I wanted to reread Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows before Queen of Air and Darkness came out earlier this week, but my books were in storage for a few months while I moved from Hawaii to Texas and I didn’t get them back until too late to time it perfectly. I thought about skipping the rereads and going straight to the new book, but I’ve learned that lesson way too many times to put myself through it again, so I’m forcing myself to delay reading the new book. It’s a good a thing, too, because—while I remember most of the major things from Lady Midnight—there are a lot of minor things that’d I’d forgotten.
Summary: What’s it about?
Years ago, Emma Carstairs’ parents were murdered during Sebastian Morgenstern’s war (if you don’t know what that is, go back and read The Mortal Instruments series, starting with City of Bones). Everyone tells her that her parents were victims of that war, but she knows better, and—with the help of her parabatai Julian Blackthorn—has been investigating the murders on her own. When she becomes aware of a string of bodies that are marked the same way per parents’ were, Emma knows she’s closer than she’s ever been to finding the murderer. Amidst romantic woes, secrets, a Cold Peace that discriminates against faeries, the return of a long-lost family member, and more, Emma—along with the Blackthorn family and her new friend Cristina—investigates the murders, discovers a cult, and strives to unmask a necromancer.
Review: What’d I think?
I remember I was initially reticent about The Dark Artifices series because I disliked Emma and Julian’s sections in City of Heavenly Fire. Happily, they’re a lot more compelling when they’re older and when they’re at the center of their own story rather than on the outskirts of someone else’s. As a whole, Lady Midnight does a really good job of expanding the world set up in The Mortal Instruments. It’s now a much darker world. After all this time, readers that have been with this series since the start have aged up a little, and this trilogy ages with them and increases the emphasis on moral ambiguity. The Cold Peace in particular is fascinating. The villains are motivated by love and the heroes by revenge. One of the main characters is a talented and ruthless liar. There’s no line between good and evil here, and that’s exciting. Morally ambiguous YA fantasy is my favorite.
One thing that has really interested me about Clare’s writing over the course of all her shadowhunter novels is the way that things have developed over the course of the books. The parabatai bond particularly stands out to me. It is a huge deal in Lady Midnight. Back in City of Bones, it was a thing… but not a thing. As that series progressed, Alec and Jace’s relationship got stronger and more magical, and by the end it was essentially what it is now. However, the part about romantic love between parabatais is definitely new for the Dark Artifices. If it weren’t new, law-abiding Alec would have been absolutely flipping out about it back in the day. It’s an interesting inconsistency, and even though it is a mild plot hole, it’s more interesting to think of it as watching the creative process in real time, so that’s how I look at it.
Faeries are probably my favorite fantasy creatures. I love the darkness mixed with the glamour and royalty, and I’m fascinated by the mix of deceitfulness and the inability to lie. Bringing the faeries to the forefront is really cool, and I love how central they are here.
I met Jewell Parker Rhodes earlier this year when I attended a writer’s conference (my first one! It was really fun, really helpful, and really stressful). I had never read one of her books before I met her, but after listening to her speak I knew I had to because A) she is legitimately one of the nicest human beings on the planet B) she clearly knows A TON about writing and especially the craft of it and C) she is a very compelling speaker. She spoke first just to YA writers about tension and relief in storytelling and it was incredibly helpful. Then I went back for her second talk, which was for everyone, which was about her own career as a writer. She talked specifically about her newest book Ghost Boys and about how she is often asked to write about difficult subjects for a young audience. I think she moved everyone there to tears. But seriously. She is the nicest person you could ever meet.
Nick (also known as the character literally no one wanted but who is sticking around for some unfathomable reason) continues his murderous spree. He is ostensibly looking for whomever killed his wife and kid way back in the day, but mostly he is just gleefully murder-spreeing. This is proved by the fact that he kills innocent people and he enjoys the killings even if he feels slightly guilty about them. I feel like we’re supposed to feel sorry for him, but… no. I don’t. At all. He meets with a crime reporter who puts him in connection with the beat cop who was on his street the night of the murders, because apparently Artie (the first guy Nick murdered) told Nick that the person he saw leave Nick’s house was a cop, and the whole investigation was a cover up. Nick goes to that cop and learns that the cop was possessed by someone called Abraxus (a quick google search confirms that this is a demon), which is just… urgh. Not that I have ever been interested in Nick, but the revelation that a demon killed his family removes any possible interest for me. At least before his origin story spoke to the monstrousness and evil that humans are capable of. But anyway.
Next up in my unofficial series of books everyone recommends but I put off reading for some reason that makes no sense in retrospect: Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu. I feel like I’m so late to the party on this book that there isn’t anyone left who hasn’t read it (or, at least anyone who is in the sphere of YA book bloggers). Now that I’ve read it, all I can say is: you guys are right. This is an awesome book.
Between Thanksgiving, applying for jobs, and NaNoWriMo, my reading has taken a hit lately. It has been so long since I wrote a review that I’m almost afraid that I’ve forgotten how to do it. I read That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston mostly because the premise is interesting. I’ve read one of Johnston’s novels before. I read 
I finally got around to reading Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeycomb after seeing and hearing good things about it for more than a year. Eleanor Oliphant is far from fine, but the novel she stars in is excellent.
Quick side note: if you don’t watch the episodes on the CW website with captions on, you might have misses a hilarious unintentional diss to Cas. Remember when Cas was boosting Jack’s morale by telling him he was a good hunter? Well, the captioner either doesn’t recognize Cas’ voice or just doesn’t care because it shows up in the THEN like this:
A few months ago, I got in a discussion about how great it would be if there were a gong that went off in your head anytime an opportunity you were supposed to pursue arose. Literally the next day I saw Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini at Barnes & Noble, which has a very similar premise. The timing was so weird that there was a part of me was like, “Hey! It’s the destiny gong! I should read this!” I didn’t, though, since I’d previously read Vizzini’s It’s Kind of a Funny Story, which I didn’t particularly like. Later, I found out that there’s a musical adaptation of Be More Chill; I listened to it and liked it a lot. It’s not a new favorite, or anything, but it’s definitely catchy and enjoyable. I figured that the combination of ‘interesting concept’ and ‘was made into a musical’ would add up to ‘book I will love.’ Unfortunately, that’s not exactly true. The musical is better.
