Reviews tagging 'Child death'

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

25 reviews

saricostanzo's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, and Child abuse

horizonous's review against another edition

There's nothing really wrong with this book and I also can't say I didn't enjoy the first half.. it's just that I can't bring myself to pick it back up again. At least at the moment I have no desire to do so.. maye I'll change my mind in the future, but for now this is a DNF.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Blood

Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, Torture, and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Gun violence, and Medical content

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Blood, Death, Classism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, Murder, Torture, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Alcohol, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, War, Abandonment, and Physical abuse

saurahsaurus's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gun violence, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Child death

Minor: Abandonment and Torture

A short note regarding the sexual violence:

It is attempted, but not successful.

oliverreeds's review

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

mpbookreviews's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Body horror, Child death, and Violence

thedevilsivy's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.25

I think I would have rated A Darker Shade of Magic higher had I not gone into it expecting more. Both too little and too much knowledge was the cause of my lack of enjoyment. I expected something fantastical, with rich world building and I did get that, but I didn't expect it to feel so young, or for the characters to be quite so hard to love.

My final quibble is quite petty, but there were a fair few Americanisms that threw me out of the book a bit. I know that many of the Londons weren't 'my' London, and the time period ought to allow for some differences in vocabulary, but still I found it a little jarring.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Murder, Blood, Violence, Child death, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror

Moderate: Sexual assault

emohell's review

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

i will admit i’m predisposed towards loving ve schwab’s writing, and a darker shade of magic is no exception. with incredibly fast paced action and morally complex characters, this is a tense page turner that kept me screaming into my arm at every plot development. absolutely loved it, and i’m looking forward to jumping into the rest of the series!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Violence

Moderate: Death and Sexual assault

Minor: Child death and Death of parent

the main character is a special type of magic user that uses their blood to use more complex abilities. the cutting of hands or arms in order to use these powers is mentioned frequently, and is also used to describe injuries characters sustain as well. the sexual assault is never accomplished, although it is attempted and alluded to more than once.

mayday_the_cleric's review

adventurous lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

3.0

The story is about Kell, a dimension-hopping wizard, and Lila, a cunning thief, who must work together to bring a forbidden magical stone back to where it came from, all while dealing with plots and schemes from a pair of evil overlord twins from a different world.

The beginning chapters were highly intriguing by introducing and exploring 4 versions of Londons existing on different dimensions, and Kell is one of the few people who can travel between them. The excitement, however, kinda tapered off as the story dragged on. It relied too much on tropes and archetypes at times to push the plot forward, without doing anything more creative and engaging with them. This is especially true for some of the characters.
 

My favorites are Lila and Rhy. Combining Rhy's flirtatious and naive attitude with Lila's snarky humor, their future interactions are sure to be fun to read. There were also some great moments between Kell and Lila, and I was really invested in where Lila’s character was gonna go. I just kinda wish that the story made use of her more

and was the one to defeat one of the main antagonists

since I’ve been wanting to read stories with non-magical cunning underdogs defeating highly powerful bad guys. When she claimed she contributed half of the work of saving the kingdom, all I could think was ‘Really, Lila? Did you really do that? You felt more like the annoying, but sometimes useful sidekick that the main hero had to drag along for the journey more than a partner here.’ 

The most disappointing thing in this story is the main antagonists,

Holland and the Dane twins

. I was highly interested when they were first introduced, and I was ready to get to know more about them. Imagine how bummed out I was when the story didn’t explore them more and expand their characters

and just killed them off at the end. And their deaths were kinda underwhelming as well

. And don’t even get me started on Vitari, the black magic stuff.

When hearing how dangerous it was, I kinda expected that by the end, it would leave lasting and impactful consequences for the world(s) at large, but I guess not.

 Overall, the ending kinda wrapped up too neatly for me to feel satisfied. Not even sure if I would continue the series. We’ll see.  

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Content Warnings

Minor: Blood, Child death, Death, Murder, Self harm, Torture, and Violence

birthisacurse's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Blood, Death, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Child death