Review: Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

Vengeful (Villains #2)
By V.E. Schwab
Publisher: Tor
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: It’s been five years since ExtraOrdinaries Victor Vale and Eli Ever faced off, with Victor seemingly killed and Eli captured. With the help of another EO, however, Victor is alive, though not well and deteriorating at an alarming rate. Meanwhile back in Merit, once the scene of Victor and Eli’s showdown, a new EO named Marcella Riggins is literally using her bare hands to destroy anyone who stands in her way of taking control of the city. Marcella’s power is so formidable that it may take turning to the currently imprisoned Eli for help in stopping her.

Review: I finally read Vengeful, the highly anticipated sequel to Vicious, one of the best stories about morally ambiguous characters EVER. I’d say THE BEST that I’ve ever read. And everyone continues to walk a fine line between good and evil in Vengeful.

Once again, Victoria Schwab jumps back and forth between the present and the past to unreel her narrative. Five years have passed since Victor and Eli met for what appeared to be the final time. Eli is now the prisoner of EON, an organization headed by Joseph Stell, the former detective who locked Victor up. Stell thinks that EOs might be rehabilitated into using their abilities for something other than wrongdoing. Eli, who once hunted EOs down and killed them in his belief that they were abominations, finds this notion preposterous and insists to Stell that heroes are not in an EO’s nature. When a new EO named Marcella Riggins threatens to destroy Merit in her quest for power, Stell reluctantly realizes that his best hope for stopping Marcella may be Eli Cardale. Watching Stell and Eli try to stay one step ahead of each other is absolutely riveting.

We also get some significant backstory for Eli that details the development of that carefully calculated veneer. I love how Schwab constantly challenges the reader, both in Vicious and in Vengeful, to rethink their views of the characters by making them so complex. You can’t help but wonder what Eli’s life would have been like if he’d had a different childhood, if he hadn’t ended up at Lockland University, and/or if he hadn’t met Victor Vale.

As for Victor, we discover that Sydney’s EO ability to bring back the dead isn’t without consequences, and Victor’s time to find a permanent fix for his problem is running out. Here again this series questions the definitions of good and evil as Victor takes lives in in order to try and save his own. As much as you may want him to survive, you’ll probably also ask, but at what cost?

While Vengeful is still Victor and Eli’s story, new EO Marcella Riggins commands an equally powerful presence on the page. After her mobster husband Marcus’s failed attempt to kill her, Marcella wakes up in the hospital with the ability to reduce whatever she touches to dust and ashes. She also awakens, understandably, in a murderous mood towards Marcus. What begins as a thirst for revenge quickly escalates into an insatiable hunger for power. She teams up with two other EOs—Jonathan, who can shield himself as well as extend the shield to another person, and the mysterious June, who can take on someone else’s appearance—with a very interesting twist. Alone, Marcella and her destructive touch are formidable, but working with June and Jonathan, she seems unstoppable. Marcella puts the “Extra” in “ExtraOrdinary,” reveling in making a spectacle of everything she does. I do think her grandstanding slowed down the book’s pacing at times, making Vengeful not quite the feverish page turner that Vicious was.

Overall, though, Vengeful is a not to be missed sequel. Once again, Victoria Schwab takes the superhero story and flips it every way imaginable, creating an unpredictable, deliciously twisted tale that you won’t easily forget.

All in All: Although Vicious just edges this out as my favorite book in the duology, Vengeful is certainly not a sidekick of a sequel. These are some of the best flawed characters ever—perfectly imperfect and incredibly compelling to read about.

Review: A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab

* This review may contain spoilers for the previous books in the series.

A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic #3)
By V.E. Schwab
Publisher: Tor Books
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: With the shadow king Osaron on the verge of taking control of Red London and all of its people, Kell, Lila, Rhy, and Alucard race to discover a way to stop him. They find themselves bargaining with shady figures, making unlikely allies, and sacrificing whatever is necessary in order to stand even the smallest chance against Osaron. As unstoppable as the shadow king seems, though, his weakness may be underestimating the determination of those fighting to save Arnes.

Review: I may have set a personal record for longest amount of time taken to read a book while reading A Conjuring of Light. It took me about five months from start to finish. This had absolutely nothing to do with the book itself and everything to do with my mindset due to all the goings on outside the world of books. Finally, though, I found myself with some time to get reacquainted with this novel, and once I dove back into its fantastic world of magic, multiple Londons, and a many-sided coat, I devoured the remaining pages, reading more in two days than I had in almost two months.

The previous book in the series, A Gathering of Shadows, ended on one hell of a cliffhanger, and mercifully, A Conjuring of Light dives right into seeing its resolution. Don’t be fooled into thinking, however, that the book is done giving you heart palpitations because it’s only just beginning. I felt rather wrecked by the time I was done reading A Conjuring of Light. Even when there isn’t an action scene taking place, the threat posed by Osaron, the evil magic that’s taking over Red London, is always so palpable that you’re on edge for just about the entire book, waiting for the next stab to your heart, as sharp as one of Lila Bard’s knives or quips.

Osaron seems such an unstoppable foe, and every clash with the shadow king and the unwilling followers he creates by invading their minds is a fierce battle. Not only do Kell, Lila, and Alucard need to contend with that in order to escape Red London in the hope of finding an object that may help them, but they also have to fight off vicious pirates and literally bargain with their lives. Sacrifice also looms large over the main characters, both the ones who wield magic and those who do not, as they’re all pushed to their physical and emotional limits—sometimes beyond.

In addition to creating an incredibly immersive magical world, Victoria Schwab has exquisitely crafted complex characters. What I especially love about them is that they’re flawed. They make mistakes, and there are consequences, and that is what makes them so relatable. Schwab also possesses a knack for writing the best morally gray characters, like Victor Vale from Vicious and Holland from Shades of Magic. Holland has been an intriguing, complicated character from the outset of the series, and with the addition of some backstory in A Conjuring of Light, Schwab once again demonstrates just how gifted she is at creating characters with seemingly endless depth.

I absolutely love badass thief/pirate Delilah Bard. No matter how hard or how many times this resilient lady gets knocked down, she gets back up and keeps fighting. I can’t emphasize enough how intense this book can be at times, usually with Lila right in the thick of the action.

My list of favorite things about this book and this series could go on and on, so I’ll only mention one last highlight: the bond between Kell and Rhy. Of course, it goes way beyond just being brothers because of the magic Kell used to tie their lives together in order to save Rhy’s life. Here again, Schwab examines all of the facets of Kell’s actions back in A Darker Shade of Magic. Yes, Rhy is alive, but he continues to struggle with the weight of what happened to him as well as with the weight of his crown—a prince without magic whose people are under attack all around him. Rhy’s arc is as compelling as it is outstanding, and the same can be said for the arcs of Kell, Lila, Alucard, and Holland.

As a series finale, A Conjuring of Light delivers in every way imaginable. It’s heart-pounding, sometimes even humorous thanks to the witty dialogue, occasionally heartbreaking, and most definitely magical.

All in All: If you love books about magic, this series is not to be missed. A Conjuring of Light is an absolutely stellar close to Shades of Magic. Anoshe, indeed.

Review: Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Vicious (Vicious #1)
By V.E. Schwab
Publisher: Titan Books
Format: Paperback
Source: Gift from Micheline of Lunar Rainbows Reviews ♥

To Sum It Up: College friends Victor and Eli are both extremely intelligent and extremely driven. Their academic research has them studying the possibility of ExtraOrdinaries, people with superhuman abilities, and what causes such abilities to develop. Victor and Eli take their experimentation to extremes, and the fallout sees Victor end up imprisoned for ten years while Eli takes it upon himself to eliminate EOs, whom he’s come to view as unnatural. Eli is about to find himself facing his former friend again, though, after Victor escapes from prison, all of his focus set on getting revenge against Eli.

Review: Holy morally ambiguous characters! Oh Vicious—what a deliciously twisted read you were, and what a storytelling tour de force from Victoria Schwab! I was already madly in love with her Shades of Magic series before reading this, but now I’m even more in awe of her prodigious talent because Vicious is a novel of staggering ingenuity.

Vicious is NOT your average superhero story. Oh no. Although it deals with the type of special abilities that might be associated with characters like the X-Men, Victor Vale and Eli Ever (originally Eli Cardale, but once you develop a superpower, an alliterative name is the only way to go) are neither your average heroes nor your average villains. There are no clear-cut good or bad guys here; instead you’re presented with a set of characters and their words, thoughts, and actions, and it’s up to you to form your own opinions of them. Me, I absolutely LOVE characters who walk a tightrope between good and bad, who refuse to be neatly classified as one or the other. I like my characters very, very complicated, not cookie-cutter, and Victor and Eli are about as complex as you can get, from their individual characters to their relationship with each other.

Going back to the X-Men, I definitely felt like Victor and Eli had a Professor X/Magneto dynamic going on at times. Victor and Eli are drawn to each other’s genius and there’s a mutual respect for each other’s brilliance, but that respect is also undercut by rivalry and jealousy. One-upmanship eventually leads to the destruction of their friendship and has repercussions beyond just the two of them. After Victor and Eli perform some insane experiments using themselves as the test subjects (!) to discover what causes some people to develop superhuman abilities and become ExtraOrdinary, everything just goes to hell. Victor gets locked up for the next ten years while Eli, convinced that Victor is damning proof that EOs shouldn’t exist although Eli’s an EO himself, goes hunting them down. Eli’s unwavering belief that he’s doing good by killing EOs and therefore protecting the innocent from them is absolutely chilling. And then there’s Victor, who has his fair share of blood on his hands, too, but who doesn’t share Eli’s ideology. So would Victor be somewhat of a hero for taking out Eli, as he intends to? But Victor is more than prepared to kill to get to Eli. These are the questions that you’ll turn over and over and over again in your head as you read Vicious.

The science behind EOs is really well done here. That kind of stuff can really be hit or miss with me, typically miss. Vicious, however, hits the sweet spot when getting technical. There’s just the right amount of explanation, neither too broad nor too overwhelming in detail. The existence of EOs feels entirely plausible, as does the science that produces them.

As if there wasn’t already a multitude of things to gush about with this book, I must add its narrative structure to that lengthy list. Vicious jumps back and forth between Victor and Eli’s college days in the past and their impending showdown in the present, with a few important stops along the way. It’s extremely effective in building up the suspense and tension as you wait for these two former friends turned adversaries to face each other once again. It’s that anticipation, the absolute need for this clash to happen, that produced some frenzied page-turning.

My brain is still reeling from reading this. Vicious challenges the notions of good and evil in every possible way with characters who defy moral categorization. And I savored every single page of it! Vicious was precisely my type of tale—dark, unconventional, witty, and its characters teeming with every shade of gray imaginable.

All in All: What a perfect way to kick off the second half of 2016! Vicious is easily one of my favorite books of the year, and one I won’t be forgetting about for quite a while yet.

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

* This review may contain spoilers for the previous book, A Darker Shade of Magic.

A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic #2)
By V.E. Schwab
Publisher: Tor Books
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: With Lila off realizing her dreams of adventure and maybe a little piracy on the high seas, Kell lives practically confined to Red London. Once revered by its citizens, he’s now regarded with suspicion and even fear following the terror unleashed by the Dane twins of White London that has forever magically entwined the lives of Kell and his brother, Prince Rhy. Hoping to lift his brother’s spirits, Rhy hatches an insane scheme for the upcoming and highly anticipated Element Games, an event that also draws the attention of a certain sassy thief/pirate with a crazy plan of her own for the games.

Review: With a single book, last year’s superb A Darker Shade of Magic, Victoria Schwab instantly became one of my favorite authors thanks to her superlative storytelling talents. The best fantasy novels carry you away to other worlds so immersive and real, you don’t want to return to your own. It was with much anticipation that I returned to Schwab’s alternate Londons, and once again, the trip was an absolute blast.

When we last left off, Kell and Lila had saved Red London from the evil, evil Dane twins of White London. While Lila has sailed away on board the Night Spire to chase her piratey dreams, Kell finds himself living under the constant watchful eye of the royal guards and the mistrustful eye of most Arnesians. Even Kell’s adoptive parents, King Maxim and Queen Emira, have distanced themselves from him. The relationship between Kell and his brother, Prince Rhy, is also tested, with both brothers feeling guilty over the events that led to Rhy being brought back to life with dark magic and their lives tethered to each other. Unlike their parents, however, Rhy continues to treat Kell like his blood brother, and of course Kell would still do anything for Rhy. It’s not all gloom and doom between them, either; their snarky exchanges made me chuckle quite often.

As for Miss Delilah Bard, she’s found a place for her sassy self among the crew of the Night Spire, captained by the enigmatic Alucard “I’m a Privateer Not a Pirate” Emery. Alucard is a fascinating new addition to the series and just as cagey as Lila when it comes to revealing anything personal, though both try to coax backstories out of each other. In A Gathering of Shadows, Lila proves that she truly is suited to a pirate’s life and backs up every bit of the Bard bravado. Oh, she still swaggers like hell and gets up to some seriously crazy hijinks, even for Lila, but I have to give her credit for living every second like it’s her last. Which it very well could be when you look back at some of Lila’s previous escapades.

Schwab’s world-building in A Darker Shade of Magic was absolutely brilliant, and she works her magic again here. I love how the Arnesian language is sprinkled throughout and the meanings of words and phrases always made clear by showing instead of telling. The Essen Tasch (Element Games) brings guests from other empires to Red London, giving us a more expanded view of this world. The matches between the competitors in the games are riveting, not just because of all of the action but also because you feel like you’re actually there in the arena. Plus, it’s elemental magic that the entrants wield here. In between reading A Darker Shade of Magic and this, I binge watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, and let’s just say that I have a newfound appreciation for elemental magic, which is put on spectacular display during the Element Games.

Although the majority of A Gathering of Shadows follows Kell and Lila and all of the pomp surrounding the games, we also check in from time to time on a developing story line that becomes extremely significant by the end of the book. I simultaneously love it for its ingenuity and cringe at it because of what ensues. “Cringe” is probably an understatement; “scream” would be more accurate.

And now it’s back to the torture known as Waiting for the Next Book. In the meantime, I’ll replay my favorite moments from this one in my mind: the ones that made me swoon, the ones that gave me the chills, and the ones that awed me because they were written so brilliantly (i.e. ALL OF THEM).

All in All: This has quickly become one of my favorite series, which means that I’m pushing it hard to anyone who hasn’t read it. A Gathering of Shadows is a mighty sequel that astounds in every aspect: the flawed characters you love because they’re not perfect, the fantastic world, the witty banter, and the beautiful prose. And now I must go cope with this severe book hangover.

Review: A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1)
By V.E. Schwab
Publisher: Tor Books
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: Kell is one of the Antari, one of the few who possesses magic that enables him to travel between alternate versions of London: Red London, Kell’s home; Grey London, where King George III sits on the throne; and White London, ruled by twins with an insatiable hunger for more power. Black London has long since been sealed off to travelers, destroyed from within, but when an extremely dangerous object from that forbidden place finds its way into Kell’s hands, he knows that he must return it to its origin, no matter the cost.

Review: It took me about a month to read A Darker Shade of Magic, and let me tell you, that had absolutely nothing to do with the book itself. Nope—it had entirely everything to do with lots of real life stuff imposing on my reading time. I had to read this in bits and bursts, when all I really wanted to do was devour it in one sitting. A Darker Shade of Magic is the kind of novel that demands—and deserves—your undivided attention to the point where you wish that you could just press a pause button for the rest of life so you could curl up with this book. Hey Kell . . . maybe a little help here with that?

Aside from Harry Potter, which I regard on its own plane of amazingness, I don’t know if I’ve ever been so thoroughly impressed by a book about magic. Every time our hero Kell cast a spell, I got a little chill because the magic felt so real. The world-building is absolutely stunning here and leaves you with no doubt that alternate Londons could exist in parallel. I found the four Londons utterly fascinating, even the versions that didn’t sound quite as appealing to visit. Each London is given a distinct vibe, and whenever Kell journeys between them, it’s as though you’re right there beside him and not simply reading about his travels.

Like the Red London that he calls his home, Kell is an endlessly intriguing protagonist. One of the first things we learn about him upon being introduced is that he dons a very unique, multiple sided coat. And like everything else about the world of A Darker Shade of Magic, of course you believe that such a coat exists. Kell is every bit as faceted as his coat is, too; it’s hard for me to individually list all of the reasons why I love him because I just love everything about him, including his flaws. It’s his little smuggling operation that rains a heap of trouble down on his head, but were it not for Kell’s rather large dilemma, we wouldn’t meet the wonderful Lila Bard.

Lila is a thief from Grey London who aspires to be a pirate. Yes—a pirate! How freaking cool is that?! It’s very fortunate for Lila that she’s so game for adventure because once she crosses paths with Kell, there’s a lot for someone who’s unaccustomed to magic to absorb. But Lila is keen to leave her London behind, even though Kell warns her of the potential dangers of the travel for a non-Antari, as well as what may await them in the other Londons. These two—despite their occasional squabbling (which is very amusing, by the way), they make an incredible—and formidable—team.

There’s some seriously intense action in this book, thanks in part to Holland, an Antari like Kell, but that’s about where their similarities end. Holland oozes lethality with every word and every move, which isn’t surprising when you get up close and personal with the folks he answers to. They would Astrid and Athos Dane, the twin rulers of White London, where the throne has traditionally been seized by force. Not only are the Danes more than okay with striking down anyone who gets in their way, but they revel in their cruelty. And they’re crazy. As much as I wanted to see Astrid and Athos’s horrible reign end, I have to say that they were compelling antagonists; you never knew what their next move was going to be, only that it involved copious amounts of evil. Guaranteed.

Finally, I must mention how exquisitely written A Darker Shade of Magic is; it’s as though the prose itself is enchanted. Nothing makes me happier than reading a book that makes me fall in love with its words as well as its characters, its setting, etc., and I adored EVERYTHING about A Darker Shade of Magic. I cannot wait to catch up with Kell and Lila in the next book!

All in All: Simply brilliant. This is truly one of the best, most immersive magic books I’ve read, and I don’t know what else to say to convince everyone to read it, too!