A review by eesh25
Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare

5.0

4.5 Stars

I so badly wanted to be on top of things when it came to this book. It got delivered on 24th, in the evening; I started it on 25th, in the morning, and finished it on 26th, at night. The plan was to have the review up on the 27th. But that last chapter... For two days, I couldn't even think about it without getting very, very sad, and I kept putting off the review. Now it's been two weeks, and enough is enough. I'm doing this.

Lord of Shadows starts off just a few weeks after the end of Lady Midnight. Emma found out why parabatai can't be in a romantic relationship (apparently they both go crazy and kill everyone) so to make Jules hate her, she asked Mark if he would be in a fake relationship with her. He agreed, even though she didn't tell him why. Malcolm, the evil dick, is dead but there seems to be a disturbance in the force regarding Annabel. Maybe she's coming back to life. On top of that, there's some very shady stuff going on with the demons and the faeries. The Unseelie king is misbehaving and the peeps over at the LA institute need to sort that shit out. And there we have our plot.

But... this plot doesn't immediately come into play. Cassie Clare is known for her love-triangles (including the only good love-triangle in existence), her angst and the misunderstandings she creates. We get a lot of that here as well. But it's not unbearable like it usually is with other books/authors because she creates the most wonderful characters and reading about them is always a joy.

So even though the story's pace isn't the best due to it being interspersed with angst, it's never boring because we have the characters. In the first book, I loved everyone expect Mark and Emma, whom I was unsure about. I like Emma now, which is a big surprise because after the stunt she pulled at the end of LM, I thought I would hate her forever. But she was miserable and very much full of guilt so I'm good with her. Believe it or not, self-loathing over your shitting choices goes a long a way with me when it comes to forgiveness.

That's not to say that I didn't still want her to just fucking talk to Jules about what she found out. That never changed. As for Mark, I still don't know what to do with him.

The other characters, I still love, especially Jules. His scheming and manipulative genius is an honest-to-God turn-on. Though at times he kinda scares me. And after what happens at the end of the book... it was a huge turning point for him. I have no clue what's gonna happen to him. He could go the evil overlord direction for all I know! Though I don't think even Cassie is that mean.

Speaking of characters though, there was one that stood out for me because of her arc. Diana Wrayburn. We were told in book 1 that there was a reason she couldn't become the head of the institute. And we find out what that reason is. Believe me, you will not see it coming.  It made me love Cassie even more.  And on top of that, she had a romantic arc as well, which was equal parts cute and hysterical, as you'll see.

Diana's storyline was the highlight of the novel for me. But I liked the other plotlines as well, and there were quite a few. There was the one with the council and their endlessly stupid laws, the Emma and Jules relationship, the Christina, Mark and Kieran complication, the Centurions, and the Ty, Livvy and Kit dynamic. There's also something going on with Dru that I think has something to do with setting up The Wicked Powers, which, if you don't know, is the concluding series of The Shadowhunter Chronicles and starts 3-4 years after The Dark Artifices.

Overall, this books was a lot better than I expected it to be, though I'm not sure why I expected it to be bad, and was a great sequel. No Second Book Syndrome was found, and while I'd like to say I'm excited for book 3, I can't say that because I'm still just processing what happens in the last chapter. I have no intention of even thinking about the series until the next book comes out (in two freaking years!).