Reviews with content warning for Grief - Shades of Magic

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Shades of Magic by V.E. Schwab

26 reviews

moondragon8's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I'm putting the TL;DR up at the top, because I tend to ramble. TL;DR: Would probably be an excellent book for other people, unfortunately only a fairly good book for me.

I'm gonna be honest: I picked this one up mostly because I dabble frequently in Fallen London, and the premise of more Weird Londons seemed very in line with my taste. Unfortunately, this was not nearly as Londony as I had hoped, despite the high rate of Londons per London, and I had forgotten I kinda hate high fantasy.

Okay, hate is a strong word. To the book's credit: the prose is strong, there's a few really beautiful lines, and the worldbuilding is very solid and interesting, and conveyed in a way that isn't overwhelming but doesn't leave you in the dark. However, to me it seemed that the focus given to the (very rich and engaging!) world meant that the characters were sort of left to the wayside.

That's not to say there weren't some fun characters. Lila, the top hat wearing wannabe-pirate, was very fun, and arguably had a little character arc. I also liked the rakish Prince Rhy, when we saw him, and there were a couple very classically Londony side characters. (The weird (Danish?) regents of White London were good villains but deeply unpleasant characters– they gave me Game of Thrones vibes, which is a part of the British literary canon I could do without. Also, vaguely weird that they're Fantasy Danish and their magical attack dog is named Holland?? Were there Implications there I wasn't getting?)

Kell, though, was kind of a blank slate, which was a bit disappointing. He did spend a good portion of the book

being possessed by a One Ring-esque chunk of rock

, and like 90% of it bleeding (really remarkable that the poor guy had any blood left by the end), and I guess that if I can't find any actual character in a main character, him being fucked up and covered in blood is a decent substitute. (I'm not kidding about this. I have rather weird tastes.)

My final note is that I was initially a bit concerned to see that this was a trilogy, but in the end was quite satisfied with how all the plot threads wrapped up. This book was a fun step outside my comfort zone, but it didn't force me to keep reading if I wasn't feeling it, which I really appreciated. I was a little disappointed to

never get to see Black London, and that they killed off Holland like that (or did they?? unclear, but his treatment both in-universe and narratively still left a bad taste in my mouth)

, but I'll live.

Lila's pirate adventures seem fun to read about, and

I'm glad those who enjoyed this book will have more to read in this world, but I'm happy to leave it here.

(...Actually, I just realized they do leave one mystery hanging— something about Kell's special knife having K. L. on it, and the mystery of his origins, is mentioned at the beginning and then kinda dropped throughout and never explained or even brought up, which is probably why I didn't recall it until literally just now. Ah well.)

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moonchild_cos's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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atamano's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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donatio's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was a reread and even though I already knew what I was in for and knew how things would end, Schwab managed to catch and drag me into the worlds.
She is one of my favourite authors and in my opinion just a master of storytelling, I can picture clearly in my head what happens and feel with the characters who feel a little like home by now.
This is a book for the ones who like elemental magic, multiple POVs, thieees and adventures.
100% recommend

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rinku's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Shades of Magic is quite the beloved series here on Goodreads, but I couldn’t give the first book, Four Shades of Magic, more than 3.5 stars. I had the feeling that the premise of this novel was so great, but the execution left a lot to be desired for me.

In this story, the first character we follow is Kell. Kell is one of the two people being able to wander between the four different Londons that each have a different relationship with magic. The second main character is Lila, a thief from the normal London. After getting an artefact she isn’t supposed to have, they both have to work together to save the world.

A big problem I had with Four Shades of Magic was its pacing. Almost the first half of the novel is just exposition, leading to a very slow beginning. Only after the half when the event mentioned in the synopsis happened, it got more interesting, and the story finally had a direction it was going in. Also, even though I hated the ending of the series, Foundryside executed the plot point of a thief stealing a magical object she wasn’t supposed to have much better.

Furthermore, there were some things happening that I didn’t fully understand, and it was so cliché how the villains explain their plans in big detail to the main characters. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the ending as well;

Athos and Astrid just dying was a bit boring, and I really don’t like that Kell and Rhy are bounded to each other, this is just a plot point I personally don’t enjoy

This all sounds quite critical if I’m honest, but I still liked the general plot and there were some great and impactful moments here and there, like

Barron’s death or Lila first being alone in White London, not knowing what she should do

. In general, there were quite a lot of deaths but there were just too many so that I started to not care about them anymore.

Like I’ve said, the book is definitely carried by its settings and the world building. The different Londons are so interesting, and I liked the historical setting, even though it could’ve been utilized more, same goes for places besides London that were barely mentioned. The elemental magic was nothing to special but nice, nevertheless.

At the beginning, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the MCs, Kell and Lila. They both are quite edgy and arrogant which made them a bit cringe and unlikable in my eyes. Only later, I started to appreciate them more, but I felt not such a strong connection to them like I felt to Addie. It was nice that we had no romance between them (yet?), and I enjoyed that Lila was more tomboy-ish. I’m wondering though if she’s

an Antari as well, we’ll see

. Another character that made me cringe was Rhy; his overly sexual nature was just a bit too much. In comparison to them, I really liked all the villains. The twins are so brutal and such great villains, but Holland is an interesting character as well.

Even though I’m a bit critical towards the plot and the characters in Four Shades of Magic, I’ll read the next books of the series since the world is so interesting and creative.

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zoeelora's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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stargazer_ley's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I'm quickly finding Schwab to be an author I enjoy reading. After finishing the Villious duology and seeing the blurb for this book in Vicious, I decided I had to read this one and I'm glad I did. Kell and Lila are as compelling as the mystery of the black stone. I'm quite interested in reading the rest of the trilogy.

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chronicacademia's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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erebus53's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Here's a book that feels like "first book of the series". I would probably be more annoyed by the worldbuilding and the (in case you forgot) asides, if the setting weren't so cool. This is a multiverse where there are 4 alternate versions of London, and only those with the right magical blood can open the doors between them. Each reality is distinct so it's not confusing, and good use is made of fantasy tropes so that the whole story is easy to read and accessible. The main themes involve things like duty, honesty, and why we are kind or brave when it might be smarter to just stay out of trouble.

Our main characters are a scrappy survivor whose dream is to be the Captain of her own pirate ship, and a red-headed mage with odd eyes, who is ward to the Royal Family of "Red London". The cast of support characters and nemeses, includes a savvy barkeep with a heart of gold, a charming fop who is the prince and adoptive brother of the mage, a brother/sister pair of scary sadistic royals, and a second broody mage guy who is scary indentured muscle, and not happy about it.

When a dangerous magical artifact gets smuggled into the wrong world, our characters are on a quest to return it to where it is supposed to be, or destroy it.. but like the 'precious' One Ring in LOTR, it's got this luring, dark-magical energy that corrupts those who use it...

I think the star of the show is the setting. The language in the book is easy to read while still peppered with odd sounding other languages. You get a few words here and there as they are learned by the characters. The magic system is explained mainly through explaining it to untalented or ignorant characters, which is a little clunky, but better than an encyclopedic info-dump. And there's this really cool coat that's multidimensional and can be turned inside out a zillion different ways to be different looking coats... ok.. maybe the coat is the star of the show.

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ka_ke's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Its okay, but it didn’t grab my attention as some of the other books I’ve read this year. Will I read the rest of the series? Yes. Is it going to become a favourite? I doubt it.

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