Reviews with content warning for Blood - A Conjuring of Light

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab

145 reviews

msradiosilence's review against another edition

5.0

Content Warnings

emily_zylstra02's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful fast-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: Complicated

Content Warnings

rinku's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The Shades of Magic series has honestly been a disappointment to me, and A Conjuring of Light is no exception. The magic and the world had so much potential but were held back by the unlikable characters and slow and uneventful plot.

Like I’ve said, the plot was progressing so slowly. It contains only one important element: the search for an object to defeat the great villain that was revealed in the last book of the series. In the first 200 pages, our main characters do nothing against him. Only after 300 pages, they start looking for this object. I can’t even tell you anymore what happened in those first pages besides some annoying banter between the main characters. This is so unfortunate since the world with the three Londons had so much potential. Sadly, we barely see any travelling between those worlds in the course of the story and spend most of the time in Red London.

The second half of the book was a bit better, but still rather uneventful, besides this random twist(?) that

Cora is a traitor and kills the queen and the king together with her brother

. This came so out of the blue and was a bit unbelievable. Additionally, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the ending because it’s wrapped up a bit too quickly;

they just defeat Osaron and not one of the main characters dies. The random explanation of Alcuard towards the end felt a bit misplaced as well

The characters are still the biggest problem I have with the series because I liked none of the main characters. I felt no connection for them which became clear when

Alucard’s sister died, and I felt no emotions

. The dynamic between them, especially Alucard and Kell, should probably be funny, but I was just annoyed by it. I also found it cringe that the characters drink a lot of alcohol and clean their nails with their knives just to show how cool they are.

I still can’t stand Lila; her “not like other girls” demeanour is so annoying and she’s just a boring character because she never fails at anything. Many things about her past and her as a person remain unexplained, just like Kell’s past. Besides Lila, there are just no female characters that play an important role which is so unfortunate. I also didn’t like the villain Osaron, he was so cliché and his POV was just cringe with him talking about wanting to be a god. The only character I liked was Hastra but everyone was so unnecessarily mean to him? Furthermore,

it was so predictable that he would die because none of the main characters could die, of course

The A Darker Shade of Magic series had so much potential, and I had high hopes for the series after enjoying Addie so much. It had an interesting concept with different worlds but after the first book, they barely play any important role and are not utilized. Instead, it focusses on its characters that were often too edgy and hence cringe for my taste and just rather unlikable. For the worldbuilding, the plot is just too simple as well which is all very unfortunate.

Content Warnings

arwen_ds's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

angelsowllibrarian's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional 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: Complicated

Content Warnings

takarakeireads's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark 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: Yes

The best of the series for sure! A strong conclusion to the trio. The characters are still the best part so this book being a convergence of a lot of the characters plot wise made it so fun to read. The world has and always will be fascinating to read about. The villain was good, but a bit repetitive. Audio narrators for book 2 and 3 are good.

Schwab is so fucking smart, leaving the story with Anoshe :')

Content Warnings

donatio's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring 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: Yes

This one was long. Like the other two before this was a reread, although I had less memory of how they actually get rid of Osaron.
Sometimes the book felt a bit too long, especially the first hundred pages or so but that does not take much from Schwab's writing style, it is just easy to forget that the scene cover barely a week and not, say, two.
On the other hand there are some things I forgot that had me shocked when I remembered.

I do wish we would have known what happened with Kelly's parents.

Every plotline had a logical and satisfying ending.
Recommend for being one of my favourite series.

Content Warnings