REVIEW: Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare

Series: The Dark Artifices
Pages: 720
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: May 23rd 2017
Buy The Book: A Great Read - Book Depository

Sunny Los Angeles can be a dark place indeed in Cassandra Clare’s Lord of Shadows, the sequel to the #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling Lady Midnight. Lord of Shadows is a Shadowhunters novel.

Emma Carstairs has finally avenged her parents. She thought she’d be at peace. But she is anything but calm. Torn between her desire for her parabatai Julian and her desire to protect him from the brutal consequences of parabatai relationships, she has begun dating his brother, Mark. But Mark has spent the past five years trapped in Faerie; can he ever truly be a Shadowhunter again?

And the faerie courts are not silent. The Unseelie King is tired of the Cold Peace, and will no longer concede to the Shadowhunters’ demands. Caught between the demands of faerie and the laws of the Clave, Emma, Julian, and Mark must find a way to come together to defend everything they hold dear—before it’s too late.

My Thoughts:
*trying to write coherent review through my stream of tears*

Actual footage of me after this book

Every book by Cassandra Clare, every single book, ruins me emotionally. And Lord of Shadows is no exception. So as difficult as it might be, I'm going to keep this review spoiler free, but I will have a video on my channel at some point to discuss everything in-depth because OH BOY THERE'S A LOT TO DISCUSS. For now though, no spoilers.

Lord of Shadows picks up shortly after the events in Lady Midnight. The Blackthorns are trying to come to terms with everything that has happened with Malcolm, and his death hasn't solved their problems. A high number of sea demons are appearing and the Shadowhunters have to work alongside the Centurions to find out what's causing them to show. Along with the growing threat, the characters each have their own personal demons to battle.

Emma and Julian continue to struggle with their forbidden feelings throughout this book. Emma is trying her best to make her parabatai fall out of love with her, as much as it pains her to do so. These poor characters, honestly. I felt for them so much. What I love about The Dark Artifices is how it's exploring a love story between parabatai. It's new territory for readers, so it's interesting to discover new facts we didn't previously know about the Shadow world. With Emma and Julian, I appreciate the history between them. I enjoyed having the main romance be between two people who've known each other since childhood, so instead of focusing on building their relationship, we're witnessing how it's changing.

What I love about the Cassandra Clare's books is that no matter how many stories she writes that are set in Shadow World, there is always something new to learn about, or a new area to focus on, so it doesn't feel repetitive. In Lord of Shadows, we got to explore a little more about the attitudes that Shadowhunters have towards mental health and mundane treatment, which is something we've barely touched upon in previous stories but it's something I've been interested in. Can I also take a moment to talk about Ty and his autism because I'm so happy that this is a fantasy series that has an autistic boy as one of the main characters. I loved the way Kit thought about Ty's autism in the story, and how showing his reactions to Ty reminded us just how little the Shadowhunters understand about these things. THESE CHARACTERS ARE JUST SO GREAT.

I need to take a moment to talk about the romantic relationships in this book because OH BOY. I'm always complaining about love triangles and how they aren't necessary, but I almost missed the simplicity of them whilst reading this book because it completely throws triangles out of the window. THERE ARE SO MANY CHARACTERS WITH SO MANY FEELINGS FOR OTHER CHARACTERS AND I'M EMOTIONALLY RUINED. I don't want to say too much or I'll risk running into Spoiler Zone, but I don't envy Cristina's situation in this book and I honestly have no idea where her love life is going to go.

Okay, so the ending. Haha. I never want to read an ending like that ever again. It's been weeks and I'm still traumatised. The writing throughout the final couple of chapters is incredible at building the tension and showing emotions. Also the action scenes, as always, are vividly described. I honestly can't believe I have to wait (I don't know how long) to find out what happens next!

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REVIEW: Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy

Pages: 653
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Walker Books
Genre: Fantasy, Short Stories
Release Date: November 15th 2016
Buy The Book: Book Depository

Simon Lewis has been a human and a vampire, and now he is becoming a Shadowhunter. But the events of City of Heavenly Fire left him stripped of his memories, and Simon isn’t sure who he is anymore. He knows he was friends with Clary, and that he convinced the total goddess Isabelle Lightwood to go out with him…but he doesn’t know how. And when Clary and Isabelle look at him, expecting him to be a man he doesn’t remember…Simon can’t take it.

So when the Shadowhunter Academy reopens, Simon throws himself into this new world of demon-hunting, determined to find himself again. His new self. Whomever this new Simon might be.

But the Academy is a Shadowhunter institution, which means it has some problems. Like the fact that non-Shadowhunter students have to live in the basement. And that differences—like being a former vampire—are greatly looked down upon. At least Simon is trained in weaponry—even if it’s only from hours of playing D&D.

Join Simon on his journey to become a Shadowhunter, and learn about the Academy’s illustrious history along the way, through guest lecturers such as Jace Herondale, Tessa Gray, and Magnus Bane. These ten short stories give an epilogue to the Mortal Instruments series and provide glimpses of what’s in store in the Dark Artifices.

My Thoughts:
It's no secret that I completely ADORE anything to do with the Shadowhunter world created by Cassandra Clare, so needless to say I was very excited to find out there would be a series of short stories about Simon Lewis from The Mortal Instruments! Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy follows Simon's next two years after the events at the end of City of Heavenly Fire. He's at the newly reopened academy, training to become a Shadowhunter. Whilst there he meets his room-mate George Lovelace, and the two of them quickly become friends.

The book consists of ten short stories written by Cassie herself and her fellow writers Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, and Robin Wasserman. Whilst following Simon's journey, we also get plenty of updates on the other main characters from TMI, along with a few stories set back in time with the characters from The Infernal Devices. This variety in the stories kept me gripped. One of my personal favourites was Nothing But Shadows, that gave us a chance to get to know the characters in Cassie's future series The Last Hours. I'll admit that I wasn't overly interested about this series for a while, mostly because there are a lot of Shadowhunter stories (A LOT) and I didn't want to get invested in one series whilst currently reading another (TDA. Like I said, A LOT TO KEEP UP WITH). But this story completely pulled me in. I fell in love with the characters and now I REALLY WANT TO READ THE LAST HOURS AND GOD ONLY KNOWS WHEN IT'LL BE RELEASED. I loved being able to jump from Simon and his friends in the modern day academy, back to the academy in 1899 where we meet James Herondale and Matthew Fairchild.

Whilst the book goes off on tangents to tell us a collection of short stories, the journey of Simon and his friends is constant throughout. With The Bane Chronicles (Cassie's previous collection of short stories) it was possible to jump in and out of the book at any story, but with this one it's better to read all of the stories in order. It also gives a better insight into some of the characters and situations we read about in the main Shadowhunter books. For example, there is a story called Bitter of Tongue that focuses on Mark Blackthorn from The Dark Artifices. My absolute favourite story had to be Born To Endless Night, which focused a little more on all of the TMI characters, specifically Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood. It had me laughing one minute and then an emotional mess the other.

So the final story in this book COMPLETELY TORE MY HEART OUT AND I'M NOT OKAY. I will mention that I did already know the Major Event at the end. These stories were released originally as eBooks on a monthly basis, but I knew they'd be released in physical copy at a later date, so I decided to wait until then to read them. Mostly because I like having physical copies and also I was way too broke to buy one every month. I had no idea that the short story at the end of Lady Midnight would contain a spoiler for this book, but...it did. A very huge spoiler. So that unfortunately meant I went through this whole book knowing the fate of a main character, and whilst I wish I hadn't known it beforehand because it would have packed more of an emotional punch, I still found the ending powerful.

All of the stories within this book were great to read and I enjoyed not only catching up with some old favourite characters, but also meeting some amazing new ones. I loved getting the chance to jump back into the Shadowhunter world again!

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REVIEW: Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

Series: The Dark Artifices #1
Pages: 720
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: Amazon - Amazon UK

The Shadowhunters of Los Angeles star in the first novel in Cassandra Clare’s newest series, The Dark Artifices, a sequel to the internationally bestselling Mortal Instruments series. Lady Midnight is a Shadowhunters novel.

It’s been five years since the events of City of Heavenly Fire that brought the Shadowhunters to the brink of oblivion. Emma Carstairs is no longer a child in mourning, but a young woman bent on discovering what killed her parents and avenging her losses.

Together with her parabatai Julian Blackthorn, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches across Los Angeles, from the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica. If only her heart didn’t lead her in treacherous directions…

Making things even more complicated, Julian’s brother Mark—who was captured by the faeries five years ago—has been returned as a bargaining chip. The faeries are desperate to find out who is murdering their kind—and they need the Shadowhunters’ help to do it. But time works differently in faerie, so Mark has barely aged and doesn’t recognize his family. Can he ever truly return to them? Will the faeries really allow it?

Glitz, glamours, and Shadowhunters abound in this heartrending opening to Cassandra Clare’s Dark Artifices series. 

My Thoughts:

So, I was super lucky enough to win an early copy of Lady Midnight from the wonderful Amber at The Mile Long Bookshelf! Since the book has only just been released, obviously I’m keeping this review spoiler free. But you should know that I want to discuss all the things SO MUCH. Hopefully I’ll be able to upload a discussion video at a later date to talk about everything! In the meantime, prepare for this review to be a fangirlish mess. I have a feeling I might ramble a little bit here, so you may want to grab a cup of tea. I’m not joking. 

Guys, you don’t need me to tell you how much I love Cassandra Clare’s books. The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices are two of my favourite series’ of all time, so I had high hopes for Lady Midnight, the first book in The Dark Artifices series, and oh boy, did it deliver. 

This book picks up five years after the end of the Dark War, and it follows parabatai Emma and Julian, as Emma continues her quest to discover the truth about the murder of her parents. The Clave believes that Sebastian Morgenstern was responsible for their deaths, but she does not. When more murder victims show up in the same state as that of her parents, Emma and the Blackthorn family make a bargain to investigate and find the killer. 

The characters in this book are amazing, there’s no doubt about it. I was worried that they might not live up to the awesomeness of the characters in the previous series’, but I had nothing to fear. As always, Cassie Clare delivered a fantastic array of well-developed, brilliantly intriguing, and diverse characters. I loved getting to know each of them, and I can’t wait to continue learning more about them as the series continues. 

I’ll be honest, when I first met these characters in City of Heavenly Fire, I wasn’t hugely interested at the time. That’s because I busy worrying about the main characters in the current series! But I knew I’d get more of a chance to know them in The Dark Artifices, and as I predicted, I liked them much more in their own series. Personally, I think I might actually prefer Emma to Clary, which is something I couldn’t predict happening! But Emma has so much wit and sarcasm, she really is like a female Jace. So I utterly adored her. I also loved the tension between her and Julian as their relationship began to change. I’m very excited to see where this goes because of laws against parabatai relationships. My heart actually ached for them at times. 

The rest of the Blackthorn family are just as interesting. Tiberius is great and I can’t wait to read more about him. I have a feeling he’ll get a bigger plot in the next book. Also, Mark Blackthorn is fascinating. His was the story that stood out for me in City of Heavenly Fire when he was taken by the Wild Hunt. Learning more about him and his time there was one of my favourite aspects of this book. I could probably sit and talk about each of the characters in this book all day, but none of us have time for that, unfortunately. 

Moving on from the characters, THE PLOT IN THIS BOOK. OH MY GOODNESS. When a book keeps making your jaw drop until the very end, you know it’s special. Those twists in the final few chapters, I was not expecting one bit. I really wasn’t. I pride myself on being able to predict plot twists before they happen, but not with Lady Midnight. Nope. It’s a credit to how great a writer Cassie Clare is that I literally did not see the twists coming from a mile off. Also, a little warning, chapter 22 will utterly rip your heart out. Good luck reading that one, guys. 

As expected, there were some references to the previous stories set in the Shadow World, and we got to catch up with some of the characters, which was beyond amazing. Jem and Tessa appear briefly, but I expect they’ll be featuring a lot more in this series, which I’m very excited about because I love Jem. Like, a LOT. Also, there is a short story at the end of this book which is AMAZING. 

I know this is only the first book in this trilogy, and there’s so much more to come, but I can’t fault it so far. There isn’t one aspect of this book that I didn’t enjoy. There were a few plot points that made me frustrated, but that’s exactly what they were supposed to do. Lady Midnight takes you on a journey through a jungle of emotions, and I adored every second of it. I’m very much anticipating the next book, AND THE WAIT FOR IT IS GOING TO BE TORTUROUS. Thank you, Cassandra Clare, for sharing yet another story that completely consumed my heart. 

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