Title: Lady Midnight
Genre: Fantasy/Paranormal YA
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publisher: McElderry Books
Publication: March 8th 2016
Cover Rating: 4/5
There were so many parts of this book that I found myself going "what?!" at. I think if I would have read all the little novellas and maybe even The Bane Chronicles before reading Lady Midnight I might not have been so surprised but I liked the feeling of looking back at Clary, Simon, Jace and even Jem and Tessa. It was nice to have the little details of how their lives have moved on and changed since the Dark War 5 years ago. But, if I had to sum up this book with one little snippet it would be, The Clave goes Darkside.
I truly do appreciate this book. Sometimes, long series annoy me or I lose interest. But this series, although I wasn't too fond of the last 3 Mortal Instrument books, keeps me interested because there are so many points of view and has an actually timeline. Not everything happens in the same time frame. I get to meet different Shadowhunters, different warlocks, and I get the best of all the worlds. I didn't like Julian or Emma when I finished City of Heavenly Fire but now that I get to read their own story 5 years later I actually like them. So with age, comes wisdom and maturity.
Emma is fierce. She is so much better than Clary, at least when we first met Clary. I wouldn't even say Clary is fierce now. She just has Jace behind her. But not Emma. She is a bad-ass without the help of any guy. I love how tough she is but I can't help but wonder if that toughness came from the loss of her parents. I know some of it did. The need for revenge did. But would she still have turned out to be such a great Shadowhunter had her parents still been around? Would she have bonded herself to Julian? There are a lot of questions I could ask about Emma.
Julian is weird. He seems like Jace in some ways but in others he is timid. Life dealt him a not so fair hand but he handles that with grace and I do like that he took on the responsibilities when no one else could or would. He was forced to grow up too fast and because of that I can't judge him too harshly.
All the kids are so cute and each have their own little distinct personalities. In a book with this many characters it can be hard to keep each one differentiated. The only problem I had at the begging was keeping Tavvy and Ty separate. I kept having to check my notes to see who was who. But I did get the hang of it by the end.
It is disturbing how much Mark changed in 5 short years. It was like he never had another life before the war. It is scary just how easily the Faeries can bend someones mind. But after getting to know Mark I saw that he didn't exactly change. He just molded his personality to the people he lived with. I liked his little Faerie boyfriend, though. The guy did kind of prove to be a tricky person but in the end he redeemed himself. He risked everything he had, in front of the king of the Unseelie court, to try and save mark from a punishment. It was sad and beautiful.
The story and plot was very straight forward and you would think that was a good thing. Right? Well that all depends on if the plot has been used to death. Which, In this case, has been. But for some reason, at the end of each "bad guys" life I end up sort of feeling sorry for them. The Clave is a messed up group of people. They have caused agony, despair, loss and so much else. I am kind of rooting for someone to take them down. They are corrupt.
This book is almost 700 pages. And in those 700 pages we get to meet a lot of new characters like Christina and Diego. Their story adds something to the book but at the same time it is just as cliche as all the other relationships in this series.
Unfortunately, it took about 500 pages before the story even remotely drew me in. I enjoyed the last 200+ pages of the book but not enough to make my rating go up much. Also, after finishing this book II realized that the Shadowhunter world is pretty much about nothing more than love and loss. Every book has this great love story. Every book has an overwhelming abundance of loss. There is always a bad guy and the Shadowhunters are always fighting again that guy. Kind of like how John Green writes nothing but Manic Pixie Dream Girl books the same is true for Cassandra Clare when it comes to cliche, stereotypical paranormal romance type books. Jace and Clary. Will and Tessa. Jem and Tessa. Alec and Magnus. They are all pretty cliche. I do enjoy the world and I can't wait to find out what goes on with Lady Midnight but I have a feeling I will be disappointed. I have a feeling Lady Midnight will just be another regurgitation of City of Bones.
My favorite part about this book was the Edgar Allen Poe references. I just found it so interesting how the author spun his work into this book. My least favorite part of this book was having to listen to Julian and Emma. UGH! Clary and Jace all over again.
Oh, I would also like to add this little tidbit to my review. CLIFFHANGER FROM HELL!
One little side note... After reading all of Cassandra Clare's books I have started to hate the word "Ichor". But I do feel accomplished now that I have caught up with all of Cassandra Clare's current books. Now I won't be that person who says "Shut up. No Spoilers. I haven't read it yet!"
Overall, I gave this book 3.5/5 stars
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