{"id":138649,"date":"2016-04-21T10:00:02","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T14:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danverslibrary.org\/readthis\/?p=138649"},"modified":"2016-04-11T12:57:26","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T16:57:26","slug":"rachel-reviews-a-darker-shade-of-magic-v-e-schwab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danverslibrary.org\/readthis\/?p=138649","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Reviews: A Darker Shade of Magic – V.E. Schwab"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"darkerI don\u2019t know how A Darker Shade of Magic<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0got on my radar or really what I was\u00a0expecting, but it honestly was amazing and had me, like, whipping through chapters.* Schwab \u2013 better\u00a0known for her young adult fiction written under her given name Victoria \u2013 weaves early nineteenth-century England with (hard? high?) fantasy into an engaging and engrossing fast-paced piece of world-building. *Ahem* Kell, our fearless ginger-haired protagonist is an Antari \u2013 a powerful Traveler magician\u00a0capable of mastering all five elements** \u2013 who officially travels between Londons*** as a diplomat of the\u00a0Maresh empire of Arnes but also unofficially smuggles artifacts among the three cities until he\u2019s tricked\u00a0into delivering a letter into Red London (which has an inconspicuous piece of Black London tucked inside\u00a0(oh hi, plot)). It is here, in a pub in Grey London, with a powerful piece of magic in his shape-shifting\u00a0coat, that Kell meets our other fearless protagonist: a cross-dressing lady thief named Delilah Bard who\u00a0is totally kickass and, shall we say, persuades Kell to bring her along with him. Hijinks ensue. (#whew)<\/p>\n

A Darker Shade of Magic<\/em> needs its world-building to succeed: not only because \u201cfantasy [as a\u00a0genre] tends to live or die on its world-building,\u201d (thank you, Gizmodo<\/a>) but also because, without it, Schwab\u2019s\u00a0readers are left scratching their heads in confusion. Why is Kell two-of-a-kind? And why is it so\u00a0dangerous to have a piece of Black London? And, wait, what\u2019s Black London again? And who is Rhy? And\u00a0are we supposed to be rooting for Holland or not? And, I\u2019m sorry, but WHAT IS GOING ON??? Schwab\u00a0writes Lila as both a narrative counterweight to Kell AND a crutch for the reader \u2013 she is really freaking\u00a0successful at building up the foundation that, yes, Magic\u2122 exists but, no, not in the world that also\u00a0produced the House of Hanover, okay \u2013 but it doesn\u2019t feel like we\u2019re being explained to past the first\u00a0couple of chapters. Magic just is and the Londons just are, and Schwab\u2019s writing is better for it.<\/p>\n

The first part in a planned trilogy, A Darker Shade of Magic is part whodunit, part swashbuckling\u00a0caper, and part coming-of-age. It is not, however, a romance \u2013 but that\u2019s okay because Schwab writes\u00a0such fascinating and faceted characters that the googly eyes most opposite-sex-partnerships make in\u00a0traditional romances feels over-the-top and, frankly, unwarranted within the world she\u2019s created. (But\u00a0spoilerly thoughts if you want \u2018em.****) The action, although well-paced, felt slightly rushed into its\u00a0resolution; so, either I was expecting a totally different ending or, well, nope \u2013 I was expecting a totally\u00a0different ending. S\u2019okay, though, as soon as I finished the book\u2019s last page, I was still itching to get my\u00a0grubby hands on its sequel, A Gathering of Shadows<\/strong><\/a>. I think that means Schwab\u2019s foray into adult\u00a0literature was a success.<\/p>\n

\n

* I would set my alarm for thirty minutes and then, like, blink and the alarm would go off\u2026 and I would think, \u201cHas\u00a0it only been a half hour? Wtf is going on???\u201d And then I would set another thirty-minute alarm until it had been,\u00a0about, three hours. #truestory<\/p>\n

**\u00a0Bone, earth, fire, water, and wind; Kell also has one completely black eye and this amazing coat that he can turn\u00a0inside out and outside in to reveal different coats when needed.<\/p>\n

***\u00a0There are four Londons: Black London and White London and Red London (Kell\u2019s London) and then Grey London\u00a0(our London and the boring one without magic); Magic\u2122 kind of, like, swallowed Black London, though, and\u00a0nobody goes there anymore or even really mentions it.<\/p>\n

****\u00a0I kept anticipating a kiss between Kell and Lila simply because they were written as vaguely attracted to one\u00a0another, but every time a Romantic Moment\u2122 would arrive and Kell and Lila didn\u2019t kiss, I cheered. Don\u2019t get me\u00a0wrong \u2013 I enjoy romance in stories, but it didn\u2019t really feel like either Kell or Lila were ready to be in a romantic\u00a0relationship, and it makes me so, so happy that Schwab didn\u2019t push it just because we live in a heteronormative\u00a0world and a nineteen-year-old girl and a twenty-one-year-old boy are \u201csupposed\u201d to end up together. Four for\u00a0you, V.E. Schwab.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t know how A Darker Shade of Magic\u00a0got on my radar or really what I was\u00a0expecting, but it honestly was amazing and had me, like, whipping through chapters.* Schwab \u2013 better\u00a0known for her young adult fiction written under her given name Victoria \u2013 weaves early nineteenth-century England with (hard? high?) fantasy into an engaging…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":138653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fantasy","category-rachel-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.danverslibrary.org\/readthis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/darker-shade-of-magic.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6V6sR-A4h","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danverslibrary.org\/readthis\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danverslibrary.org\/readthis\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danverslibrary.org\/readthis\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danverslibrary.org\/readthis\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danverslibrary.org\/readthis\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=138649"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.danverslibrary.org\/readthis\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138654,"href":"https:\/\/www.danverslibrary.org\/readthis\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138649\/revisions\/138654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danverslibrary.org\/readthis\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/138653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danverslibrary.org\/readthis\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danverslibrary.org\/readthis\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=138649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danverslibrary.org\/readthis\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=138649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}