Book Review: A Darker Shade of Magic

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

Title: A Darker Shade of Magic

Author: V.E. Shwab

Series: Shades of Magic #1

Publisher: Tor Books

Publication Date: February 24, 2015

Genre: Fiction; Fantasy; Historical Fiction; Adventure; Adult for Young Adult

Pages: 398

Format: Hardback

Buy now From Barnes & Noble• Buy now From Amazon• Add On Goodreads

Kell is one of the last Travelers—rare magicians who choose a parallel universe to visit.

Grey London is dirty, boring, lacks magic, ruled by mad King George. Red London is where life and magic are revered, and the Maresh Dynasty presides over a flourishing empire. White London is ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne. People fight to control magic, and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. Once there was Black London—but no one speaks of that now.

Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, personal ambassador and adopted Prince of Red London, carrying the monthly correspondences between royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell smuggles for those willing to pay for even a glimpse of a world they’ll never see. This dangerous hobby sets him up for accidental treason. Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs afoul of Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She robs him, saves him from a dangerous enemy, then forces him to another world for her 'proper adventure'.

But perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, Kell and Lila will first need to stay alive—trickier than they hoped.

Parallel universes, magic, London, London, and more London. How…intriguing.

Scene One: Red London. So saturated with magic, the inability to control the elements is considered odd. Scene Two: Grey London. Our London, aka the considerably less cool of all the Londons. Scene Three: White London. Oppressed by the cold, cruel, colorless Danes twins, this London is doomed to meet the unspeakable fate of Black London.

First of all, character building? Flawless. Lila, the bossest of characters I’ve read in 2016, was a hands down favorite (except, of course, the Danes twins, but we’ll get to that later…). Kell and Lila made the most fantastic team. The dynamic between the two was indispensable in creating the suspenseful nature withheld throughout the entirety of the novel. Let me explain:

Kell: Dreamy (emphasis on the dreammmyy). The pet of the Red London royal family. A good boy, except when he’s not. A curator of relics of other Londons and an unapologetically proficient black-market dealer, which happens to be a bit illegal. An Antari and one of the few remaining Travelers.

Lila: An all-round-good-for-everything badass. Dreams of adventure and escape, preferably of the pirate variety. A competent thief and incurably stubborn. Sarcastic, insensitive. A blast to read.

They fit together like two perfect pieces of a puzzle.

As they fight two villains who could possibly be two of my favorite villains of all time, they work in perfect harmony. I appreciate how Schwab doesn’t make their victory too easy. Those Danes twins were the most well-developed antagonists. With well-placed rumors of floors inlaid with the bones of their enemies, their wonderfully creepy appearances, and their insane, despicable dispositions, the Danes twins were entirely unlikeable (in the most likeable way).

Parallel universe settings are so easy to get wrong. Luckily, Schwab knows what she’s doing and does it right in every way. She cuts down on the potential confusion by focusing on one particular place throughout the entire novel with certain checkpoints to hold the three worlds together. She doesn’t go overboard with fifty worlds, nor does she lamely half-ass her attempt with only two worlds. She sticks with the nice, comfortable, simple number of 3 (or, technically, 4). She briefly mentions the differing surroundings of each world, but doesn’t go into too much depth.

Also, can we just take a second and look at this beautiful cover? Is it not stunning?

A Darker Shade of Magic was a job well-done. Every part of this book deserved the favorable reception it was given. I’ll be reading the sequel very soon.

“I’d rather die on an adventure than live standing still.”

A Gathering of Shadows

I'll Give You The Sun Review

I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson

Title: I’ll Give You The Sun

Author: Jandy Nelson

Series: None

Publisher: Dial Books

Publication Date: September 16th 2014

Genre: Romance; Realistic Fiction; Contemporary; Coming of Age; Young Adult

Pages: 371

Format: Hardcover

goodreads

Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.

This radiant novel from the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Sky Is Everywhere will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.

Twins Noah and Jude were as thick as thieves, but somewhere along the line of their rocky relationship, something went horribly and inexplicably wrong. They are the exact opposite of each other; Noah is the shy one, reserved to the point of being introverted. Jude is out-there, confident, and has a line of admirers about a mile long, until, well…, until she doesn’t. Told from alternating points of view between the two twins, the story tells you the beginning, and it tells you the end. Can Jude and Noah overcome their severed bond and meet somewhere in the middle?   

This novel left me with two thoughts: hot boys of the James Dean persuasion, and the powerful seductive effect of oranges. Jude had it all. She was pretty, and she was liked. When something happens that revolutionizes her entire world, she is left alone. She is an outcast. Superstitious and eccentric, she stopped fitting in a long time ago, even before Noah was lost to her. She aspires to be an artist but has a hard time overcoming the fact that her mother’s ghost is continually sabotaging her. Rough deal, right? When she meets an artist, and his perfectly tortured assistant, she exhumes secrets that were once thought dead and buried and learns some things are worth fighting for.

Noah, on the other hand, is everything Jude isn’t. He’s shy and hopelessly romantic when it comes to the boy next door. He’s sees the world differently than everyone else. His perspective is artistic, unique, and unlike anything I’ve ever read before. He sees colors in thoughts and masterpieces in ideas. He craves acceptance and inimitability all at once. His world and his thoughts are unattainably beautiful in ways I didn’t even think were possible. He and his sister weren’t just characters to me. They were magic.

With this book being a wonderful piece of art by its own definition, it is no surprise that art, painting, colors, and seeing the world like it’s a masterpiece are all central themes. The dynamic of the characters and all of their wonderful individualities were broad, animated strokes of an acrylic portrait, the setting a soft, seeping watercolor, and the plot a blended, and indulgent oil print.  Each element was crafted and chiseled like they were tangible, palpable pieces waiting to be observed in an astonishing showcase.

Jandy Nelson’s Printz Award-Winning novel is not one to be trifled with. This is the no-joke, abso-effing-loutely real deal, and everyone should be treating themselves to what is going down in history as a classic. I’d give more than the sun for this book; I’d give the whole damn world. 

How To Judge a Book By Its Cover

How to Judge a Book By Its Cover: An Easy Guide To Help You Spot The Best (and Worst) of Written Masterpieces

We all know the saying: Don't judge a book its cover. Much like all the other pieces of advice I am given, I tend to ignore this tiny piece of wisdom. More often than not, good books have good covers, and bad ones, have, well, really bad covers. It's the sad truth, but lucky for bibliomaniacs (like me), it is easy to discern whether or not that book you've been eyeing is good enough. I have compiled my own personal list of things I look for in a book's cover to judge whether or not that book could be my special someone. 

1. BLURBS! If there's a blurb, it's probably worth reading. Blurbs are little snippets or quotes from other authors or review journals saying how amazing and thrilling the book is. Personally, if I see anything with a blurb from John Green, I am going to read it. Period. Exclamation point. Other authors that I willingly listen to in terms of book recs are Marie Lu (who, I have noticed, has blurbed a ton of books, all relatively worth reading), Patrick Ness, Rainbow Rowell, Gayle Forman, and Veronica Roth. 

2. No people. If there are characters on the cover, the book is trying too hard. And if it's trying too hard, it's probably not very good. One of my biggest pet peeves is when publishers, for whatever reason, decide to put people on the covers of the books. First of all, most of the time, the models don't even look like how the authors described them in the book! It's like, hey, publisher people, did you even read the book?? Secondly, it totally ruins the imaginative and creative thought process that happens as the novel character builds and world builds if the characters that I'm supposed to be envisioning is plastered on the FRONT COVER OF THE BOOK! So yeah, people on book covers make me just a teensy bit angry.  Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. But the first step towards making a cringe-worthy cheesy cover is to add people, and no one want to read a cringe-worthy cheesy book, now do they? My only exception to this rule is if the book artists black out or hide the people's faces. If they do that, it's little bit better and I can swallow it. Like the City of Bones series; all of their faces are cut off, therefore, the cover is much more inviting.

 Ugh, look at all the faces! Gross! Congratulations book-cover-people, you've just ruined my imagination. 


3. Symbols are good. Symbols=Good Book. Now, you may be wondering, "Well, if you can't have people on the cover, then what do you put?" That's a good question. Symbols are always a very good choice, but symbols also tend to hint at a series. More often then not, if there's a symbol or emblem on the cover, it's going to turn into a series. 

This a great series, and the book covers make sure to tell you that. If you haven't read Cinda Williams Chima's Seven Realms series, I strongly recommend it. 

4. Typography is the way to go. If the words make art of the cover, then the story itself will probably be a masterpiece. All the books that I love usually have the letters of the book title do the talking. Which, of course, is how it should be. I mean, words? Art? Hello? Isn't a book the perfect definition of WORD ART? Besides, I am not picking up the book to look at the pretty (or not so pretty) people on the cover, but to actually enjoy the sensation of being sucked in and memorized by black ink on white paper. It really is as simple as that. 

Aww. Look at the pretty words!!

5. Movie posters as book covers. While I hate seeing the MOVIE being used to advertise the much-better BOOK, I can't deny that if the novel was turned into a motion picture, it's probably very good. Let's face it, the movie is never better than the book. Ever. It's kind of a rule of nature that the movie does not surpass the book in awesomeness. It just cannot be done. So, if the movie was good, the book has to be amazing. They only turn the really good books into movies, so a movie poster for a cover is a good sign to finding your hardbound or paperback soul mate. In my opinion, it's always better to catch the good ones before the covers become movie posters. 

The original book covers were so much better, but I have to admit these books were so good. 

6. Awards. Obviously, only the really good books are given awards. Immediately go for those. If a book is awarded the Printz award, I'll pick it up in a heart beat. Any other awards are also an enormous and gigantic plus. Awards always, always mean amazing stories. 

This book is just fantastic, and a very worthy recipient of a Printz. 

Examples: These are a few of my favorite books that match all of the above rules of a great cover. 

Exceptions: With every rule, there must be an exception. Here are a few good books with absolutely painful covers. 

If you have any of your methods or tricks to finding the perfect book, please share them!

Happy Reading!