She refuses to be a victim of her own narrative: just because she was born poor doesn’t mean she’ll stay poor. She is determined to make her mark on the world, to have adventures and to see what else is out there. A common thief originally from Grey London, she’s the kind of woman who marches to the beat of her own drum and doesn’t let society dictate her actions. Unapologetically brash and driven by self-gratification and selfish purposes, she is the perfect foil to Kell’s strong sense of duty. Although Kell is meant to be the main protagonist of this book, Lila steals the show every time she appears. I feel like its almost itching for a movie adaptation, and let’s be honest, that is the dream isn’t it? I, for one, would love to see Red London – with its castle floating on the river Thames itself, and a bustling and vibrant market on the banks – up on the big screen.Īpart from the world-building, this book also introduces the delightful, though sometimes annoying, Delilah Bard. The world building in this book is amazing in its descriptiveness. It goes without saying that I will automatically love a book that’s set in London, but Ms Schwab takes it further by giving us three (for now) different version of this city. I am utterly enamoured of the concept of this book. There was a fourth London where magic existed in its purest, strongest form, ultimately leading to that city’s destruction Kell calls this city of legends Black London. Kell differentiates the three Londons by assigning colours to them: Red London, the city where magic is alive and thriving Grey London, where no one believes that magic really exists and White London, where magic used to exist but has long gone, leaving its people starving for just the taste of it (and starving for food as well, most likely). The main character, Kell, is an antari – a group of people who are “blessed” with magic and whose blood enables them to travel through those worlds as long as they have a “token”, usually an object that belongs to that world. she introduces us to three different worlds, their only common thread being that in all these worlds there is always a city named London.

Schwab succeeds with all that and more in the first book of her Shades of Magic Trilogy. Enjoy re-reading this guys!įantasy is a genre that relies on an author having an original idea, unparalleled imagination and the ability to create worlds that take us away from our own lives for the 5 hours or so that it takes to finish the book. I’ve decided to repost my review of VE Schwab’s books because I’m about to finish another one of her weird, interesting, quirky and altogether original books. Originally posted sometime last year but had to be taken off the site because of my stupidity.

Shades of magic trilogy