enqi ☾⋆˚*̣̩✩'s Reviews > A Darker Shade of Magic

Kell wore a very peculiar coat.

do you know when i first knew i loved kell maresh? it was less than ten pages in, when he was in the prince regent's room and he was snuffing out the candles just to be petty. or maybe it was even before that, when he spun a letter for the mad, blind king because he felt bad that the actual letter he was supposed to deliver was only three sentences long. he is without a doubt one of the most precious characters i have ever seen. and i don't know the exact moment i realised kell maresh was going to own my heart, but i know now that i am irrevocably in love with him.

a darker shade of magic is beyond anything i've ever read. victoria schwab writes with lyrical, flowing prose that stole my breath. i couldn't put this book down, and on the occasions i had to, emerging from victoria's world into the real world made me dazed, the way you feel after you read a very captivating book. there are some books that make you feel like literature is magic, and this is one of them.

🌟 THE PLOT

a darker shade of magic has this ethereal atmosphere in my head. i close my eyes, and i can feel the bite of the cold wind, i can see the city unfolding in front of me, i can almost feel the cobblestones of the streets beneath my feet. victoria schwab made her world come to life in my head, painted in blazing, vibrant colors. this woman knows how to WRITE. her prose is beautiful and makes you want to hang onto every word. descriptive without being too tedious, and satisfying without being too predictable, she managed to weave together the stories of all four londons without a single snag. her idea sounds farfetched, but she made it make sense in an effortless way, and i wasn't confused at all. i wanted to live in her world so badly it ached.

that's half the reason i absolutely LOVE this book, and the other half is the characters. so often, i find that books focus on a main character, perhaps two, and the side characters are left as plot devices or existing out of necessity. but every single character in this book is very well developed, and their complexity is what makes you root for them and ultimately love them.

🌟 KELL

i didn't mean for this to turn into a love letter to kell but it kind of already HAS because i would literally protect him with my life!! kell maresh, my gorgeous darling -- reserved, perceptive, calm, powerful, and most of all a very complex and layered character. but what really threw me was his sense of personal responsibility and his quiet strength. and the fact that beneath all that, he loves with a fierce, unshakable loyalty that took my breath away. he will do absolutely anything for the people he lets in. i didn't know this before i read about kell, but he takes every trait that i find attractive and embodies them in one package. is it any wonder that i fell so hard for him?

i think why i love kell so much is because he's undoubtedly a white knight. he's the most badass guy in the book and he's obviously the hero. but he's a complicated, sometimes self-serving, very flawed one and that's why i'm so hopelessly drawn to him. he makes mistakes, he’s stubborn, he’s definitely not perfect. but he’s also powerful, and intelligent, and loyal. and kind — the entire story started because he wanted to help someone. i just really love him like he's the kind of person who's really grumpy but will do anything for the people he loves and is always quietly there for them?? god please take my heart
(and also he is perpetually frowning which might have been meant to come off as intimidating but no it's just adorable, honestly)

anyway maybe one day i will finally not get easily devastated over fictional characters and maybe i will not feel like i have the personal responsibility to take care of them but today is not that day. so for now i’m the struggling mother of 2873249 children and that number is now 2873250 because it includes kell maresh and i wouldn’t have it any other way.

🌟 LILA

my relationship with lila was SO rocky throughout this book. i loved her when she made her first appearance. then i started to dislike her because i thought she was pushy and annoying and stubborn. but in the end what made me grudgingly like lila was her spirit, her fierce will to survive, and how alive she was. i saw myself in her, both the positive and negative qualities. everyone knows i have a soft spot for heroines who take their fate into their own hands and take a few people down on the way. that's lila.

🌟 HOLLAND

everybody probably hates holland vosijk BUT. it might come as a surprise to you that I DO NOT. he's the villain you think twice about, the one you hate to love. i think one of schwab's greatest talents is making her characters morally grey and emotionally complex, so that you resent the heroes and love the villains a little more than you should. holland is the murky character with a tormented past that has shaped his personality and his decisions. he is a fighter, a hunter, a killer, and quite possibly my favorite character in this book (besides kell, obviously).

🌟 RHY

oh rhy, precious cinnamon roll. a handsome prince who is the joy of his people and who presents a sunny facade in public for all the world to see. in private with kell, this mask comes off, and we get to see the extent of his insecurities and anxieties. but what i loved most about rhy was how bubbly and trusting he was -- especially with kell. he would die for kell, and kell would die for him. rhy is the reckless one who gets them into scrapes so that kell gets to live a little; kell is the one who saves them so they can live to see another day. they balance each other out perfectly.

🌟 IN CONCLUSION, READ THIS BOOK

when i read a darker shade of magic, i travelled. i walked along the cobbled streets of grey london and by the red river in the middle of red london. i shivered in the dark doorways of white london. i tasted metal, and smelled roses, and saw blood. and i loved, loved the worlds and the characters and the story with everything i had.

sometimes there are books you want to dive into and never leave. sometimes there are books that you come out of trembling because the story was so good that reality leaves you disoriented. sometimes there are books with magic that seeps out of their pages. this book is all of them. if there is one last book you read in your life, read this one. you will not regret it, i promise!