Rating: 4.5/5
I received an eARC for my honest opinion.

This book is about Nhika who believes that she is the last of her kind, a Bloodcarver. She has the power to alter human biology with just her touch, but where she lives, they do not see her as a healer but a monster that can kill. For her to survive in a city of people who want her dead, she must act like a doctor and scams people for their money until one night when she saves a woman from death and the husband calls the bonecravers after her. Now she must escape them and what better way to do that is to trick nobility into thinking that she can heal someone that she isn’t sure she can, but to only find out a secret that she was not expecting.

This is Vanessa Le debut book and let me tell you it did not feel as though it was her first. The way that this author writes was done so well with the right amount of details to the characters and the plot, the way that she brings the characters emotions to life, the magic system being unique and well developed. The characters were well developed throughout the book as well and this will leave you wanting more right away and not wanting the book to end.

I loved Nhika right away in this book. She is a little feisty, not blind to the world around her and the events taking place, she is not remorseful for having to live her life as she has too because she knows she must survive the world around her but at the same time she knows that she could meet death any day as well. I loved that she was funny to be around, with her banter, her questions about the medical field and the changes that she was not aware of. I loved that in this book you will have the story told from her point of view and I was not saddened by it not having a dual POV, but I can say I am hopeful to have the next book told by Ven Kochin POV. That is all I can about Kochin because I will give away spoilers if I say more, but I will say I hated him at first but came to understand his reasons and even a bit loved him for it.

I loved the ending and how Vanessa left it. I truly can’t wait to see what will happen in the next book. This book is perfect for lovers of great characters, amazing world building, just a bit of romance, found family, and great character growth. Also, look at that cover, it's amazing!

I want to thank NetGalley and Macmillan for the opportunity to review this book.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! I love a good fantasy, and this fit the bill. I particularly enjoyed the medical aspect to the storyline. I wanted only good things for Nhika, and it broke my heart whenever something bad happened to her. There had BETTER be a second book in the works!

Title: The Last Bloodcarver
Author: Vanessa Le
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Nhika is a bloodcarver. A cold-hearted, ruthless being who can alter human biology with just a touch. In the industrial city of Theumas, she is seen not as a healer, but a monster that kills for pleasure.

When Nhika is caught using her bloodcarving abilities during a sham medical appointment, she's captured by underground thugs and sold to an aristocratic family to heal the last witness of their father’s murder.

But as Nhika delves deeper into their investigation amidst the glitz of Theumas’ wealthiest district, she begins to notice parallels between this job and her own dark past. And when she meets an alluring yet entitled physician's aide, Ven Kochin, she’s forced to question the true intent behind this murder. In a society that outcasts her, Kochin seems drawn to her...though he takes every chance he gets to push her out of his opulent world.

When Nhika discovers that Kochin is not who he claims to be, and that there is an evil dwelling in Theumas that runs much deeper than the murder of one man, she must decide where her heart, and her allegiance, truly lie. And -- if she's willing to become the dreaded bloodcarver Theumas fears -- to save herself and the ones she's vowed to protect.

I really enjoyed this world and these characters! This was dark, but compelling, and I ended up staying up far too late trying to finish this. The culture was fascinating, and the characters are vivid, flawed, and relatable. Love the magic system---it’s one of the more fascinating magic systems I’ve read, and I was engrossed in this from very early on.

Vanessa Le is from the Pacific Northwest. The Last Bloodcarver is her debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of Macmillan/Roaring Brook Press in exchange for an honest review.)

(Blog link live 4/5).

I would like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Oh. My. God. This was absolutely phenomenal and I am so glad I read this after finishing Sense and Sensibility and being scared I would fall into a reading slump, because this book right here made sure I was pulled right out of any danger.

The Last Bloodcarver immediately starts off great, and you get pulled into the story as if it's nothing. We meet Nhika, a so-called Bloodcarver as they're known in Theumas, and she's on her way to an appointment, where she ends up using her abilities to help out her client. Except… her client mistrusts her and ends up calling the ultracops on her, where she gets locked up in a cage and is basically auctioned off.

And this is where stuff really starts happening. Nhika is bought by Mimi and her brother, who asks her to help save the one person who last saw their father alive. They think their father was murdered and want to question the man in coma. The story really escalates from there, but my god it was amazing all throughout.

The characters in The Last Bloodcarver are well thought out, each and every one of them. Our main character Nhika deals with her grief and we get to see glimpses of her past, but the family she's bought by also has such intricate thoughts we sometimes get to see a glimpse of. And don't get me started on the villain!!

The ending had me gasping. Can I have the second book now, pretty please? I need it so frigging bad.

I highly highly recommend this book and cannot wait for the second installment.

I would like to thank Macmillan Children’s, Roaring Book Press, Netgalley and the author for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

“Hers was not a touch that held, or caressed, or kissed; hers had always been the touch that carved. But he was the marble that weathered.”

Read if you like:
🪄YA Fantasy
🇻🇳 Vietnamese culture
🫀 Biology
🕵️‍♀️ Murder mysteries

Nhika is the last of her kind, a Bloodcarver, someone whose influence, through touch, can enter another’s body and manipulate its physiology. The people of Theumas fear these legendary monsters, so Nhika must survive and practice her craft in secret. But she is caught and sold to a wealthy aristocratic family in the black market. The family wants her to heal the only witness to their father’s death, which they think might have been murder. Nhika learns that not everyone is as they seem and she’ll have to choose her allies carefully.

This was a fabulous debut! I loved the setting based on Vietnam and the magic system was really unique. The author’s biology background plays a huge part in this book and it was very well done. The action starts quickly and the intrigue continues throughout. The availability of certain technologies did seem a bit inconsistent at times and the end was a little drawn out, but overall it was great. I’m looking forward to the sequel!

Review: [The Last Bloodcarver includes a significant amount of body horror, from interacting with corpses to repeated references to medical experimentation by a colonial power. The book also includes animal death and extended scenes of characters seriously injured (stab/gunshot wounds).]

I absolutely adored Vanessa Le’s The Last Bloodcarver. Le’s debut novel is set in a complicated Vietnam-inspired fantasy (and science fiction) world, one where war has forced Nhika’s family out of Yarong and into the neutral city-state of Theumas. Even though Nhika has escaped into (currently) neutral territory, Daltanny’s occupation of Yarong still affects Nhika, from the proliferation of the term “bloodcarver” instead of “heartsooth” to the loss of cultural knowledge regarding heartsoothing after Nhika’s grandmother’s death.

That cultural disconnect and the loss of knowledge is something that haunts Nhika throughout the novel. She is keenly aware of her much she doesn’t know and has complicated feelings about how she uses her heartsoothing to survive when the previous generations could do it openly and were honored for it. Theumas might be better for Nhika than Yarong under Daltanny’s occupation, since she isn’t automatically slated for horrific medical “experiments”, but Theumas has its own problems. When the Butchers capture and arrange to sell Nhika, the prospective buyers range from people who think if they consume her heart, they will be cured of whatever ails them, to people who clearly want to use her as an assassin. Even when she is purchased by the Congmi family to try to heal a family friend (and promised freedom and payment even if she can’t help him), fear, suspicion, and hostility are close at hand.

So it’s wonderful whenever Nhika is able to make small connections to what she has lost. (There is a scene where she acquires some Yarongese items and is overwhelmed by what they represent that is just lovely.) Whenever Nhika made the choice to heal and to help, I was delighted by her determination to honor what her grandmother taught her. I appreciated the contrast Kochin represented to Nhika’s experience and the places where the two of them were aligned. Kochin was a character that I didn’t warm up to until after his reveal, but I think his character arc complemented Nhika’s very well.

The mystery of who killed Quan and seriously injured Hendon isn’t a complex one, but unraveling the mystery is far less important than Nhika learning why it happened. Once we have that information, the rest of the book falls into place beautifully. Le’s plotting and development of themes really shined in the second half and propelled the novel to an incredible final act that made me fervently hope there would be a sequel. (And there will be!)

Recommendation: Get it now, so long as you aren’t put off by body horror, medical experimentation, and some gore. Vanessa Le created a fascinating fantasy/sci-fi world in The Last Bloodcarver, and the impacts of war and colonialism on Nhika and her people are explored in interesting ways while a murder mystery unfolds in the foreground. Le’s medical-based magic system is fascinating, and Nhika’s character journey is compelling. I’m looking forward to the conclusion of this duology next year.

Despite the unique setting, I never really got into either the characters or the plot. Both felt flat, somewhat forced, and lacking in depth and interest. In many ways, this is YA fantasy by the numbers: feisty lead heroine doing stupid things to prove she is 'strong' matched with emo love interest who has the emotional maturity of a 2 year old.

Story: Nhika's country was overrun and the cultural magic outlawed/wielders murdered. Now, in a new country, she fights to survive in the slums while hiding her ability to hearthsoothe - also called bloodcarving. When she breaks a personal rule and tries to heal someone with her magic, everything goes awry and she is imprisoned. But fate takes twisty turns and soon she will be thrust into high society, embroiled in a murder mystery that might just involve the mysterious medical assistant she finds attractive.

At its heart, this is a murder mystery as Nhika tries to solve a case involving the dead scion of a large automaton manufacturing empire. Although there are some steampunk type of elements in here, they are really just window dressing and thrown around in the background/never explored. There is the usual rationalization against magic vs technological innovation within a pseudo Viet Nam type of setting. It all sounds better than it actually read, however.

The characters are flat and not really helped by a narrator whose reading on the audio version was very wooden. Nhika does far too many "too stupid to live" actions while often being saved by deus ex machina situations. The love interest is the cliché rude smug emo boy - giving us no reason to really like him. Honestly, the romance in this is lifeless and very inexplicable; neither character's interest in the other realistic.

I think the big issue I had with the book is that the ideas and themes are very conflicted. E.g., everyone gets upset about a murder - and decide that murdering someone else is the answer. The heartsoothers are supposed to be life savers and in tune with nature but get their power from murdering animals, the bigger the better, to power their magic. It left a bad taste in my mouth and further disenfranchised me from the story.

I found that I just didn't like the characters and therefore lost interest in following the story. The murder mystery wasn't that compelling and everyone felt very immature or simplistic in their actions (there just wasn't a lot of depth). Compounding the issue was a very lifeless read from the narrator on the audio version, which I would not recommend. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

Thank you, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group | Roaring Brook Press and NetGalley, for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

Set in an industrial city called Theumas, Nhika is a bloodcarver, someone able to alter human biology just with a touch. Considered a monster, Nhika tries to survive conning patients with tinctures and lies, until, in the criminal underbelly where people and things are traded, she's captured. When a rich family buys her in order to discover what happened when their father died, Nhika is thrust into a world of riches and conspiracies. As she's more and more involved into the investigation, she starts to suspect a doctor's aide, Ven Kochin, an intriguing and contradictory person, who keeps trying to kick her out of their gilded world, but seems to be drawn to her at the same time. When Nhika discovers the truth, she will have to fight to protect herself and her loved ones.

The last bloodcarver is exactly what I was looking for in a book. Not only there's a medical magic system I absolutely loved, because it's the first time I've read something like that and it's highly original, but the whole worldbuilding and characterization is amazing.
Nhika is a brilliant MC and she's stubborn and fierce and lonely, struggling with her losses and the author does an amazing job underlining the losses a conquered country can suffer, how Nhika lost not only her family to time and illnesses, but also her inheritance, how violence and war can erase a country's past and pride.
Nhika's losses, her family, her magic system's lessons and her country, makes her feel unwanted, alone and lonely in a place where technology and science don't want to recognize magic and see people like her like monsters, dangerous and to use and discard and they seem fit.
In this kind of world, Nhika is only try to survive and belong and when she's involved in this investigation, her whole world is turned upside down, pushing her to know more people, to feel like she can belong in a little, fiercely protective, found family. And maybe finding someone she can trust and love.

The last bloodcarver has everything you could hope for in a book. Murder investigation, magic system inspired by medicine, fierce and sarcastic, very sassy MC, found family, found love and so much more it will leave you breathless and eager to read the next book!

This book was not what I expected but in a very good way! Though this is classified as YA, I would recommend this to adults and fantasy-lovers looking for something completely original. I especially would recommend this to fans of Six of Crows.

The Last Bloodcarver has a unique concept, a compelling storyline, amazing world building - and a snarky, unrelenting MC you can't help but love. I was on Nhika's side from page one and loved watching her grow and learn to trust.

The author does not hold back on showing violence or how insidious people can become, even when they believe their motives are justified. To me, this unsettling portrayal is what elevates the story beyond a survival or love story.

I really enjoyed the side characters of the Congmi family and would have even loved more of their relationships and dynamic. Unfortunately Kochin fell short for me as a romantic interest. I didn't really buy his character both before and after we learn about his past. I kept waiting for the shoe to drop, unable to trust him. If we had more exposure to him early on, or alternatively, if he hadn't shown kindness in the very beginning, it would have felt less disjointed.

That being said... The ending made me gasp!

I wrote about this on The Storygraph and Goodreads and sent links to various social media sites. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6379158581

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
—
Oh my goodness, where do I begin? First of all, thank you to Roaring Book Press, Macmillan Children’s and Vanessa Le for this amazing book! It was an honor to read it and I’m sorry my review is a bit late; life has been insane lately.


The Last Bloodcarver is a Vietnam-inspired urban fantasy that’s pitched as These Violent Delights meets Cinder and, my God, is that accurate. It has action, mystery, romance, really anything you could want in a book.


The concept for the, for lack of a better term, magic system is so freaking cool? It’s essentially a race of people that are able to alter the anatomy of the human body through touch, to heal, or to hurt. These people are called heartsooths, or to those that are unfamiliar or resentful toward them, bloodcarvers

The book opens with Nhika, a heartsooth trying to make ends meet under the guise of traditional medicine. If she’s discovered as a heartsooth, she’ll be captured and sold on the black market to the highest bidder. For what? Whatever the buyer wants. This is what ends up happening, and when she’s bought by the Congmi family, among the richest in the country, to heal an old family friend in a coma with a bad prognosis, she thinks she’s safe. Just this one job, and they’ll let her go. But when it turns out that this family friend is also the only witness to their father’s murder, Nhika realizes exactly what a dangerous situation she’s in. After all, if someone was willing to kill the richest man in the country, who else were they willing to kill to cover it up?


I absolutely loved the characters in this book, especially Nhika, Kochin, and Mimi. I loved how we got to see Nhika soften emotionally over the course of the book, and see her open herself up to those around her who she finds genuinely care about her. Kochin, we’re introduced to as someone we think is an enemy, but there’s more to him than meets the eye, which is a plot point I always adore. And Mimi, of course, is just adorable and witty and funny. She’s just a delight.


This book seriously kept me on my toes the whole time I read it, and I found myself hardly able to put it down after I got three quarters of the way through the book. It also left off on THE most illegal cliffhanger, which Vanessa Le, how dare you? It’s safe to say that I cannot wait for the second book in the duet, and I’ll be thinking about it until it comes out and I can finally see how Nhika’s story ends.

I received an advanced copy of The Last Bloodcarver from the publisher and Netgalley and am leaving this review voluntarily.

I absolutely loved The Last Bloodcarver. The world, the characters, the magic, everything about this book was exactly what I was looking for in a magical YA fantasy.

The world-building was on point. I loved the distinction between each of the areas and that they all had their own quirks and personalities. Often, when one has too many places in one's world, it's hard to keep track, but the author did a fantastic job of giving distinguishing features to every place we visited, setting each of them apart. The world was very well thought out, and I never felt like I didn't have enough information or that I was getting too much at once.

I adored Nhika. Though all the characters were very well done, I loved that she did what was best for her, even if it wasn't what others wanted. Too often, you see self-sacrificing heroes, which isn't a bad thing, but Nhika was a breath of fresh air, mainly because she lived in a world that was constantly doing her wrong. As big as her heart was and as caring as she was, she looked out for herself, and I loved that part of her personality. The romance aspect did leave something to be desired, but since it didn't take away from the story, I didn't mind it.

The magic was extremely interesting. I don't think I've ever read about something like bloodcarving before, and I love all the new magic systems that people create. It was described very well, and the medical aspects were incorporated in a way that was understandable and not overly complicated.

In essence, The Last Bloodcarver was an excellent book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys YA fantasy. I cannot wait for the next book in the series, as that ending hurt my heart.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this novel. 4.5/5 stars.

I wish I hadn't waited to read this until 1) after publication day and 2) after the stunning owlcrate edition I got because....I BINGED this. I read it SO QUICKLY because it's a quick read that sucks you in. Holy heck. I love the set up with the Hearthsoothers/Bloodcarvers and the effects it talks about with colonialism, the steam-punk elements, etc. Some of the science stuff and anatomy stuff I was like ?!?!?!?! but AH.

I really love how this was done. There were some questions about world building I had, but it's still done well for this only being a duology. It does touch on colonialism and "helping" those who don't have advanced medicine and tech as well.

TBH, I only docked it half a star because the ending was RUDE. SO RUDE. LIKE EXCUSE YOU??? HOW DARE YOU??? anyways, waiting for the next one now.

The Last Bloodcarver was an incredibly intriguing debut from Vanessa Le!! The premise of this Vietnamese-inspired fantasy novel and the concept of the magic system in this book was so unique and very cool to read about. I enjoyed following Nhika as a heartsooth and seeing her unravel the mystery that she's forced to solve. The plot twists and secrets that are revealed kept me hooked! It was also super interesting that this story was a lower-stakes story set in a much larger world, and really focused on the characters of this novel. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and am definitely looking forward to the sequel (especially after that cliffhanger at the end omg).

4.5. stars The Last Bloodcarver is a little bit Vietnamese folklore and a little bit Frankenstein wrapped up with a mystery/romantacy plot. and I loved it! Every time I thought I knew where the plot was going I would be kinda right, but then it would take a turn I didn't expect. This book is well paced, full of action. while also developing all of the characters to a great degree. I loved the main character, Nhika, and felt that the combination of magic and medical science was interesting! Honestly there is nothing more macabre than early medical science. No way around needing to cut up a body to see what is there. (I'm not exaggerating about the Frankenstein vibes! This is definitely one I will be waiting eagerly for the next installment!

I was SO into this book at the beginning! It has been nominated for a local reading program and I couldn't wait to finish so that I could second the nomination. But as the last 40-50 percent of the book dragged on, I lost my will to give it an endorsement. I know I could sell it to kids because it has a great premise and hook - healing, outlaw, murder! - but very few of them would keep reading due to the lengthy descriptions and fairly complex language. I like all the characters and they were developed enough for my taste to fulfill their point in the plot. I just wish there was some serious editing, particularly in the last 25% where the final plot is put into action. And good god! - where were Trin and Mimi in the hospital scene?! He said he would be there to back them up if he heard anything, and yet Dr. Shon had plenty of time to lock Nkiha in a coffin and begin cutting out a heart before anyone showed up to help? That was so frustrating, and felt like a contrivance to ramp up the tension. I'd put this more in the 2.5 star range, but rounded up.

My Views - The Last BloodCarver is a Vietnamese inspired YA fantasy book where Nhika is a BloodCarver who can alter human anatomy with just a touch of her hand. Her predecessors used this power to heal others and was known as Heart Soother but in the city of Theumas, she is known as cold-blooded killer and everyone is scared of her. One day she was captured by underground gangster group known as 'The Butchers' and was sold to one of the richest family in Theumas City, the CongMi family. There she gets to know that she has to use her healing abilities to heal the driver of the CongMi family , who was in an accident along with the head of this family. The father was dead in the accident but the driver is in coma and Mimi and her brother Andao,the children has brought Nhika in their Mansion to heal the driver to know more about the accident. But as Nhika delves deeper into the investigation, she begins to notice similarity between this job and her own dark past. And when she meets Van Kochin, the entitled physician's aide , he seems to drawn to her.
When Nhika discovers that Kochin is not who he claims to be, and there is an evil lurking in Theumas that doesn't stop with the murder of one man, she must decide where her heart truly lies and if she's willing to become the dreaded bloodcarver to save herself and ones she's vowed to protect.
The book is a debut YA fantasy with a mix of science and biology set in a Vietnamese inspired fantasy world. The pace of the book from the very beginning is very good and it is not boring anywhere throughout the book. The world building of the book is done really well. All the characters are very well written and Nhika as the main character is very interesting but she also has depth and maturity in her. The author, being from the human biology background herself, has beautifully used her knowledge in the book and it is written in simplified way so that the readers don't have any problem understanding.
The mystery part of the book is quite captivating and the climax part is quite unexpected and shocking. The book ends in a cliffhanger and you have to wait till the second book.
Overall, a very different kind of fantasy book based on biology and I really enjoyed reading it.

The Last Bloodcarver is a reminiscent of These Violent Delights and Cinder with a dash of Vietnam-inspired fantasy. This YA read combines Vietnamese culture into its story, offering a unique landscape for this plot.

This story is a fresh perspective, tackling themes of heritage and tradition while delivering a plot that kept me engaged from start to finish. The world-building is fantastic and I really enjoyed it.

What set The Last Bloodcarver apart from other YA books I've read recently is its ability to balance a gripping story with the enemies-to-lovers theme. Rather than focusing on just that relationship, Vanessa managed to keep the main story the focal point while having the relationship as the secondary thing that pushed the story forward. The character and relationship development was well done.

The story was a bit repetitive at some parts but it was minor. As the story wrapped up, I was left with goosebumps.

Overall, The Last Bloodcarver is a wonderful YA fantasy that balanced nicely with everything I look for in a YA read. Would recommend giving this a read.

Do not judge this book by it's cover. What I expected and what this book delivered were different - in a good way. I absolutely loved it!

The Last Bloodcarver follows Nhika, a heartsooth who lives and hides in a country that fears and reviles her for what she can do - connect with and heal or harm the body through magic and her touch. When she heals an old man's wife, he turns her over to the Butchers - black market dealera of goods and people. Nhika is desperate to escape when she's sold to a wealthy teenage girl and ends up drawn into an attempt to solve the murder of a wealthy, high profile inventor by healing the only witness to the crime.

Nhika is rightfully incensed by the demands placed on her by the people who both mistrust her for her gift and seek to use it for their benefit. She doesn't shy away from that anger, but she also doesn't allow her actions to be dictated by her anger alone. Yes, she longs to live in a world that is safer for her and people like her, but she also just wants to live, so she partners with the family to help them solve this mystery.

I love that Nhika doesn't shy away from making impossible choices. Over and over again, she's faced with circumstances where all of her options are terrible, but she chooses anyway. She doesn't allow herself to be paralyzed by fear or indecision. She exercises her agency and rolls with the consequences.

The story arc of this book is satisfying. There are twists and betrayals and an ending that appears to tie everything into a heartbreaking but neat little bow... until you get to the epilogue, and you realize this IS a duology and book 2 promises to be absolutely unhinged.

If you like anti-colonialist fantasy, a badass FMC who makes her own rules, and a morally gray MMC who would do anything for her, you'll absolutely love this book.

This book was so good! It hooked me in from the start. The plot is interesting, the cast compelling—however, I did note that there were some issues with pacing and overall quality.