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Monday, March 5, 2018

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab -- A Review




Summary: Blood magician, Kell can hop between 3 out of 4 different Londons. Kell likes to sneak things between world and it gets him into a bunch of trouble. Delilah Bard also likes to steal things. Together they must return a bad thing to a bad place before bad people kill them both.


4.5 out of 5 stars! (you weren't expecting that, were you? Haha)

What?! A favorable book review!? For real!?
Yup! I finally read a book that was good and that I had a lot of things to say about it! So with that being said, let's get into it!!







First of all, I want to start off by saying that I listened to this on audiobook from Overdrive. Not only will I be reviewing the book, but I will also be reviewing Stephen Crossley's narration! Like usual, we'll start off with the good stuff, which is actually a lot this time!

What I liked:

I really liked the world that Schwab built...or should I say worlds? I felt like the world was really well fleshed out and each London felt like its own place. I don't remember a time where I was confused about which London we were in. I think the narrator did a good job of making sure we knew which London we were in, but I'll go into that later. The author spent a good chunk of the book just describing the worlds as Kell, and later Delilah (Lila) moved through them. I think I noticed the plot pick up at about 50% into the book. Now, normally that would bother the hell out of me. But to be perfectly honest, I didn't mind it at all. I was really enjoying learning about the worlds and the people who lived in them. Yeah, sometimes it got a bit tedious, but this is a pretty deep fantasy series for only being three books, so keep that in mind when you get bored of all the build up. That just means less world to have to build in the other two books, right? 

I also really enjoyed the characters that we were introduced to. Kell is our main character (until we meet Lila anyway) and he is flawed as heck. He doesn't really have super protagonist syndrome that some YA/Adult fantasies have. You know the type...Good at everything, annoying as fuck, most people love them...except for the bad guys. Kell is well loved, but he is also hated by a lot of people too. He gets bored easily and likes to move items between worlds, which is illegal. This ultimately gets him into a lot of trouble. Lila, is a bit more protagonist-y than Kell is. I feel like she might have a 'chosen one' cliche coming in the later books and I'm already cringing...but let's stay positive! For now. I found all of the other characters to be pretty interesting. Nobody really annoyed me all that much..which is a rare occurrence, as you all probably know if you have been reading these posts for a while. Also when it came to decisions the characters would make, I felt like they were all developed enough that we would be able to immediately notice that a character made a choice that didn't follow what the author had led us to believe. You know, sometimes you read a book and are led to believe a character is a certain way and then all of a sudden they make a decision and you are like, "....WHAT! YOU WOULDN'T SAY/DO THAT?!" (*cough* *cough* Harry Potter in the Cursed Child). I find it incredibly annoying when they do that. But I can say, I didn't really see that happening here. It was kind of refreshing!
I also really REALLY enjoyed the use of languages in this book. As you may or may not know, I'm really into language, so any book that creates a language gets an up vote from me..but 3?! Yes. 
Besides Grey London, none of the other Londons use English as their main language. Yes, they know how to speak it (or some do), Red and White London both have their own languages! How fricken' cool is that?! There is also a language that blood magicians use to get their spells to work. The use of language was amazing to me and I'm surprised that no one has mentioned it in any of the reviews that I have seen. Red London is a rich and cultural London, so their language has to match it, and I think it did. The language was smooth and soothing. White London is a harsh and cruel place, and their language also sounded harsh and aggressive. Even the language of the blood magicians fit extremely well. It was forceful but also mysterious. I think the languages were my favorite part of the book...Kind of weird, I know...but I really thought it was well done.

Another thing that I enjoyed about this book was the fact that there was no romance in it. You would think that because the main characters are together (though they hated each other most of the time) they would eventually fall in love. THEY DIDN'T! I like romance, but I think it is severely over done. Authors feel like they have to put it in all of their books, and 9 out of 10 times it isn't even a good romance. I want more books like this. There WAS a romance hinted at, but it's not between the main characters, and I like that. I approve of the ship and I want it to sail. Haha!

One last thing to say before I go into my positives about the narration. I think it is important to note that this book could be a stand alone if you wanted it to be. The book wraps up in a way that if you are intimidated by the next two books, you can just skip them! I won't be doing this, but I thought it would be a good thing to mention if large fantasy books scare you.

Ok, narration positives! Crossley, I think, did an amazing job narrating this book. At first, it was difficult to get used to his voice. He is an older British man, and while it was a nice voice to listen to, I felt like it didn't fit the 20 year old characters. That being said, his narration grew on me and I almost miss him more than the characters. I am also extremely disappointed that he didn't do the next two books...



Things I didn't like:


This is going to be a much shorter list than I usually make. So, for starters after the plot really got going, it started to become predictable. You could just see the future set up coming a mile away. Like, it was eye roll worthy. "I wonder why that happened? Oh! Duh! Obvious set up for the future!" And I always felt like I knew what was going to happen. I didn't want to believe things would go the way I thought they would...but they usually did. I'm not the kind of person who tries to guess the ending or what is going to happen, I really like to be in the moment with the characters. Discover things along with them, that way it is a surprise to both of us when something happens. That being said, if I am able to figure it out right away, that really isn't something to be proud of. Like, a good chunk of this book was face palm worthy. 


I guess my only other negative was a narration choice. This is obviously specifically for the audiobook. Like I had mentioned earlier, Crossley did an amazing job narrating this book and through his narration, he made it easier to tell which London we were in...You know...just in case you forgot. Each London had an accent. The accent, I believe, was supposed to kind of match up with the native language that each of the Londons spoke. It would make it cohesive and just flow better. In theory it was a great idea, and for the most part it worked out really well...except for one. Let me explain better.



In Grey London: Grey London had a turn of the century/industrial revolution kind of feel to it. Lots of pick pockets and bar brawls. Really dirty and grimy. So, he gave Grey Londoners a Cockney accent. It really fit the characters and it sounded great on Lila.

Red London: This is a rich city/country. There is magic everywhere, people seem to be doing well for the most part and it just gives off a really wealthy vibe (even if that is not the case for everybody). He gave them a more of a posh English accent. And for those who weren't royal, he gave them a bit of a non-determinable accent, but it was still a smooth accent and it fit with the world Schwab had built.

White London on the other hand...Oh boy...So, White London is harsh and cruel. Mean, sadistic and extremely cut throat. So...what accent could the narrator possibly give them that would fit that persona and match the language Schwab chose for them?
I will let you guess.

I'll give you a second.















.......................................German.

Now, I'm not one who is easily offended and I wasn't offended when he started speaking for the Dane siblings in White London. I actually burst out laughing in the middle of the break room at work when I realized what was happening. Then I realized it was probably bad taste to make the villains speak with a German-like accent. Yeah...woops!

So, yeah! I really enjoyed this book! I know it is super rare for me to write a good review or a non-DNF review, but yeah! Sometimes I have a lot to say about bad things and rarely anything to say about good things! It's weird, I know, but sometimes it's easier to say more about things you hate instead of things you like. I want to try and get more positive book reviews on this blog. I think I have one more super positive one planned out and one meh review as well. Those should be coming out in the next two weeks!

If there were any books I reviewed on our channel that you would like to see my full thoughts, just let me know! You can do so on either Youtube or right here on the blog! My Youtube partner and I now have a Twitter and an Instagram if you want to follow us there as well (Bre usually tweets and I usually Insta).

Until next time! Ciao!~

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Rhy and Lila 

 

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