Book Review: Bodies of Magic by Freya Marske

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

Bodies of Magic by Freya Marske

Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Tor Books (September 15, 2026)

Length: 464 pages

Author Information: Website | Twitter

Actually, the publisher blurb here is pretty spot on. Bodies of Magic really is Grey’s Anatomy if Grey’s Anatomy were a fantasy murder mystery, including all the interpersonal drama that comes along with it. Unfortunately, it was that last part which didn’t work quite as well for me, as I was hoping the magical medical school and murder mystery would be more of the main draw. Instead, the book spends a distracting amount of time on the characters’ personal lives and relationships.

At the Academie of the Grand Duchy of Sieuxerr, individuals born with magical talent are required to undergo a grueling training program to master the healing arts. Their education culminates in the Grand Exam, a week-long practical test where students are randomly placed in groups and assigned a series of difficult medical cases that they must work through together, passing as one or failing as one. For five students, their final year should have ended with the biggest test of their lives and an opportunity to prove their abilities. Instead, right before exams begin, they discover the dead body of their classmate Ysabel, one of the academy’s best and brightest.

Initially, everyone is quick to attribute the death to suicide. After all, given the enormous pressures of the academy, especially around testing time, burnout resulting in such tragedies is sadly not uncommon. But cryptic messages left behind to the group from Ysabel start leading them to believe there is more to what happened. After all, each of them has their own connections to her, and Clement, her closest friend, refuses to believe that the brilliant and promising young woman could have taken her own life. As our characters begin digging into Ysabel’s death, they must also balance the rigorous demands of their studies with an increasingly difficult investigation involving their individual secrets, romance and rivalries, and complex family dynamics.

The best part of Bodies of Magic is the mystery. The setup of it is simple, following the five students—Clement, Moyna, Estiene, Alys, and Jehan—as they try to solve a murder while being simultaneously subjected to the most important examination of their lives. As such, there’s plenty here to keep your attention, watching them try and juggle an investigation on top of diagnosing patients and treating magical illnesses. The intense atmosphere of the academic setting gives the story an added sense of urgency beyond our characters simply passing or failing.

At the same time, I can’t deny that I felt much more invested whenever the plot was focused on figuring out what really happened to Ysabel. Sure, we have here an interesting group of characters with their own personal backstories and reasons for approaching their studies and interactions the way they do, and more is gradually revealed about their lives as the novel progressed. Ultimately, if you enjoy that kind of character-driven drama, I can absolutely see this being a lot of fun. Personally though, I was just eager to get back to the murder mystery, which meant some of the romantic and interpersonal scenes felt more like interruptions than developments I cared about.

Because there’s so much going on, the pacing also felt pretty unbalanced. This one took a while to really get going, and the amount of meandering in the middle made the story feel slower than it needed to be. At the same time, the book introduces a lot of interesting ideas without necessarily doing a deep enough dive into all of them, including academic pressure, high expectations, social privilege, and the heavy demands placed on people working in high-stakes medical professions. I liked that these themes were present, but I often found myself wishing the book would either spend more time exploring them or simply move on instead of trying to squeeze so many different ideas into the story. As a result, some of the more interesting elements felt like they were competing for attention rather than coming together into something more cohesive.

Overall, Bodies of Magic landed somewhere in the middle for me. There’s no doubt that I liked the concept more than I liked the execution, but there’s still a lot here that worked. The magical medical academy is a great setting, the murder mystery gave the story its strongest hook, and while the slow start and amount of soap opera drama was a bit of a drag, I can also see why this particular combination would work well because of the intrigue created by the dark academia atmosphere and the messy relationships. If you’re looking for a fantasy mystery and don’t mind your investigation coming with a healthy dose of character-driven extras, this could be a good fit.