PopSugar 2015 Reading Challenge
Read A Book With Magic
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E Schwab
“I'm not going to die," she said. "Not till I've seen it."
"Seen what?"
Her smile widened. "Everything.”
A Darker Shade of Magic could not have had a more delightful plot if it had tried. The story is set in a place called Red London. It's a place where magic thrives but is respected and used with reverence by the people. There are other London's though including Grey, White, and Black. Grey London has long ago forgotten about magic, White London is dying and the people there seek to dominate magic, Black London has succumbed to magic and now ceases to exist. Our main character Kell, is Antari which means he can travel between the London's using blood magic. He is one of only two Antari left. At the start of his adventure he meets a girl named Delilah Bard (an aspiring pirate) when she steals a black rock he has recently come upon. The black rock is pure magic and power and it has come from Black London. If the wrong people get ahold of this rock it could be disastrous. Kell and Delilah must find a way to get it back through the doors to Black London but at what cost?
As you can tell from the synopsis, this book has SOOO much potential and because of this it was my most anticipated book of 2015. After reading it though I can say that I am disappointed. I truly wanted to love this book and I thought I would. I mean who could not love a story about pirates, different worlds, and magic? I must be a monster right? Well I still do think the plot is amazing and the characters were intriguing. I believe it was the writing in the end that didn't live up to my expectations.
Talking about and critiquing someones writing style is so personal and every person will have a different feeling about it. It is such a intangible concept and is so hard to put a finger on and say "oh yes, this particular thing is what I don't like". However, I will say that even though the plot was one of the most intriguing I've ever heard of, I still found myself putting the book down after only about 15 pages and forcing myself to pick it up again the next day. The characters were also paper thin and they felt unrealistic. For example, Lila is only a pirate and Kell is only Antari. No other faucets of their characters were revealed. I have found that if you can't truly care about the characters then you probably wont be able to like the book.
I read Schwab's other adult novel, Vicious, at the beginning of the year and honestly felt the same way about it. The characters were very one dimensional and the writing just didn't pull me in. I constantly felt like I was in a theatre watching a play from afar instead of being right in the writings action. I must say though that Schwab certainly knows how to come up with unique plot ideas. They are fresh and pretty amazing if I do say so myself. Overall though I just wish they were executed a little better.
I still gave this book a three star rating even though I probably normally would have given any other book like it a two star. I just couldn't though given how much I like the IDEA of this book. I feel like I will always think of it fondly just based on it's plot alone, no matter how poor the execution was.
Have a great day bookworms!
No comments:
Post a Comment