Reviews tagging 'Grief'

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

23 reviews

donatio's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was a reread and even though I already knew what I was in for and knew how things would end, Schwab managed to catch and drag me into the worlds. 
She is one of my favourite authors and in my opinion just a master of storytelling, I can picture clearly in my head what happens and feel with the characters who feel a little like home by now. 
This is a book for the ones who like elemental magic, multiple POVs, thieees and adventures. 
100% recommend

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Gore, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Grief, Hate crime, Torture, Cursing, Death, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, and Grief

rinku's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Shades of Magic is quite the beloved series here on Goodreads, but I couldn’t give the first book, Four Shades of Magic, more than 3.5 stars. I had the feeling that the premise of this novel was so great, but the execution left a lot to be desired for me. 

In this story, the first character we follow is Kell. Kell is one of the two people being able to wander between the four different Londons that each have a different relationship with magic. The second main character is Lila, a thief from the normal London. After getting an artefact she isn’t supposed to have, they both have to work together to save the world. 

A big problem I had with Four Shades of Magic was its pacing. Almost the first half of the novel is just exposition, leading to a very slow beginning. Only after the half when the event mentioned in the synopsis happened, it got more interesting, and the story finally had a direction it was going in. Also, even though I hated the ending of the series, Foundryside executed the plot point of a thief stealing a magical object she wasn’t supposed to have much better. 

Furthermore, there were some things happening that I didn’t fully understand, and it was so cliché how the villains explain their plans in big detail to the main characters. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the ending as well;

Athos and Astrid just dying was a bit boring, and I really don’t like that Kell and Rhy are bounded to each other, this is just a plot point I personally don’t enjoy

. 

This all sounds quite critical if I’m honest, but I still liked the general plot and there were some great and impactful moments here and there, like

Barron’s death or Lila first being alone in White London, not knowing what she should do

. In general, there were quite a lot of deaths but there were just too many so that I started to not care about them anymore. 

Like I’ve said, the book is definitely carried by its settings and the world building. The different Londons are so interesting, and I liked the historical setting, even though it could’ve been utilized more, same goes for places besides London that were barely mentioned. The elemental magic was nothing to special but nice, nevertheless. 

At the beginning, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the MCs, Kell and Lila. They both are quite edgy and arrogant which made them a bit cringe and unlikable in my eyes. Only later, I started to appreciate them more, but I felt not such a strong connection to them like I felt to Addie. It was nice that we had no romance between them (yet?), and I enjoyed that Lila was more tomboy-ish. I’m wondering though if she’s

an Antari as well, we’ll see

. Another character that made me cringe was Rhy; his overly sexual nature was just a bit too much. In comparison to them, I really liked all the villains. The twins are so brutal and such great villains, but Holland is an interesting character as well. 

Even though I’m a bit critical towards the plot and the characters in Four Shades of Magic, I’ll read the next books of the series since the world is so interesting and creative. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Murder, Blood, and Torture

Moderate: Alcohol, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, and Police brutality

Minor: Death of parent and Kidnapping

zoeelora's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, and Self harm

Moderate: Alcohol, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Sexual content, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Sexual harassment, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Abandonment, Addiction, Child death, Child abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Misogyny, and Violence

stargazer_ley's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I'm quickly finding Schwab to be an author I enjoy reading. After finishing the Villious duology and seeing the blurb for this book in Vicious, I decided I had to read this one and I'm glad I did. Kell and Lila are as compelling as the mystery of the black stone. I'm quite interested in reading the rest of the trilogy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Violence, Blood, and Torture

Moderate: Slavery, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Classism, and Cursing

chronicacademia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Abandonment, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Cursing, Violence, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexism

Minor: Kidnapping

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Here's a book that feels like "first book of the series". I would probably be more annoyed by the worldbuilding and the (in case you forgot) asides, if the setting weren't so cool. This is a multiverse where there are 4 alternate versions of London, and only those with the right magical blood can open the doors between them. Each reality is distinct so it's not confusing, and good use is made of fantasy tropes so that the whole story is easy to read and accessible. The main themes involve things like duty, honesty, and why we are kind or brave when it might be smarter to just stay out of trouble.

Our main characters are a scrappy survivor whose dream is to be the Captain of her own pirate ship, and a red-headed mage with odd eyes, who is ward to the Royal Family of "Red London". The cast of support characters and nemeses, includes a savvy barkeep with a heart of gold, a charming fop who is the prince and adoptive brother of the mage, a brother/sister pair of scary sadistic royals, and a second broody mage guy who is scary indentured muscle, and not happy about it.

When a dangerous magical artifact gets smuggled into the wrong world, our characters are on a quest to return it to where it is supposed to be, or destroy it.. but like the 'precious' One Ring in LOTR, it's got this luring, dark-magical energy that corrupts those who use it...

I think the star of the show is the setting. The language in the book is easy to read while still peppered with odd sounding other languages. You get a few words here and there as they are learned by the characters. The magic system is explained mainly through explaining it to untalented or ignorant characters, which is a little clunky, but better than an encyclopedic info-dump. And there's this really cool coat that's multidimensional and can be turned inside out a zillion different ways to be different looking coats... ok.. maybe the coat is the star of the show.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Death, Slavery, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol and Confinement

ka_ke's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Its okay, but it didn’t grab my attention as some of the other books I’ve read this year. Will I read the rest of the series? Yes. Is it going to become a favourite? I doubt it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Classism, Gaslighting, Body horror, Grief, and Torture

Moderate: Death

Minor: Slavery and Fire/Fire injury

theslowreadernumber5's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Murder, Slavery, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, War, Alcohol, Cursing, Death of parent, Grief, Abandonment, Blood, Drug use, and Kidnapping

oliverreeds's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

p good. the character work is incredible

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Murder, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Sexual violence, Violence, and Torture

triin_s's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Self harm, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Minor: Grief, Kidnapping, and Sexual harassment