Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare Genre: Action, Fantasy If you've never liked Clare's books and was thinking of giving this book a go because of the hype: seriously, don't do it. The rating itself, could be mercy on my part. Believe it or not, I was once a fan of Clare, and her books still hold a special place in my heart. Not because they are my favourite books or something like that but reallyCassandra Clare's books were really what got me to love reading in the first place. Back in those days, I really don't read that much; readingRaven's Gate and City of Bones pretty much marked the turning point in my life. I loved reading since then. As absurd as it sounds, it's true. And though, a year or so later I realised that I didn't love her books as much as I did before, Lady Midnight, I still had to read. |
The Shadowhunters of Los Angeles star in the first novel in Cassandra Clare s newest series, The Dark Artifices, a sequel to the internationally bestselling Mortal Instruments series. "Lady Midnight" is a Shadowhunters novel.
It s been five years since the events of "City of Heavenly Fire" that brought the Shadowhunters to the brink of oblivion. Emma Carstairs is no longer a child in mourning, but a young woman bent on discovering what killed her parents and avenging her losses.
Together with her parabatai Julian Blackthorn, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches across Los Angeles, from the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica. If only her heart didn t lead her in treacherous directions
Making things even more complicated, Julian's brother Mark who was captured by the faeries five years ago has been returned as a bargaining chip. The faeries are desperate to find out who is murdering their kind and they need the Shadowhunters help to do it. But time works differently in faerie, so Mark has barely aged and doesn t recognize his family. Can he ever truly return to them? Will the faeries really allow it?
It s been five years since the events of "City of Heavenly Fire" that brought the Shadowhunters to the brink of oblivion. Emma Carstairs is no longer a child in mourning, but a young woman bent on discovering what killed her parents and avenging her losses.
Together with her parabatai Julian Blackthorn, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches across Los Angeles, from the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica. If only her heart didn t lead her in treacherous directions
Making things even more complicated, Julian's brother Mark who was captured by the faeries five years ago has been returned as a bargaining chip. The faeries are desperate to find out who is murdering their kind and they need the Shadowhunters help to do it. But time works differently in faerie, so Mark has barely aged and doesn t recognize his family. Can he ever truly return to them? Will the faeries really allow it?
Nothing very interesting happened, nothing unpredictable, nothing new, nothing that grabbed my attention at all. The characters in Lady Midnight, I have seen many times before. And all I was thinking while reading the book is that: this book could be a few hundred pages shorter - about 250 pages shorter to be exact. Everything in the book was simply okay. The characters were okay. The plot was okay. The world was okay. The action was okay. And trust me if you read 669 pages of okay, you will simply notbe okay anymore.
Honestly, this is absolutely nothing new which is exactly the biggest problem in this book. I was so bored by Emma for a whole chunk of the book. Dead parents. Need for revenge.
Super pretty.
Honestly, this is absolutely nothing new which is exactly the biggest problem in this book. I was so bored by Emma for a whole chunk of the book. Dead parents. Need for revenge.
Super pretty.
He looked at Emma as if she were a new kind of flower, one he wasn't sure he liked. "She's pretty," he said. "I didn't think she'd be pretty. You didn't mention it." |
Damn bad ass.
"I heard about you. Everyone said you would be the next Jace Herondale. The next great Shadowhunter warrior." (Cristina) |
"I wanted to help you become who you really are." |
I don't know if you're picking up the Mary Sue vibe but I definitely am.
In fact, there were way too many times some character got on my nerve. I mean, there's Emma who I'm not exactly fond of. And if you throw in Mark too, I can go on for days. I'm not unsympathetic. I know what he went through but I thought something would have told him not to put a child in a bag of sugar. Mark is literally the dumbest and most annoying character I have read about. From the way this dude talk and acted, anyone would have placed their bets on this guy being a 10 year old. Don't even make me go on to the romance, because after this book I absolutely hate forbidden love. I just had one look at this.
In fact, there were way too many times some character got on my nerve. I mean, there's Emma who I'm not exactly fond of. And if you throw in Mark too, I can go on for days. I'm not unsympathetic. I know what he went through but I thought something would have told him not to put a child in a bag of sugar. Mark is literally the dumbest and most annoying character I have read about. From the way this dude talk and acted, anyone would have placed their bets on this guy being a 10 year old. Don't even make me go on to the romance, because after this book I absolutely hate forbidden love. I just had one look at this.
"You. Does she know about you?" |
And I almost lost it because to me, this was no different from hurling The Infernal Devices in my face.
Stupidity can't even begin to describe it and with forbidden love there's only one way the story can go. Here I'll even narrate it out for you:
1) The denial stage
2) The pretense stage where one pretends to be uninterested in a romantic relationship, hurting each other in the process
3) They make out in the middle of the book and beat themselves up for it after
4) One of them will almost die and they realise love is the most important thing
5) Please insert applause.
With the way things turned out, this book is definitely going down this path. It haven't covered all said stages yet, but believe me, it will. And the most absurd thing is: all the problems brought about by forbidden love can be avoided with one simple talk.
Maybe I was asking for it since before reading, I already had a hunch I wouldn't very much like it but I was curious enough to want to get through the book to find out why parabatais cannot be a thing. Thankfully, I did find out at the end of the book. Not so thankfully, I was less than impressed. I probably choked on air reading it.
Because at that point, I was trying to convince myself I did not just go through 600 pages of okay to get a crappy reason of why parabatais can't be together.
Stupidity can't even begin to describe it and with forbidden love there's only one way the story can go. Here I'll even narrate it out for you:
1) The denial stage
2) The pretense stage where one pretends to be uninterested in a romantic relationship, hurting each other in the process
3) They make out in the middle of the book and beat themselves up for it after
4) One of them will almost die and they realise love is the most important thing
5) Please insert applause.
With the way things turned out, this book is definitely going down this path. It haven't covered all said stages yet, but believe me, it will. And the most absurd thing is: all the problems brought about by forbidden love can be avoided with one simple talk.
Maybe I was asking for it since before reading, I already had a hunch I wouldn't very much like it but I was curious enough to want to get through the book to find out why parabatais cannot be a thing. Thankfully, I did find out at the end of the book. Not so thankfully, I was less than impressed. I probably choked on air reading it.
Because at that point, I was trying to convince myself I did not just go through 600 pages of okay to get a crappy reason of why parabatais can't be together.
This book literally deal with the power of love overcoming all odds thing. Oh joy. The power of love. As a solution of problems.
This absolutely sounded to me like: I ran out of ideas. Gods above, please save me. I hope this does the trick.
At the end of the book, I'll tell it it didn't feel any different from reading City of Bones and Clockwork Angel. I can even start drawing parallels between the books but that's really not the point. Definitely for me, reading Cassie's works are just reading the same thing over and over again. It just takes a while to get sick of it. I don't think I'll ever be visiting any of her new works again if she keeps reproducing the rather same concepts in a different cover.
Negativity aside, there's only one thing I liked in this book: Julian Blackthorn. Julian is by far, the richest character I feel Cassie has ever written about. I mean, there was Magnus but the introduction of characters from her previous series into this book was just so abrupt and forceful, they can get really annoying sometimes. But Julian is definitely a better developed love interest, who is vastly different from any other character Cassie has created. He is someone I find very relatable and understandable; at times, he is someone I even admire and approve of. Julian is definitely young, but the way he acts and thinks like an adult, can be really surprising even. It makes him a very unique character and he clearly stands out from many other teenage characters I've read. And Julian's love for his siblings, really nothing can describe it. It's not spelled out in words but you can just feel it, in everything he does, in all that he has done for them. Julian is a character I truly admire.
Literally, I feel Julian is the only thing 'new' Cassie has ever written and if I ever continue this series, it's because of Julian but I highly doubt so. Even Julian can't save the awkward conversations, the plot from falling flat, the awful info dumping and the boredom I felt whilst reading this book. I definitely have got enough of shadowhunters for a long time to come.
At the end of the book, I'll tell it it didn't feel any different from reading City of Bones and Clockwork Angel. I can even start drawing parallels between the books but that's really not the point. Definitely for me, reading Cassie's works are just reading the same thing over and over again. It just takes a while to get sick of it. I don't think I'll ever be visiting any of her new works again if she keeps reproducing the rather same concepts in a different cover.
Negativity aside, there's only one thing I liked in this book: Julian Blackthorn. Julian is by far, the richest character I feel Cassie has ever written about. I mean, there was Magnus but the introduction of characters from her previous series into this book was just so abrupt and forceful, they can get really annoying sometimes. But Julian is definitely a better developed love interest, who is vastly different from any other character Cassie has created. He is someone I find very relatable and understandable; at times, he is someone I even admire and approve of. Julian is definitely young, but the way he acts and thinks like an adult, can be really surprising even. It makes him a very unique character and he clearly stands out from many other teenage characters I've read. And Julian's love for his siblings, really nothing can describe it. It's not spelled out in words but you can just feel it, in everything he does, in all that he has done for them. Julian is a character I truly admire.
Literally, I feel Julian is the only thing 'new' Cassie has ever written and if I ever continue this series, it's because of Julian but I highly doubt so. Even Julian can't save the awkward conversations, the plot from falling flat, the awful info dumping and the boredom I felt whilst reading this book. I definitely have got enough of shadowhunters for a long time to come.