A Darker Shade of Magic

Hey guys!

It´s Monday and here I am! Today I will be talking about a book that I have been delaying reading for so long and that I now regret it have take me so long. I think you guessed from the title, but in case you haven’t, I will be talking about a Darker Shade of Magic by V.E Shwab.

I bought the book about a year ago and start reading it, but DNF it because when I picked I was slumpish and I haven’t picked it up back until my best friend told me to read the book because she was highly enjoying it. I have got the book for her on her birthday because I tought she would enjoy it, as she did we can stablish two things: first, I know my friend very well; second, I know how to pic a book to gift.

I am pretty sure that by now all of you know what this book is about because V.E. Schwab is certainly a beloved fantasy author. But just in case I will give a quick summary of what the book is about. This novel takes place in some short of Victorian London, only there is no just one London: there are four of them. However not everyone can move around these cities, only people with special magic like Kell can pass from one to other. This for Londons are distinguished by colours: black, perish to the magic; white, which only wants power; red, flourish thanks to the magic; and grey, the one without magic. Somehow Kell is given an artefact from black London and when he is trying to get rid of it he is robbed and the whole thing starts to unravel intro complicate politiques and a very interesting adventure.

Regarding this book I don’t know where to start to tell you how wonderful it is. I think the best way is to start by saying that the author does a fantastic job with the world building. I think that to build a world must be hard, but she built 4 and each of them different from the other and with different rules for the magic system. What is more incredible is that all 4 worlds had something in common, this shows how talented the author is.

The characters are also amazing. There is a lot of shades of grey on each of them and they are no flawless. They all have their past and their defects and the bad guys are not that bad, as the good guys are not that good. This is something that I find lacking in many books: characters are black or white, there is not in between. As this is not my first book by the author I know that it´s something that she uses: characters with a difficult morality, but I found that in this book it was best done that in the other two that I have read by her.

I found the writing style to be great. It was not complicated even when the story itself sometimes was. And somehow with all the brutality that we found in the book it was beatify. Is quite a violent book, but the author has a way to describe the violence that is almost poetical. This sounds weird I know, but it works for the book and I am sure that those who have already read this book will definitely agree with me. Schwab describes violence in a way that makes you emphasise with it when she wants to and then completely hate it at the next page, even the next paragraph.

The narration was perfectly done. From moment one I was completely trapped. As I have said earlier, my first time around I was slumpiesh, so I was not in the mood for any book. But this time, ever since I picked up I was trapped into the story.

Probably I have enjoyed this book so much, because I read it with my friend. When I started she was in the middle of it, and I “ran” to read it with her. And I do love read books with friends, because in a way is like watching a movie.

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars and if I continue at this level I am going to have travel deciding my favorite books of the year.

  

See you all next Monday!