Lady Midnight

“No one is ever the villain of their own story.”

Title: Lady Midnight
Series: The Dark Artifices, #1
Author: Cassandra Clare
Published: March 8, 2016
Edition: hardcover
Pages: 668
Goodreads page

Five years past since the last battles in City of Heavenly Fire (the final book in The Mortal Instrument series), and many things have changed. If you haven’t read both The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices series, I would highly suggest you do that before starting this book because you’d be confused and lost if you didn’t.

WARNING: There are spoilers in this review from The Mortal Instruments series.

Man, it was good to back in the Shadowhunters world. It’s been a while since I finished City of Heavenly Fire. Good times, good times.

Years have past since the last series, and the old crew of Shadowhunters and Downworlders have grown older. Some of the main characters from The Mortal Instruments series like Jace Herondale, Clary Fairchild, and Magnus Bane made several appearances throughout the book while others were just mentioned. Also, Jem Carstairs and Tessa Gray from The Infernal Devices showed up from time to time. I never realized that Emma was related to Jem until I looked at their last names and made the connection.

There was also an introduction to new characters. At the end of City of Heavenly Fire, the Blackthorn family made an appearance. Out of all the Blackthorn kids (Mark, Helen, Julian, Livvy, Ty, Drusilla, Octavian) and Emma, my favorite would have to be Ty because we have the same interests. He likes Sherock, mysteries, and crime. He’s also sort of awkward around others.

There was a slew of new characters introduced other than the Blackthorn family. There’s Christina Rosales, who came from the Institute in Mexico, but is studying at the Los Angeles Institute. There’s also Perfect Diego (that’s not his actual name), who’s a Centurion and is in love with Christina. There’s Malcolm, a High Warlock. And then there’s Kieran, a princeling from the Hunt; Diana, the tutor at the Los Angeles Institute; and Johnny and Kit Rook, a father and son from the Shadow Market.

One thing that I’ve noticed in this book in particular is that there weren’t many werewolves mentioned.  In fact, I may go as far as saying there weren’t ANY werewolves mentioned in this book. Because the story was more surrounded around the Cold Peace (the law where no one can help the faeries after their alliance with Sebastian Morgenstern), Emma and Julian interacted with faeries more than any other Downworlders.

The whole story revolved around lies. Because of all the lies and secrets everyone have been keeping from each other, their world is falling apart. Every single character had their secrets. It was lies after lies after lies after lies to try and keep those secrets.

And then there are the plot twists. So many plot twists! You have to question everyone and everything. You can trust NO ONE.

You’d think in the end that after the big problem was solved that everything would be rainbows and puppies and whatnot, but NO. Cassandra Clare had some plans. Some wicked, evil plans that is slowly destroying my heart because I don’t have the next book.

With the turn of events, I’m not sure what’s going to happen between everyone, especially the Blackthorn kids, Emma, Diego, and Christina.

I rate this book 5 / 5 BBC Sherlock heads. I need the next book right this instant or I’m going to combust into a thousand tiny particles.

Until next time….