Review: A Darker Shade Of Magic

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I admit, I went into this one sort-of expecting another YA adventure, simply based on my previous experience with Schwab (the Archived series.) This, of course, was not the case. What was the case, however, was a very uniquely crafted story world - or, more accurately, story worlds, because of the presence of no less than four different versions of historical, pre-Victorian London. Each one has different metaphysics, different rulers, different languages (Antari being especially interesting, because I'm still not sure what it's meant to be based on)...but the same danger in the form of an entity from Black London which basically spreads by infecting other people with its magic through any means necessary. And the only ones who can stop it are Kell, the young man who can travel between the multiple Londons, and Lila, the strong-willed street girl you can't help but love.

I believe there's already been a sequel announced - hope to see it soon! :)

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