Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab

19 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

kittykels's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I really struggled to complete this series, especially this last book. It amazes me that a book can be simultaneously captivating and boring. I have a hard time putting into words how I feel about it. The world and characters are full of magic and intrigue, yet the writing tends to extend too far, dragging you past the point of interest and into boredom. I want so badly to love this series and everything that happens in it, but it was a chore to read it through to the end. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Suicide, Death, Alcohol, Violence, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

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

takarakei's review against another edition

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

4.5

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 :')

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Self harm and Suicide

softwindflower's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Death of parent

Moderate: Homophobia, Suicide, and Torture

Minor: Alcoholism

dlangetreacy's review

adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Outing, Blood, Violence, Homophobia, Suicide, Death, and Death of parent

incrediblemelk's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Having picked up A Darker Shade of Magic at random a few years ago and enjoyed it, I borrowed the sequel A Gathering of Shadows from the library and found it very gripping to the point that when I got to the cliffhanger ending, I ran straight to the library and borrowed  this, the final book in the trilogy.

I read it in several long luxurious binges. It’s very dramatic and I enjoyed the worldbuilding. The ultimate ending was never in doubt but I found myself sometimes surprised by some of the plot twists. Schwab isn’t afraid to kill off characters to raise the stakes.

That said, this is a very chunky novel and I found myself noticing some of the schlockier moments that pad out the writing. eg people don’t have ‘hair’ when they can have ‘curls’

and there’s a lot of lavish description of the colours and textures of things, and that trope which always annoys me in fantasy fiction of people’s eye colours changing like mood rings.

I don’t think we really needed chapters from Osaron’s perspective as it (he?) was a dull character with only one motivation – consuming power. And it felt like several threads in the novel (to take up the ‘threads of magic’ metaphor that was riffed on again and again here, having never been a major focus of the previous two books) weren’t followed through, eg the Grey London plotline was squared away very briskly and the questions about Kell’s and Lila’s mysterious pasts were brushed over.

Which I guess is fine – I am always complaining that people need every tiny thing in a story explained away to them and so it’s good that some things are left mysterious for the reader to ponder.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Homophobia

latida94's review

adventurous challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

A real rollercoaster on this one. The ending made me cry, as it perfectly captured the feeling of goodbye.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide

sofiadanielle's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

Ah, the world of Shades of Magic completed and done. I’m honestly saddened by the loss, but so entirely grateful to have read the series. 

For me, A Conjuring of Light was definitely the strongest book of the trilogy. Schwab makes 600+ pages fly by- almost in a way that I wish I could slow it all down. 

I think I’ll remember this story for a very long time; I’ll hold these characters close with me. 

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Suicide and Outing

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Sexual content and Body horror

Minor: Abandonment, Pregnancy, Classism, Suicide, Homophobia, Alcohol, Cursing, Confinement, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury