Reviews with content warning for Violence - A Conjuring of Light

a good conclusion, but it definitely could've way better. however, i definitely enjoyed this WAYYY more than the second book. the only reason why it's 0.25 stars lower than the first is because i felt like the first book wrapped things up a lot better than this book.
there were some really good things that happened, such as

holland's backstory, which really stole the show for me. i also enjoyed how high the stakes felt. my favourite moment was probably when alucard walked in on kell and lila; that was absolutely hilarious

the romance also ate, i enjoyed seeing them together 😮‍💨

however, there were many unanswered questions and unexplained things. like

kell's backstory? lila's backstory? why is she an antari? what is the full backstory of how black london got cut off from the rest of the londons? why on earth would grey london be mentioned multiple times but end up having no value at all? what was the point of all the random povs throughout the story? also, how did osaron come to be? idk man, i just wasn't impressed by him at all. it felt like another generic shadowy dark monster/demon. i was also expecting some big twist or something to happen at the end, but no, everything went pretty much according to plan.

overall, this whole series feels incomplete and paced really weirdly. it was quite fun tho, and i really enjoyed the magic system and world. at the end, i did end up liking the characters, especially

holland

but i don't think that ill be thinking of them anytime soon 🩸

i think this series had a lot of potential, but sadly it just ended feeling very lackluster to me

Content Warnings

imaginaryalchemist's review

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

smkoontz's review

Go to review page

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

Content Warnings

zoeelora's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

5.0

Content Warnings

laurenleigh's review

Go to review page

dark 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? Yes

5.0

This series really does deliver. It’s as good as everyone says it is! The third book here is definitely darker with higher stakes. Nonetheless, there’s still banter and punchy one-liners like the other books. The pacing got a little slow for me in the middle, but the last third or so was so engaging. Schwab is excellent at writing morally grey characters that I truly adore. They really come to life, and I feel like I know them all. I’m so happy there’s a new series in this world so I don’t have to say goodbye to it!

Content Warnings

readingbee416's review

Go to review page

Zero character development (except for one), zero explanation for characters backgrounds and their motivations (except for one), too much gloom and doom, too many poor decisions on behalf of the characters. This series had so much potential and has turned out to be so very disappointing. Why make three Londons and never explore them? Painful.

Content Warnings

More...