Reviews tagging 'War'

A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab

24 reviews

readingwithkaitlyn's review

adventurous sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Mental illness, Murder, Colonisation, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, War, Gore, Torture, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Suicide, Medical content, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Confinement, Child abuse, and Classism

Minor: Slavery, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Vomit, Homophobia, and Animal death

imaginaryalchemist's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-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

4.25

The Shades of Magic Trilogy comes to a close in A Conjuring of Light. It was a fun fantasy ride! 

I'll start with the things I did like. First, I love the characters. They had good chemistry and played off each other well. I enjoyed the banter between Kell and Alucard. I know some people didn't like Lila, but I did, I thought she was fun and pretty badass. I saw the romance between her and Kell coming a mile away but I still enjoyed it. I thought they were good together.

Speaking of romance, I loved the subplot with Rhy and Alucard. I feel VE Schwab handled it tastefully. Speaking as a queer person, queer romance often feels like it's pandering to us. 

I really wanted more time with these characters. In my opinion, Schwab's character writing is pretty strong. They felt like they could be real people, even the background characters. Rhy ended up being my favorite.

I nearly started crying when his parents died, I felt so bad for him. I wanted to reach into the book and give him a hug. My boy suffered so much.

Now for some of my criticisms. For the story, I enjoyed it overall but felt it dragged at some points. The ship voyage in particular seemed to go on for a bit too long. 

I also had a lot of unanswered questions at the end.

I was hoping Kell would naturally remember his past - since he was told the memory spell should wear off over time and he burned the note on how to remove it. I wanted to know where he actually came from, and what his birth name was. I also don't recall Lila's missing eye being fully addressed. I had a theory that the black stone that appeared in book one would end up being the eye. I haven't read the sequel trilogy so I don't know if the question is answered there.

So, overall I really liked this trilogy! It was the first thing I'd read from VE Schwab and I'll definitely read more of her work in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Confinement, Blood, Child death, Body horror, Death, Violence, War, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Alcohol and Cursing

smkoontz's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and War

Moderate: Child death, Violence, Murder, Body horror, and Death

mitchelldavis1997's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Abandonment, Sexual content, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Torture, and War

keya_caivalur's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and War

Minor: Suicide

whiterabbitslibrary's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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? No

4.5

Loved this, a great end to the series. But it was long and there was a lot happening. I had to keep going back to check things earlier in the book and even earlier in the series a couple of times. Just a warning that it’s a brain engaged kind of book! In the plus side we get so many delightfully fleshed out characters and some really good development for our main gang who I love deeply with all my heart.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Torture, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Violence, and War

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Child abuse, Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Child death, and Kidnapping

alysereadsbooks's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Listened to the audiobook and throughly enjoyed it. The author knows how to create a thoroughly hateable villain. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Grief, Gore, Violence, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Sexual assault

msradiosilence's review

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Torture, Classism, Death of parent, Blood, Cursing, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Alcohol, Body horror, Child death, and Grief

Moderate: War

Minor: Pregnancy and Sexual content

rdmoreland0801's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

Such a fitting end to this story.  The world was saved, but not without surmountable loss.

I wish these characters did not have to suffer so much to get the endings they deserved, but it made this story that much more beautiful.

We got magic, friendships, family, and love - but not without betrayal, death, torture, and suffering.

Kell and Lila sail off into the sunset, while Rhy and Alucard spend their time loving each other at the palace.  None of them thought they would end up where they did, but they all absolutely deserved it.

V.E. Schwab has a gift for making you fall in love with the characters and with the world in her stories.  I’m sad for this ending, but I know we will return to this world soon with her new series.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Death

iamkiaraayleen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Grief, Self harm, and Torture

Minor: War and Abandonment