A Conjuring of Light Review
Oh so many things I want to write about! But today is all about finishing up the Shades of Magic trilogy by VE Schwab. I read the whole trilogy in about two and a half weeks, and I feel like I’m still digesting it a little bit. So, let’s see how it works out today in this review. First off, I loved this book and really the whole trilogy! I definitely plan to reread these in the future, and give them to my big kids to read. I think my 13yo especially would love them.
Diving in then, the third book is really a continuation of book 2, in terms of ...everything really. The Essen Tasch magic games are over and the magic is all about playing for keeps here. The biggest new character is of course the Bad Guy, Osaron. He’s introduced a bit in book 2, but in A Conjuring of Light he really comes into his own as a separate character (of evilness of course, he’s the bad guy). Made from Dark magic and from the Black London, he just wants to control all the things and people like he did in Black London. It’s fairly standard tbh, he likes chaos, is black, wants to control/kill all life. On the other side from Osaron we have: Lilah, Kell, Holland, Rhy, Alucard, and the King, Queen, various magicians, priests, and foreigners that are all stuck in the castle after the Games ended. Biggest growth for a character in this book goes hands down to Holland, for sure. I wasn’t sure if I could even like him after what he’d done already, much less have him as a favorite like a friend of mine does. And no, I don’t love him like I love Kell or Lilah, but he’s SO much better and I want to see how he does after the ending here (though I think I know and I’m not sure I like it).
The setting for this book is really almost all Red London and its world, with brief glimpses mostly into what’s happening in the White and Grey worlds. And this part, right here, is where I’m actually glad I didn’t try reading this series last year. Because Osaron’s magic is like a disease that you breathe in and the people who go outside succumb to his magic in minutes (with few exceptions). So everyone has to either risk 1. Be controlled or 2. Get sick and possibly die trying to not be controlled, or 3. Stay Inside the castle where they put up wards, no exceptions. And that would have been too much stress and art imitating life for my 2020 reading. The only people who can move around the city are Antari or ‘Silvers’, people who have fought Osaron off and have silver scars over their veins.
Plot, well this is book 3 and I don’t want to spoil too much… but Kell, Lilah, Holland, and a few others, go on a quest to find an artifact that can contain Osaron. Rhy stays home to help the people as he can, while helping the King and Queen hold everything together in the palace/city that they can. Of course hijinks ensue by members of both groups and they barely are able to contain this threat. But it’s the end of the trilogy and it ends up fairly nicely, despite a few tears and other close calls.
So this book is really great. I love how Shwab was able to pull all the strands together just nicely for the mostly-happy-ever-after ending. Holland was a true gem of a character and I loved watching him grow through his interactions with Kell and the others. Kell and Lilah are very much ‘in love’ in this book, and there is a brief sexual encounter (though it’s not graphic in description or I wouldn’t give it to my teenagers!) while they’re traveling. Also in love are Rhy and Alucard, though that was evident in the last book as much as this one. Idk what that means for the throne of Arnes in the future, but I’m sure they’ll work it out somehow.
A Conjuring of Light plays for all the stakes to make or break the series, and it does a fantastic job. Lots of small fights, large fights, magic fights, and plenty of other magic around to use in ‘leveling up’ their skills and preparing for the epic finale showdown. And for me it all paid off in the end. I would love to see another story set in this world (set of worlds?) sometime in the future. I really missed the jumping through worlds that made book 1 really unique and would LOVE to see that brought back more. But for now, it was a good book to finish off a good series and I’m really glad that I finally got to reading these! Definitely would recommend it to anyone around 13 and up, though it’s not technically a YA story.
