A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1)

by V.E. Schwab

Most people only know one London; but what if there were several? Kell is one of the last Travelers - magicians with a rare ability to travel between parallel Londons. There's Grey London, dirty and crowded and without magic, home to the mad king George III. There's Red London, where life and magic are revered. Then, White London, ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne. But once upon a time, there was Black London...

• ISBN10: 1466851376
• ISBN13: 9781466851375
• Publish Date: 24 February 2015 (first published 1 January 2015)
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Tor Books
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Delilah Bard stole my heart.

While I am a fan of excellent heroines, very few capture me the way Lila did. The minute she swooped into this book, speaking of her swashbuckling dreams, I was entirely on board.

A Darker Shade of Magic isn’t about Lila, though. Not really. It’s about Kell and the Antari who travel through worlds, and a bit of corrupted Black London that has found its way into his unwitting hands. It’s about danger and sacrifice and courage and stubbornness and Lila is very much just along for the ride. And who came blame her? With London in four shades and the chance to travel between worlds (let alone countries…) I’d have hopped on board as well!

There are a few scattered things I want to note about A Darker Shade of Magic. The first, obviously, it the incredibleness that is Delilah Bard. She’s a shadow, a thief, a fighter, and a pirate. There are never enough pirates in fiction to satiate me. Beyond that, she is just plain interesting. Her dialogue? So good. It plays at my heartstrings. For example:

“I’m not going to die,” she said. “Not till I’ve seen it.”
“Seen what?”
Her smile widened. “Everything.”
My favorite line in the book. Possibly one of my favorite bookish quotes of all time, which is an honor held almost uniquely by novels by J.K. Rowling and John Green. Good company. I want to cut Delilah Bard out of the pages of this book and keep her with me. Glorious, wonderful character.

The second thing is the opening line. Although the first line of a book is supposed to be the hook that draws you in, I find that very few resonate with me enough that I can’t get them out of my head. “Kell wore a peculiar coat.” is one such line. It tell the reader so much and absolutely nothing at all. Who is Kell? Tell me about his coat. If his coat is peculiar, he must be too. H ow is he peculiar? How did he get this coat? … on and on it goes. Simple. Luring. Perfection.

Then there are the little casual bits thrown in all over the place – like Lila’s eye, and how did the stone really get to White London? Paying back Cella? Rhys and Lila’s future flirtations (this happens, right? Tell me it happens). I am so utterly enthralled in this novel that I am still wrapped in its pages and eager to learn more. The world building is astounding, the characters are delightful, the story is intriguing… as a reader, I really couldn’t ask for anything more.

[Beth C.]

I've waited a while to read this - and I'm glad I did, because that means that I can read all three quickly :) I wasn't really sure what to expect, never having read any of Schwab's books, but the world-building in this one was excellent. Even more so when you consider that there are not one, but THREE separate worlds to keep track of, each of them unique and yet...not.

Characters were also quite well done. Even those in the book for shorter periods of time than the main characters had...personality. Life. Meaning. As an avid reader, I've seen that it can be hard to write extra characters well - it seems that they get less effort and attention precisely because they aren't around very long. Not the case here, which truly made a difference in the overall story.

Basically - I can't wait to read #2 :)

[writehollydavis]

Victoria Schwab created such a captivating, enthralling world! I haven't devoured a book this quickly in a LONG time. The beautiful detail of the four Londons, the wonderful character development of Kell and Lila, the eerieness of the Danes and Holland, and of course, the workings of the infamous black stone. I was so drawn into this world and wanted to know what was going to happen, that I thought about this book nonstop. It's why I read 312 pages in 3 days, and am kicking myself for taking so long to get going! But now I'm lost in the Shades of Magic fandom, and it's okay to be stuck there like Lila in Red London. ;)

[littleread1]

it only took me forever to read this, but that has more to do with real life than the book. really liked it and next is on order from the library.

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

I tackled A Darker Shade of Magic first because it seemed more up my alley—a sort of alternative fiction world set in one of my favorite cities (London). The characters were compelling. As the owner of a baker’s dozen worth of jackets (thanks to Castle and Stana Katic for that obsession), I’m secretly hoping that Kell’s magical coat exists somewhere. His mysterious ways and lack of knowledge of his own heritage provided me with enough meat to keep reading hoping to learn more about him and the Antari.

And Lila? Her devil-may-care attitude reminded me of Peter Pan. She’s all bravado and pluck, but secretly scared that her actions may impede on her obtaining her dream. Lila is certainly a character I admire.

Sadly, for me, A Darker Shade of Magic fell short on the plot. The story was all characters and in the end, the plot was two-dimensional and a bit predictable; it was as if NOTHING happened 400 pages. The book was just 400 pages of getting to know Kell and Lila; and I seriously doubted the need to read another book by Schwab.
This review was originally posted on Second Run Reviews

[luddite]

A fun read. Schwab's writing is smooth and easy. The absence of answers rankles me though - Athos' death, Holland's body, why Athos didn't command his guards to keep an eye out for Lila, the stone's search for a host. And the end of the book doesn't sit well for a trilogy.

[leahrosereads]

10/5/19

Finally getting around to writing a review after my third read of this! And it's still not going to be a great review.

I absolutely love this trilogy! I love the characters and the setting and the trials that the characters go through. I love Lila, Kell and Rhy individually and together with their banters. And of course, I love Holland and his real struggling vibes.

And honestly, I dig the big (and bigger) bads here. The twins are a creep factor of like 1000, and I just love when my big bads are that disturbing.

VE Schwab does a great job at building not just a world, but a universe here. One that I can see her expanding (obviously, lol) in the future.

[Joséphine]

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

Initial thoughts: The amount of wit Schwab is able to weave into the most dire of situations is remarkable. I tend to smirk while holding my breath when it comes to her books. Things started off rather slowly. Of course, this helped to establish the setting and the way magic worked across the parallel Londons. It allowed readers to better understand how the Londons differed and how they were connected. While this was definitely important, that made the pacing feel a little off-kilter for me. When the conflicts arose, no doubt, they kept me on the edge of my seat but they set in a little later than I would've liked. Meanwhile, my mind kept wandering during the first third of the book.

That being said, despite the "traditional" fantasy elements involving royalty and magic, good vs. evil, deceit, and so forth, A Darker Shade of Magic was wholly original. Coupled with Schwab's talent for creating monsters, it was a wonderful start to the trilogy.

[girlinthepages]

So it seems as though it's SUPER UNPOPULAR OPINION TIME. I may be the only person to ever blog to not like this book. I seriously just checked Goodreads and the LOWEST rating anyone I know has given it is 4 stars. It took me almost the entire month of February to read this book, and the only thing keeping me from DNF'ing it was that I was convinced it was going to get better. How could it not, when so, so, so many people love it? I moaned all of February to Max about something being wrong with me for not being able to get into the book, lamented the fact that I wasn't engaged. He was probably as happy when I finished it as I was so that he finally had to stop hearing my whining.

First off, I want to clarify that I am in no way bashing this book. The writing was excellent, it was more of an issue with the plot never catching my attention. Fantasy is really hit or miss for me (I either LOVE it or am bored to tears by it) and this book clearly fell into the latter category. I thought Kell was an adorable muffin of a protagonist, but other than that I couldn't bring myself to truly become engaged with the other characters, which was a problem when they were in grave danger and I was supposed to be ~shocked and afraid~ for them. I also am not a fan of any story telling medium (tv show, movie, book, video game, etc) that has a plot that takes course only over the course of a day or two, so this story had that working against it in my mind. I think this book just had too much action for me and not enough character development (it felt like it was altercation after altercation and I wasn't really getting a sense of urgency/excitement since they were happening so often).

Though this is the first and only book I've read by Schwab, I do think she has great skill when it comes to writing villains. The only part of the book when I was generally intrigued and couldn't put it down is when Kell was "visiting" White London and had to interact with the Dane Twins and Holland (I have a feeling if I were to choose to keep on trying with this series that Holland would be my favorite). For some reason the Dane twins reminded me of a more sinister version of the Lannister twins from ASOIAF and White London was terrifying enough to hold my interest. Red and Grey London honestly just bored me.

Overall: I think my reading experience with this book is truly an instance of "It's me, not you." This book had too many elements that didn't jive with my personal reading tastes, but I can objectively see why so many people love it. A small part of me wants to push on to AGOS to see if a switch in my mind will flip and I'll see what all the fuss is about, but I'm also wary because when I force myself through a book I'm not enjoying it can land me in bit of a slump and I start to avoid reading altogether. I might try another series or book by Schwab in the future because I can tell she's a talented writer, but for now I'll have to except my fate as a major black sheep when it comes to this story.



 

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SaveThis review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages

[Sam@WLABB]

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Here I go again, going on about how I don't read enough fantasy, because every time I do, I am always so pleased with the results. Add this book to my list of fantasy books, which solidify my love for the genre.

In A Darker Shade of Magic VE Schwab creates a vivid world of parallel Londons, each having a different degree of magic. Kell, an antari (a rare breed who have lots of magic and can travel between the parallel worlds) and Lila, an unapologetic thief, who knows her way around a weapon must return an artifact to Black London in order to protect the worlds they know.

I loved Schwab's writing. There is something about her style that resonated with me. She does not waste words, but she is also not stingy with them either. The amount of description was perfect. She also created these fantastic characters. Lila, Kell, and Rhy were perfection. They had a lot of layers, and I loved how I was often surprised by their actions. The banter was so amusing, whipsmart, and snarky (I loved it!). Each exchange was so satisfying, yet I could not get enough.

The story was enthralling. I just had to keep reading more and more. There were so many nail biting moments, and quite a lot of killing with lots of blood. All of that was enough to keep my heart pumping and me turning those pages.

Overall: awesome! I am really excited about this series.