Reviews with content warning for Blood - Lady Midnight

emma, christina, mark and julian are my CORE FOUR!

i adore them as a friendship group, and as individual characters. i can confidently say that each one of them has gorgeous character development - emma's grief, julian's struggles as a single mother to his 4 younger siblings, christina confronting her past and settling into her future at the LA institute, mark coming to terms with his heritage/identity - even though lady midnight is the first book in the dark artifices trilogy ! there is no doubt in my mind that cassandra clare will expand upon the pieces of art that she has created here.

family and the ancient greek words for love, are other strong themes that are explored excellently in ld. the blackthorn siblings made me legitimately tear UP!! the group scenes were so well written, easy to follow, and the perfect showcase of everyone's unique personality.

and the SHIPPPSSS. my gawd, the relationships...emma and julian are an angst masterclass. they really feel like a married couple who've been together 50 years and have 50 kids. much older than their years, which is understandable given they've lived through the dark war, but they still have a youthfulness to them. i'm also a big fan of mark/christina plus i'm suspecting that

they will be in a throuple with kieran, mark's faerie boo from the wild hunt! so, i'm extra curious to see kieran's future interactions with xtina...

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ali_k0's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Moderate warnings are all discussed internal monologue and have brief scenes further discussing between characters. Dementia is not outright for the suffering character (his mind is described as "shattered") but it mirrors it. Autistic character is treated very well by family but there is one scene where someone insists he doesn't use his headphones (noise regulation tool) and makes eye contact. Characters also discuss larger bigotry in the Clave surrounding those who the Clave (not his family) call "mad" this is the forced institutionalization. It does not happen, only discussed.

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sofiadanielle's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Having been a long time fan of Clare and her novels (specifically The Infernal Devices and The Mortal Instruments series) in my teenage years, I decided to jump into this series as my re-entry into the world of shadowhunters.

I do have to admit, I wasn’t so sold on loving this series (or, this novel in particular). Many of my friends who have also read TID and TMI share the sentiment that this series is fine, but it certainly doesn’t rank as high as the first two series.

I suppose, to an extent, I agree. I found Emma’s character a bit unlikable, especially in the beginning, too impulsive and thoughtless; and Julian was.. Well…. But by the end of the novel, I was quite fully invested in all the characters, regardless of the way I felt about them when I was introduced. They’re lovable in a way, and I don’t hold them in such close regards as the previous series’ characters.

Still, Clare’s continuation of the Shadowhunters universe is so welcome. It’s amazing how she ties in stories across series and timelines, and I’m very excited to start on the second book of this series!

This book is fast paced, and I definitely think its length might put some people off, especially with the last two books of the trilogy only being longer, but.. The story did fly by pretty quickly for me. Overall a good read.

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