A review by howlinglibraries
Shades of Magic Vol. 1: The Steel Prince by V.E. Schwab

adventurous dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

 I've been missing the Shades series and characters lately, so I thought it was high time that I read the graphic novel series following Maxim in his younger days. This was incredibly fast-paced and fascinating! I love prequels and getting to go back into the past to learn more about a world I've already spent so much time falling in love with, and The Steel Prince has a wonderful coupling of both old and new details and characters. While this first volume didn't explicitly spoil the main trilogy, I would definitely recommend waiting until after finishing A Conjuring of Light before picking up this graphic novel series.

My only complaint was that I thought the art style was a little dark and muddled during the big fight scenes, so it sometimes was difficult to follow along with exactly what was happening, but I think that could easily be a "me" issue more than a problem with the book.

✨ Representation: the members of the Maresh family are Black; multiple BIPOC side characters; one on-page sapphic side character 
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