Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

Publication Date:  March 8, 2016
Publisher:  Margaret K. McElderry Books
Pages:  668
Series:  The Dark Artifices #1
Genre:  Fantasy
Synopsis:  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?

Review:  It was foolish of me, really, to think that I had grown away from my thirteen year old obsession with the Shadowhunters' stories.  Lady Midnight pulled me back in with no warning and set me loose into the whirlwind world I remember so fondly.

To say that Cassandra Clare's storytelling hasn't improved would be laughable.  It is starkly apparent she has evolved in each and every aspect, most obvious in the new level of sophistication in her writing.  The pacing has a tendency to be a bit slow, yet the plot is completely entrancing and doesn't let your attention wander for one moment, even when some of the plot twists are fairly easy to guess at.
    

You can’t pay for tragedy with more tragedy, or draw life from death.

The world building is more natural this turn--built into the story, growing as it does, rather than having all the information thrown at you in a textbook format.  It is a familiar place that is altogether quite different from before.  As in:  more faeries, more demons, more facets to the government and the laws that you had no clue about in previous books.  There are new levels of depth and understanding that make the world itself more tangible.  

There is also no introduction to this world within our own, no sudden realization.  The characters have lived with it their whole lives, and so you become immediately immersed, as well.   

Speaking of, the characters are to be expected:  complicated and messy, individualistic and altogether human (even if some of them aren't quite human, in the literal sense). 

We are more than single actions we undertake, whether they be good or evil.

The Blackthorn family, or what is left of it, is made up of an array of ages and personalities.  I for one loved seeing this family dynamic.  Julian, who is fiercely protective and gentle, with a ruthless heart (as it is so eloquently put).  Mark Blackthorn presents such an interesting dynamic and a fascinating inner conflict.  I am at a loss as to what to say about the rest, other than that I loved them all and especially favored Ty.

Emma is tough, loyal, vengeful, and...sensitive?  Not exactly what I was expecting, but I love her character all the more for it.  She is terribly real and very grounded.  Well, not as level-headed and mature as Cristina, who is the image of perfection, although that can be a flaw in itself.

There was beauty in the idea of freedom, but it was an illusion. Every human heart was chained by love.

There is romance, of course.  In fact there's a love...hexagon, perhaps?  Heptagon?  It is all very sweet and all utterly believable--but in each instance goes from zero to one hundred in the blink of an eye, like someone held their finger on the volume button.  

The villain, while not a surprise in my case, is the best kind--one that evokes sympathy, even from those who are attempting to stop them.  That is all.

However (there always is one), the ending, while fabulous, was frustrating.  There is a lot of angst and drama that could be somewhat abated with some old-fashioned communication, in which an excuse of a repeated plot line is standing in the way of. While I understand the need to create tension and problems for the next two books, I would prefer more solid reasoning.  The cliffhanger, on another hand, is killer and almost deserves a round of applause.  

Lex malla, lex nulla. A bad law is no law.

One more thing:  this book builds off of other books.  It is impossible to read Lady Midnight without being spoiled for all the other Shadowhunter series.  Also, the cameos from the previous characters, while heartfelt and exciting, distract from the fact that this is no longer their story, it's Emma and Julian's.

Lady Midnight is like no other Shadowhunter's novel we have seen so far.  There is new dimension to the writing and plot, with the same multifaceted characters we have grown to adore.  It doesn't simply cause nostalgia, it makes you want to sell bits and pieces of your soul if only you could have the next one in your hands right away.