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kathrynjean97 's review for:
A Darker Shade of Magic
by V.E. Schwab
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
”I’m not afraid of dying. But I am afraid of dying here. I’d rather die on an adventure than live standing still.”
A wonderfully unique and immersive universe, a la Schwab’s other works, but with a plot that leaves something to be desired.
VIBES
📍 Historical fantasy
📍 Parallel worlds
📍 Adventure
📍 Thieves and smugglers
📍 A multidimensional coat
📍 Light LGBT rep
📍 No cliffhanger
💬 Third person (limited), past tense
📍 Parallel worlds
📍 Adventure
📍 Thieves and smugglers
📍 A multidimensional coat
📍 Light LGBT rep
📍 No cliffhanger
💬 Third person (limited), past tense
THOUGHTS
The Good:
✅ The world building! I am consistently blown away by the power of VE Schwab’s imagination. A multiverse is no new concept, but Schwab breathes into it new life with unique worlds, languages, politics, and relationships to magic to be found in each London, and I have never seen multiversal travel approached like this.
✅ The characters are distinct and well rounded. There’s Kell, our stoic and quiet multiverse-traversing protagonist with an ambiguous past; Lila, our witty, snarky cross-dressing (maybe even gender-fluid) thief with a thirst for adventure; Holland, our antagonistic nemesis/ally with ambiguous loyalties; Rhy, our flirty, loud, and loving Prince; and a whole cast of side characters that are beautifully fleshed out with quirks or backstories despite their their lack of page time.
✅ The writing, as usual, is descriptive and immersive and a little bit humorous.
✅ Kell’s coat. I just love this strange little magical artefact. It’s written so casually that it becomes a character itself. And I love that Kell is prone to losing items because he forgets which side he pocketed them in.
The Bad:
❌ The pacing was a little off for me, personally. There was a lot of world building to be done early on, and it made the first 50% drag quite slow.
❌ The antagonists’ motivations didn’t feel convincing, or at least, they felt a little cliche (and that’s not a word I’d often use to describe Schwab’s work).
❌ The ending was a little bit anticlimactic, which is probably directly related to the above two criticisms. I felt thatboth the antagonists and the stone were disposed of too quickly and neatly. I enjoyed that, like Vicious, this ending means the book holds up as a standalone, but I was hoping for this conflict to play out across the whole trilogy.
4.0 🎙️
✅ The narration was incredibly immersive, all of the characters felt distinct, and the different worlds and languages sounded unique.
❌ Kell sounded like a middle-aged man and Lila sounded like a prepubescent boy, but they’re both supposed to be around 20 years old. The banter between them takes on different connotations because of it.
✅ The world building! I am consistently blown away by the power of VE Schwab’s imagination. A multiverse is no new concept, but Schwab breathes into it new life with unique worlds, languages, politics, and relationships to magic to be found in each London, and I have never seen multiversal travel approached like this.
✅ The characters are distinct and well rounded. There’s Kell, our stoic and quiet multiverse-traversing protagonist with an ambiguous past; Lila, our witty, snarky cross-dressing (maybe even gender-fluid) thief with a thirst for adventure; Holland, our antagonistic nemesis/ally with ambiguous loyalties; Rhy, our flirty, loud, and loving Prince; and a whole cast of side characters that are beautifully fleshed out with quirks or backstories despite their their lack of page time.
✅ The writing, as usual, is descriptive and immersive and a little bit humorous.
✅ Kell’s coat. I just love this strange little magical artefact. It’s written so casually that it becomes a character itself. And I love that Kell is prone to losing items because he forgets which side he pocketed them in.
The Bad:
❌ The pacing was a little off for me, personally. There was a lot of world building to be done early on, and it made the first 50% drag quite slow.
❌ The antagonists’ motivations didn’t feel convincing, or at least, they felt a little cliche (and that’s not a word I’d often use to describe Schwab’s work).
❌ The ending was a little bit anticlimactic, which is probably directly related to the above two criticisms. I felt that
4.0 🎙️
✅ The narration was incredibly immersive, all of the characters felt distinct, and the different worlds and languages sounded unique.
❌ Kell sounded like a middle-aged man and Lila sounded like a prepubescent boy, but they’re both supposed to be around 20 years old. The banter between them takes on different connotations because of it.
FAVOURITE QUOTES
Lila had been around cutthroats long enough to know that the ones you truly had to fear were the ones who gripped their guns loosely, like they’d been born holding them.
_____
“I grew up in the palace, but it is not my home. I was raised by the royals, but they are not my family, not my blood. I have worth to them and so they keep me, but that is not the same as belonging.”
[…]
“You have a house if not a home. You have people who care for you if not about you. You may not have everything you want, but I’d wager you have everything you could ever need, and you have the audacity to claim it all forfeit because it is not love.”
_____
“Some people steal to stay alive, and some steal to feel alive. Simple as that.”
_____
Delilah Bard looked like a king.
No, she thought, straightening. She looked like a conqueror.
_____
“Battles may be fought from the outside in, but wars are won from the inside out.”
_____
“What are you?” he asked, amazed.
Lila only shrugged. “Stubborn.”
_____
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence