#a darker shade of magic book review

[just-a-girl-who-likes-sharks]

Magic bent the world. Pulled it into shape. There were fixed points. Most of the time those points were places. But sometimes, rarely, they were people.

When I met V.E. Schwab, she asked me which one of her books was my favourite. “A Darker Shade of Magic,” I told her, “It’s so good that I’m scared to reread it. What if it doesn’t feel as exceptional the second time as it did the first?” She liked that answer. And now that I’m rereading it, I can safely say that this book is just as exceptional the second time as it was the first.

[honeii-puff]

BOOK REVIEW

A Darker Shade of Magic - V. E. Schwab

5/5 stars, very Six of Crows esque with its magic and morally grey characters, and I love her writing style

[ninsiana0]

My brain is currently a mess (whomst among us is not floundering while the world burns), and you know what that means: COMFORT REREADS. I'm revisiting THE SHADES OF LONDON series by V.E. Schwab before I read THE FRAGILE THREADS OF POWER.

Read A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC if you love traveling between parallel worlds, interesting magic systems, collecting trinkets, pickpockets, plagues, night markets, masquerades, the river Thames, dive bars, fancy coats, too many knives, lucky kisses, queer dynamics & secrets.

Also: I prefer the old covers, but the new ones are very pretty.

[thefangirlphenomenon]

when V.E Schwab said "everything hurts. I don't know how to make it stop. It hurts when I breathe. It hurts when I think. I feel like I'm drowning, and it's my fault, and I don't know how to be okay. I don't know if I can be okay. I don't know if I should be allowed to be okay."

[certifiedfantasyreader]

Ok so I've finally finished reading a darker shade of magic.

Gave it 3.5 🌟

It was ok nothing special but I'm excited to see where it's going.

Kell: Loved him from the first page. He was magnificent

Lilia: I honestly thought she was gonna be a pick me but she grew on me halfway through.

Rhy: LOVED HIM.

I just love how unique the world setting is. Like 4 LONDONS???

Grey, Red, White, Black

I'm curious about the black amd I hope the author goes it to that as well.

Overall I did enjoy the book.

[alecksreads]

May reading wrap up ✨

A Darker Shade of Magic

4🌟

Good magic and bad magic! Three London’s! I didn’t know anything know anything going in and I’m glad I didn’t! This was so enjoyable, and I literally couldn’t predict anything that happened.

The Crimson Moth

4.5🌟

This is the best enemies to lovers book I’ve read this year. The world building was great, I love the magic system and how a witch leaves a signature behind when she casts! The tension between Rune and Gideon was so good. And this reminded me why I don’t read books in a series as they come out, I literally cannot wait for the next one.

I’m Glad my Mom Died

5🌟

I loved iCarly growing up and was so looking forward to this. It was such a good book, so well written, with the style of writing evolving as Jeanette grows up in the book, and honestly heartbreaking to hear about Jeanette’s experiences. I would recommend this to everyone, but also put a little caveat that this could be triggering for someone who’s grown up with an abusive and narracistic parent.

The Wicked King

3.5🌟

Okay I’ll do a separate post on this but it was so much better than the first book in terms of writing, plot and Jude’s emotions!

The Anthropocene Reviewed

4.5🌟

I sometimes look back on early tumblr days and think I probably just liked John Green’s books because they were popular on here, but it turns out I’m just a John Green fan 🤷‍♀️ honestly found this so entertaining, and it was such a good balance between the random topics intersecting with John’s life.

Book review 🤫

[committingtothetbr]

The List.

Hi Everyone! After some demand, people would like to see the current TBR that I have in place for myself! For all the 63 books, we have a lot of different options. I kinda read everything haha (Please note that if I have the same series, I plan to read the series at least for the first book. If I like it, I will continue on.)

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

Too Hot to Handle by Tessa Bailey

The Witch Collector by Charissa Weaks

Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez

Lightlark by Alex Aster

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

That Dark Infinity by Kate Pentecost

Book of Night by Holly Black

Sinner by Sierra Simone

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

Bite of Loyalty by R.L. Caulder

The City of Brass by S.A. Charkraborty

Furyborn by Claire Legrand

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten

Where the Crawdad Sings by Delia Owens

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

The Shadow Between Us by Tricia Levenseller

The Secret Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab

Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard

Namesake by Adrienne Young

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren

The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

Think Again by Adam Grant

These Twisted Bonds by Lexi Ryan

Kingdom of the Feared by Kerri Maniscalco

Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

Beach Read by Emily Henry

The Chain by Adrian McKinty

King of Battle & Blood by Scarlett St. Clair

A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross

Yinka, Where is your Husband? by Lizzie Damilolam Blackburn

The War of Two Queens by Jennifer L. Armentrout

A Darker Shade of Magiv by V.E. Schwab

The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

The Traitor Queen by Danielle L. Jensen

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

Rhapsodic by Laura Thalassa

The Curse of Saints by Kate Dramis

A Soul of Ash & Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

The Awakening by Nora Roberts

The Girl Who Could Move Shit With Her Mind by Jackson Ford

Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova

Once More Upon a Time by Roshani Chokshi

The Duke & I by Julia Quinn

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

Any recommendations on where to begin? I could use help!

[livingfictionsystem]

-Rune

[sailor-toni]

I read 78 books this year! It was mostly manga and manhwa but a book is a book! These are my favorite books & series from 2022 with a few honorable mentions that I felt bad for as they didn't make the list,

[mistwraiths]

5 stars all of them!! Reread for me

ADSOM: takes awhile to get this book going. We get enough but not more, but the potential is here. I loved it so much the first time and coming back to these characters is just so wonderfully nice.

AGOS: Look, I know this book has middle book syndrome. It's slow and expands on the characters and the world and magic. It keeps the characters apart for the majority of the book. The magical tournament didn't even start until far too late in the book and it's over quite quickly. Nothing big happens except for dealing with the consequences of the first and Lila's developments. But love the writing and characters

ACOL: Love love love!!! This series is just so good, the characters so great. I think the only thing I didn't quite enjoy this time around was Alucard and Kell being nasty to each other. I really forgot how stressful this book is! And how much I LOVE Holland.

[ninsiana0]

Read A GATHERING OF SHADOWS by V.E. Schwab if you love magical tournaments, secret identities, political intrigue, lovers' reunions, shared pain, rebirth, masks, pirate ships, learning who you are, dysfunctional families, impossible decisions & body modifications.

[thefangirlphenomenon]

It's always "I love you" and never "she doesn't just smile, she starts laughing, and I want to be angry but god, it's the most beautiful sound in the world, even better than the storm going inside her head. I would slay monsters and run through fire and jump off cliffs just to hear that sound."

[bluebyrd-bookreviews]

I read this book forever ago and decided to reread it and holy shit is this an amazing book

Do you like deep fantasy? Thieves in the night? Magic that lives in blood? Traveling between disparate worlds?

Then boy do I have the book for you

I just love the almost poetic description style that Schwab employs throughout the book, colors and smells being both very literal and very metaphorical at the same time

And it features characters that just so happen to be queer without the story being solely focused on their queerness or being discriminated against because of it

I also love that when you first read it, you'll certainly miss some things, you might view them as dropped threads, but they come back later to weave this beautiful tapestry of a book and its so exciting to look back and find how all of the threads connect

If you love fantasy and adventure, please consider giving "A Darker Shade of Magic" a try

[shortskirtsandsarcasm]

The Fragile Threads of Power Review

Like putting on an old favorite pair of fuzzy socks you thought you’d lost.

V. E. Schwab’s newest addition to her formidable oeuvre delighted me. The Fragile Threads of Power is a follow-on of her wildly successful Shades of Magic series that follows the four Londons seven years after Lila, Kell, and Rhy save Red London from the encroaching terrors of Black London. Now, seemingly, the Londons have gained a new balance and the trio’s biggest problems are healing from the trauma of an inter-dimensional war and interstate politics. They are, however, about to be thrown back into a cauldron of turmoil.

The threads of power shone so bright that no place in the world was ever truly dark.

For the full review of this title, see my Medium page and my website.

[dankzombiereviews]

Book thoughts: A Darker Shade of Magic

DNF @ 54% (2 ✰)

If Lila Bard has a million haters, then i am one of them. if she has ten haters, then i am one of them. if she has only one hater then that is me. if Lila Bard has no haters, then that means i am no longer on earth. if the world loves Lila Bard, then i am against the world.

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I like kell, i like the plot, i like the magic system. Lila bard ruins everything for me. I can smell the romance with kell from a mile away and I hate it. i hate that she ruins such a cool book for me with her selfishness, entitlement, and misplaced arrogance.

summary of everything that happened so far (in case i ever want to try a third time):

THESE ARE SPOILERS, THIS IS EVERYTHING OF NOTE FROM THE FIRST HALF OF THE BOOK FOR ME TO REMEMBER

kell is a magic traveller that can go between 4 londons: 1) gray = no magic 2) red = some magic but not common 3) white = magic very common and feared 4) black = bad, consumed by magic

he has no memory, is called kell because he was found with a knife that says "K.L" so that's what people call him

he's a special kind of magician that uses blood magic and has a completely black eye

he likes to collect/sell trinkets even though he's not supposed to

he's the adopted son of the king and queen of red london

he's sent to the white london -> bad london, twins rule it and are very cruel

letter needs to be delievered, is a trap

meets Lila Bard

Lila is an immature, arrogant, and selfish thief who does not deserve rights

she steals the stone from kell

makes him promise to take her to different londons (but fuck the fact the worlds are at stake when you wanna sight see, am i right)

leaves him in black london and dips, taking the super important stone with her