Title: Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
Book 1 of the Dark Artifices Series.
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books – Simon and Schuster
Pages: 668
Synopsis … (it’s a long one)
In a kingdom by the sea…
In a secret world where half-angel warriors are sworn to fight demons, parabatai is a sacred word.
A parabatai is your partner in battle. A parabatai is your best friend. Parabatai can be everything to each other—but they can never fall in love.
Emma Carstairs is a warrior, a Shadowhunter, and the best in her generation. She lives for battle. Shoulder to shoulder with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, she patrols the streets of Los Angeles, where vampires party on the Sunset Strip, and faeries—the most powerful of supernatural creatures—teeter on the edge of open war with Shadowhunters. When the bodies of humans and faeries turn up murdered in the same way Emma’s parents were when she was a child, an uneasy alliance is formed. This is Emma’s chance for revenge—and Julian’s chance to get back his brother Mark, who is being held prisoner by the faerie Courts. All Emma, Mark, and Julian have to do is solve the murders within two weeks…and before the murderer targets them.
Their search takes Emma from sea caves full of sorcery to a dark lottery where death is dispensed. And each clue she unravels uncovers more secrets. What has Julian been hiding from her all these years? Why does Shadowhunter Law forbid parabatai to fall in love? Who really killed her parents—and can she bear to know the truth?
My Thoughts
Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare is the first book in The Dark Artifices series and well i’m sure you’ve seen all about it. The Mortal Instruments is one of my absolute favourite book series and of course that transfers to everything Shadowhunter. In all honesty, I was a little apprehensive about picking up Lady Midnight because of the sheer size of it but I finally bit the bullet and picked it up and I would say its 668 pages of greatness. The perfect book to get me out of my ACOMAF book hangover except now i’m in a Lady Midnight Book Hangover…
Lady Midnight was particularly really interesting for me because it offered an array of different point of views such as Christina, Julian and Emma’s and they were naturally integrated within one another which really added to both the flow of the story and the whole reading experience because we were able to get different point of views on different or the same chapters in the story.
I had no trouble liking any of the characters in Lady Midnight especially Julian, Emma, Mark and the children (so many to name). They each had been through so much that you really feel for them and as the story progresses you develop hope that some good will come for them. My absolute favourite character is of course Emma (and Julian – total ship) but I love how Emma is described as being the next best Shadowhunter similar to Jace Herondale. Yes Cassandra Clare! GIRL POWER.
Emma is both fierce and feminine, she is caring and when the time calls for it brutal.I love that this book is focused on such a strong female character.
My main love in terms of characters in Lady Midnight is the fact that it features characters from each of her books therefore we have Jace, Clary and Magnus from The Mortal Instruments and Tessa and Jem from The Infernal Devices. It was like a reunion of all my previous loves from series I haven’t read in so long, all coming together to make this Shadowhunter world come to life once more.
One thing I would also like to mention that I enjoyed and have always enjoyed in Cassandra Clare’s writing is her incorporation of diversity and this book is no different than her previous work, as it features not only different cultures but different sexual orientation such as Bisexuality and Homosexuality.
As previously mentioned Lady Midnight features many of Cassandra Clare’s other characters such as Jace and Clary and Tessa and Jem and the world has always been very consistent regardless of any time difference. I would say you could probably read this book easily having not read any of her previous series as it does give you descriptive information on the Dark War and other little snippets into stories from The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices but if you are familiar with her other work then you will know how extensive Cassandra Clare’s world building is.
Lady Midnight is set in the Los Angeles Institute therefore having experienced the London Institute and the New York Institute it was amazing to see another additional setting onto this world.
I thought about the plot and my brain went ‘BOY THAT PLOT THOUGH’
For people who aren’t familiar with Cassandra Clare’s books personally they might think ‘how can one person write so many books and series linked to one thing; Shadowhunters’ and the answer would be; SHE’S MAGIC. No in all seriousness, despite being on the same subject matter each book is different from the last. Lady Midnight is unlike any of her previous work, of course theirs Magic, Vampires and Demons but this one felt more like a mystery. The plot is very much like a Fantasy filled crime novel, as their are numerous victims showing up in the city covered in Demon symbols and the task of Emma and her friends is to find out who is doing the killing.
At numerous points in this book I thought I knew who the murderer was, I was very suspicious of one character in particular who I of course won’t name and be a spoiler sue but I was wrong. The ending offered resolution but it also left us on a cliffhanger and I can’t wait to see what book 2 has in store, although I need to wait a year again! My waiting list for next year is growing, first for Sarah J.Maas now Cassandra Clare. 2017 is gonna be fab.
As well as the cliffhanger, the ending of the book is also heartbreaking. Well for me I thought it was in relation to Jules and Emma, their relationship built up over the expanse of the book and I had such hopes and I got a taste but Cassandra Clare ripped that away!
Overall Lady Midnight is of course getting 5 stars from me, I adored my reading experience of this book and being thrown back into my beloved Shadowhunter world. I love the diversity of the characters featured and how each series are different but they also can be interlinked to make this giant world. Cassandra Clare’s descriptive writing truly makes this world come alive for me and I think I will always be a Shadowhunter at heart.
- Expansive Fantasy World – Cassandra Clare’s description is beautiful adding to the previous work of her other novels
- You don’t necessarily have to read the other books too before this, I understand that their is a ton of books linked to the shadowhunter world so that could be quite daunting but Lady Midnight explains past events and the book is focused on other characters with old ones returning BUT the old characters lives are also explained!
- Fantasy, Magic, Crime, Mystery, Action, Heartbreak, Love… NEED I SAY MORE?
- Diversity – LGBTQ characters – homosexuality and bisexuality.
- Short Story for Jace and Clary – YAAAY, my favourite ship.
Want To Find Out More:
Goodreads – Lady Midnight | Goodreads – Cassandra Clare | www.cassandraclare.com | www.shadowhunters.com
Where To Buy:
BOOK DEPOSITORY – FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING
Book Depository – Paperback £6.49 | Book Depository – Hardback £15.88
Amazon
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