A review by imaginaryalchemist
A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab

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

4.25

The Shades of Magic Trilogy comes to a close in A Conjuring of Light. It was a fun fantasy ride! 

I'll start with the things I did like. First, I love the characters. They had good chemistry and played off each other well. I enjoyed the banter between Kell and Alucard. I know some people didn't like Lila, but I did, I thought she was fun and pretty badass. I saw the romance between her and Kell coming a mile away but I still enjoyed it. I thought they were good together.

Speaking of romance, I loved the subplot with Rhy and Alucard. I feel VE Schwab handled it tastefully. Speaking as a queer person, queer romance often feels like it's pandering to us. 

I really wanted more time with these characters. In my opinion, Schwab's character writing is pretty strong. They felt like they could be real people, even the background characters. Rhy ended up being my favorite.
I nearly started crying when his parents died, I felt so bad for him. I wanted to reach into the book and give him a hug. My boy suffered so much.


Now for some of my criticisms. For the story, I enjoyed it overall but felt it dragged at some points. The ship voyage in particular seemed to go on for a bit too long. 

I also had a lot of unanswered questions at the end.
I was hoping Kell would naturally remember his past - since he was told the memory spell should wear off over time and he burned the note on how to remove it. I wanted to know where he actually came from, and what his birth name was. I also don't recall Lila's missing eye being fully addressed. I had a theory that the black stone that appeared in book one would end up being the eye. I haven't read the sequel trilogy so I don't know if the question is answered there.


So, overall I really liked this trilogy! It was the first thing I'd read from VE Schwab and I'll definitely read more of her work in the future. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings