Get Captured in Words! discussion

These last few months have been crazy for me, I'm sure I'll have the discussions more organised next time!

WARNING SPOILERS!
Make sure you've read up to chapter nine, which is about page 210 for me, before reading on.

- Wow. The fight scene between Kell and Holland was completely awesome. I was expecting Kell to discover a way to break the silver seal on Holland, but as we discovered, he has a soul brand which is much more complicated. Holland makes for a pretty badass character, I'm excited to learn more about him. I'm going to predict now that eventually he will overthrow Astrid and Athos and take over White London for himself.

- I would like to be able to know the limitations of this magic system and what the characters can and cannot do. I also reaaaaally like the idea of this artefact from Black London and how it tempts the user and retaliates by getting angry.

-The scene where the man ends up piercing himself threw the stomach with the black sword is definitely inspired from the real life legends of the Muramasa blades, as these legends describe demon swords that control the wielder and can make them kill themselves or slaughter their very own family. I think this idea perfectly suits the eerie Black London artefact.

-By the end of chapter nine I actually found myself quite sad for Barron. I mean, I know he was never a main character or anything but he was a pretty nice guy.


Let me know your thoughts down below! If you came across a Vitari artefact, do you think you could withstand the temptation? Do you think you would find a place to hide it away so it wouldn't get into the wrong hands?

Once again, sorry about the sloppy discussions and slow reading speed, it's been a hectic month. I plan on speeding through the rest of this book though, and I'm thinking I'd like to start the second one right away.

I'm up to speed, page 205 in my edition.

What could I write? This is one of the greatest novels I've read so far, more importantly, the way V.E. Schwab narrates, explanes, insinuates, leaves stuff to the imagination, switches between characters and worlds, constructs characters, is 100% the way I'd want her too, it feels like she wrote this book especially for me! :) There hasn't been a half-line so far for which I'd mentally comment to myself "oh, I wish this were done differently here".

Kell continues to amaze, I liked him even more when his vulnerable side was revealed, when he was losing the combat with that damned Holland traveller and was being bled dry in the middle of that alley! He has such integrity, such morals, such a perfect behaviour, even though his position as adopted son of the King and practicaly last remaining Antari (Blood Magician) could make it acceptable for him to act worse than Joffrey!

Lila is equally amazing. Finally a YA heroine who isn't a princess, a damsel in distress, a stunning beauty (who of course isn't aware of it, right!). I smiled when she remembered how it had been a very long time since she was described as pretty by anyone. (p.64) I smiled when she had no remorse killing that man on the ship. Totally believable character. No fear, still I was shocked when she returned for Kell and confronted the all-powerful Holland, just as Kell did for her. These two are so similar!

I can't wait to read what happens next. I have a feeling Black London isn't as gone as everyone thinks and that we'll see more of it and that it will be the most interesting one of all four Londons (also cause my eyes accidentally fell on the first sentence of the synopsis on the back cover of A Conjuring of Light, don't do that, people!).

My one problem with the world building so far comes from the fact that these four worlds weren't always separate, like in so many other books. Up till 300 years ago, they were intertwined and everyone - if my mediocre English serve me right - was able to move to all four freely. Therefore it makes no sense to me that the very memory of these other places that disappeared would have disappeared along with them. People would know, references of the other Londons would be in books, monuments, paintings, songs. If Japan had vanished in an earthquake 300 years ago, we'd all still know of it. Yet no citizen of White London even considers the possibility that other worlds existed up to fairly recently. And if this is the case, why would there be any need for Antaris to act as couriers between kings of places that have absolutely no relations one with the other nor will they ever have again. What's the point? What does Queen Emira possibly have to write to Queen Astrid about every single month?...

And another minor complaint: the way this dark stone is described (p.189) as necessary to be destroyed but belonging to another world and therefore not possible for this to be done unless someone accepts the dangerous task to take to the far-away world in which it was created in order to destroy it only there.... well, it reminded me a bit of the The One Ring and the fires of Mount Doom, am I wrong?... But let's see how V.E. Schwab will handle all this in the rest of the story.

PS: Jay, if I came across a Vitari artefact.... I'd use it 100%, dangerous as it might be. I need so many things in my life to change...! :) What's the point of hiding it?

It's a little weird reading the discussion posts about The Darker Shade of Magic, when I went full speed ahead and finished A Gathering of Shadows.

I really admire the elements and the characters that V.E. Schwab created. The characters are all endearing in their own way and adequate time is put to build the characters. She also did an amazing job on switching between the voices of the characters - from the level of toughness, vulnerability, indifference, desperation, pain, loneliness, etc. you can easily guess whose perspective is being described.

For me, I thought that Barron is not an obvious main character, but he does play a significant role... which we get a glimpse of but comes more into play later to build up Lila's humanity.

As for the hypothetical question, I think that no matter how we answer it hypothetically, at the end of the day, the use of the stone depends on the situation and the level of desperation it calls for.
Initially, I would probably convince myself not to use it, because I'm more risk averse - I've learned this after recently turning 21 and finding that gambling is overrated. It doesn't quite appeal to me... it's fun trying for the first time though!
But ultimately, like I said previously, I think it all depends on the situation.