Until We Shatter by Kate Dylan

Book Review

Melody Bowles

Until We Shatter is described as an ‘epic, addictive and romantic heist fantasy’. The marketing description also compares it to A Darker Shades of Magic and Six of Crows. As a massive fan of both titles, I expected great things. Unfortunately, the book was underdelivered for me. Although it has heists like Six of Crows and a magical world like Darker Shades, I felt that the plot, characters and prose lack the maturity of its comp titles.

The key problem for me is that the book is about world-building more than anything else. It feels like about 70% of the book is concerned with the world’s magic system and its history, leaving only 30% for its characters and plot. Basically, everyone with magic powers is divided into colours called ‘Shades’, and every colour of magic has subcategories called ‘Hues’. Whenever a colour is mentioned, the author explains what it means because it’s too complicated to remember. This often takes away from key emotional moments. Also, ‘Hues’ are super scary because they’re made when non-magical people breed with magical Shade people, and the church disapproves.

On top of that, there is an alternate dimension called ‘The Grey’, which is great for shifting in and out of reality during heists. But spending too long there causes the characters to ‘shatter’ and die. This is a really interesting concept and the one aspect of the book I enjoyed.

There are just too many cliches I recognise from other young adult novels, particularly my least favourite aspects of Divergent. The characters are reduced to whatever colour they’re meant to represent, and there are too many for any attachments to really form. The death of a background character late on completely failed to move me. The point of view character, Cemmy, has a romantic interest and family drama, but any emotion is soon drained off as the focus moves back to the world-building or heist plot.

Read Until We Shatter if you’d like an ambitious novel focused on a complex magical system and how it divides the world’s society, with a heist and romantic subplot thrown in.