Book Review: Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare (The Dark Artifices #1)

Pages: 720
Publish date: 8 March 2016
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 1442468351
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

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:

This review of Lady Midnight will contain spoilers from Cassandra Clare’s pervious series The Infernal Devices and The Mortal Instruments.

I love Cassandra Clare’s books, I do and after I have been waiting for Lady Midnight for over a year, I was pretty excited and had quite high expectations, let me tell you that they have been met.

Lady Midnight was amazing. It is probably Clare’s best work to date and that is saying something.

There was something about Lady Midnight that was different from her other books, I think it had to do something about the writing. It seemed different, I relished it.

Lady Midnight follows Emma Carstairs and Julian Blackthorn five years after City of Heavenly Fire. They have both grown a great deal since we last saw them. Emma is now a young woman who wants to know who murdered her parents and Julian, who is not a father rather than a brother to his siblings and who is always there for Emma. However, they are about to go on one heck of a ride that is going to bring them closer than they have ever thought.

I adored being in Los Angeles. It was different from New York and London, but there was a beach involved and I loved being near it, the atmosphere was kind of laid back.

We know most of the characters before Lady Midnight, they have changed in 5 years. Julian is looking after his siblings like he is the father. I felt for Julian so much. He not only had to grow up fast, but had the deal with the burden of killing his father and then taking his spot in the family.

The Blackthorn kids just put a smile on my face; they love each other so much and would anything for each other. I treasured seeing a close family bond that only grew stronger as the book went on.

Emma and Julian – they are going to kill me more than they already have. Their friendship just warms by heart. They are always there for each other, nevertheless they are tested throughout the book. They will do anything for each other – literally.

Lady Midnight also introduces us to some new characters firstly Cristina Rosales, man I enjoyed her. She is like Simon to Clary, Jace to Alec. They haven’t known each other long, however, they are like best friends and it was nice to see a female friendship that works.

Then we have Kieran; now I am not sure how I feel about him. Stuff goes down towards the end of the novel that changed my opinion of him, but I am hoping that in the new novel or the one following something does change.

I love that we get to see characters from both The Infernal Devices and The Mortal Instruments since I love them too much to let them go. It was enjoyable seeing something familiar.

Mark, Mark, Mark. I loved Mark. He broke my heart it was. It has gone through so much and being back with the ones that love him.

The one thing that I love about Clare’s writing is that she can create so many different points of view, but then they all sound so different. It’s done wonderfully in Lady Midnight and I cannot wait to read more about these characters.

Furthermore, what I also love about Lady Midnight is that we find out things that we didn’t know before about the world – it gives us an insight on laws, people, and events that are new to us.

That ending though – I don’t know how I am going to hold off to book 2, because seriously, it was so good and I need to know what is going to happen next. Nonetheless, my heart has been ripped out of my chest.

Cassandra Clare brings the magic of the shadow world into a new light, in a gripping first novel of a series, Lady Midnight is dark, fun and full of ups and down, it is going to rip your heart apart.