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A review by samanthampg
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
5.0
Finally finished!
I had a lot of emotions while reading this book. Victoria Schwab is such an amazing writer and I had heard such overwhelmingly good things about this novel (series really) around booktube that I believed it would be the kind of book that changed my life. And it did.
I loved the story that Schwab was telling, it was unique and unlike anything I had read before. And anybody who has read anything by her knows that she is a beautiful writer. She has a talent for crafting the world around the reader and I was never at a loss to picture where they were exactly throughout the story. I adored her characters, her description, her world and just about everything about the way she writes.
I believe that my problems stem from expecting so much going into it. I felt that the novels plot was always on the verge of something dramatic happening and then it didn't. The build up was too slow for me and parts of the novel seemed pointless to include in the long run. Or perhaps I would have rather traded them for something that was more pulpy (is that even a word?) in terms of plot building.
I commend Schwabs ability to build the realtionship between chracters without using dialogue, because I am a big believer in actions are better than words. She showed Kell and Rhy's relationship through a balance of actions and words, I understood without a doubt that these two would die for each other and loved each other more than anybody else. However, I would have appreciated a bit more talking between characters (especially Lila/Kell) because there seemed to be an unfair balance between actions and wordsthat was weighted towards actions. I was unsure of where they stood with each other in the end. Do they have romatic feelings? Or is it strictly friendship? Perhaps it is neither? I was unclear at the end.
But overall, I really enjoyed this novel and I want to read the second one almost as quickly as I can. I'm captivated by this story, world and characters and would tell almost anybody to also read this novel!
I had a lot of emotions while reading this book. Victoria Schwab is such an amazing writer and I had heard such overwhelmingly good things about this novel (series really) around booktube that I believed it would be the kind of book that changed my life. And it did.
I loved the story that Schwab was telling, it was unique and unlike anything I had read before. And anybody who has read anything by her knows that she is a beautiful writer. She has a talent for crafting the world around the reader and I was never at a loss to picture where they were exactly throughout the story. I adored her characters, her description, her world and just about everything about the way she writes.
I believe that my problems stem from expecting so much going into it. I felt that the novels plot was always on the verge of something dramatic happening and then it didn't. The build up was too slow for me and parts of the novel seemed pointless to include in the long run. Or perhaps I would have rather traded them for something that was more pulpy (is that even a word?) in terms of plot building.
I commend Schwabs ability to build the realtionship between chracters without using dialogue, because I am a big believer in actions are better than words. She showed Kell and Rhy's relationship through a balance of actions and words, I understood without a doubt that these two would die for each other and loved each other more than anybody else. However, I would have appreciated a bit more talking between characters (especially Lila/Kell) because there seemed to be an unfair balance between actions and wordsthat was weighted towards actions. I was unsure of where they stood with each other in the end. Do they have romatic feelings? Or is it strictly friendship? Perhaps it is neither? I was unclear at the end.
But overall, I really enjoyed this novel and I want to read the second one almost as quickly as I can. I'm captivated by this story, world and characters and would tell almost anybody to also read this novel!