A Darker Shade of Magic

 

Following is my review of the wonderful A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab, bought by myself for a school book club. Hope you enjoy!




A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Published: 24 February 2015
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy

And so Kell—inspired by the lost city known to all as Black London—
had given each remaining capital a color.
Grey for the magic-less city.
Red, for the healthy empire.
White, for the starving world.

I debated whether or not to give this book four or five stars, as though it was one of my favorite books I’ve read this year, it took me awhile to get into. The first hundred pages or so felt as if they stretched on forever, almost too slow. Yet, the rest of the book made up for it, especially with Schwab’s fabulous writing, thus the reasoning behind why I gave it five rather than four.

Now, before I get into the specifics of the book itself, Schwab has been one of my favorite authors for quite a time now. Her writing is just so powerful and her characterization is always on point. She actually makes me truly care for the characters, and that is something that rarely happens to me. She’s always bringing a new outlook to everything, thus making everything she writes incredibly unique. 

A Darker Shade of Magic is just as beautiful as it is on the inside as it is on the outside. It’s magical, sensational and absolutely breath-taking. It’s an incredibly mix of world-building, beautiful language and wonderful characters that you love to hate. The story follows the idea that there are three different Londons, which used to be four before Black London crumbled on itself, the magic destroying the city. Due to this, the doors that were once open between the worlds for people to pass on through closed and everyone was stuck in their own London. Now, only the Antari have the ability to move in between the different worlds. 

“He was, after all, Antari.
And Antari could speak to blood. To life. To magic itself. The first and final element, the one that lived in all and was of none.“ 

Kell is an Antari who works for the royal family in Red London, delivering messages between the different royal families. Currently, there are only two known Antari’s, Kell being one of them, as well as Rolland, who works for White London (who, may I add, is a wonderful character even though he may not be the nicest guy). Along his travels, Kell meets the wonderful and ever so dashing Delilah Bard, who is a cross dressing girl who wishes to be a pirate. Which is hella cool, like who wouldn’t want to be a pirate? She’s hands down one of my favorite characters in the novel, but to be fair, I pretty much love them all. She’s a very determined, strong clever girl who masquerades around as a boy, wanting to be free and set sail on the sea. 

“The Shadow Thief, they called her. They’d drawn her even taller and thinner than she actually was, stretched her into a wraith, black-clad and fearsome. The stuff of fairy tales. And legends.”

Basically she’s pretty awesome, and is so far from being a damsel in distress. I just hope that she’s more present in the second novel! It was also nice that there wasn’t much of a romance. Of course, there were hints here and there, but the book focused more on the adventure part, making the book almost completely devoid of romance. Now, even the villains seem to have this attractiveness to them, they were insane, ruthless and absolutely brilliant. I think I may have said “He needs to die!,” once or twice out loud and gotten strange looks.

The world building in the novel is far ahead of most books I read nowadays. Especially since there are three different worlds, it’s hard for an author to truly keep each one unique and interesting with a lot of depth. Yet, Schwab clearly did so. Each world has its own customs, culture, language and even it’s own smell. At one point, it was even stated that each London had different tints of color. I absolutely loved how each London had different amounts of magic, making them incredibly interesting to learn more about.

All in all though, this book is superb. It’s full of magic and adventure, everything that you could wish for. I’ve heard a few other people state that the beginning was slow as well for them, but I think it’s worth it to just keep reading. I read this book in a single day and didn’t regret a single moment of it. Everyone really needs to give this book a chance. After all, you can’t go wrong with a story that includes parallel Londons.