Book Review: A Darker Shade of Magic

Title: A Darker Shade of Magic

Author: V.E. Schwab

Publisher: Tor Books

Year: 2015

Pages: 400

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 3.5 stars

One sentence summary: A smuggler who can travel between parallel worlds discovers a magical artifact that threatens to destroy these worlds.

A full synopsis of this book can be found on Goodreads.

Spoiler Level: None

I am so conflicted over this one. This could probably be closer to a 3.5, but I don't think I enjoyed it enough to give it a 4. I'm definitely in the minority with my thoughts here, and I can see why so many people enjoyed it, but for me there was just something lacking. I wanted to love it and it had incredible potential but my heart just isn't in it. In this fantasy world, there are four parallel Londons: Grey London, a world without magic, Red London, where magic thrives and flourishes, White London, a power hungry world starving for magic, and Black London, a fallen world consumed and destroyed by magic. Kell, a smuggler and one of the few people who can travel between worlds, discovers a magic artifact that threatens the existence of these worlds. Amazing concept. Excellent world building. The plot was also really interesting, filled with action and magic. The writing was also great in my opinion. It was very clear and vivid and technically well done. It was a quick read that made me want to turn the page, but a certain lack of depth made this feel like a YA novel (this is not inherently a bad thing, but I wanted more complexity). The story was executed perfectly, yet, I didn't fall in love. And I think the key word here is "technical." This world is technically executed to perfection, but left me cold in terms of heart. The characters have a little to do with this as they elicited little to no emotion from me. Did they have interesting back stories? Yes. Did I care about them? No. Delilah Bard, the pickpocket thief who joins Kell on his journey, was needlessly cocky and reckless and annoying in another way I just can't pinpoint. I found her juvenile. Kell was kind of bland. A good guy, but not overly charming or mysterious or powerful or witty or compelling in any significant way. He didn't annoy me, but he didn't impress me. I think one of the biggest issues is that these characters aren't fully developed, and they didn't show much, if any, development from beginning to end of this first novel. There was also a romance element thrown in between these characters that seemed tacked on and completely unnecessary. I saw Kell and Lila as platonic friends and when they kissed, it was forced. There was no spark of romance that indicated anything more between them. Their "banter" was less witty and more like an adult admonishing a child. This isn't a bad book by any means. In many ways, it's actually very good. Maybe it's a me thing, but I didn't connect to this book as much as I hoped. There were no moments of poignancy and genuine emotion to make me actually feel for the inhabitants of this well constructed world. I don't know if I will pick up the rest of the trilogy, but I would definitely consider reading more from Schwab in the future.