I am the violence the world made of me.

Until We Shatter is essentially a heist story that has the benefit of magic. The main character, Cemmy, is stuck between two magical forces who want to kill her for her magic. She is dragged into a heist to help her sick mother, but the situation is much bigger than all that, and everyone's safety is at risk. The involvement of a man with questionable loyalties and motives does not make anything easier. What can she do to help the situation and survive?

The magic system, named by color designations, felt interesting and new, but I do think that I never fully understood how it worked and should have made myself some sort of cheat sheet. On several occasions when there was heavy magic use, I felt myself thinking, "Okay, so I guess that's how it works?

Thanks to Kate, Hodder & Stoughton | Hodderscape, and NetGalley for an eARC of this book for an honest review.

The premise of color magic is intriguing and fun. Yet, I think the author was trying too hard to elaborate on the complexity of that magic system that it made it too confusing to follow. I was lost about the shades and the grays; it wasn’t explained in a way that was comprehensible. I felt that the author had this rich world in their head and I unfortunately was not able to enjoy the vision that the author set out to share.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for honest review. This is a super fun upper YA heist story. There is a lot to love about this, the found family, the queer rep, the unique magic system, the politics and religion all add to create some interesting world building. I would have loved for interactions between Cemmy and her friends, and the romance was a bit underdeveloped. But overall very fun and worth a read.

I have some mixed feelings about this book. I liked the premise of it, and I feel like the story had potential, but the magic system and world building were just so over complicated, which made it very difficult to follow. I was so confused between Hues, Typics, Shades, metals, gems, the Church, the Council... even at the end I was still not clear. It was all very complicated considering that the events of the book take place within a week, and all within the same city, so it wasn't even that the whole world was like that. I didn't like Cemmy much, but I understood her motivation was keeping her friends and mother safe. I was confused about Chase being the love interest, as I thought it would be Novi, but there was not really that much chemistry between either of them.

As I said, I feel like it had potential, but I would have liked it better if the characters had been more developed, or if their relationships and friendships were shown more, as I would have felt more connected to them. I guess a couple of the plot twists but was definitely surprised by others, and I feel like the ending was the best part, as not that much happened during the rest of the story.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton | Hodderscape, and Kate Dylan for the chance to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

You can sell anything with a good marketing strategy. Including selling readers on a misleading blurb that declares this book an "epic heist fantasy" that combines Six of Crows and a V.E. Schwab novel.

Spoiler alert: it's not, and it doesn't.

Where Six of Crows balances a deeply immersive world with dynamic characters and a fleshed-out plot, the world-building in Until We Shatter is subpar and convoluted, and the actual "heisting" is left almost as a last resort at the tail end of the novel.

The one thing Dylan's book has going for it is the strength of its writing style, and even this is called into question as the world's magic system makes zero sense, the characters' decisions have no real weight or urgency to them, and the heist itself STILL is a mystery to me.

While this novel was entertaining, it did not meet the demands of this genre, and will undoubtedly be left in the dust as newer and richer novels emerge in the future.

Thank you to the publisher for this e-arc.

Enjoyable, but reads more like YA than adult.
The magic system was very interesting, and I enjoyed the premise and the prose of the story.
Unfortunately, the plot had way too many plot holes for me to properly enjoy, and I honestly didn’t really love any of the characters.
Overall, an okay read.

2.5/5 stars

Thank you Netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed this book! The magic and the characters were so cool! The color magic and how each of the colors means a different kind of magic was fascinating and it was so interesting. It took me quite a while to finish this but I blame the fact that I haven’t finished a physical book in 2 months 😂 Once I hit a certain point I didn’t want to put it down. It went so fast after the halfway point. It’s also crazy this book happens over the course of a week because so much happens. The twists and turns were really well done! I loved the romance even though it wasn’t a huge plot point. I’d pitch this as a fantasy with a sub plot of romance. After reading this I’m curious about reading Kate’s other books!

Thank you to NetGalley, Kate Dylan, and Hodder and Stoughton for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a wild ride, Kate Dylan is the master of fast paced and thrilling reads. Following the great sci fi pair of MINDWALKER and MINDBREAKER, this is a fantasy heist following the stubborn and determined main character Cemmy. UNTIL WE SHATTER features a unique magic system where magic users come in one of many "Shades", each with their own powers. In a world where these Shades are under persecution from the non-magic "Typics" and their church, the children of both types of types (half Shade, half Typic), like Cemmy and her friends, are illegal and hunted by both groups. As Cemmy remains in hiding, stealing to buy medicine for her gravely ill mother, she takes a job she can't quite pull off. This throws she and her friends into a thrilling heist where the consequence of failure is shattering.

With diverse characters and something new at every turn, this is great for fans of SIX OF CROWS. It is similar in terms of lovable characters and desperately high stakes, but Cemmy is somehow more stubborn and has a tendency to do first, think it through later. I loved this book, and congratulations to Kate Dylan on it's successful release!

Some books are just not for you as a reader and this was one of them. I was so excited to read this and it just didn’t hook me the way that I wanted it to. Objectively, the writing was good, the characters weren’t bad. I just didn’t feel that connection that I was so looking forward to. It could be a case of right book at the wrong time since I can’t really explain why I didn’t connect. It had all of the elements that I enjoy, it just wasn’t memorable for me. I have had other books like this in the past where I can go back later on and re read them with no expectation and I tend to enjoy them more. So I would like to try that with this one. Kate Dylan is an author that I hear rave reviews about from some of my favorite authors so I hope that is the case. I will be returning to this later to try again, so for now I’m gonna leave this here rate it in the middle since I have to leave a rating until I feel 100 percent that I can be as objective as possible.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hodderscape, and the author for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I truly loved this book! I found the magic system to be so unique and fascinating while easy to understand and follow, and it was intriguing the entire time. The storyline of the main character and her friends felt realistic and filled with varying levels of love, angst, terror, and shifting alliances. I think the author dove into each character just enough to bring the reader to care about each of them and start to understand them, at least as much as the main character had an understanding of them herself.

The storyline was super engaging and kept me guessing the motives and backstories of the characters we are introduced to. It felt thrilling and exciting and had twists I never saw coming.

I really loved this book and hope others will give it a chance!

This book did what it wanted to do very well and it was really enjoyable although it dealt with grief and guilt among other themes. I already wanted to read Mindwalker by the same author, now I'm even more eager to get to it.

I ended up not finishing this one; it reads very young and like a YA book published 15 years ago (eg, very specific grouping system for people, female lead in a dystopia). There is probably an audience for this but I’m not sure who.

comparing this to six of crows and a darker shade of magic is hilarious because it doesn’t even come close.

from the heavy info dumps to the hues-colors-shades magic system, it didn’t work well at all. the story felt like it jumped all over the place and the fmc’s weird jealousy bit made me want to die a little bit inside.

ty for the arc but i hated how much time i wasted 🙃

Unfortunately this story did not grasp me, resulting in a foot-dragging reading experience. While I think there are definitely readers out there for this book, I simply don’t find that I am one of them. Until We Shatter is a YA sci-fi/fantasy story probably better appreciated by those who like the works of Leigh Bardugo.

The magic system was introduced slowly whilst also trying to maintain a fast heist-like pace which I found hard to follow.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I loved the story and loved how it was written; the world-building, the plot development and the depth of the emotions expressed. My only complaint was that I didn't reallly get attached to any of the characters; I think some of the side characters needed to be more fleshed out than they were.
Overall, though, I'd like to read more of the author's work.

In this world there are shades who can go between the grey (a parallel shadow world) and the 'physical' world easily without shattering (dying) and hues who are half shades who can go into the grey, but they have to anchor themselves to things in the grey and make an 'In - Between', kind of like making an invisible shield around themselves, so that they do not shatter. Your abilities depend on what colour shade you are, and if you are a hue your abilities are related but not quite the same to the closest colour to you. Cemmy, the main character, and her friends then get forced into doing a heist.

I thought the magic system was really unique and clever, however it was quite hard to understand at the beginning of the book and I think a brief explanation of the magic system or a glossary of terms at the start/end of the book might have been handy. I loved the heist and the team of characters involved but did feel like some of the characters felt quite similar to one another and lacked a bit of depth. I also found the bit between the church and the council quite confusing.

Did I enjoy my reading? Yes and no.

🟣 It’s about a group of young people with powers who have to infiltrate a building and steal an object (think Six of Crows inspiration).

✨ I'll get straight to the point: I spent the first half of the book confused about the magic system. Although it’s interesting (people can dive into shadows and become invisible), it’s super complex. The powers are categorized by colors, but there are a lot of nuances. Quite a bit of information is introduced little by little, piling up without pause, which isn’t ideal.

🟣 The book isn’t long, so it’s a shame because the second half was more enjoyable, but it felt short and not deep enough, both in terms of the plot and the characters. Yet the potential is there!

✨ We have a central group of five protagonists, and unfortunately, they deserved more depth in their personalities and relationships. We follow Cemmy, who, after a bad experience, is afraid of her powers and has to find a way to support her sick mother. It was hard to get into at first, but just as I started to feel attached, the book ended.

🟣 The plot was interesting, and I have to admit that even if some aspects are predictable, the last part of the book really captivated me. But again, the book deserved to be longer to elaborate more on these final points.

➡️ In the end, a book with potential but underutilized, too complex for its length, and ultimately lacking depth.

Until We Shatter was such an amazing book with a beautiful depiction of parallel worlds, a unique magic system, a complex set of characters who make lots and lots of mistakes, a special heist with a side of found family! If this is up to your taste, then you should definitely give it a try!

Not entirely sure why, but this book just didn’t click with me. I quite enjoyed the writing style and loved the fast paced story, unfortunately felt that I was failing to connect with the characters and just couldn’t get myself to pick the book up and read it

I loved the queer representation in this novel, the disability representation and the wonderful found family that is developed. I would recommend this mainly for the fast paced, action packed heist story and unique magic system. It's labelled as crossover YA/adult, I think, and I'd say this is accurate.