A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab 5/5

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

5 out of 5 stars

This book is in my GREATNESS shelf.

This entry explains the setting of A Darker Shade of Magic. Characters and Themes will be explained separately. Read it in goodreads here.

As you can see, I've given this book its due fangirl-ing by giving it a full 5 stars. It is also in my greatness shelf. This shelf was exclusively for all Terry Pratchett Discworld novels and for extra special books. Meaning, they must have been very good books to be able to sit in the same virtual shelf with my Pratchetts. For the longest time, only [author:Jonathan Stroud|33467]'s Bartimaeus Sequence had been able to accomplish this. That all changed a few days ago when I've flipped the last page of the last book I read, and it was this book. 

The fact is I love this book. For the first time in forever, I've encountered characters that I actually enjoy reading. Another fact is that hardly anything in this book is truly original (but I will explain this in blog instead of here). Let set the stage.

ONCE UPON A TIME...

There was magic. It was the true source of power, governing the four parallel worlds. Because magic flowed through the worlds freely, beings learned how to travel from one world to another. These powerful creatures were called the Antari.

With power comes greed. It came to be that the most powerful world, the first world, of all fell into itself because of its misuse of magic. In fear for their own magic, the third world closed their doors to travel cutting the magic from the fourth world. With magic already faint, the fourth world learned to live without magic forgetting it entirely. The second suffered the most. They were left to themselves to battle the evil of the first. In the end, the second world fell into decay and the third world prospered. 

 A BIT ABOUT CHARACTERS... (SPOILER FREE) 

Kell, one of the only two Antari still wielding magic, lived in the third world he called RED London. The only other Antari, Holland, was a servant of the Dane twins, the rules of decaying White London. Since Antaris are the only beings who can travel between worlds, they had the best job of all. They were very important mail men. As a ripple from the great fall of the first world, Black London, transference or the transfer of an object from one London to another is so illegal it's considered treason. That narrows it down to letters between London royalties. 

As you can see, Kell, the adopted prince of Red London, had the best job of all time. Unlucky Holland wasn't faring as good. He was considered a servant of his evil monarchs. But you won't really care about Holland, because he's just unlucky enough to be introduced with Rhy, the golden boy aka Prince Charming aka the heir to Red London. Rhy and Kell are the closest of brothers. Rhy, the most fascinating creature in the world, is the opposite of the brooding and angsty Kell. He's flirtatious and fun but with an underlying sense of duty to both King and country. In fact, he is the first prince who actually understands what it is to be a King. Rhy knows that his privilege comes with a price. I only hope all heirs would be like Rhy. Hear that Glynn Queen?!

So, when Kell continues to lament his lack of important but vague things, like most teen-agers, Rhy is quick to get physical with Kell, i.e. trying to knock some sense into Kell. Rightly so, because Kell lives in a palace and dines with royalty. But Kell has issues. A lot of issues.

See how I rambled on about Rhy? That's exactly what Rhy will do to you when you meet/read (about) him. Let's go back to Kell, who is our brooding protagonists. Because of Kell's issues about not being a real royal or something trivial like that, he develops an addiction to the highly treasonous transference. He argues that he's a "collection" of the King and Queen and feels bad about it. Naturally, he collects illegal things to rebel. I understand that most addictions are like this. He's ready to jeopardize his position, his freedom and his life to have a semblance of control. I highly recommend that he join a support group with Winona Ryder and Lindsay Lohan. 

Eventually, Kell gets himself into some dangerous liaisons and gets repeatedly rescued by Delilah Bard, a Grey London pick-pocket. Lila is different from most pick-pockets we see because she has totally no angst. She has musings but she doesn't let it get to her. I love it. She also likes to wear pants. I am not calling her a cross-dresser just because she wears pants. She just want to wear pants. Also, she lives in Victorian London making the wearing of pants appalling. You see, Lila lives in a truly bad world as an orphan female pick-pocket who had lasted this long without considering to whore herself out for easier money. She needs to bury things deep inside her head, lock the door and throw away the key. This prevented her from thinking about things, especially about her own sexuality. Honestly, she doesn't know if she's a true cross-dresser. Maybe these clothes help her feel safer and better about herself. Wearing men's clothes could be two things: it's her coping mechanism because she is psychologically damaged or skirts and corsets isn't her thing and there isn't anything else available to her. Admittedly, she has seen where a good suit can get her (wealthier part of London, etc.). She can think that it's lucky and, besides, adventure is easier to handle in trousers. So, you can see that her motivations in choosing to wear trousers is not at all about gender. She also seems to have never interacted with another girl, except one who was out to kill her so that doesn't count. 

Last bit, Holland figures in the story as a bad guy. But he also has his merits as a dashing slightly older magic wielding anti-hero. Holland is my favorite character in this book. Holland proves that being clever is the true source of power. 

THE ENDING of this review.

There are a lot of themes that I would be talking about here soon. I will make sure to update this entry for when I've put them up. Also, I will be posting a vocab for Arnesian.   

Please pick up this book. It is whoa, mas aven*, that good.

You can read my spoiler filled comments in my second review of A Darker Shade of Magic here.

Rensa tav** for reading. 

*Mas = my; Aven = blessed; Mas aven is a common expression like OMG.

**rensa tav = thank you