"A Darker Shade of Magic"

Great concept that fell flat.

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab is a Young Adult Fantasy Adventure novel. The novel focuses on two characters: Kell, one of the last Antari who can travel between the four Londons - Red, Grey, White, Black. Lila, a petty thief who crosses paths with Kell when she tries to steal from him. This starts an adventure that crosses between the Londons.

I read this with my discord's book club for our November read. I had high hopes for this one since I've been wanting to read it for about two years. I actually bought this book at a signing where V.E. Schwab was and she signed my copy! She told me to read it and come back and tell her about it. So since I finally read it I'm gonna have to let her know.

At first, I had a hard time getting into it because it was like any fantasy novel. Nothing super crazy went on until about halfway through the book. Which makes sense cuz you need a little bit of world-building and a little bit of character-building in any fantasy novel. As the story went on, it got a little bit better, however, nothing that I couldn't just guess happened. The characters did not really evolve as much as I would have liked and I was not as attached to them so when anything happened it wasn't that big of a deal to me. This book could have been half the size and it would have been way better.

I will most likely finish the series in the future, however, I'm definitely going to take a break from it for now so I can read some other things that I have been wanting to read.

3/ 5 stars