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Thursday, September 28, 2017

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2)A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So I was pretty hard on the author last time, and I might back off some of those criticisms on the sequel. It wasn't that the author still isn't sloppy at times (in a non-religious society characters are taking the Lords name in vain, using "saints" as an exclamation, and they still don't eat.) Rather, the first book lacked foreshadowing that should have set up the story as a multi book conflict. I felt that the conflict was wrapped up in the first book, but in an unsatisfactory way. I learned here that the conflict was not wrapped up, but continues on in this book. Maybe I missed the foreshadowing, or some other signal, but if I had seen that coming I think I would have been more forgiving in my last review.

Finally, this book takes on some adult themes that I didn't think were necessary. I would have preferred to hint at those plot lines and been able to keep it family friendly, rather than deal with a few scenes that now keep me from recommending this book to my kids. I'm admittedly conservative in these situations, but if I don't exercise my right to speak my mind I'll end up losing that right, so there you go. That's my opinion.

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