Book Review: A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

She bent most of the rules. She broke the rest

It took me several tries to read A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab. I just could not get into it, that’s why I like that here I can try to put my mind straight over what I thought on this book.

Book Review: A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

Rating:


Title & Author: A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Release Date: February 23 2016
Series: Shades of Magic
Publisher: Tor Books

Synopsis

It has been four months since a mysterious obsidian stone fell into Kell’s possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Prince Rhy was wounded, and since the nefarious Dane twins of White London fell, and four months since the stone was cast with Holland’s dying body through the rift–back into Black London.

Now, restless after having given up his smuggling habit, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks as she always meant to do. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games–an extravagant international competition of magic meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighboring countries–a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port.

And while Red London is caught up in the pageantry and thrills of the Games, another London is coming back to life. After all, a shadow that was gone in the night will reappear in the morning. But the balance of magic is ever perilous, and for one city to flourish, another London must fall.

I give A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab three out of five hearts. Because it gave me so much problems while reading it. Most of the novel I found dull and completely not like A Darker Shade of Magic. I would have given this book only 2 hearts if not for the last quarter of the book, which I will discuss in a bit.

It felt like for the first three quarters of the book there was nothing much happening, Delilah was at see and there we meet new characters and Kel is still at the castle with his semi-brother. In the last quarter there was some action going on with the Games and I thought those were actually original. All the different elements were able to be used by every one, it just depend on how skilled you are with them on whether you could actually use them for the Games. The set up of battling other magicians with elements in not that original, but the scene around it.

I like the character of Delilah Bard, she is funny and mostly her parts were written in such a way I had to think back on earlier bits before seeing the real picture.

I don’t care for any of the other characters. I feel a bit Kel is just acting like a love sick puppy dog, he longs for Delilah, but never does anything about it, except for going to a clothing store to see if she payed her tap there.

One big “bad” point in this story I found was the complete end, it had a cliffhanger I normally I hate them. I don’t like them because it makes you keep longing for the next book, which might be very far away (if I had finished this book when I tried to read it the first time, I would have had about a year). But in a way the story of A Gathering of Shadows was rounded off, just a few small things had happened after that, that make the novel end in cliffhanger. It made me curious for A Conjuring of Light, but my dislike of the beginning of this novel makes me able to not long for it as much.

I hope A Conjuring of Light is much better than A Gathering of Shadows, by not letting us have more questions then we started with. And makes it worth my struggle. Because I do not know if I care more for the characters then the actual story.

Let me know what you thought of this book!
If you have any requests for which book I should talk about next, please let me know in the comments down below.

For now, let books enrich your life!

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