Lady Midnight Review

i started lady midnight at the beginning of this month and read a few pages here and there with the little time i had to read. then one day i sat down to get a few pages in and read more than the entire last half of the book in one go. it was insane, heart-wrenching, beautifully written, funny, and genius all at the same time. everything that cassie had written in this book exceeded my expectations. with that, let’s get into the review 🙂

---

Title: Lady Midnight
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Dark Artifices
Followed By: Prince of Shadows
Release Date: March 8th, 2016
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Family, Friendship, Love
Page Count: 720
Find it Here: Amazon, The Book Depository, Goodreads
☆☆☆☆☆

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.

lady midnight is the first book in cassandra clare’s third series (the dark artifices). her two other series are called the mortal instruments (which takes place around 2007), and the infernal devices (which takes place in the 1800’s). this book takes place after the events that occurred in her first series (the mortal instruments). you do not have to read the first two series in the shadowhunter books in order to read lady midnight, but it is highly recommended. characters and plots from the first two series are mentioned in lady midnight, so you’ll be missing out if you don’t read them! you’ll also miss a lot of amazing adventures and kick-ass characters.

cassandra clare has also released a set of novella’s, called tales from the shadowhunters academy), available as ebooks. you don’t have to read these before lady midnight either, but in my opinion, i think you definitely should. one of the subplots in lady midnight connects to some of the novellas (*squeals*) and you won’t want to miss out on that! although they are only available as ebooks as of now, a hard copy of the novellas will be released as a book sometime this fall.

NON-SPOILER SECTION

again, lady midnight exceeded my every expectation and was absolutely brilliant. cassie’s writing only gets better and better with every book she writes. i’m having a hard time coping with the book being over, and i can not wait until prince of shadows. i always love returning to the shadowhunting world and going on adventures with some of my favorite characters.

i loved how the interactions among the main characters were more about friendship and family bonds, rather than love like the other two series. the main characters were all so perfect, and i can’t think of a character that got on my nerves while i was reading in a way that they weren’t supposed (like bad guys are, but they are supposed to get on your nerves).

the way this book is written, and how everything is so intricately plotted out is probably my favorite part of these series. i have no idea how cassie can think of all these crazy connections between all the books and characters. the way she so perfectly ties all of the plots/characters together in this book, and in the others, continues to blow my mind.

another thing that impressed me when i was reading this book, is that there was no unnecessary pieces, chapters, or paragraphs. everything had a direct place or point, even if you didn’t know it while you were reading it.

i loved how much more the shadowhunters were connected with the outside world in this book. most of their research was done on ty and livvy’s computer and they were constantly using their phones to check up on each other (well, they were trying, but it never really worked out for them. shadowhunter luck, i guess).

all in all, this book was absolutely amazing and i loved it so much. yes, it did make me want to throw the book across my room at times, and it had my crying and laughing back and forth for most of the book. if you haven’t read lady midnight, you should go get it right away and read it immediately and then come back and we can talk about all the feels together. 🙂

SPOILERS SECTION

now it’s time to really get into it (rubs hands together evilly). DID ANYONE SEE ANY OF IT COMING? ANY OF IT? i certainly did not. i’m still in shock that it was malcolm. it just makes SO MUCH SENSE after cassie explains it, that i feel like i should’ve picked up on it. i felt the same way with kit, because i had read the tales from the shadowhunter academy, so i knew about the lost herondale. but i never, ever, thought that it would be kit. kit is related to jace, i’m laughing just thinking about it.

one thing i really liked about this book is that we could just jump right into the action and learn about the characters. there was no world-building to be done, just characters to be introduced to. speaking of characters, i loved every single one of the characters in this book. especially the main characters. in the mortal instruments, i was constantly annoyed with jace and occasionally clary. i have no idea why, but they just got on my nerves. but not julian and emma. no, not at all. i loved them both so much that i’m not sure if it’s even possible.

“When you love someone, they become a part of who you are. They’re in everything you do. They’re in the air you breathe and the water you drink and the blood in your veins. Their touch stays on your skin and their voice stays in your ears and their thoughts stay in your mind. You know their dreams because their nightmares pierce your heart and their good dreams are your dreams too. And you don’t think they’re perfect, but you know their flaws, the deep-down truth of them, and the shadows of all their secrets, and they don’t frighten you away; in fact you love them more for it, because you don’t want perfect. You want them. You want-”

-Julian Blackthorn, Page 101

I LOVE JULIAN BLACKTHORN. he is such a nugget. from the very first page that julian was mentioned in, i knew he was in love with emma. he just had to be, right? and the love being forbidden because they are parabatai, just makes it a thousand times worse. i absolutely love emma and julian together. when we read about their parabatai ceremony i was getting so mad at julian for not saying anything when he clearly did not want to be parabatai because he knew he loved her. i’m just hoping there’s some way to break the parabatai bond.

i actually loved all the blackthorns a lot more than i expected i would (i still can’t believe tavvy solved it), but my favorite sibling would have to be ty. a lot of people have been saying that they want him to become parabatai with kit, or be in a relationship with him, which i think would be great, yes, but i don’t want them to be parabatai for two reasons. one, it would break livvy. she really wants to be parabatai with him, and him saying no to her and chosing someone he is just meeting would hurt her so badly, i don’t think i could bear it. second being that i want ty to go to the scholomance. i really do. i think he would fit in perfectly there and he can’t have a parabatai if he wants to go there if i’m remembering correctly. i don’t mind ty and kit being in a relationship though, that would be nice.

let’s talk about cristina. she is one of my all time favorites from this book. i loved how level-headed she was, and how she balanced out emma’s crazy, go-for-it attitude. at the beginning, i was getting a little mad at her and livvy for trying to set her up with julian, but when mark got there, that ended quickly. personally, i do not like mark and cristina together. i like them as friends yes, but not together. i actually like mark and kieran together more than cristina and mark. a lot of people don’t like diego because of not stopping his brother from doing what he was planning to do to cristina, but i actually kinda liked him and cristina together. i also kinda thought that whatever christina was hiding was going to be a lot bigger than it was. maybe that’s just me though.

i wasn’t exactly a huge fan of mark either. i kept thinking he was going to betray the blackthorns throughout the whole book, but that never happened, which was good. he was a really funny character though, because he was adapting back into the human/shadowhunter world. after the first trip to the convergence, mark just pulled of his shirt and had another one on underneath it. i was laughing too hard. also when he asked for a plate of strawberry’s from the restaurant. just a plate of strawberry’s. LOL. but my highlight of mark blackthorn would have to be the moment when he showed up on top of the staircase dressed in nothing but a fur coat.

diana is fishy. i was thinking this through the entire book. she’s fishy. i don’t know how or why or what, but she is. she keeps leaving at the most random times, won’t tell julian what she’s up to, and won’t be the head of the institute. i dunno. i just can’t figure her out.

and finally MALCOLM. MALCOLM. did any one expect it to be him? i honestly had no idea it was coming. none at all. i think because magnus is such a lovable and trustworthy character in the mortal instruments, and in the infernal devices, we just immediately assumed that malcolm would be the guy they went to for help, just because he’s the warlock. which, this of course, made him the perfect choice for the bad guy. and i definitely do not think he is dead. why on earth did emma throw him in the ocean? why???  no body = not dead. haven’t we learned this already. so i kinda have this idea that malcolm is making arthur worse. we know he was the one making all the potions to keep arthur lucid for a short period of time. we also know that malcolm hates blackthorns. makes sense, right? but seriously, the whole guardian thing was absolutely crazy and i loved learning about the convergence and the followers.

“I don’t want to die on the Pacific Coast Highway!” Sterling wailed.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Emma’s voice dripped acid. “Is there a different highway you’d like to die on? BECAUSE WE CAN ARRANGE THAT.”

-Page 456

EMMA. YES EMMA. she was such a kick-ass character throughout the entire book and i absolutely love her. she is so funny, and the way that she does everything so casually is so perfect. i was constantly laughing at her wit and sense of humor. the way she works so hard is extremely admirable, and i noticed that while she is A LOT like jace, julian is a lot like clary.

the last chapter of this book was so ridiculous. even worse, it’s called “severe my soul”, which is exactly what it did. personally, i think emma should have just told julian what jem told her about the parabatai becoming too strong. SHE DIDN’T HAVE TO GO AND TRY TO DESTROY HIS HEART AND EVERYTHING HE WAS MADE OF. okay, thats an exaggeration, but still.

He held out a hand to her, half-beckoning, half-offering.

“Why lie?” he said.

-Mark Blackthorn, Page 668

i am so mad at mark for the end of this chapter. WHY??? WHY MARK, WHY?

what do you guys think about annabel lee? do you think she’s alive? i think she is. it’s just like cassie to throw us another curve ball like that. do you guys have any theories on what’s going to happen in prince of shadows? if you do, share them with me in the comments so we can discuss them!

---

phew! that was a long review. i think this is my favorite cassandra clare book out of all of the novels she wrote! the book had my laughing, crying, and on the edge of my seat the entire time. leave your thoughts in the comments below so we can talk about it together!

xoxo

katie

Advertisement