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

adventurous lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The story is about Kell, a dimension-hopping wizard, and Lila, a cunning thief, who must work together to bring a forbidden magical stone back to where it came from, all while dealing with plots and schemes from a pair of evil overlord twins from a different world.

The beginning chapters were highly intriguing by introducing and exploring 4 versions of Londons existing on different dimensions, and Kell is one of the few people who can travel between them. The excitement, however, kinda tapered off as the story dragged on. It relied too much on tropes and archetypes at times to push the plot forward, without doing anything more creative and engaging with them. This is especially true for some of the characters.
 
My favorites are Lila and Rhy. Combining Rhy's flirtatious and naive attitude with Lila's snarky humor, their future interactions are sure to be fun to read. There were also some great moments between Kell and Lila, and I was really invested in where Lila’s character was gonna go. I just kinda wish that the story made use of her more
and was the one to defeat one of the main antagonists
since I’ve been wanting to read stories with non-magical cunning underdogs defeating highly powerful bad guys. When she claimed she contributed half of the work of saving the kingdom, all I could think was ‘Really, Lila? Did you really do that? You felt more like the annoying, but sometimes useful sidekick that the main hero had to drag along for the journey more than a partner here.’ 

The most disappointing thing in this story is the main antagonists,
Holland and the Dane twins
. I was highly interested when they were first introduced, and I was ready to get to know more about them. Imagine how bummed out I was when the story didn’t explore them more and expand their characters
and just killed them off at the end. And their deaths were kinda underwhelming as well
. And don’t even get me started on Vitari, the black magic stuff.
When hearing how dangerous it was, I kinda expected that by the end, it would leave lasting and impactful consequences for the world(s) at large, but I guess not.


 Overall, the ending kinda wrapped up too neatly for me to feel satisfied. Not even sure if I would continue the series. We’ll see.  
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