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leahsbooks's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I've come to notice that CC series always seem to have some things in common: strong female protagonists, characters who don't always think through the consequences of their actions, love triangles, and perhaps the most frustrating thing, CLIFFHANGERS AT THE END OF A SERIES?!?! Why? There is literally no need for that nonsense. I completely understand (although I don't always appreciate) having a cliffhanger at the end of a book IN a series. But when I come to the end of a series, I expect things to be neatly tied up with a freaking bow on top. Instead, I'm left hanging and waiting for a book that hasn't been written yet. I'm a bit frustrated, and it definitely impacted my rating. *end rant*
The story picks up right where Lord of Shadows ends. Literally, which surprised me a bit. It was so painful watching the family go through their grief in their own way, while also dealing with their own individual issues at the same time. You know, the Emma-Julian forbidden love, the Cristina-Mark-Kieran love triangle, Ty and Kit's super secret plan, Dru feeling left out of everything, and Helen trying to reintegrate back into the family.
In addition to all of this stuff, there was a lot of other chaos occurring. The situations in Faerie, the situation between the Shadowhunters and the Cohort, and the tension between the Cohort and the Downworlders all come together to create a perfect storm. It also creates a number of plots to follow in the story, all of which converge magnificently, although I was all about it up until the very end. I kind of felt like it detracted from the story in a way, which also impacted my rating.
The book is huge, but it's fast paced and features a lot of my favorite characters from previous books. I was thrilled to see them reappear and play such a big role. The whole time, I was honestly waiting for the members of the Cohort to be on the receiving end of some serious payback. This was a seriously dark book, and it really brought up some echoes of actual history. I guess I'm just going to have to go ahead and wait an unspecified amount of time for the next series to come out to find out what happens next.
The story picks up right where Lord of Shadows ends. Literally, which surprised me a bit. It was so painful watching the family go through their grief in their own way, while also dealing with their own individual issues at the same time. You know, the Emma-Julian forbidden love, the Cristina-Mark-Kieran love triangle, Ty and Kit's super secret plan, Dru feeling left out of everything, and Helen trying to reintegrate back into the family.
In addition to all of this stuff, there was a lot of other chaos occurring. The situations in Faerie, the situation between the Shadowhunters and the Cohort, and the tension between the Cohort and the Downworlders all come together to create a perfect storm. It also creates a number of plots to follow in the story, all of which converge magnificently, although I was all about it up until the very end. I kind of felt like it detracted from the story in a way, which also impacted my rating.
The book is huge, but it's fast paced and features a lot of my favorite characters from previous books. I was thrilled to see them reappear and play such a big role. The whole time, I was honestly waiting for the members of the Cohort to be on the receiving end of some serious payback. This was a seriously dark book, and it really brought up some echoes of actual history. I guess I'm just going to have to go ahead and wait an unspecified amount of time for the next series to come out to find out what happens next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Grief, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Bullying, Gore, and Gun violence
typedtruths's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia and Violence
Moderate: Blood and Transphobia
Minor: Ableism and Body shaming
humanmosquito's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
Full of White Savior-ness, cringey dialogue and little to no regards as to the rules of her universe--Clare at her finest.
The characters were flat and one dimensional, the plot was nearly non-existent and crawled along at a pace so slow a snail could not see it move. I had hope for several characters but as usual Clare failed to follow through. As per usual Clare's treatment of minorities is stereotypical and tokenist.
The plot revolves around one super-special white girl whose motivations and aspirations disappeared somewhere in the beginning of the previous book. Emma's entire purpose in this story is to prop up her forbidden lover/adoptive brother. (who is extremely unlikeable and grows even more so throughout the novel,) Their shared plot comes down to drawn out angst over their relationship, lusting over each other and having the blandest sex I'm sure is humanly possible.
The resolution of both the main plot and the novel made no sense and contradicted the rest of the book. and its characters.
Drawing focus away from the main plot, subplots include; a trip to an alternate universe that was copy and pasted straight from ao3, Clare's only trans character getting outed, a fanservice almost-romance, and rushed polyamory. (note: I did feel that Mark, Kieran and Cristina had a lot of potential but Clare stripped all of them down to sexy mannequins to get them together, especially Cristina whose entire character revolves down to providing emotional labour for and lusting over her love interests.)
A huge part of this book was Clare trying to get back at critics of her books and counterintuitively proving their point. (common criticisms of her original series include the use of incest as a romantic subplot and lack of relevance to the plotline herself-insert protagonist had.)
This
The characters were flat and one dimensional, the plot was nearly non-existent and crawled along at a pace so slow a snail could not see it move. I had hope for several characters but as usual Clare failed to follow through. As per usual Clare's treatment of minorities is stereotypical and tokenist.
The plot revolves around one super-special white girl whose motivations and aspirations disappeared somewhere in the beginning of the previous book. Emma's entire purpose in this story is to prop up her forbidden lover/adoptive brother. (who is extremely unlikeable and grows even more so throughout the novel,) Their shared plot comes down to drawn out angst over their relationship, lusting over each other and having the blandest sex I'm sure is humanly possible.
The resolution of both the main plot and the novel made no sense and contradicted the rest of the book. and its characters.
Drawing focus away from the main plot, subplots include; a trip to an alternate universe that was copy and pasted straight from ao3, Clare's only trans character getting outed, a fanservice almost-romance, and rushed polyamory. (note: I did feel that Mark, Kieran and Cristina had a lot of potential but Clare stripped all of them down to sexy mannequins to get them together, especially Cristina whose entire character revolves down to providing emotional labour for and lusting over her love interests.)
A huge part of this book was Clare trying to get back at critics of her books and counterintuitively proving their point. (common criticisms of her original series include the use of incest as a romantic subplot and lack of relevance to the plotline her
This
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Racism
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Ableism, Transphobia, and Incest
I counted around 4-5 sex scenes (nearly all cut-to-blacks),a very badly done and pedestrian feeling allegory of racism/"politics" and the writer's ableist, lesbophobic and transphobic biases are clear in the text.
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