I think I may have fallen out of love with V.E. Schwab. I actually DNFed my re-read of the last book in the original Shades of Magic trilogy (!) because I was so uninterested (it was my least favorite the first time through, too). I started this book back in jAnUaRy. JANUARY. And I have only now finished it. And it was fine! While I was reading it I was having a good time, but I never actually felt like picking it back up. I don’t know what’s going on.
One thing I will say before I even talk about anything else is that this book was way too long for what it was. It felt a bit overindulgent, like that thing that sometimes happens to bestselling authors where they either stop receiving major edits, or decline more and more to make them. Also, it was all over the marketing and in her interviews that you could start with this book, but you absolutely cannot. I mean, you could. But it would be a terrible decision, making this book confusing and spoiling the first trilogy. We are with the same characters from the first trilogy! If we were fresh with only new ones, I would feel differently, but this is a direct continuation with a seven year time jump (that she fills in with A LOT of flashbacks).
I was fine with the story, and the reason I didn’t want to be in this world is inexplicable to me, so I apologize for the mostly unhelpful nature of this review which basically amounts to the shrug emoticon.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
[3.5 stars]