little difficult to follow everything.

We also get all five students’ POVs. This was something I both liked and struggled with. On the one hand, it allowed us to get to know each of the characters better, which I really enjoyed. On the other hand, switching between five different POVs sometimes made the story a little difficult to follow. The characters I cared about the most were Moyna and Jehan.

Another thing I struggled with was the pacing. The entire book takes place over the course of just five days, with the exams taking place day after day. Since the book is around 450 pages long, that means that each day takes up roughly 90 pages. Because of this, some of the days started to feel quite long and drawn-out, especially during the first half of the book...

Thankfully, the pacing picked up during the second half of the book, especially around days three and four. From that point onwards, I felt like the story finally started moving forward more quickly! I found the reveal incredibly exciting and I was especially interested in the entire plot surrounding the dead student’s project. I thought that part of the story was incredibly well thought out and really enjoyed seeing how everything came together!!

I also really wish we had gotten to explore more of Alys’ powers. I feel like we barely scratched the surface of what she was capable of, which was a little disappointing because I found that aspect of the story very intriguing.

So, overall, this was a good book. Great, even. But I also can’t help feeling like it had the potential to be even better. I really enjoyed the concept, the writing and the mystery but the slow pacing and the amount of information introduced during the first half made it a little difficult for me to fully connect with the story.

Still, I definitely enjoyed the second half much more and I will absolutely be checking out more of Freya’s books in the future!

[Bookish Martina]

This was a BRILLIANT read. As a big fan of Freya Marske's work, it was one of my most anticipated releases of 2026, and it delivered so beautifully!

I'm finally putting my thoughts into words after a few days of getting my head around them. My first reactions were all along the lines of: "I want more. Is there more? Can we have another book? I'm not done with these characters and this world, please give me more." ...so that already says it all. I *loved* this book!

Told from the alternating POVs of five scholars at a magical medicine school, Bodies of Magic is a fantastical murder mystery that takes place over the course of only five days, but packs in so much that it feels much longer! On the first day of their final exam, the scholars find the body of one of their classmates... dead in their examination room. While trying to solve the cases that will qualify them as Healers, they also attempt to solve what they're convinced is a murder, clear all five of their names, and find the culprit amidst twists, turns, and interpersonal complications that have emotions running high.

First of all: Freya Marske's prose is stunning. As always. Right from page one, you know you're in for a treat when the writing is just *that* good.

Bodies of Magic isn't a fast-paced novel - lots happens, for sure, but a lot of the book is also spent on the characters' introspection and the development of the interpersonal relationships between the five of them. They're a group suddenly pieced together for the exam, but they quickly become such a huge source of support for one another, to the point where they wish they'd stumbled into this group years earlier (although some of them did indeed already spend time together beforehand).

I thoroughly enjoyed both sides of the story - the more active parts involving solving the murder and their medical cases, and the more introspective ones. And the relationships most of all! The friendships AND romances that developed throughout the book were so interesting to read, and I want to know more, more, more about what's going to happen to these five and how they're going to develop as a group. Both romances were developed so well, too - one hot and fast and push-and-pull for such a long time, the other slow-burn and soft and sweet, but both had me constantly cheering the couples on. And I loved how queer-centric the romances are, with one between two men and the other between a woman and a nonbinary person, as well as how queernormative the world is in general, with mentions of two mothers for the murder victim and a whole host of other queer characters.

The story itself was riveting, too. Solving a murder mystery while exploring healing magic in such unusual ways had me hooked both in terms of what they could figure out through healing AND whether they could work out who did it and why. The addition of the mysterious delayed letters was such a fun extra touch, too, adding so many more questions to what was already going on! The reveal at the end was very satisfying and did justice to all the work they had to put in to get there.

In between everything that was going on, the world-building and the interesting-sounding magic system weren't hugely developed or shown as clearly as they could have been, but it worked for this story and didn't take away from my enjoyment at all. But, you know... if there were to be another book where we get to explore even more of it (and these characters)... I wouldn't be against it at all 😇

Anyway, in case it wasn't clear: I'd highly recommend this book, especially if you enjoy high fantasy dark academia, murder mysteries, romantic subplots AND friendship subplots!

[Magdalena (magdal21)]

A very interesting mix of fantasy, mystery, and medical dark academia that probably only a skilled fantasy writer and a medical doctor could pull off. Luckily, Freya Marske is both.

The story follows five medical students at a magical academy who are thrown together for their final grand exam. At the same time, they’re trying to uncover the truth behind the murder of one of their friends. The whole story takes place over five days (exactly how long the exam lasts), and each of the five students gets their own POV. Those creative choices have their consequences.

Because we only have five days, the book is very dynamic and we’re thrown straight into the action. The pacing barely ever slows down, which makes it a very easy book to get through. The decision to reveal the characters’ motivations gradually, without much buildup, is definitely a bold approach that fits the structure of the story, although I did sometimes wish we knew more about the characters and their circumstances. The five day timeframe also means there isn’t much room for relationships to develop as deeply as Marske has done in her other novels. This isn’t a romance book by any means, but I actually found the emotional tangle between the characters as fascinating as the murder mystery itself.

The five POVs are another interesting choice. I think they make sense for the kind of story Marske is telling, especially because there isn’t really one central protagonist, and that becomes particularly important when you get to the ending. At the same time, some POVs are definitely stronger than others. Alys was the most compelling to me, although I also really liked Clement. Estiene felt a little flat for much of the book, while Moyna started out really strong but I felt like some of her potential got lost along the way. Jehan was mostly fine. Still, I wouldn’t argue that the book would’ve been better with fewer POVs, because I can’t really think of a better way to tell this particular story.

The magic system, and especially the way its specific rules fit into the story, was something else I really enjoyed. Not everyone in this world is born with magic, and the kind of magic you have depends on where you were born. The Grand Duchy of Sieuxerr, where the 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. There’s no choice involved. 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.

As for the ending, talking about the murder mystery in much detail is difficult if you want to keep the review spoiler free, so I’ll just say that the shock value in this book doesn’t really come from who killed, but why. I really liked that approach.

Overall, this was a really fun and unusual fantasy mystery. I had a great time reading it, even if I occasionally wanted a little more depth from the characters. The concept is clever, the pacing is strong, and the structure feels very intentional.

Thank you NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Sarah E B ʚ♡ɞ]

I want to thank Netalley for the early review.
4/5 stars ⭐️ ✨️
This was a very nice surprise! I honestly didn’t expect to like this as much as I did. Maybe because I went into it expecting it to be like every other magical school/dark academia book that has come out in recent years. There were some parts that dragged a bit, but overall, I still really enjoyed it.

[Promiscuous Bookworm]

Рідкісна книга, в якій цілих п'ять фокальних персонажів, і мені при цьому тією чи іншою мірою сподобалися вони всі, хоч і не одразу. Ну і взагалі з великим задоволенням прочитала, нам потрібно більше фентезі про медичну магію.