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A review by sneehee
A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab
5.0
AHHHHHHH THE CLIFFHANGER NOOOOOOOOOO, but beyond that, this book is SO GOOD. i enjoyed it way more than the first one and honestly a perfect sequel. this series is one of my all time favs and this book is why. just the concept is so much fun: a tournament, like the hunger games or the triwizard, and all the new characters are great and the world building, with neighboring countries and an in-depth look at how the magic works in this world. it's just great.
thoughts:
-i just love rhy's and kell's relationship, even though it can be strained at times, they just understand each other so well and owe each other so much, it's beautiful. i love how much rhy cares for kell, like and actual brother, where his parents are obviously more conflicted and how rhy gets so mad at his father and it constantly speaking up for him and making remarks about the why they treat him compared to how they treat kell. AND HE DOESN'T LET THAT TAINT HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH KELL. it's just a situation that would commonly be portrayed backwards, with kell disgruntled at being held at arm's length and taking that out on rhy and rhy maybe being smug or justified about it BUT BUT BUT INSTEAD kell just takes it and rhy is the one getting mad at his parents. what a strong healthy relationship
- i really am not fully understanding emira and maxim's behavior towards kell, honestly it's unjustified for them to treat kell like a criminal or a prisoner and not holding rhy to the same standard which really just shows a lot about how they really regard kell, not as a son but an asset to the throne
- i like how we see rhy and kell and lila all struggle with the events of the first book and the black night stuff, like i feel like we rarely get to see the mental health effects that some of these adventures and novels have on the characters. and we see them all deal with a different loss, a different guilt, especially with kell and rhy's differing views on their soul bond thing. where kell feels bad for tethering rhy to him and becoming a burden and a danger, rhy feels guilt about forcing kell to live on eggshells and being the reason for the tension between kell and maxim and emira. they both are just precious. and then lila still grappling with barron's death and for running without saying goodbye.
-we were waiting WAITING for all the characters to come together and it didn't happen until literally the last fourth of the book. so i like alucard and rhy even though we barely get to see them, i want more, probably will be in the next book. i feel like kell and lila needed more moments together and more of a buildup, i enjoyed them immensely as friends and i just didn't see enough moments of vulnerability and connection for their relationship to be based off, especially with kell pining after her so much after barely knowing her for less than a week in the first book. but the thing with him visiting calla each week to see if lila had returned was so cute and lila and kell bickering is just the best.
-ok lila's powers are so interesting, she's so badass i love it, i really did not see it coming that she could be an antari which was really stupid of me but imagine that, the reason kell is drawn to her?? but wouldn't alucard recognize that since he can see magic, but also her eye was obviously removed, which is like basically a pool of magic so maybe that altered her magic in some way? idk
-i loved emery, he's so snarky and mysterious, interesting pirate, i wanna know more about him. his and kell's antagonism and 'rivalry' was honestly amusing
-tieren really reminds me of a mix between monk gyatso and general iroh from avatar the last airbender but in my head he looks fully like an air nomad monk
-hastra and ned are both such young enthusiastic characters who i loved watching kell interact with , he's honestly such a little shit
-umm everythign going on with white london was so troubling, like we loved seeing it flourish and revitalize especially with holland as ruler (i really want to root for him, like he's not evil, he just is forced into bad situations) but letting in black london and osaron was such an obviously bad move. anyways, i just want both holland and kell to be ok and be friends, they had the potential
-anyways, what's gonna happen when kell somehow gets out of the mess he's in and hopefully rhy is ok and everyone is just safe and everything is awesome and that's not gonna happen but whatever? cool
-oh yeah learning about Vesk and Faro, the countries outside of Arnes was so interesting and it just made the world so much more intricate and vast and it's fun trying to make connections between those characters and peoples and societies back to what we know in real life, mapping out the world and locating the same elements in cultures that actually exist
thoughts:
-i just love rhy's and kell's relationship, even though it can be strained at times, they just understand each other so well and owe each other so much, it's beautiful. i love how much rhy cares for kell, like and actual brother, where his parents are obviously more conflicted and how rhy gets so mad at his father and it constantly speaking up for him and making remarks about the why they treat him compared to how they treat kell. AND HE DOESN'T LET THAT TAINT HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH KELL. it's just a situation that would commonly be portrayed backwards, with kell disgruntled at being held at arm's length and taking that out on rhy and rhy maybe being smug or justified about it BUT BUT BUT INSTEAD kell just takes it and rhy is the one getting mad at his parents. what a strong healthy relationship
- i really am not fully understanding emira and maxim's behavior towards kell, honestly it's unjustified for them to treat kell like a criminal or a prisoner and not holding rhy to the same standard which really just shows a lot about how they really regard kell, not as a son but an asset to the throne
- i like how we see rhy and kell and lila all struggle with the events of the first book and the black night stuff, like i feel like we rarely get to see the mental health effects that some of these adventures and novels have on the characters. and we see them all deal with a different loss, a different guilt, especially with kell and rhy's differing views on their soul bond thing. where kell feels bad for tethering rhy to him and becoming a burden and a danger, rhy feels guilt about forcing kell to live on eggshells and being the reason for the tension between kell and maxim and emira. they both are just precious. and then lila still grappling with barron's death and for running without saying goodbye.
-we were waiting WAITING for all the characters to come together and it didn't happen until literally the last fourth of the book. so i like alucard and rhy even though we barely get to see them, i want more, probably will be in the next book. i feel like kell and lila needed more moments together and more of a buildup, i enjoyed them immensely as friends and i just didn't see enough moments of vulnerability and connection for their relationship to be based off, especially with kell pining after her so much after barely knowing her for less than a week in the first book. but the thing with him visiting calla each week to see if lila had returned was so cute and lila and kell bickering is just the best.
-ok lila's powers are so interesting, she's so badass i love it, i really did not see it coming that she could be an antari which was really stupid of me but imagine that, the reason kell is drawn to her?? but wouldn't alucard recognize that since he can see magic, but also her eye was obviously removed, which is like basically a pool of magic so maybe that altered her magic in some way? idk
-i loved emery, he's so snarky and mysterious, interesting pirate, i wanna know more about him. his and kell's antagonism and 'rivalry' was honestly amusing
-tieren really reminds me of a mix between monk gyatso and general iroh from avatar the last airbender but in my head he looks fully like an air nomad monk
-hastra and ned are both such young enthusiastic characters who i loved watching kell interact with , he's honestly such a little shit
-umm everythign going on with white london was so troubling, like we loved seeing it flourish and revitalize especially with holland as ruler (i really want to root for him, like he's not evil, he just is forced into bad situations) but letting in black london and osaron was such an obviously bad move. anyways, i just want both holland and kell to be ok and be friends, they had the potential
-anyways, what's gonna happen when kell somehow gets out of the mess he's in and hopefully rhy is ok and everyone is just safe and everything is awesome and that's not gonna happen but whatever? cool
-oh yeah learning about Vesk and Faro, the countries outside of Arnes was so interesting and it just made the world so much more intricate and vast and it's fun trying to make connections between those characters and peoples and societies back to what we know in real life, mapping out the world and locating the same elements in cultures that actually exist