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A Gathering of Shadows
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Book 24 | A Gathering of Shadows (A Darker Shade of Magic #2) | Fantasy + YA
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Lisa
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rated it 3 stars
Feb 04, 2016 07:29PM
Here's our selection for March!
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Happy March, everyone!Here's my review of Gathering of Shadows. Not as good as the first one, I'm afraid. But left off in such a fashion that I have to read the next one to see what happens. Hopefully I'll remember what happened enough to care, by the time book 3 arrives...
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I don't know...nothing really happens for much of the book, plot wise. I suppose that would be okay if the character development that happens instead was worth it. But ultimately, I just found everyone kind of annoying. Lila is stupid and reckless. Kell is angsty and mopey. Rhy is kind of a jerk. Alucard was sort of interesting but mostly just a framework of a character that never quite developed. Everyone is self absorbed.
White London was interesting and I like what's brewing there. But the stunning turn at the end felt like a big whiplash inducing Cliffhanger moment in the worst sense of the word. I don't mind cliffhangers when I feel like there's been sufficient build up to that moment. But I'm left feeling like most of the book was boring and unnecessary, and completely unrelated to what happens in the end. It's not that the book was too long. It's that most of it was filler.
Writing was good, but between nonexistent plot and stupid characters that make me wanna slam their heads into the wall several times, I'm thinking this was a 2.5.
I don't know if chatting with Lindsey while reading the book influenced me to lower my rating for this book, 3 being a "meh" read for me. I was initially going to give the book 4 stars. The writing is competent, and the story moves quickly. But ultimately, as with Lindsey, my enjoyment of the story was tempered by my dislike for the characters.I do like that Lila is a different sort of heroine from the ones I've encountered in fantasy/urban fantasy. While reckless and impulsive, she's skilled enough to make her way through a world she's barely familiar with. At the same time, she deliberately puts herself (and those around her) into dangerous situations, and it's frustrating how little she seems to mature as a person. After learning about the scars on Alucard's wrists, she might have given a thought to the possibility of torture if she's ever caught. But it never seems to occur to her that she will have to take responsibility for her actions, which makes me feel a lack of concern for her welfare.
At the same time, Kell and Rhy's suffering, while real and with consequences, gets repetitive to read about. Alucard was probably the only character I truly liked in this book. So it's disappointing that I barely remember him and his plotline from the first book.
I ended up skimming the last few chapters. I had no interest in reading about Lila and Kell meeting up again. I didn't feel any real substance behind their attraction other than that they're fated to be together. (view spoiler)
I'll most likely read the third book, to see what happens. I hope too that the character development will be more to my liking, that Lila, Kell, and Rhy truly mature instead of continuing to act as petulant young adults.
I came right out of re-reading the first book (which was one of my favorites from last year) and went straight into this one, so that momentum probably influenced how much I liked this book. I do agree that Lila has gotten annoying. It bothers me that she keeps throwing herself into these terrible situations without any repercussions that would realistically cause her to grow as a character. That said, I also kind of respect her stubborn recklessness and find it just about as entertaining as I do annoying. I was happy to see that she is at least being forced to deal with her attachment issues on some level. Like M. said though, when it comes to her having to pay for her actions one day (view spoiler), my thoughts are just a big fat 'meh.' Not a lot happened plot-wise in this book, aside from the characters untangling the events of book one. The narrative was a lot more focused on the character's interactions and relationships with each other than on the plot itself... which would make me think the book was boring, usually. It didn't this time though. For some reason, I really enjoyed them all dealing with their mutual angst and budding (or renewed) relationships. I also really liked Rhy and wanted to see more of the story from his perspective, so I liked that we got that in the second book.
The thing that surprised me the most was the amount of worldbuilding that was in this book. A Darker Shade of Magic was a story about many worlds and how they interact with one another, but Gathering of Shadows primarily about exploring Red London's world and getting to know its beliefs and politics. Fantasy worlds can be difficult to write in a believable way (or maybe I just read a lot of YA that glosses right over world building outright, so I'm kind starved for it). I felt really immersed in the setting of this book though, and I'm interested to see how the author will bring together the Londons next time around.
I can see why everyone wasn't crazy about this one, and I can agree with all those points. Somehow though, despite that, I still really liked it.
I also really liked it, but agree it was not the most enthralling read. I feel like that sometimes happens with the middle books in a series, they just kind of serve as bridges from what happened in the first book to what happens in the future. I did find Lila somewhat more annoying in this book than the first, and I don't remember Alucard being mentioned in the first book, even though I reread it right before reading this one. I agree with Lindsey that the cliffhanger at the end seemed to come out of nowhere, however it has definitely hooked me into the series, and am now peeved that it will be who knows how long until the next book comes out!
I think I really do enjoy series more when I read them all at once instead of having to wait a year between publication dates! Not just for continuity (even though, Taryn, you mentioned not remembering Alucard from the first book) but for getting caught up in the emotion of a story.
