Distiller: Hikari Loftus
4.5/5 Stars
Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices: Book One)
by Cassandra Clare
720 pages
Margaret K. McElderry Books (March 8th 2016)
NO SYNOPSIS. Why? Because if you’ve read all the Shadowhunter books, it’s way more fun going in blind.
If you haven’t read any of the Shadowhunter books (which I highly recommend doing first), I think you can actually pick up Lady Midnight first, to some degree. (Acknowledging spoilers to relationships from the other books) Clare spends plenty of time in the initial chapters reminding readers what happened in City of Heavenly Fire, and filling new readers in on the basics of Shadowhunter lingo and law.
Since it’s been awhile since I read CoHF, some of the reminders were great refreshers. (and some times I just felt like I was pushing through a bunch of information about Shadowhunters that I already knew to get to the good, new stuff.)
Lady Midnight takes place 5 years after the Dark War (see CoHF) and focuses on Emma Cairstairs and the Blackthron family in the LA Institute. This is part of the reason I think new readers can pick this up first.
I have to admit that for the first, oh, 400 pages or so, my anticipation and enjoyment of the book went from a 10 to about a 3. It seemed that some of the things I loved about the Shadowhunter books were missing. (the action, the snarky/witty/hilarious comments) It just felt mired down in a lot of drama.
But THEN the last 270 pages happened and I about died. AMAZING. (fist pump, fist pump) I started this with Jace, Simon, and Jem/Tessa stars in my eyes, and my initial excitement waned when it really hit me that this wasn't their story anymore. (There are brief mentions and life updates on those characters we already love, but I suspect their involvement comes in the following books. I won't tell you who DOES make brief appearances so you can look forward to that.)
If you’ve read TID and TMI, those final pages are going to be FILLED with really exciting stuff. (if you haven’t, those pages will still be cool, just some of the comments won’t be “OMG! THAT MEANS…flashback to events from the other books.)
DYING for the next book already. Cassandra Clare, I’m sorry I doubted you while you spent those first 400 pages building up the foundation of this new series. You killed it, in the end.
I have to admit that for the first, oh, 400 pages or so, my anticipation and enjoyment of the book went from a 10 to about a 3. It seemed that some of the things I loved about the Shadowhunter books were missing. (the action, the snarky/witty/hilarious comments) It just felt mired down in a lot of drama.
But THEN the last 270 pages happened and I about died. AMAZING. (fist pump, fist pump) I started this with Jace, Simon, and Jem/Tessa stars in my eyes, and my initial excitement waned when it really hit me that this wasn't their story anymore. (There are brief mentions and life updates on those characters we already love, but I suspect their involvement comes in the following books. I won't tell you who DOES make brief appearances so you can look forward to that.)
If you’ve read TID and TMI, those final pages are going to be FILLED with really exciting stuff. (if you haven’t, those pages will still be cool, just some of the comments won’t be “OMG! THAT MEANS…flashback to events from the other books.)
DYING for the next book already. Cassandra Clare, I’m sorry I doubted you while you spent those first 400 pages building up the foundation of this new series. You killed it, in the end.
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