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

A Darker Shade of Magic

by V.E. Schwab

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Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black. Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand. After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure. Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive.

 

 

For some time now, I’ve felt myself moving further and further away from YA fantasy. My interest in the genre has waned as more of the books disappointed me. One of the last series I wanted to give a chance was the Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab. A Darker Shade of Magic was on my TBR for a handful of years, always pushed back but something I was eager to eventually get around to. I’ll admit that by the time I actually got around to reading it, any enthusiasm I’d had for it had dimmed significantly. I barely remembered what it was about but still held out hope that it would be a YA fantasy novel I could get excited about.

Unfortunately, it was not. 

To put it simply, A Darker Shade of Magic was a completely underwhelming, unimpressive, ordinary YA fantasy novel. I think the very basic world building premise is intriguing and inventive—and certainly something I wanted to learn more about—but the idea of alternate Londons within other worlds was really where the uniqueness of A Darker Shade of Magic began and ended. Every other aspect of this novel was incredibly familiar. The magic within the world was mostly elemental and, to be very frank, mostly boring. Though magic and Kell’s unique abilities as an Antari played an important role in the story, they almost felt neglected by how little depth they had. The magic system was so basic and rudimentary that I actually don’t think more explanation or attention would’ve benefitted the overall story. It needed to be something more unique and intriguing. Still, I couldn’t help but feel that the magic we got to know in this book was brushed over, that the author gave us just enough of an idea we were already familiar with so that there were barely any gaps to fill in. Even the ways in which the plot revolved around the magic and the doorways between worlds was so familiar.

The plot of A Darker Shade of Magic was less than compelling and failed to keep me invested. Many of my issues with this book come back to the simple fact that it was completely ordinary but my lack of investment also comes down to the same feeling of neglect that I felt with the magic system pervading throughout the whole story. Nothing seemed to get enough attention with important plot points happening too quickly to be believable and without making any real impact. It was predictable–I felt I knew exactly the path it would take from the start and was correct. I found myself reading just to finish the book, not out of any interest in where the plot would go. I truly felt like I was reading a book I’ve read a million times before. It lacked depth, intrigue and any real sense of danger driving the plot.  

From the amount of cosplays I’ve seen of A Darker Shade of Magic’s main characters, Kell and Lila, I must be the only one who felt they were completely lackluster. They weren’t unlikeable but I didn’t connect with them in the slightest. They read as total archetypes to me, flat and boring. From personalities (of which Kell didn’t have much) to their stations in life, to the roles they played in this story, they were typical. I felt like we never got to know them in a meaningful way–or perhaps we knew all there was to know because there wasn’t much. They were quite shallow, as were the secondary characters. I did not care for any of the parts in White London or it leaders, the Dane twins, because they felt cartoonishly villainous. Other secondary characters came and went without impact because barely any time was spent with them and they just seemed to be filling roles. 

A Darker Shade of Magic failed on every level for me. Familiar tropes and classic fantasy plot points can still make for an entertaining story and can still be made unique and compelling, however, this novel failed to do anything of interest to me at all. Part of that was the fact that the tone, magic, characters and plot didn’t feel unique but it also came from a lack within the very basic structure and delivery of the story. The writing itself was a decent reading experience but was also very basic and not impressive or enjoyable enough to impact my opinion of this book favorably.

I feel quite apathetic about this book. It was a disappointing read, yes, but in ways I couldn’t even muster the energy to care about. A Darker Shade of Magic has no obvious awful faults–I could see many readers enjoying this story–but for me, it only marks the beginning of a series I don’t care to return to. It was so similar to other stories and relied too heavily on tropes and archetypes but failed to do anything worthwhile with them. It reads as a very young, very simple story. My lack of enjoyment of A Darker Shade of Magic is both caused by my disinterest in the genre but also the cause of my disinterest in the genre–I’m tired of reading the same story and characters over and over again.

Have you read A Darker Shade of Magic? Did you enjoy it more than me? Let me know in the comments!