A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2)

by V.E. Schwab

• ISBN10: 125089123X
• ISBN13: 9781250891235
• Publish Date: 13 June 2023 (first published 23 February 2016)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 528
• Language: English

Reviews

[maggiefan]

Way too few Holland moments, way too many Lila moments

[herseriallife]

Review of this awesome magical YA fantasy coming soon...

[Mercy]

3.5/5

[Quirky Cat]

A Gathering of Shadows, written by V.E. Schwab, is the second novel in the Shades of Magic Series. It's a series that I took far too long to read, and yet it has utterly enchanted me.

Four months ago, Red London fell into chaos and danger. Four months ago, Kell and Delilah stood against the worst odds, and managed to save the day. Now, Kell is trapped in the castle, which to many wouldn't feel like a prison, but to Kell it does. All while Delilah is off who knows where, doing who knows what.

What's more, the city is about to celebrate, as The Element Games are occurring once again. This is the rare opportunity for those with talents to showcase them, and it draws people from all over the world for the competition. Including a few surprises.

“Whatever I am, let it be enough”

Guys, I can't even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed A Gathering of Shadows. It was fast-paced, thrilling, and frankly, I loved every minute of reading about Delilah and Kell. My only regret came when the book concluded.

The first novel in this series had me kicking myself about not reading it sooner. On the bright side, that does mean I was able to binge the whole series in one go. And binge I did! In fact, I literally picked up A Conjuring of Light immediately upon finishing this book. So to me, the events in both kind of flowed together. Ah, the problems of a book worm, right?

A Gathering of Shadows was brilliant for a variety of reasons. The building tension between Kell and Delilah, the tension surrounding Alucard, the dynamics revolving around the King, Queen, and Princes.

Oh! And don't forget the Element Games, which gave us more opportunities to see the magic of the world, and the creative ways in which they can be used for battle. My only regret here is that we didn't get to see more of the fighting (and really, we did see quite a lot of it).

“I know where you sleep, Bard." She smirked. "Then you know I sleep with knives.”

The antagonist of A Gathering of Shadows is...divine sounds like a weird word to use here, but it works. It was shockingly complex, and that made it all the more difficult to process. Ironically, it is far from being a black and white situation, and I loved that so much.

This novel does end in a bit of a cliffhanger, which is part of the reason why I dove right into A Conjuring of Light. Still, I have no regrets in that department (and yes, I did finish it).

Check out more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[Berls]

4.5 stars.

I enjoyed this so much. I took a while to get to the meat of the story, with the real danger only fully presenting well after the halfway point. That was totally okay though, because there were other, smaller conflicts happening from the get-go, with established characters that I already loved and was invested in. I love Lila Bard, she's one of my favorite characters I read all year.

We meet some new characters too and I quickly fell for them. I was suspicious of Alacard, but mainly because I didn't like the potential romance brewing between him and Lila (I want her for Kel). We also get to know some of the crew on Alacard's ship and the new guards on Kel. All very interesting characters.

Finally there's the deeper exploration of magic in this book - how it works, its dangers, its beauty, its evil. And magic is a character all it's own in this book... one that leaves you hanging on the edge of a pretty good cliff at the end. Just be ready to pick up book 3 as soon as possible. You've been warned :)

My feelings towards this book are similar to my feelings for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Yeah, the tournament is great, but what do I care? I just want the plot to progress and not a filler book. And don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this book, but it could have easily been a five star read if the plot had progressed at least a little bit while the tournament was going on. I mean, Holland was in White London, why couldn't we have some more chapters just about him and the plans to lure Kell into this?

It's the second book, it always is. It is a shame that they are written just to become a filler and get more money. I don't blame VE Schwab, she is a lovely human being, I blame the whole publishing industry in general. They seem to forget that duologies are a thing as well. However, the stakes were high at the end, it makes a great start for the third book, and the writing was captivating. Few complaints there. I just wanted to see more plot progression during the first three-quarters of the book.

[celinenyx]

This book is so well-loved, and I'm in the minority here. There just wasn't enough plot or tension in A Gathering of Shadows. It felt like all it did was gather, never paying off and ending in a cliffhanger. For a book of 500 pages, a magic tournament just isn't enough - though apparently plenty of others have thoroughly enjoyed it.

[sa090]

I didn’t expect that the sequel to the first book would be this good, usually it falls under the second book syndrome, but I’m glad that there was nothing of the sort here.

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I love it when an author takes me through different parts of their world, even better when it’s as interesting as this one. I did have a brief idea of a tournament taking place in this book, but I didn’t think for one second that the tournament wouldn’t happen for a long while. I’m definitely not complaining because this gave me the chance to reunite with the characters, see what they were up to after the ending events of A Darker Shade of Magic and meet some new ones as well. One of the things I really appreciate in this is how much Ms. Schwab sticks to the image she painted of her characters, if someone is cutthroat then they ARE cutthroat for example. Her characters are also extremely appealing for me, Lila is just so fun to be around with the amount of trouble and adventuring she ends up getting herself into.

That being said, the main highlight when it comes to characters though is probably the parallel shown with Rhy and Kell. Bound forever, but, unable to follow what they really want for different reasons. That internal struggle is fun to read about, not just because of them feeling shackled because of it, but more so because it made them do some interesting things to try and forget all about it. That’s not where there the interesting characters end though, the fact that there is a tournament in red London where so many foreign characters from their version of the world arrive to participate makes the fantasy fan in me way too giddy.

I do wish that V. E. Schwab built the world a little bit more when it comes to the foreign lands, or rather made them a bit more memorable since I do know the different characteristics to different groups of individuals, but at the top of my head, I can’t for the life of me tell you where each of them came from in the red world with confidence.

That aside, the plot in itself starts off pretty slow this time around. We don’t immediately jump into the tournament, but are actually given a broader look on what the characters are getting up to before they gather back in Arnes for the main event. And what an event that was! I absolutely enjoyed seeing the different practices and applications to magic, what a certain someone is willing to do to be in said tournament and what kind of doors that might open in the future for the plot.

The ending was definitely insane for me, I’m itching to just jump into a conjuring of light but my set TBR for the month is holding me back. Definitely for June, if I don’t start it after I finish my last book. I want a live action version ASAP with someone who will do it justice because seeing this adapted properly would be so fun.

Final rating: 4/5

[jamiereadthis]

I don’t read much YA, and even less YA dystopia, but I think the whole premise of games is a big thing. Apparently? Maybe? Or did I just hear “Hunger Games” a whole lot?

Anyway. This one is all about a big games. And I really don’t care. It just feels like filler, lacking the intrigue and otherworldliness of the first book. I lost interest in Kell and Lila (grrrrr, LILA) because they’re just… playing games. Moping around. Making dumb choices. Games. Yay?

Four stars to whatever book Rhy was in, though, because I would read that one. And I’ll read the next one, if only to see if it can ruin Rhy for me too, or redeem the rest. (Grrrrr. Lila.)

[empressbrooke]

I enjoyed the first book but thought it was a little flat. This sequel adds so much more depth to the world and the characters, and the writing feels less stiff and more sure of itself. I have the final book in the trilogy sitting on my library pile and it's a gigantic doorstop - and I can't wait to dive into it.

Edit 4/13/19: As I'm working on finishing a different trilogy, I wanted to come back to this review and comment on how well this book avoids the "middle book syndrome" - it tells an engaging and exciting self-contained story while moving the entire series forward. Most trilogies don't improve from book 1 to book 2, and book 2 often feels like treading water between books 1 and 3, but A Gathering of Shadows defies those trends.