Review: LORD OF SHADOWS by Cassandra Clare

Rating: 5/5 stars

The characters in Lord of Shadows are just so excellent. Every character has such a distinct, dynamic personality, and I really loved that. Julian might be my favorite, just because of how much he cares about his siblings and how he will go to any lengths to protect the people he loves.

Emma was great, too. She is turning out to be fierce just like Clary, but she still has her own voice. I liked watching her work to overcome struggle after struggle. Also, I love Emma’s obsession with chocolate that is prevalent throughout the book.

“We’ll have to get our energy the old-fashioned way.”
Mark looked puzzled. “Drugs?”
“Chocolate,” Emma said. “I brought chocolate. Mark, where do you even come up with these things?”

Kit was also excellent, and I’m glad to see him becoming more of a regular in this series and learning the ways of the Shadowhunters. I love his relationship with Tiberius, who is such a precious ray of sunshine. As I said in my review of Lady Midnight, I really enjoy seeing all of Julian’s siblings playing important roles in the story. I’m glad that Mark’s role got bigger in Lord of Shadows, too, because I love Mark. He is just different from the others, and I feel that he is the trustworthy friend that everyone needs.

What’s nice about Cassandra Clare’s books is that no matter how many points-of-view they’re told from (and this one had so many I lost count), it never feels confusing or overwhelming. Because the entire story is third-person POV and has such a large cast of characters, it feels natural to hear from so many of those characters. It keeps everyone’s story straight since there are a lot of things happening at the same time with different characters in different locations. It’s like in a movie when it switches between scenes of different people—that’s how this book (and all her books, really) felt, and I really enjoyed it. I will add, though, that I listened to this book on audio, so I don’t know if that influenced my ability to keep viewpoints straight or not.

Something else that’s neat about this series is how Clare subtly includes lots of diversity. I rather dislike when a person’s race or sexual orientation becomes who they are, and they seem to have no other defining traits aside from that, but that was not the case at all with any of the characters in this book. There was lots of representation, which was great to see, but no one made a big deal about it, which seemed very natural to me and added to the excellence of this story.

The ending of the book slayed me. So many questions left unanswered and details dangling in the air waiting for more information to come. I am so excited to read Queen of Air and Darkness later this year. This is one of the only times I can think of when I read a book and had to wait for the next book to be published. I very rarely start series that are not complete because I don’t want to lose interest in a story or forget what happened in previous books while I’m waiting for a new book, but after binge-reading The Mortal Instruments and some of The Infernal Devices, plus Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, I only wanted more stories set in this world and decided to start Lady Midnight right away. I am so glad I did because now I have something to look forward to later this year. Lord of Shadows’s ending was utterly insane with many unexpected events happening, and I really want to know what happens next.

I realized when reading this book how cool it actually is that Clare keeps writing books in this world. If you think about any fantasy series, when the last book ends it’s not like there are never any problems or villains ever again and life goes back to being boring; no, there will always be more adventures to go on and enemies to fight. But, as readers, we are just supposed to imagine the future for the characters and infer what would happen after the end, even after a really good ending that wraps everything up. But what’s so awesome about all the Shadowhunter books is that we do get to see a future for the Mortal Instruments characters in the Dark Artifices series. Clary and Jace still show up even though only as cameos now, but it’s still neat to see what happened after the “happily ever after” at the end of City of Heavenly Fire. And even then, that secondary trilogy was what happened after City of Glass. I guess this is a rather obvious observation, but I never thought about it before and it makes me happy.

After eleven Shadowhunter books, I can say that Lord of Shadows was the best one yet. The plot was fast-paced and interesting, the characters were so realistic and experienced great development and relationships, and the overall writing was engaging enough throughout the 700-page tome that I never felt like the story was dragging. I honestly was so invested in the book that I didn’t stop reading to write my review (which I usually do in segments throughout a book) until it was over. Because of that, I do not have much to say as far as spoilers or specific details go, but just know this book was excellent. If you liked any of the books that take place in the Shadowhunter universe so far, I would highly recommend reading The Dark Artifices.

Review: SINCE YOU'VE BEEN GONE by Morgan Matson

Rating: 4/5 stars

I picked this book up amid my fantasy craze because I wanted to read a summery contemporary while it was actually still summer outside, and I was not disappointed. This book was cute and adventurous, I ended up really liking it.

Unfortunately, though, the book got off to a bad start for me. I felt like the first two chapters (chapter two especially) were way too long and drawn out, detailing almost every minute of Emily’s life. The book moved very slowly, and I found myself wondering why so many of those details were pertinent or even included in the story. It really bogged down the book right from the start, plus I was put off because I was noticing a lot of minor errors, things not really worth mentioning but that should have been caught by an editor. One example that really bothered me is this: Frank, as a high school student, was in charge of the bank deposits for his job. There is no way a teenager, who has been working at his job for only two weeks and isn’t even the manager, would be trusted to handle taking a large sum of money to the bank. That’s very unbelievable and unrealistic, and the one thing I want out of a book is a realistic story (just to clarify, fantasy can be realistic too, but it has to be realistic within its own world).

On top of that, something else that really bothered me in the beginning was that the dialogue was badly broken up. Someone would ask a question on the first line of a page, and the question wouldn’t be answered until the last line of the page, or sometimes even the next page. By the time it was answered, I had forgotten what the question was and had to backtrack to find out. It was common in the first couple of chapters for a one-minute conversation to span several pages because of all the description mixed in with the few lines of dialogue. This was very distracting to read and poor structuring in my opinion. Thankfully, this was really only a problem at the beginning, and the story did pick up quite a bit as I continued reading it. It’s honestly surprising to me how much I ended up liking this book after that rocky start.

So this book is about Emily, who’s ready to have the best summer ever, only to discover that her best friend, Sloane, has disappeared without a word. The only clue Emily has is a list she received from Sloane of thirteen things for her to do, tasks that are way beyond Emily’s comfort zone. Believing that completing the list will lead her to Sloane, Emily makes it her summer goal to accomplish all thirteen items.

Something I enjoyed was that Emily would say she was going to accomplish a specific thing on the list next, but then the next chapter’s title would be a different objective on the list. I liked that it was unpredictable in that manner, that Emily’s intentions turned into something else. It kept my curiosity piqued throughout the book about what she would actually do next. I was also glad to see that the things Emily was doing led her to take chances that helped her to grow and become more comfortable with herself.

When Emily mentioned that her playwright parents were working on a new script and were basically shut-ins during this time, I rolled my eyes because that’s just a way to write parents out of a young adult novel. I see way too often books where the teenagers are roaming free with no parental control, and that’s just so unrealistic to me. However, I am happy to say that this book did not live up to that expectation. Despite being engrossed in their play, Emily’s parents were still present in the book more than I expected, and they still disciplined her. I thought this was a much more realistic approach because, at least for me, my mom was very involved in my life as a teenager. We got to see Emily trying to evade her parents’ notice at times, which I totally get, instead of her just acting like they don’t care. Unfortunately, this was only the case with Emily’s parents. Frank’s parents, on the other hand, were completely absent and unresponsible, and I just cannot see two parents leaving their teenage son home alone for basically the entire summer. That is asking for trouble. So the absent-parent-syndrome still affects this book, but not as much as I originally thought it would.

For some reason, ever since about mid-college, whenever I read contemporary books with characters in high school, I always feel like I’m too old for those books. Like I would have loved them in high school when I could’ve immediately related to the characters because of our shared ages and stages in life, but now that I’m past that point, those books just don’t feel like they’re for me anymore. I loved contemporary when I was younger—in fact, it was the only genre I read for most of my childhood—but now I just struggle with it when it’s of the young adult category. Adult contemporary books or non-contemporary books (fantasy, sci-fi, historical fiction, etc.) with high-school-aged characters are fine though, and I have no problem reading those. But Since You’ve Been Gone is a young adult contemporary with a 17-year-old protagonist, and while I did really like the book, I know I would have absolutely loved it if I were still 16 or 17, when what Emily was going through was similar to my own experiences. It is really sad for me that I don’t feel like I can fully relate to young adult contemporaries anymore since a lot of them, this book included, are great stories that tackle real issues teens might be facing. That being said, I do not believe I will ever stop reading young adult contemporaries, but the number I read does decrease year by year.

I had a good time reading Since You’ve Been Gone. It kept my attention throughout the whole book in that I didn’t feel like I needed to take a break every few chapters, which is usually how I read. I do want to check out more of Morgan Matson’s books, although this one sounded the most interesting to me so I don’t know if I will like the others as much. Overall, I would recommend this book if you’re looking for a nice summer read about friends, a clean romance, a mystery aspect, and a great adventure.

Review: HUMANS OF NEW YORK by Brandon Stanton

Rating: 4/5 stars

I really don’t have much to say about this book. I’ve heard of both the blog and the Facebook page called Humans of New York, but I never followed either of them before. I saw this book at a library sale this week and it intrigued me, as I have a deep appreciation for photography, so I decided to give it a shot. I ended up really enjoying it.

The photographs are beautiful and candid, capturing the extremists as well as the ordinary people in all boroughs of New York. I’ve never been to New York, and I’ve never really had the desire to go because I don’t like big cities, but this book may have changed that for me, at least a little bit. I want to have the experience of New York City, at least once.

Honestly, looking at these photographs and reading the captions or quotations from the people in them was really eye-opening for me. There are so many people on this planet, and everyone is so different. I’m really only familiar with my own culture, but there are so many cultures out there, even just in New York, that I know nothing about, and I got to see glimpses of them through Stanton’s work in this book. I love seeing how people express themselves. And something I learned about myself while reading this book is that how I want to dress and how I do dress are totally different styles. I need to work on my own self-expression.

Review: LADY MIDNIGHT by Cassandra Clare

Rating: 4/5 stars

Dead bodies are being found all over Los Angeles with strange markings on them, four years after the end of the Dark War. Emma’s parents were found dead the same way, so she’s convinced that the deaths are related. She sets out to investigate the murders and, in the process of uncovering the truth, learns a lot about herself and makes new friends (and enemies). I thought Lady Midnight was a refreshing new Shadowhunter book.

I loved the prologue and it really got me excited to read the rest of the book. I learned about some things that have been going on in the shadow world since City of Heavenly Fire ended, plus I got a nice review of how the world worked.

I liked that Lady Midnight mentioned all the pertinent details we learned in Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy. After reading both books, I can say that I do not think reading Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy is necessary before Lady Midnight. In Lady Midnight, Clare tells us the outcome of the stories, but in Tales, we get the journey of the stories. The only story that I really think gives necessary information at all is “The Fiery Trial,” which features Emma and Julian when they became parabatai, as well as Clary getting a parabatai.

Lady Midnight was my tenth Shadowhunter book, yet I didn’t feel like the story was one I’d read before in this world. It was a new story and it was relevant to these new characters. I love that the story does follow new characters on the other side of the country that are not related to the people in the Mortal Instruments. (I get that Jace is like the “coolest Shadowhunter ever” but not everything has to involve him.) It broadened the world of Shadowhunters for me and showed that not all problems are big enough for the whole world and the Clave to get involved in, yet the story was still big enough to be important to Emma and Julian and their crew.

Speaking of our new characters, I like Emma a lot more in this book than I did in City of Heavenly Fire. I’m glad that she speaks and acts more like an adult now. She’s grown up a lot in the past four years since the end of the Dark War, when she acted about 8 instead of 12. She was less irritating in this book, which I greatly appreciated.

I also liked Julian a lot. He is such a great “father” to his four younger siblings, and I appreciated seeing his struggles to be a good Shadowhunter while also caring for his family. The family dynamics were much different in this book than we have seen before in Clare’s books, which was a breath of fresh air. I also love that Julian came from such a big family. He had four siblings, two half-siblings, and Emma, who lives with him at the Institute. So often in books I see characters being an only child or having one or two siblings, but having six siblings is rare. I’m glad that each of his brothers and sisters had a part in this story, too, and weren’t just disposable side characters. I hope they continue to play a big role in the rest of the series.

The tension between Julian and Emma was so strong, and I have no idea what’s going to happen to them. As parabatai, they aren’t allowed to fall in love, but a law cannot actually stop someone from feeling something. I am so glad it was explained WHY parabatai are forbidden to love each other, and it all makes sense. Somehow I feel like they will find a way to get around this by uncovering a new spell or somehow breaking their parabatai bond or something to allow them to legally fall in love, but I will have to read the next two books to see. Although the ending of the last chapter (pre-epilogue) has me shocked and I really don’t know what’s going to happen in the next book. Obviously something horribly wrong.

And the epilogue—that left me very confused. The thing did not actually occur to allow the thing that happened in the epilogue to actually happen, so how did it happen? Hopefully, this will be clarified in Lord of Shadows.

Another thing that left me confused was the short story at the end of the book, “A Long Conversation.” What is Clary’s issue and why is she dreading what she has to do? I hope this is addressed in another short story at the end of Lord of Shadows.

Overall, I really enjoyed Lady Midnight. I thought it was a strong addition to the Shadowhunter world and featured a great new cast of characters with a unique new problem to solve. I liked the ending and where the story is headed in the next book, and I can’t wait to go read it.

Do I think you need to read the whole Mortal Instruments series prior to reading Lady Midnight? No, this story stands on its own and all the facets of the Shadowhunter universe are explained as if you had never read the other books, so everything should make sense to a new reader. But do I think reading the other books will enhance your reading experience of this book? Yes, greatly so. Events that happened to these characters at the end of City of Heavenly Fire are addressed and having read that book will help those parts of this book make more sense. Plus, reading Clare’s other books helps you to be able to catch all the Easter eggs she planted in this book, which is just so fun.