Published: May 23, 2017
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Series: The Dark Artifices #2
Pages: 701 (Hardcover)
My Rating: 3.0/5.0
Synopsis:
Would you trade your soul mate for your soul?
A Shadowhunter’s life is bound by duty. Constrained by honor. The word of a Shadowhunter is a solemn pledge, and no vow is more sacred than the vow that binds parabatai, warrior partners—sworn to fight together, die together, but never to fall in love.
Emma Carstairs has learned that the love she shares with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, isn’t just forbidden—it could destroy them both. She knows she should run from Julian. But how can she when the Blackthorns are threatened by enemies on all sides?
Their only hope is the Black Volume of the Dead, a spell book of terrible power. Everyone wants it. Only the Blackthorns can find it. Spurred on by a dark bargain with the Seelie Queen, Emma; her best friend, Cristina; and Mark and Julian Blackthorn journey into the Courts of Faerie, where glittering revels hide bloody danger and no promise can be trusted. Meanwhile, rising tension between Shadowhunters and Downworlders has produced the Cohort, an extremist group of Shadowhunters dedicated to registering Downworlders and “unsuitable” Nephilim. They’ll do anything in their power to expose Julian’s secrets and take the Los Angeles Institute for their own.
When Downworlders turn against the Clave, a new threat rises in the form of the Lord of Shadows—the Unseelie King, who sends his greatest warriors to slaughter those with Blackthorn blood and seize the Black Volume. As dangers close in, Julian devises a risky scheme that depends on the cooperation of an unpredictable enemy. But success may come with a price he and Emma cannot even imagine, one that will bring with it a reckoning of blood that could have repercussions for everyone and everything they hold dear.
Oh Cassie Clare, how your books draw me in and then spit me back out. I am perpetually frustrated by how strongly your series begin and then 2, 3, or 4 books in I just utterly lose interest. I loved Lady Midnight, it was a bang-up series intro that I thought would surely trump her other two Shadowhunter series, but Lord of Shadows was SO underwhelming.
Once again, the highlights of the story are great. What you would call major plot points range from interesting to jaw dropping, but the smaller threads that weave a tapestry of disappointment are what puts me off. So much of the text is dedicated to failed relationships, teenage angst, forbidden love, and awkward, tension filled conversations that it’s hard to see past it to the meat of the story. You could have chopped out 400 pages and had a pretty good book. The effort to make me feel for the characters was just too much. It in fact achieved the opposite and I became increasingly annoyed with them and their inability to just say what they’re thinking or at least make a clear attempt to show their feelings.
Aside from this, there were some incredible scenes where I just wanted to high five the characters. Emma Carstairs is pretty epic when she’s in battle-mode, wielding Cortana against immortal foes and generally showing up all the other Shadowhunters her age. Julian is surprisingly angry for a handsome, family-oriented YA character, which I appreciated. He makes an awesome rage-machine, much like a mother grizzly protecting her cubs and it makes a nice counterpoint to the stereotypical humorous bad-boy or sensitive types. Kit gets a lot more screen time in Lord of Shadows and we get to see his development from reluctant Herondale to one of the gang. There’s far too much going on in this book for me to discuss each and every character in detail, but I’ve covered the main points. Lots of new people are introduced, side characters are given more depth, and everyone feels the need to be in one bad relationship or another.
Lord of Shadows was pretty disappointing, though Clare managed to crush my soul (just a bit) at the end, much as I was forewarned. I’m considering finishing out the series when book three is released simply because BIG CHANGES were about to go in effect at the conclusion, but may wait until I see some reviews.
Powder & Page 
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