Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices #2)

The story kept your interest throughout the entire 699 pages of the book, as usual with Cassandra Clare\’s Shadowhunter books. I have always loved the unique story lines and twisting plots. This book did not disappoint. Seldom did the action or story plot slow and I look forward to the next book. I, however, didn\’t feel she handled the social issues in the story as elegantly as in past books. In this book it was very obvious she wasn\’t just telling a story but wanted to make a moral commentary/point or stand. It\’s not that I mind her taking a stand or dislike the moral to her story. I\’m just saddened to see she took a commercial outward stance when in previous books she took moral stances and subjects and handle them in an original, elegant, and classy fashion. This book seemed geared to commercialism and hitting her reader over the head with her moral and social opinions and commentary, the story line seemed secondary.

Note, I will be petty: when put together the books should have an image that is complete. This book is not the spine art I was hoping for and will tower over the other books in her previous series. If you were getting this in hopes of completing the spine art- this is NOT the book.

So I don\’t know how I am going to write this review since I just finished Lord of Shadows, but I am going to attempt to while my heart is still broken. This review will have little to no spoilers. I do not know how Cassandra Clare can get better and better with each book she writes. Lord of Shadows just shows so much growth in her writing and storytelling and honestly it warms my heart. Lords of Shadows picks up a couple weeks later after the events of Lady Midnight and it is one emotional roller coaster from then on. This is by far the strongest Shadowhunter book to date. While their are somethings I am not on board with, that in no way derails how wonderful this book truly is. The Blackthorn family has captured my heart and I love them dearly. I love every aspect of how close they are and the idea that every single one of them will do anything to keep their family together. I couldn\’t ask for a better cast of characters to read about. From Emma and Christina to Kit and Diana who all bring something to the table that is new and fresh to this world!! The plot to Lord of Shadows is probably the darkest, in my opinion, of all the Shadowhunter novels. From beginning to end I feared for my babies and was so worried for each and every one of them. At times I was yelling at the book to the point where my parents yelled at me that it was just a book, to where I replied that they didn\’t understand the deep connection I feel for this story!! I am not ready for the two year wait for The Queen of Air and Darkness because that ending has me all screwed up!!!!

I very nearly didn\’t continue this series. If you\’ve read my review of Lady Midnight, I explain why, but I can tell you I am soooo glad I didn\’t give up. This series has a very large cast of characters, and Lady Midnight set up their personalities and story lines up beautifully. One of the things I adore about Cassandra Clare\’s writing is how character and relationship driven her stories are. That is what truly sucked me into Lord of Shadows, and I couldn\’t get enough. She has said in multiple places that Julian Blackthorn is the new star of the Shadowhunter world. Until Lord of Shadows, I was not all that impressed with him. He is growing on me, and I am anxious to see how his character arc progresses after the end of this book. The character that absolutely hooked me, is Kit Herondale. His outsider view point of the Shadowhunter world is brilliant. He says all the things you think in regards to their separation from the \’mundane\’ world and the misunderstandings it causes. He\’s kind of like the guy in a TV show that looks at the camera and asks, \”Are they for real?\” And it is HILARIOUS! I adore him. The character that stole my heart, broke it, and I hope gets to put it back together, was Kieran. I was very skeptical of him and his relationship with Mark and Christina in the first book. It made me a little squirmy. I\’m still riding the fence on what I hope happens, but for all that Kieran has gone through with Mark, his Father, and his brothers I am pulling for him to get a happy ending. I believe he is a good guy and I really hope I\’m not wrong. (And I want his color changing hair!!) I absolutely loved his interaction with Max, Magnus and Alec\’s son. I think that scene was the moment he completely stole my heart. The adorable romance in this book hands down goes to Gwynn and Dianna. Their awkward sweetness was the perfect counterpoint to all the high stakes tension going on in the series. The Black Volume, The Seelie Queen, The Un-Seelie King, Annabelle, The Clave, and The Cohort, and the mysterious illnesses weave their influences and troubles into these relationships flawlessly to remind me why I love Cassandra Clare\’s stories so very much. The wait begins for book 3…The Queen of Air and Darkness 5 stars. Not necessarily a clean read, so I would recommend this series to ages 17+.

** spoiler alert ** I never thought that I would be writing a 2 star review for a Cassandra Clare Shadowhunters book but I simply cannot justify giving this book anything higher. The fact that this book took me 4 months to read should give you some indication of how much I struggled with this novel. I am someone who cannot put a book down, if I start it I will finish it but I found it extremely difficult to do that here. For the first time in my life, I had to stop reading a book halfway through and read something else to get myself motivated. I hated having to do it but I feel like if I hadnt I would still have at least 250 pages to go now! So, what was wrong with it? Well, for me the first part of this book doesnt even get 1 star. It was so unbelieveably dull! Nothing happened! There are only so many boring conversations and monotonous meetings a person can sit through in 300 pages and I feel like Clare exhausted that limit around page 54. It also doesnt help that I felt like Ive read this all before. Every single plot point and character seemed like it had been plucked straight out of Clares earlier novels, tweaked ever so slightly and dropped into Part 1 of Lord of Shadows. I think thats why I found all of the conversations and meeting so so hard to read. When I read a new book I expect to be reading new material, not something that Ive already read in Clares books or watched in the Shadowhunters TV show. Which brings me onto my next problem with Part 1 – Clary! I was thrilled when Clary and Jace turned up at the start of the novel… until Clary quickly started to make everything about her! I am all for more Jace and Clary stories, but if Clare isnt going to do that then write another book about Jace and Clary! Dont give them (whats is undoubtedly going to turn into) a main plot point or twist in what is supposed to be someone elses book! I dont know whether my irritation with Clary is partly to do with the fact that I cant stand her in the TV show, but whatever it is, it didnt help that I had to put this book down for a long time because I was so mad that Clary had made herself the centre of attention in what was not supposed to be her story! Here is my summary of Part 1: A group of hateful Shadowhunters want to enslave the downworlders and bring back the golden age of shadowhunting and Clary swoops in with a few words that make her the only thing you can think about for most of the book. Sound familiar? It should, its the premise of every single book in The Mortal Instruments series! It seemed like Clare chose this particular storyline on purpose to reflect what is currently going on in the world. Changing certain key names to Shadowhunter names and turning real-life people into downworlders doesnt make it feel any less like Clare is trying to make a political statement in this book. While that is fine and I applaud her for doing so, I read fantasy books like these to escape from the harsh reality of the real world not to have it consistently thrown in my face. I want read these books to read about how the good guys win and the oppressors are crushed under the might of those they seek to enslave. Its not a realistic view I know, but thats why the genre is called fantasy fiction. Part 2 was infinitely better, but by that time the damage had been done for me with this book so Part 2 only managed to scrape a couple of stars out of me. It still wasnt brilliant, but it was far more exciting. First of all, the Shadowhunters actually stopped sitting around talking and got up and did something! They went on missions like Shadowhunters are supposed to do and everything! Shocked? I was when it happened because I genuinely thought the entire book was going to be long, long, long conversations and nothing more! The missions were even exciting and made me want to read more. The final chapter was Clares writing at her best, but it was too much for the final chapter. The final chapter of a book is supposed to be when everything settles down a little bit because all of the exciting stuff has happened. All of the most exciting parts of the book arent meant to be kept for the last chapter! I could feel my heart beating in my chest while reading it, I should have been feeling that excitement through all 700 pages not just the last 50. This goes back to what I was saying saying about the long conversations. I feel as though Clare spent so much of this book with relationships; a subtle touch of the hand here, some unspoken subtext there, the constant will-they-wont-they that she lost sight of what the story was actually supposed to be about. I also have to ask, how many LGBT characters is too many? I should say right now to avoid any backlash that my view is that love is love and I have no problem whatsoever with gay characters (Malec is one of my ultimate OTPs and I will fight anyone who says that they should not be together (Zara Dearborn Im talking to you)). People should be whoever they want to be and be with whoever they want to be, but at a certain point it stopped feeling as though these were just relationships and started to feel as though Clare was simply writing them that way to make herself seem more accepting. But, back to my original point, if Clare hadnt spent more than three quarters of the book on relationships, this book would have either been less than half the size or would have been just as long but had more actual plot in it. I dont think that the fact that I cannot stand Emma Carstairs helped matters either. Im sorry, but shes is an annoying, whiny little brat who says one thing but does another, and bitches at someone because they havent done something that she didnt tell them outright that she wanted them to do but was thinking that maybe they might do it anyway. As such, I hated reading chapters from her POV. Sadly, there were a lot of them! Thankfully, the chapters from Mark, Christina, Julian and Kits POVs more than made up for it. It also didnt help that most of the book that took place in London felt like it was written by someone who has never been to London! Which is bad because I know Clare has visited England many times! I never truly appreciated how hard it is to read a bad description of a place when you know what it should look like. To read characters going from one place to another by taking streets that you know either would not take them to their intended destination or are nowhere near where they are currently supposed to be. Also, as someone who lives in the South West of England and frequently takes the train from London to Cornwall I feel the need to mention that I have been in first class many times on those trains and, despite Clares description of Julian and Emma having a compartment all to themselves and the woman with the refreshment trolley rattling down the narrow hall outside it, the trains from London to Cornwall are nothing like the Hogwarts Express! You do not get single compartments to yourselves no matter how much you pay for first class tickets! Everyone sits in a carriage together. The only difference is that in first class you only have 20-30 people in a carriage instead of 80. Despite everything that I had read up until that point that is nothing at all like the London I know, the description of the train is what made me cringe the most! Ironically, after what I said about Jace and Clary earlier, Magnus and Alec were one of my favourite things about the entire novel! I was beyond thrilled when they turned up in part 2 and loved that they stuck around to help out the Blackthorns. I think the reason that I feel so differently is because Malec didnt try to take over the story. They were there as additional characters but didnt take anything away from the Blackthorns. This is what I expect from seeing my favourite characters return, nothing more. SPOILER ALERT!! After thinking about it overnight I\’ve realised how pointless Livvy Blackthorn\’s death is. Yes, they had to find out who killed Malcolm Fade but there were two people in the hall who were claiming to kill Malcolm, Annabel was just one of them. Why on earth couldn\’t they give the sword to Zara Dearborn and ask her the questions when Annabel said that she didn\’t want to? Jia and Robert knew that she had valid reasons to not want to touch the sword, so why not then go to Zara and ask her the questions? It may not have proved that Annabel did it, but it would certainly prove that Zara didn\’t and they may have even been able to discredit her and the Cohort with further questions that way. Now the Blackthorn\’s are in mourning and out for revenge when everything could have gone so much smoother. In conclusion, an absolutely terrible start followed by a pretty good second half and finishing with a brilliant ending. Not even a little bit what I expected from a Shadowhunters novel. Sadly, I really feel as though Clare has run out of ideas and is just rehashing the same old story over and over again. Shes beating a dead horse at this point and I dont know how much more of it I can take.

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