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A review by judeandolin
A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab
3.0
I love Victoria Schwab's internet presence, her tweets, her videos on writing, her recent lecture (which made me cry because I'm a toddler). She inspires me to no end (while simultaneously making me never want to pick up a pen again out of defeat). Unfortunately, every time I've finished a book by her, I end up feeling a little underwhelmed. Her books are well written, with fabulous characters, witty dialogue, romance, tons of magic and action, etc., but something about them doesn't allow me to connect with them like I do with my favorite books.
This is all to say that I'm in the tiny minority that found this book very, very boring. It took me a year to finish (after setting it aside for months on end), and when I came back and bit the bullet, the events leading to the climax felt repetitive, dull, forced. There were characters dying left and right, but for the most inane, avoidable reasons. Rather than showing the horrors of war, it felt staged and silly. There were multiple chapters from POVs that just didn't matter. There were characters brought back from the dead (why???). And the worst part, every single one of Osaron's chapters was exactly the same: him coming up with a plan to destroy the pitiful humans and take control, him failing in a small way, him being amused by how weak humans are, him plotting to no avail, etc. I feel like the reason Osaron was so non-threatening was because his POVs were included. Reading his chapters, you could see how directionless he was as a villain. Yes, he was powerful and evil, but for the last 75% of the book, he was at a standstill. In one chapter his thought process pretty much goes Welp, those darned royals have really mucked up my plan to conquer the world. I guess I'll build an evil castle of darkness instead.
There were a ton of things never explored, and though they might be brought back in the new Threads of Magic series, it left this trilogy feeling hollow. Facets of Lila's personality, especially, were never really looked into, and she didn't grow as a character whatsoever, her skill was never tested to the max, she never learned control, etc. Kell didn't change much, either, except to finally. Change for Kell was probably impossible, anyway, since he was already just a ~precious cinnamon roll~ who could do no wrong and had no real faults.
A small portion of this book was also devoted to Holland's POV, detailing events in his life that made him the way he is (that is, depressive and standoffish). I didn't think they added much to the story unless you, as a reader, cared tremendously for Holland to begin with. Otherwise they were just unnecessary backstory better suited for prequel shorts.
In general, I felt like a ton of this book was fluff and didn't need to be included, but was in order to stretch out the page count or satisfy some bloodthirsty editor who thought there should be more deaths in a NA trilogy. Weirdly, I rated the second book (which was all fluff (and Kell/Lila smooching)) 5 stars. So it's not that I'm against unnecessary stuff, but it at least has to be exciting. A lot of this just... wasn't.
This is all to say that I'm in the tiny minority that found this book very, very boring. It took me a year to finish (after setting it aside for months on end), and when I came back and bit the bullet, the events leading to the climax felt repetitive, dull, forced. There were characters dying left and right, but for the most inane, avoidable reasons. Rather than showing the horrors of war, it felt staged and silly. There were multiple chapters from POVs that just didn't matter. There were characters brought back from the dead (why???). And the worst part, every single one of Osaron's chapters was exactly the same: him coming up with a plan to destroy the pitiful humans and take control, him failing in a small way, him being amused by how weak humans are, him plotting to no avail, etc. I feel like the reason Osaron was so non-threatening was because his POVs were included. Reading his chapters, you could see how directionless he was as a villain. Yes, he was powerful and evil, but for the last 75% of the book, he was at a standstill. In one chapter his thought process pretty much goes Welp, those darned royals have really mucked up my plan to conquer the world. I guess I'll build an evil castle of darkness instead.
There were a ton of things never explored, and though they might be brought back in the new Threads of Magic series, it left this trilogy feeling hollow. Facets of Lila's personality, especially, were never really looked into, and she didn't grow as a character whatsoever, her skill was never tested to the max, she never learned control, etc. Kell didn't change much, either, except to finally
Spoiler
"free" himself of his duty to the crown and take some time to explore the world at the endA small portion of this book was also devoted to Holland's POV, detailing events in his life that made him the way he is (that is, depressive and standoffish). I didn't think they added much to the story unless you, as a reader, cared tremendously for Holland to begin with. Otherwise they were just unnecessary backstory better suited for prequel shorts.
In general, I felt like a ton of this book was fluff and didn't need to be included, but was in order to stretch out the page count or satisfy some bloodthirsty editor who thought there should be more deaths in a NA trilogy. Weirdly, I rated the second book (which was all fluff (and Kell/Lila smooching)) 5 stars. So it's not that I'm against unnecessary stuff, but it at least has to be exciting. A lot of this just... wasn't.