Book Review: Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

I’m returning to the world of Shadowhunters today with Cassandra Clare’s new series, The Dark Artifices. Here’s my review on Lady Midnight, book one.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Date: 2016

Genre: YA/Fantasy

Plot: 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?

Lady Midnight Review

To say I was looking forward to this book is an understatement. Clare’s writing has swept me away since I first read The Mortal Instruments and she hasn’t let me down since.

This book took a little longer for me to get into in comparison to the others, but it didn’t fail to sweep me up in it once I got going. There was a definite case of nearly missing my train stop at one point!

The plot was as engaging as ever. Clare has created a world of sheer imagination and applied all these rules that enable it to make sense to the reader. The world only gets more in depth in this book, with grisly murders, betrayals and loved ones returning from far off lands, changed from their experiences and not necessarily for the better.

Mark set his jaw. He had never looked more like a Blackthorn. “If there is one thing I have learnt in my life, and I grant I have not learnt much, it is this: Neither Fair Folk nor mortals know what love is or is not. No one does.”
Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

I didn’t initially connect with Emma’s character; she seemed too abrupt to start with. But as her relationship with the others develops, she softens and started to grow on me.

Both Julian and Mark were typical Cassandra Clare characters; beautiful and tortured. They weren’t too extreme though so worked more effectively than others have in the past.

The book is a long one, but the pacing felt right and no part felt unnecessary or dragging. The action and adventure sweep you up and the mention and return of much loved characters welcomed you back into this world even as new ones were introduced and their own story are developed.

If you were coming to this book as a new reader, there would have been a few references that were not understood; it is written to be read as a sequel to the other books.

That being said, the plot is unique and engaging in its own right, not just in relation to other things. I remained gripped the whole way through and kept trying to read faster because I really wanted to know what happens next!

A book that can do that to me is a good read and a definite recommendation!

Are you a Cassandra Clare fan? Have you read this series?