Reviews with content warning for Violence - Die Beschwörung des Lichts

Magia pură nu are formă, corp sau conştiinţă. Ea există pur şi simplu, o forţă a naturii, sângele lumii noastre, măduva oaselor noastre. Noi îi dăm forma, dar nu trebuie să-i dăm niciodată sufletul.

În acest ultim volum personajele evoluează foarte mult, acțiunea este foarte alertă, iar interacțiunile dintre personaje sunt savuroase. Mi-a plăcut foarte mult ultima jumătate în care Kell, Lila, Holland și Alucard au lucrat împreună pentru a-l învinge pe Osaron. Alt lucru care a adăugat un plus volumului a fost existența mai multor perspective din partea unor personaje secundare.

Kell - X

Reușește să își găsească locul în familia regală. Regele și regina își arată în sfârșit aprecierea pentru serviciile sale și nu numai. Deși are șansa de a descoperi care a fost familia lui biologică, preferă să nu o facă pentru că ajunge să considere familia regală familia lui. Am privit cu interes prietenia care apare între Kell și Holland și suportul pe care i-l oferă Kell celuilalt antari. Tot nu sunt convinsă de relația lui cu Lila.

Lilla - Russian Roulette
E mult mai ok în acest volum. Acceptă prietenia celor din jur și nu mai ia decizii chiar atât de proaste.

Am fost curioasă de ce bătrâna i-a oferit ochiul de antari, dar poate o să descopăr în viitoarea serie.

Rhy - Love me like I'm sick

Chiar devine un rege resposabil, capabil să ia decizii, să conducă. A fost foarte curajos când l-a înfruntat pe Osaron și a ieșit în oraș pentru a găsi argintați. În plus, mi-a plăcut și relația lui cu Alucard.

Nu! îl întrerupse el. N-o să-i las să creadă că Maresh i-a abandonat. N-o să mă ascund în palatul ăsta protejat, când pot să merg fără teamă pe străzile alea. Când pot să le amintesc oamenilor noştri că nu sunt singuri, că eu lupt cu ei, pentru ei. Când s-ar putea să fiu doborât, dar mă voi ridica din nou şi, astfel, să le arăt că speranţa e nemuritoare. Asta pot să fac eu pentru oraşul meu şi am s-o fac cu bucurie. Nu e nevoie să mă protejaţi de întuneric. Nu-mi mai poate face rău. Nimic nu mai poate.

Holland - Punching Bag
Dacă după ce am citit volumul 2 am zis că Kell e personajul meu favorit, se pare că m-am răzgândit. Holland a devenit personajul meu preferat al seriei. A trecut prin multe pentru a-și vedea visul îndeplinit.

Din păcate, el a murit iar lumea lui a rămas în același stadiu ca la începutul primului volum.

Tot ce voise Holland fusese să-şi vadă lumea din nou bine.

Finalul nu a fost suficient. Londrele nu au suferit vreo schimbare majoră dpdv. magic. În plus, cred că nu a fost o idee bună să îl trimită pe Osaron în Londra Cenușie sub protecția lui Ned. Abia aștept să citesc următoarea serie din univers.

Cred că aș mai citi seria asta o dată de la început. Anoshe.

Content Warnings

maira_h's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

3 stars!

This 3rd book is much more high-stakes and action-packed than the 2nd book, in my opinion. Not only that, the plot felt like it finally had an aim. However, I do feel like this book could have been shorter because it really took a while for the pace to pick up. It wasn't until after 400 pages that the plot got intriguing. In fact, I feel like this trilogy could have been shorter as a whole. Instead of a trilogy, it could have been a duology. With how much the internet gushes about this series, I know my opinion is probably in the minority. Don't get me wrong, this series is quite entertaining, but there are a few things that I wished Schwab would have done differently.

Firstly, the world-building felt quite small and narrow despite how select characters were able to travel to parallel universes. I know the reason the conflict was confined to London was because London was supposedly a source of magic and Osaron's power supposedly had its limits. However, we barely got to see beyond that. I wished we got more of Faro and Vesk because it felt like such wasted potential. We were so focused on this evil manifestation of magic that we were robbed of some really intriguing politics.

Secondly, I really struggled with how loose the magic system is. The magic system didn't really have any structure to it. For example, how the heck did these Antaris learned their spells. From what I've read of Holland's past, the spells seemed like they simply appeared in his mind..? If they learnt it from books/ teachers, these details were barely touched upon. A lot of the spells/ magical trinket/ rules felt like they were pulled conveniently out of thin air. I also really disliked how Lila seemed to be able to grasped everything really easily. Mind you, she only learned magic a few months ago. Somehow, she was the only one who didn't suffer any consequences and was able to do whatever she liked, which I thought was really biased of Schwab.

Thirdly, let's talk about the characters. I quite liked the dynamic between Kell, Lila, Alucard, Rhy and Holland whenever they are together bickering, bantering or solving problems together. However, as individuals, they left much to be desired. It was obvious that Lila is the author's favourite. She could do anything she wanted without any consequences. Also, Holland deserved so much better than he was given. The fact that everyone blamed him when he had no control over his own actions was a little bit unfair. Alucard barely got any scenes/ development of his own, which was a little bit laughable. There were a lot of side characters who were just really forgettable. Schwab tried to make me feel something for them but alas, they were not developed as much for me to feel much of anything. Certain deaths happened more for impact than to move the plot forward, in my opinion.

Anyways, this series as a whole is a solid 3 stars for me. Entertaining but some things could be done differently.

I don't know why these absolutely hyped books kept missing their mark with me but, oh well.

Content Warnings

rhythmofryn's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.25

I was *so* close to DNF with this book because once I got to the 40% mark, it got REAL slow.

the quest with Alucard, Kell, and Lila heading out by themselves really breaks the tension because the real drama is about Red London crumbling so their whole pirate adventure was lost on me

I pushed through because I really wanted to know what happened at the end of the series and it did pick up a lot at around the 80% mark.

This is a BLEAK book and that’s not a huge surprise from the other two books but it gets worse in this book. Good characters are cut down

poor Rhy is put through the wringer even more

and it’s rough. I’m not really an enjoyer of bleak books and that definitely dragged down my rating.

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writteninthebooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

Content Warnings

ashlightgrayson's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

I'm so happy I picked up this series. We had time to explore each characer more deeply in this last installment. The book was long but didn't feel like it dragged on. It always felt like events occuring in the plot held a weight of importance to them (because indeed they did). All the character arcs that started in book 1 were all concluded in a satisfying way in this final installment. Even Holland, who I would be hard pressed to call likeable, was interesting all the way through.

My favorite moments in the book are the emotionally raw moments of loss and grief that are experienced by the main cast. There is a war happening with thousands of lives at stake and the emotional gravity of that is not left to the wayside. There is a lot of death, and loss. The book gives you time to feel the emotional impact all of this has on the characters. It did nothing but make me love and appreciate them more.

Just as a side note, there is commentary about homophobia and queerphobia within this installment. I found this very compelling and I felt that it gave some much needed depth to an already interesting character.

Additionally, I love the banter between all of the characeters. I would say the scenes between Allucard and Kell are probably my favorite. Mutual annoyance and respect never looked more entertaining. I am excited to pick up more books by V.E. Schwab. I can confidently say she is one of my favorite writers.

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