Reviews

Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare

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ashjreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

3.5/5 stars

“Grief can be so bad you can’t breathe, but that’s what it means to be human. We lose, we suffer, but we have to keep breathing.”

This, by far, is the longest book I have ever read compared by word count. This tome has been completed and I must applaud myself for that.

I did like some things. I disliked more things. I am sorry to say that I am about to be a bit negative for a while before I get positive. There were pacing issues galore, I don't enjoy how some storylines are tied up in a deus ex machina manner, and

This barely toes the line of being a Young Adult book at this point, by the way. Be Warned.

I cannot think of a way to discuss any of this further without spoilers so, here is that warning if you care

Here is me being Negative. It goes for a while, you've been warned.

Thule was something. I didn't hate it being introduced, but I do think it went on for way too long. It was one of many plot pacing issues involved. It felt like someone didn't take the keyboard away and she just kept going and going and going about things that didn't need to be discussed in so much detail. I figure Thule is going to be important eventually considering the Epilogue of this.

This is also a problem because there are so many POVs that she's juggling that it was hard to sit in the grief/other intense emotions of a character. After all, we were constantly jumping POVs. I love a POV swap book but, maybe Cassie bit off more than could be chewed with this one. All the POVs are IMPORTANT, okay! I am not saying I don't like all of those characters that are included.. but it was a bit much. A lot of unnecessary repetition. I could've done without a lot of it.

On the point of a deus ex machina: we built up this parabatai curse to them to simply... turn into giant glowing Nephilim? Then it's suddenly all okay because that broke their parabatai bond? I have to laugh. It's absurd, frankly. Like it's a fantasy book but, to an extent, the resolution to the conflict you've created has to be believable. When "True Nephelim" are never even alluded to at all, it is an interesting choice to suddenly make it A ThingTM that can happen. I don't like it and it soured the last 100 pages of this for me a bit.

I have nice things to say, I swear. Let's do this thing.

I love all of the "main" characters of this series so much. From Emma to the Blackthorns to even Kieran, Gwyn, Diana, and more. They are all fantastically human, even if they are not mundane. They make horrible choices sometimes *cough* Ty & Julian *cough*, but it made me love them more. They felt very real.

IF KIERARKTINA HAS NO FANS, THEN I AM DEAD. I ship them so hard that it's unhealthy. Herongraystairs, we could've had this. Kierarktina is Cassie's apology for Herongraystairs and you can't change my mind. No idea what Julian/Emma's ship name is, seems the internet can't decide between Jemma or Blackstairs, but I ship them too. Have faith. I just thought that their conclusion to conflict would be handled differently.

I will not end this review without stating... LIGHTWOOD-BANE WEDDING. I kicked and I giggled. I felt that the ending was dragging a bit until that moment. Glad I finally got my Malec wedding. That was exciting. “And when one day people look back on me and what my life meant, I don’t want them to say, ‘Alec Lightwood fought in the Dark War’ or even ‘Alec Lightwood was Consul once.’ I want them to think, ‘Alec Lightwood loved one man so much he changed the world for him.’ ” that made me cry. I had almost gone a whole book of this series without crying. Curses.

We are in the final countdown of Shadowhunter books... 4 books remain for me (unless I choose to read the Codex for some reason). I have come so far. Alissa should be proud.

Content Warnings

vmusing's review against another edition

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5.0

This is quite possibly my FAVORITE Shadowhunter book. I love all these characters so so much.
Alec and Magnus getting married had me crying happy tears, I am so happy to finally see my OTP married.
I LOVED Mark, Christina, and Kieran’s relationship so much!!
I am so sad about Ty and Kit and can’t wait for my babies to hopefully be together in the Wicked Powers.

matolj's review against another edition

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5.0

I'm honestly glad that I waited so long to read this book because now I luckily don't have to wait more than 10 days for Chain of Gold, but yeah if you didn't gather that, I looooved this!!

dariadanley's review against another edition

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4.0

OH

MY

GOSH

4.5 STARS

kellenpenn's review against another edition

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5.0

Almost everything I had wondered about was resolved to my satisfaction in this book. There is one relationship that I grew extremely attached to that did NOT receive a satisfactory resolution for me, but I'm hoping in future series maybe I can see something else although I doubt it. This book was SO! MUCH! The marathon of reading this book has me feeling emotionally WRECKED. I just needed to know what was going to happen every second. This universe and cast of characters continue to surprise and delight me in every way. The action-packed conclusion to the Dark Artifices was perfectly paced even being quite long-it could have been even longer and I bet I would have been completely engrossed. I can't wait to dive into Chain of Gold now and see what Cordelia Carstairs and Cortana get into.