5 Star Book Review: Lord of Shadows

SHADOWHUNTERS #13
THE DARK ARTIFICES #2
AUTHOR: CASSANDRA CLARE
RATING: 5 STARS
LADY MIDNIGHT (SPOILERS)

There are so many feelings I have for this book! I'd definitely say it's one of my favorite Shadowhunter books to date because of the complex relationships, both romantic and platonic, and the fact that it seriously parallels a lot of what's going on, socially, in our world today.

This review won't have any spoilers (there will be a spoiler discussion later on this week, so keep a look out for that if you want to hear what I thought about THAT ending) but it's best you don't read this if you haven't read book one.

While I liked the ships in Lady Midnight I wasn't as madly in love with them as I was with this one. First of all, while I liked Julian and Emma before I hadn't really seen the attraction between them, but this one it absolutely came across and my heart was completely torn for them. They're so great together, and while they're still not my favorite couple, I do get it now. However, it was the other ships (okay, this is a spoiler so I'll talk more about it in the other review) were really what made me want to keeping turning the pages. The other two I was majorly invested in were really well set up and the strings tying them all together had me aching. Also, Diana's relationship with a certain someone was both hilarious and adorable.

The nostalgia! There was so much of it and I loved it. Old characters making reappearances (sometimes big ones!) or just small easter eggs (Will H. :) ) left me feeling extremely happy and jittery inside and also made me want to go back and reread every single Shadowhunter book (but goodness that would take a long long time). It's also made me even more excited to read TLH (if that were possible). What struck me the most was seeing such well-loved and well-worn characters like Clary and Magnus from other perspectives. It was like revealing another facet of these characters that I know intimately from the page in a way that Emma or Julian or Mark don't. It was incredibly interesting and really showed the talent of Clare that she was able to maintain the integrity of her characters while still continuing to round them out as they age and grow.

I won't say much about the Cohort (because spoilers) but they made me so angry and I was glad about it. Their "evil" is such a real evil that has to be faced today and I feel the same way about IRL evil like this as I did with the Cohort. It was like ants under my skin- I wanted to beat them up, teach them what's right, but knew that wouldn't do anything (beyond them being fictional, duh) and that even trying to reason with them probably wouldn't work. I read to escape, but at the same time, I loved seeing echoes of real life in this fantasy.

After Lady Midnight ended I wasn't quite sure where the story was going to go because it felt like such a solid ending. It went in a direction I could never have guessed but I was absolutely along for the ride (especially the parts in Faerie!) and can't wait for the next book (two years away *sigh*). After my reread of Lady Midnight didn't go so stellar I was worried that this series had lost its magic for me, but no worries because everything holds strong and I adore every second of these books.