A review by nebraskanwriter
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This was middle of the road for me. Though this book was early in Schwab’s career, she already had the beautiful writing down pact. Lots of amazing descriptions, this book was very immersive. It was a super interesting concept as well that I found fascinating.

However, everything felt a bit rushed. We would meet a character and then a chapter later, they would be killed. The ending also felt very rushed as well, people were dropping like flies. I just felt like maybe we could have cut out some of the purple prose to flesh out the characters a little bit more.

I honestly found a lot of the more minor characters more interesting than Lila and Kell, who felt kind of cardboard-cut-out-esque in a way. They just felt very basic, they had their one character trait and that was that. But a lot of the other minor characters were way more complex and fascinating, morally gray. Yet we would only get them for a chapter or two.

So yup, just middle of the road for me. Schwab is starting to hone her craft here with her beautiful descriptions and vivid world building, the main characters just needed a little bit more fleshing out and the pacing to not be so rushed. 
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