Book Review: Lady Midnight

Plot: After the Dark War, Emma Carstairs learnt how to be the best Shadowhunter she can, determine to avenge her parents’ deaths. But it isn’t easy, not when she has no clues and the Clave do for not believe they were anything more than victims in the war.

Julian Blackthorn will do anything for Emma. She is his Parabetai, after all. But she is becoming more than that. When a trail of murders need their investigation, love and life are both put on the line. Can they solve the murders without breaking the Law? Will Emma have justice?

 

 

Quote: 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.”

 

Opinion: 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.

Emma’s character didn’t get to enjoy quite the way other characters have done in the past; she seemed too abrupt to start with. But she most definitely grew on me an do her relationship with the characters around her helped her to develop.  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.

It was a long book, 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!

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