A Darker Shade of Magic

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release Date: February 25th 2015
Book Length: 400 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Rating: 4/5

Blurb (lifted from Goodreads):

Kell is one of the last Travelers—rare magicians who choose a parallel universe to visit.

Grey London is dirty, boring, lacks magic, ruled by mad King George. Red London is where life and magic are revered, and the Maresh Dynasty presides over a flourishing empire. White London is ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne. People fight to control magic, and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. Once there was Black London - but no one speaks of that now.

Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, personal ambassador and adopted Prince of Red London, carrying the monthly correspondences between royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell smuggles for those willing to pay for even a glimpse of a world they’ll never see. This dangerous hobby sets him up for accidental treason. Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs afoul of Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She robs him, saves him from a dangerous enemy, then forces him to another world for her 'proper adventure'.

But perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, Kell and Lila will first need to stay alive — trickier than they hoped.

Review:

April turned out to be the month of awesome fantasy books. I really enjoyed this book. I read this for the Little Book Club. I want to say upfront that when I read this book, I did not realize that it was the beginning of a series and had I known that going in, some of my more negative feelings would probably have been different. That said, I had very few negative feelings towards this book. I thought that the world building was awesome, the magic system was incredible (if not a tad creepy) and the characters were not only dynamic, but very likable. Even the villains were interesting (though I do hope we get more Holland in the upcoming books because I feel like there's more there than meets the eye).

I'm going to start with all of the positives. This story was so interesting. I loved the idea of having multiple Londons existing at the same time in the same place but in different realms with different levels of magic. I really hope we learn a lot more about Black London in the next books, though I'm sure we will. I have a feeling Black London is going to be pivotal to what ends up happening. That's my prediction. Anyway, I really liked both Kell and Lila. They made a very interesting duo. I enjoyed watching Kell's inner conflict about his family and I enjoyed watching him rebel in his own way. And I really enjoyed how Lila was exactly who she was and had a f*** you attitude toward everyone else. I just feel like those two characters played incredibly well off of each other. It was perfect.

I also really enjoyed the minor characters. Astrid and Athos made incredible villains. The way V.E. Schwab wrote them just made them seem exactly like the kind of people you wouldn't want to meet anywhere under any circumstances. and Holland, well Holland was a bit of a mystery. We know that he has the same powers as Kell and he seems to think himself superior to Kell. I feel like there's a lot more going on there that I want to know about and I'm really hoping to find out more about him in the future. He's not a cut and dry villain like Astrid and Athos are. Rhy made a great foil for Kell. I loved the relationship between Kell and Rhy and hope to see it develop in the future (I'm making a lot of wishes for the next books, aren't I?). I feel like I can't pass any judgment on the king and queen of Red London because they played only a tiny role in the story.

Now I'm going to address what I didn't like. There was really only one thing I didn't like, and that was the climax of the book. I really don't like it when the story starts off at kind of a slow pace and things slowly start to build up and then suddenly BAM everything comes to a head and in huge explosion of action and then the reader is given all of three pages after all that action to process everything that's happened before the book is over. I like it when books have better closure than "hey! we killed the bad guys!" I don't necessarily need 12 endings describing everything that happens to the characters in the future (a la Return of the King), but when the book climaxes in some sort of battle/fight, I prefer there to be a cool down lap. Now, I will say, this bothers me less now that I know A Darker Shade of Magic is the first book in a series because now the ending is not the actual end of the story.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I can't wait for the next book. I'm really excited to see what happens to the characters and I'm dying to see how Black London comes into play in the future.