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A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1)

V.E. Schwab,

Victoria Schwab

Start date: August 1, 2023

Finish date: August 31, 2023

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Jun 29, 2019 Celia Buell (semi hiatus) rated it liked it

Shelves: friendship, decisions, family, owned, home, romance, travel, historical, young-adult, fiction

A Darker Shade of Magic is a book that I've been meaning to read for a while, and have had on my shelf at home for about a year. The premise is very interesting: there are three versions of London, each with varying degrees of magic, and Kell and Holland are the only two people who can travel between worlds. Kell meets Lila, a street thief from the world without magic, when she robs him of a dangerous artifact and later saves his life, and then demands to traverse the worlds with him to destroy A Darker Shade of Magic is a book that I've been meaning to read for a while, and have had on my shelf at home for about a year. The premise is very interesting: there are three versions of London, each with varying degrees of magic, and Kell and Holland are the only two people who can travel between worlds. Kell meets Lila, a street thief from the world without magic, when she robs him of a dangerous artifact and later saves his life, and then demands to traverse the worlds with him to destroy the artifact.

Kell's journey starts and ends in Red London, where the use of magic is carefully balanced and limited. As he jumps between Red London; White London, where the rulers believe they can control magic; and Grey London, the world without any magic, the story has the feel of a bad video game.

The story is divided into thirteen separate parts with 20-30 pages per part, which just increases the game-like feel of the novel. It's like how some games have different levels, but things don't really change. There's a lot of meaningless action and battles, and not much else.

I didn't start the novel as a fan of Kell. I felt his perspective was kind of boring and flat. Holland intrigued me, but I didn't really like his character either. I did, however, like Lila and the way she slowly learned to stop closing herself off to the world and be the bigger person.

A lot of books have a weak beginning but get better as the story goes on, and then the end is much better than the start. I had thought this would be the case with A Darker Shade of Magic because from parts 8-10, the amount of action versus plot was just right. I was hoping the story would get better from there, but then it just kind of fell flat again. The climax was pretty anticlimactic and not really a great direction for setting up a sequel, and the resolution left a lot of gaps.

I find series where the main problem gets solved or the main villain is defeated early on can be hard to continue with. I'm always confused about how that sets up for a following book if everything is solved, especially in fantasy.

Still, however, I would be interested to read the sequel and see if the overall storyline becomes any more appealing. It's not a high priority in terms of series to finish, though. ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

Aug 12, 2023 Alicia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: witches-sorcerers-mages, finally-read-it, signed-copy, city-library, elementals, fighty-chicks, fantasy, audiobook

Lila Bard!
She’s such a firecracker. If you get a chance to listen to the audiobook, her accent is well worth it.
This is set in a world (many worlds?) of parallel Londons. There are four, and the doors between have been bared, except to the Antari. The last two blood magicians alive are able to travel between them, ferrying messages between the monarchs of each respective London.
Kell is one such traveller, and most of the story features around him. Lila is a pick pocket trying to fund her own s ...more

2 likes · Like · see review