Review: Lady Midnight - Cassandra Clare

Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
My Rating : {★★★★☆}

Young Adult Fantasy
Published March 8th 2016

In a kingdom by the sea…

In a secret world where half-angel warriors are sworn to fight demons, parabatai is a sacred word.

A parabatai is your partner in battle. A parabatai is your best friend. Parabatai can be everything to each other—but they can never fall in love.

Emma Carstairs is a warrior, a Shadowhunter, and the best in her generation. She lives for battle. Shoulder to shoulder with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, she patrols the streets of Los Angeles, where vampires party on the Sunset Strip, and faeries—the most powerful of supernatural creatures—teeter on the edge of open war with Shadowhunters. When the bodies of humans and faeries turn up murdered in the same way Emma’s parents were when she was a child, an uneasy alliance is formed. This is Emma’s chance for revenge—and Julian’s chance to get back his brother Mark, who is being held prisoner by the faerie Courts. All Emma, Mark, and Julian have to do is solve the murders within two weeks…and before the murderer targets them.

Their search takes Emma from sea caves full of sorcery to a dark lottery where death is dispensed. And each clue she unravels uncovers more secrets. What has Julian been hiding from her all these years? Why does Shadowhunter Law forbid parabatai to fall in love? Who really killed her parents—and can she bear to know the truth?

The darkly magical world of Shadowhunters has captured the imaginations of millions of readers across the globe. Join the adventure in Lady Midnight, the long-awaited first volume of a new trilogy from Cassandra Clare.

This was a great addition to the Shadowhunter universe.

I love the world that Clare has built, and I love that she is continuing to build upon it. It's hard to be impartial here because I have read EVERYTHING else and I know the history of the Shadowhunters. It's like I lived through the Magister's Clockwork Army, the Dark War and the Cold Peace. I've loved so many of her beautiful characters and I've rooted for so many of her ships.

I really, truly love the way that Clare treats all of her characters. Everyone is important to her and is so well developed. It's not easy to keep up with all the Blackthorns and this large cast of characters in this book - and yet each of them is an individual with their own unique voice and own unique arc and development.

Because of this wonderful way that each character becomes special to the reader, I am still incredibly attached to characters from the previous series and so the reappearance of them and catching up with some of them is so nostalgic and each mention of them is significant to my life.

In this new series I particularly love the character of Emma Carstairs and have found myself drawn to her ever since she was introduced in City of Heavenly Fire. I love her relationship with Julian and I love the way that the Blackthorns have managed to stay as a family unit even though they have suffered some critical losses and certainly faced unlikely odds.

I also have always loved the Parabatai relationship. It's something both rare and awe-inspiring. But to play with my feelings on this relationship and bring Julian and Emma into it was just....... Amazing.

Entreat me not to leave thee,
Or return from following after thee—
For whither thou goest, I will go,
And where thou lodgest, I will lodge.
Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.
Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried.
The Angel do so to me, and more also,
If aught but death part thee and me.

And it came to pass... that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul... Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.

This book was beautiful and tragic and heart wrenching in all the right ways I can't really write anymore without being horrifyingly spoilery because there is just too much I want to discuss here. But all I can say is that I hope that Clare's 'true love always comes out on top' streak holds with this series.

“There is nothing more important than love. And no law higher.”