Review: LORD OF SHADOWS by Cassandra Clare

Series: The Dark Artifices #2
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Childrens Books
Pages: 701
Release date: May 23rd 2017

Emma Carstairs has finally avenged her parents. She thought she’d be at peace. But she is anything but calm. Torn between her desire for her parabatai Julian and her desire to protect him from the brutal consequences of parabatai relationships, she has begun dating his brother, Mark. But Mark has spent the past five years trapped in Faerie; can he ever truly be a Shadowhunter again?

And the faerie courts are not silent. The Unseelie King is tired of the Cold Peace, and will no longer concede to the Shadowhunters’ demands. Caught between the demands of faerie and the laws of the Clave, Emma, Julian, and Mark must find a way to come together to defend everything they hold dear—before it’s too late.

Lord of Shadows is a strong and complex second installment in the The Dark Artifices series. The world-building continues to expand, the character development is absolutely amazing, and the emotional twists and reveals take your breath away and make you cry. This novel raises the stakes and deliver a powerful and dark story that grasps your attention and sweeps you off your feet.

Cassandra Clare knows what she’s doing when writing about Shadowhunters. She recycles plot devices and still manages to make them interesting, providing a new take on love triangles, forbidden romance, lost Herondales, and demon fights. The fast pace, humourous dialogue, and character development hook you right in, and then tug at your heart strings when tragedy strikes.

Lord of Shadows is 700 pages of what we love most about Shadowhunters. Strong familial relationships, romance angst, so much action, and a few deaths to break our hearts. This novel starts out much stronger than the previous installment, and it only gets better as the story progresses.

Also: diversity! Clare is certainly making an effort to include diverse characters in her books, which I appreciate so much. Aside from the queer characters we know and love, there is also a transgender character and the acknowledgement of an autistic character.

The characters are amaaaaazing! The character development in this definitely deserves a prize. There is the introduction of a few new POV characters, which only enriches the story. I still maintain that I don’t care much about Emma and Julian? But Mark, Kieran, Cristina, Ty, and Kit are my absolute faves ❤ And we also see some old faces from TMI in this installment, which is always a bonus!

There are still way too many love triangles in this book for my taste. And fake relationships. But as this is a Clare book, that’s to be expected.