A Whimsical Tale. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab – A Book Review
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Welcome to Grey London, dirty and boring, without any magic, with one mad king– George III. Then there is Red London, where life and magic are revered, and White London, a city slowly being drained through magical war, down to its very bones. And once upon a time, there was Black London... but no one speaks of that now.
Kell is one of the last Antari―magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black. He was raised in Arnes―Red London―and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.
Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand. After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure. Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.
I watch a lot of BookTube and the ones I follow absolutely adore this book- which ended up being how I was introduced to it in the first place. Initially, I was very intrigued about the book. I heard so many great things about the book and about the author. It sincerely felt like this would be a book I would enjoy since I like reading about fantasy and the idea of parallel Londons fascinated me. However, I didn't pick it up as soon as I wanted to because of things like working on school. Plus, I was afraid that the book would not live up to the hype and that I would just be disappointed in the end.
Thank fxcking God, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and all the saints.
This book lived up to the hype and it deserves the hype.
☆ Plot-wise ☆
I can understand why people can dislike this book because, in all honesty, the story does not pick up until quite later in the book. Usually when the pacing of the beginning is slow and when things don't actually happen until much later, I tend to get very annoyed. This was a prominent thing that I hated when I read Kendare Blake's Three Dark Crowns. However, I didn't get that feeling as I was reading Schwab's novel. You want to know why? It's because she's a fantastic world builder.
The best way I could describe her writing is whimsical yet concise. There are writers out there who uses an extensive flowery vocabulary and on the other side of the spectrum, there are others who are straight-forward yet can sometimes have a problem with repetition. From my perspective, Schwab's writing is just a perfect balance of both: whimsical in a way that her words flow like magic, but straight-forward since as she gets to the point and her story doesn't seem (for the lack of the better term) monotone.
Her writing feels real. I can visualize and see clearly just how different each London looks like, feels like. She shows instead of tells, which is what I really like and a skill I hope to improve on in my own writing.
Schwab takes her time to explain the world to her reader, so that they could understand but also feel it. For me, as I was reading the book, the world building actually helped make the story progress in a sense. I get to know new things little by little, which in turns makes me very curious to learn more. Those details eventually pile onto each other and grow. As I read A Darker Shade of Magic, it reminded me of how the manga Mahoutsukai no Yome is. In the beginning, there wasn't story - or, a better term, direction. However, with each chapter, I learn something new about either the world or the characters. Yet at the end of each other, there is event that unfolds that leads into the next chapter and draws me even more into it. This is how I felt reading this book. And I loved it.
This is more character-driven rather than a plot-driven story. I can understand why this could also be a reason why people may dislike the book. Personally, I have no preference on whether I prefer a character-driven story than plot-driven story vice versa. The reason being is that I can see how both can work really well and how both can fail extremely badly. For the story, the characters are just- amazing. I absolutely adore our two main protagonists and I will delve into more detail later in the post. Not only does Schwab builds worlds, she builds characters.
Our two protagonists, Kell and Lila, are great characters. Yet, what I like about this book is that Schwab doesn't hesitate to show both the charms and the flaws of both - making them feel multi-dimensional for me. There have been times where authors write their protagonists but they don't touch upon their flaws, making the protagonist seem like a perfect angel or the only righteous person in the universe or they're obvious the chosen one who's on the level of being a god. I didn't get that feeling in the book because I can see their flaws and as the story develops - they're kinda working on it somehow, they're still growing as people.
Even with the side characters- although I don't learn about them as much, the writing makes them feel like there's more purpose and personality to them than just as tools to progress the story. I've been given just enough that I want to learn more about them such as Holland or Rhys.
The story is a whimsical tale. Charming. Magical. It starts off small but little by little, it grows and become bigger than one could expect. Before I even noticed, the story had wrapped itself around me and grown to the point where I'm craving for more - I'm craving for the next book. And when I'm finished, this isn't a story where I'm going to forget it after a few months. No, it's here to stay with me for the rest of my life. Recently, I've been slightly disappointed with the YA fantasy books I've picked up. This was the fantasy that I was looking for and I'm angry at myself for not reading it sooner.
☆ On Kell and Lila ☆
These two might probably be one of my most bookish favorite pair of main characters.. ever. They are not the perfect characters, but for me- they felt like genuinely real people which is a feeling I haven't felt when I read a book in quite some time. Obviously, there were people out there who ship the two romantically (with the occasional kiss scene here and there, it was just a peck really). However, what I really liked about this pair was that romance wasn't forced onto them. No, their friendship was developed first.
They got to know each other on this crazy adventure. It was a story of an unexpected friendship, which is super cool. I really like that Schwab kinda took it slow and steady for the first book. We both know they're the obvious ship for this book; however, they're not madly in love. We see how they slowly rely and depend on each other and become unexpected friends. I know the romance will be developed further in the trilogy (which I'm totally okay with), but I really liked what I'm reading about them in this first book.
Kell is known to be a very brooding man, stubborn. From his interactions with other people, depending on who it is- he mainly just keeps to himself. He doesn't quite do this out of shyness, he just doesn't like socializing as much. This brooding personality of him is a trope and I can see how it fails. However, that balances out with his internal conflicts along with his relationships with the other characters. He's a very likable character and I enjoyed reading his perspectives.
Lila, in a sense, is the opposite of Kell. And I will admit, it took quite some time for me to like Lila but she grew onto me and I adore her just as much. While Kell is slightly more careful in a sense, she's much more reckless. She's a fighter with a clear and ambitious strive for adventure. She's loyal to almost no one but herself. Again, her personality is a trope. However, I like how her character was written. She doesn't look down on others like other certain characters from other books and the writer doesn't use her traits to show that she's superior to everyone. Lila is very grounded person who knows her limits.
She and Kell are opposites; however, they don't clash so badly thanks to the writing. Rather, they compliment each other as what one lacks the other has and vice versa. I enjoyed reading about their unexpected and growing friendship in this book and I do look forward to reading more about their developing romance in the later books.
☆ Overall Note ☆
The novel was such a fun and amazing read. I practically devoured it within one day, because I just couldn't stop. Honestly, it has been so long since I loved a fantasy book - this was exactly the book I was looking for. And I'm just so angry at myself that I never picked it up sooner. It definitely lived up to the hype it was getting. I understand that hype can be a bad thing and I know that it was probably bad of me to hype it up again within this rambled review, but it was just so GOOD.
All I know is that I need to get my hands on the next book now, as soon as possible, and I definitely will write a review on that once I actually finish it. This book was a lovely, whimsical tale. If you enjoyed reading the manga Mahoutsukai no Yome, you will definitely enjoy reading this book. I know I did and this book has become my favorite YA fantasy of all time. I regret nothing.
Rating: 5 out of 5 ☆ 10 out of 10, would definitely read again!
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