Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Una magia más oscura

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Una magia más oscura by V.E. Schwab

138 reviews

meg_leigh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I love everything Schwab writes, and this is no different. I am so excited there are three more books in this series for me to read now.

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moondragon8's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I'm putting the TL;DR up at the top, because I tend to ramble. TL;DR: Would probably be an excellent book for other people, unfortunately only a fairly good book for me.

I'm gonna be honest: I picked this one up mostly because I dabble frequently in Fallen London, and the premise of more Weird Londons seemed very in line with my taste. Unfortunately, this was not nearly as Londony as I had hoped, despite the high rate of Londons per London, and I had forgotten I kinda hate high fantasy.

Okay, hate is a strong word. To the book's credit: the prose is strong, there's a few really beautiful lines, and the worldbuilding is very solid and interesting, and conveyed in a way that isn't overwhelming but doesn't leave you in the dark. However, to me it seemed that the focus given to the (very rich and engaging!) world meant that the characters were sort of left to the wayside.

That's not to say there weren't some fun characters. Lila, the top hat wearing wannabe-pirate, was very fun, and arguably had a little character arc. I also liked the rakish Prince Rhy, when we saw him, and there were a couple very classically Londony side characters. (The weird (Danish?) regents of White London were good villains but deeply unpleasant characters– they gave me Game of Thrones vibes, which is a part of the British literary canon I could do without. Also, vaguely weird that they're Fantasy Danish and their magical attack dog is named Holland?? Were there Implications there I wasn't getting?)

Kell, though, was kind of a blank slate, which was a bit disappointing. He did spend a good portion of the book

being possessed by a One Ring-esque chunk of rock

, and like 90% of it bleeding (really remarkable that the poor guy had any blood left by the end), and I guess that if I can't find any actual character in a main character, him being fucked up and covered in blood is a decent substitute. (I'm not kidding about this. I have rather weird tastes.)

My final note is that I was initially a bit concerned to see that this was a trilogy, but in the end was quite satisfied with how all the plot threads wrapped up. This book was a fun step outside my comfort zone, but it didn't force me to keep reading if I wasn't feeling it, which I really appreciated. I was a little disappointed to

never get to see Black London, and that they killed off Holland like that (or did they?? unclear, but his treatment both in-universe and narratively still left a bad taste in my mouth)

, but I'll live.

Lila's pirate adventures seem fun to read about, and

I'm glad those who enjoyed this book will have more to read in this world, but I'm happy to leave it here.

(...Actually, I just realized they do leave one mystery hanging— something about Kell's special knife having K. L. on it, and the mystery of his origins, is mentioned at the beginning and then kinda dropped throughout and never explained or even brought up, which is probably why I didn't recall it until literally just now. Ah well.)

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neverlandingonabook's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

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

4.0

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vagorsol's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? Yes

5.0

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ninkendo64's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

okay. But like. Lila is also obviously an Antari, right? Her human parents just assumed her eye died or something and had it removed when she was young, right?

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readabookortwo's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.25

"I would rather die on an adventure than live standing still"

A Darker Shade Of Magic is a book that I love. Me and this book have a history honestly but I absolutely love this book so god damn much!!! I think it's the perfect introduction to the series, introduces all of these interesting characters and ideas that are then developed throughout without ending on an Earth shattering cliffhanger. I think it's truly a special and magical book and I really love it!!!

I think Kell is the perfect main character for this book and series. I mean, don't get me wrong, he absolutely stresses me out to high hell but he's truly such a kind and compassionate person that is trying to do the right thing at least 90% of the time okay!!! I like the way that he recognises he's in royalty and knows he is privileged but he feels like he belongs to the royal family, like hes a possession that doesn't have his own life and will which is very important when it comes to the favourite character I'm going to discuss but I truly love Kell so much!!! I love that much of this book and series as a whole; conflicts come from Kell making mistakes and fixing them, it makes him feel so human and the whole series feel grounded and real.

"No one suffers as beautifully as you."

My favourite character is absolutely Holland - and I know I know okay, maybe its because I have read the whole series but I really love Holland. Hes such a well written character that is so wrapped in tragedy. Holland is in a world whwre he is just trying to survive, he is trying to survive the horrors that are inacted upon him and they are horrors. I love the fact that him and Kell are complete opposites of each other; Kell has been bought up with love, Holland with torture. Kell has free will, Holland is bound to someone. Kell smalls of flowers and life, Holland smells of Ash and blood. The two are opposites sides of the same coin and I love the way they and their relationship is written. The one line of this book that makes me cry is when Kell impales Holland and says that basically Holland stopped fighting for a second and let him that all Holland feels when it happens is relief, he's finally on his way out and his only freedom can be in death, like afterwards when Kell and Lila are talking and Lila says how she hopes Kell made him suffer and Kell thinks no because Holland has suffered long enough. Hes such a god damn tragic character who absolutely breaks and continues to break my heart throughout and I adore him so much.

"The first thing about magic that you have to understand, Lila, is that it is not inanimate. It is alive. Alive in a different way than you or I but still very much alive."

I like Lila a lot!! I'm not as enamored with her as everyone else especially in this book but I do really like!! She is so strong and cool and clever and I love that her biggest ambition is to see the world, to not feel so trapped in her own situation but god damn it she actually frustrates me so much in some places in this book and I just wish sometimes she would actually listen to other people but overall I really like her and I think she gets better as the books go on.

The twins are absolutely scary as fuck. They're so evil bad twisted and absolutely perfectly written villains. They're not even in much of the book but it's like you can feel their shadows, how eerie and creepy they are from their first appearance through the 200 pages they're not even in and I think that's what makes them so well written.

I love Rhy SO MUCH!!! He's my second favourite character of the entire series, hes such a beautiful and sweet soul, I love how happy he is at the start and hate how that all gets stripped away from him. I love how much he loves and respects Kell, even though they're not blood related he has never seen Kell as anyone but a brother you can tell how much he loves him, how much he aspires to be like him. He breaks my heart and also warms my heart the way he never wants Kell to have to bleed for him or cause him any kind of pain, I just love him so god damn much he absolutely is a sunshine and shines super brightly.

I absolutely love the world building in this series, the way the four Londons are crafted is nothing short of brilliant.
I love how each London is assigned a colour and it's so interesting to compare the connotations of that colour to each London. When you think of grey, it's such a dreary really nothing colour and that matches grey London so well especially compared to the others; it's the dull London that has no magic and its closest to our, real London. Whereas when you think of white it's the colour of purity, safety which when you think of white London, absolutely doesn't represent that but white is also associated with coldness, emptiness which does then match up with white London and I find that so interesting! Black London is obviously the London we know the least about, the cut off London, the one everyone is scared of, it's like a black hole, it holds those connotations of horror, of darkness. Whereas Red London is what I find most interesting where of course red has connotations of love it is thought of as anger, hatred, aggression and war where red London is meant to be the London that's thriving and it is, its where magic is not something to be scared of, the whole city is happy and thriving and yet red London is the one that has caused all other Londons to suffer it's the one that cut itself off and left mostly white London to suffer at the hands of black London and I think that is such an important piece of information and world building to hold onto.

I think the plot of this book is interesting, yes there is 100 pages of set up and introduction but I think that's absolutely a good, needed thing it sets up the story and the conflict as well as getting to know these characters!! I also like that despite being book one of a series, it's a book that wraps itself up so nicely so if you didnt want to continue on, you don't have to or can leave it for a little while before coming back.

Overall, I absolutely adore this book it's the start to one of my favourite series ever and it still fills me with the magic and warmth it did!! I just love it so much and think Schwab is a fantastic author!!

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