A Gathering of Shadows
Ratings456
Average rating4
There's a reason why I'm obsessed with every single one of Victoria Schwab's books. Maybe it's the unique stories, or the amazing characters, or just the outstanding writing. Whatever it is, A Gathering of Shadows is no exception. Like all of Victoria's books, it is 500 pages of pure, creative writing that blew me away at each word.
Ever since I finished A Darker Shade of Magic in November, I have waited, quite impatiently, for this book. And every second of free time I've had since the moment, on Tuesday, when I ran to my mailbox after arriving home from school, has been spent invested into the beautiful world that Schwab has created. That ending has left me craving more, and I don't know how I am going to wait until the next book. I need more Kell. I need more Lila. I need more Rhy. I just need book three.
The second volume in this trilogy definitely ups it's game from the first book, investing more in the characters and giving it a good solid story continuation. I definitely felt I enjoyed this one a bit more than the first one, however it still didn't quite manage to really reel me in emotionally. It's still a fun and super enjoyable fantasy and I would most certainly recommend it. The world(s) are unique and somewhere I enjoyed getting lost in, and I felt more for the characters this time around with Kell continuing to be my favourite and lastly the while the magic system isn't spectacular, it still is able to enchant. A fun, adventurous story that isn't too light and not too dark which is exactly what I was looking for right now.
3.5 stars
Here we have the second adventure of Kell and Lila in Red London... The first part (personally) was a bit boring. The MC was just walking around the Red London and doing nothing!
I liked Lila in the first book because she was badass and crazy! However, in this second book, it was too much! She acted just like crazy and childish.
Why she entered the Tournament? Just because she can!
Why is she using magic? Just because she can!
Why is she amazing? Just because she thinks so...
And Kell...oh well... I don't know what happened to him. He was just a winy and sad all the time. No action, nothing from him. He was totally boring here!
The best moments were when Holland appeared and did his schemes. But that, unfortunately, happened just at the last 50 pages of the book!
Overall, this book is no good. It didn't help the story and I hope that the last book will be better!
I obviously loved this book - hence the 5 stars review. BUT
yeah, there is a BUT...
LILA WAS SO FREAKING ANNOYING IN THIS BOOK. I mean - I get her. I understand why she did most of the stupid things, btu she was annoying and sometimes she acted like she knew better than Kell and that was obviously not true. As much as I loved her in the first book, in this one I wanted to just portal through this book and slap her and bring her back to her senses. I really hope she's going to get better in book 3 and start seeing that some things are NOT good for her. Because she's a great character and I don't want anything to happen to her.
And... that ending? That was CRUEL.
I understand why people say this book has the “middle book syndrom”.
Yes the action is way slower than in the first one, but I have to say I really enjoyed to go deeper in the culture of the world and the characters psychology. Even if the main plot does not advance that much, Lila, Kell and Rhys definitively do!
This serie is outstanding compare to what I have read of V.E. Schwab. I am really excited to read the last book and see how the story will wrap up !
Schwab's writing is an absolute delight to read. Interesting new characters, more characterizing of ones we already know, well written action sequences that don't bore - but WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?!
This is going to be a very unpopular opinion but... this book is terrible.
As in, for the first time in 15 years I gave up mid book and mid series. No plot, characters I hated, a world that wasn???t developed and not even good writing. I got to the last chapter and realized I just didn???t care how it ended.
The first book showed promise and I started this one hoping it would be more fully developed. Not only did that not happen, it actually regressed in this installment.
I have got to say that this is fast becoming one of my favourite fantasy series.
AGOS (as nobody is calling it) takes place about four months after the first book and updates us with the current goings on in Red London. The characters of Kell and Lila are developed as is the rest of the world and it's inhabitants, particularly Rhy and the rest of the royal family.
The second story in the trilogy is more of a character driven story than A Darker Shade of Magic, and it is testament to Schwab's writing that whilst there are not spectacular action set pieces all through the book, she manages to keep the reader engaged with the development of her characters.
The only thing that irked me was the introduction of Dracula (Captain Alucard!) even to the point of having him as the dragon. Everytime I read it I kept thinking of Dracula 1972 AD. Although, I did like his character
I have got to say that I liked the character development and the world building that is done in this story. Again hats off to Ms Schwab because rather than hitting you over the head with a mallet to expand on the mythos of her world, she uses the age old trick of show don' t tell and subsequently the world of Red London is enriched by this approach.
Cannot wait to read the next one!
this series is soooo fkn good, very strong first and second book!!! can't imagine how good the third one is going to be and i am SO EXCITED TO READ IT
I enjoyed this book on Audible. There is a cliff hangar and I'm going to start the next one really soon.
No, just no. You take the uninteresting sidekick and make her the protagonist of the sequel? You make her flawless and invincible?
Things I also despise: romanticized pirates (pirates are rapist, murderers and thieves), a remorseless killer made out to be the good guy, NO PLOT WHATSOEVER.
The first scene of the book is an action scene (ugh), has the ‘protagonist' defeat a crew of 20 man by herself.
Read 1:22/16:08 9%
Opnieuw bijzonder veel genoten van deze wereld van Victoria Schwab. Geen tweede boek syndroom voor deze. Het verhaal is van dezelfde kwaliteit als het zelfs niet beter is dan het eerste deel. Gelukkig kan ik direct verder met deel 3!
A Darker Shade of Magic ???????????????A Gathering of Shadows ???????????????
You might see this rating and think I???m crazy. You might think I hated this book. That isn???t exactly the case, because I found the book incredibly readable and I thoroughly enjoyed every page.
This second book follows on four months from the first, and concerns the triwizard tournament of Red London (which is a basic description of the plot, and is missing the nuances, but will suffice for the review). Lila Bard, who is aboard a vessel with her new captain, travels back to London for the tournament.
Without going into spoilers my issue with this book is that there are no stakes or plot relevance until the last 20%. It all really goes down after the tournament ends. Which means the book could have been condensed and the series made into a duology without loosing plot. I can see why this was a book in and of itself as it builds some new relationships and shows the progression of time over the previous four months for one key character in particular. But that key character only had about 20% of the ???screen time??? and the relationships were not so complex or explained in such a detailed way that it required an entire 500 page book to discuss it.
Aside from the fact that this book felt like it was entirely filler though, I found the writing to be just as fantastic as last time. I adored every page and if I wasn???t expected a plot filled middle book in a trilogy, I would happily read 5000 pages of filler if it was written by V E Schwab. I gave it three stars because it wasn???t the book I felt it should be, but if I ignored my issues with the lack of plot it would easily be a four or five star book.
This book was something. I didn't like it as much as the first one, not by a long shot and that mostly because nothing interesting happens for almost the entire first half. It drab and whiny, but the second half definitely picked up. And the way the author tells the story is truly fantastic the world is so well done I can imagine it clearly and fully without too much detail and the characters are all flawed and none of them go out of their way to change who they are just to placate any other characters which is so rare i think. (I wish someone would come to a fucking compromise at some point in this story 😭 just for the sake of my sanity). Overall though I liked this book a lot.
So, this one is amazing. It took me awhile to read since I was never ina good place or had more than an hour to read it. Once I had the time to sit for a long stretch of time and read this, I took advantage.
I love Lila as a pirate. I love the build up of the tournament and the flashbacks to Lila on the boat. Even the tournament was fun– even if shorter than I thought it would be.
There is a dreaded cliffhanger, but I don't hate them. This one hurts so good haha. I'm super excited for the next book and plan to fit it in soon.
4.5 * It was difficult to put down; compelling characters, well written, action combined with character introspection and the introduction of a powerful, frightening force.
Book was slow to start. It didn't becoming overly engaging until the last 150 pages. However, I enjoyed the storyline. On to the last book of the trilogy.
When I read the first book it was on a whim - the cover looked good, I like magic, let's try it - and I liked it. The world was fascinating but somehow it didn't grab me enough that I needed to read the second book immediately. Finding out this was available I grabbed it. This makes me want to go back and re-read the first one. Did I not truly appreciate the first book at the time? Am I an idiot? I don't know....but I loved this one.
Schwab does this great thing where she will spend hundreds of pages on a slow burn plot and you don't even care that not that much is happening because it's all so great. Lila Bard: I love you so much. Can I be you when I grow up?!
I have the third book checked out now and I need to start it ASAP.