Reviews with content warning for Self harm - A Darker Shade of Magic

Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

116 reviews

maries_reads's review

adventurous 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? It's complicated

4.25

So I’ll be honest, this was slow going to get into (for me). I don’t think it was actually that it was slow I just took awhile to really get into it. After about 75 pages though I flew through it. As you can see my activity on this book I just jumped fully in after about 20%.

I like that this book didn’t end in a cliffhanger, but rather allowed for the series to really take on its own path for the next book. Don’t get me wrong I don’t mind a good cliffhanger, but I felt this plot line was wrapped up nicely, while still having a lot more story to tell.

Can’t wait to continue the series and see how some of these MCs and side characters grow!

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sirenricobooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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seastheday's review

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

2021: Pregnant / gave birth so it got lost in the shuffle
2024: decided to revisit this book- I had forgotten everything except for how icky the Dane Twins made me feel. The beginning was slow and the end was almost too fast. Things weren’t built up much and resolved way too quickly. The world building was excellent though. I like V.E. Schwab and I’m going to give the second book in the trilogy a chance. I found myself not really liking any of the characters, which is supposedly unusual for this book. I think I will like Lila more as the story continues. Kell just is a sacrificial idiot & I have hopes that he will grow more as a character.

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asiaunique's review

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adventurous dark 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? No

4.5

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olenvasynyt's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This book is everything I have been looking for in a fantasy story. I feel like the best way to describe this book was a really good dungeons and dragons campaign. Not only is the writing fantastic, but the worldbuilding and the magic system are both comfortingly familiar and totally unique at the same time. The magic involves traveling across worlds, spoken words and the bending of elements, and it’s done well because of the restrictions and the different amounts of magic for every person and every world. It adds to the worldbuilding because the different worlds have different amounts of magic which leads to them interacting with and using magic differently and it’s just really well thought out.

The characters! There are not a whole lot of main characters in this book (I feel like with some fantasy books there can be way to many) so you’re really able to follow everything well. As I said, this book gave me DND vibes and the main reason was the characters, especially Lila! Pirate / rogue / ninja vibes from her. She reminds me a lot of Celaena from TOG; I didn’t like Celaena in the beginning because she was kind of just a really brash, reckless and borderline rude girl, but as I learned more about her and saw how and why she fought I liked her a lot more. I definitely think when I learn her backstory I’ll fall in love with Lila just as I did with Celaena.

It is usually very hard for me to like a villain in a lot of fantasy books because they’re never as dark as I want them to be or they’re written as dark but they just come across as cheesy. But *oof*, I loved the villains in this book so much! Spoilers,

I will say the ending was a little lackluster to me mainly because I was upset with the twins dying because of how much I loved them as characters and villains. But Holland is for sure still alive, I refuse to think otherwise, (I say that now but I’ll probably jinx it because I really liked him too lmao) and I know if the first villains are this good then the ones that are coming will be even better.

This was the first book and I think it was just a such a good way to set up a series because of how well the world was portrayed and how the main plot began. It was simple because it was the pacing I think, but it was still exciting and you know the plot will just continue to unravel and mysteries will be solved. I’m so excited to continue reading this series!

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jupiterlee's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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wemilyebb's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

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

2.0

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thelunalibrarian's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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amhud1030's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

Content Warnings

av0universe's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense 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

3.75

This surprised in a good way. I was expecting to like it but it altered my brain chemistry in a sense. I felt like throwing up with some parts, but I'll like to continue with the series.
I've read some reviews here that say that they don't like Lila but I genuinely understand her and even like her. And Kell was a hell of a main character. I enjoyed reading about them a lot.

On the other hand, a friend that read it before me said that it could have been a standalone and I do agree, but let's see what happens on the second book.

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