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A review by divineauthor
A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
“Arnesians had a dozen ways to say hello, but no word for good-bye […] but more often they chose to say anoshe—until another day. […] Anoshe brought solace. And hope. And the strength to let go.” —Kell Maresh, page 613
it’s a good thing this series isn’t over because their lives just begun. god. i shed true tears over these characters for reasons i can’t even name.
my mind keeps turning back to a book i read not so long ago, TRANSLATING MYSELF AND OTHERS by jhumpa lahiri, and it’s because a passage juts out of the page as i kept reading A CONJURING A LIGHT—the whole series, even:
it’s a good thing this series isn’t over because their lives just begun. god. i shed true tears over these characters for reasons i can’t even name.
my mind keeps turning back to a book i read not so long ago, TRANSLATING MYSELF AND OTHERS by jhumpa lahiri, and it’s because a passage juts out of the page as i kept reading A CONJURING A LIGHT—the whole series, even:
The need to contain and the need to set free: these are the contradictory impulses […] To contain, in Italian, is contenere, from the Latin verb continere. It means to hold, but it also means to hold back, repress, limit, control. […] A container is designed so that something can be placed inside it. It has a double identity in that it is either lacking contents or occupied: either empty or full.
our three antari are a study of containers. holland vosijk contained in his own body, bound by the dane twins then by osaron until he was set free—his own magic gone. here is a character who was controlled and found a type of freedom. but then you have lila bard contained in her magicless world until she slid into a new one and found that to be held—loved, contained—is not too terrible a thing. and kell maresh. the prince who was not a son, the boy who became a brother, the man trapped in the confines of a city too small for his own body. london has always been kell’s container. he’s a muzzled dog, leashed and loved because being held also meant being restrained. he’s the man with all the power and the heart that keeps him tethered to this place.
they all found their peace with their containers in the end.
i’ve slotted all these characters into my heart btw i can’t even front they’re in me fr i can’t wait to pick up THE FRAGILE THREADS OF POWER, guys, like to see these characters in their thirties will have me on my knees and wailing in the streets. GOD. ill be staring at my ceiling. love and light ❤️