Dark Artifices - Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
The first part of the Dark Artifices trilogy: Lady Midnight (Lady Midnight) Originally published 2016, I read it in English where it contained 650 pages. For girls (boys) 14 to death.
Emma Carstairs never forgot the murder of her parents and she never believed that Sebastian Morgenstern really was the cause for this – and she’s proved right when other bodies turn up. But the crime scene isn’t the only confusing thing in her life right now. Her parabatai Julian is suddenly distant, and the Blackthorns are blown into pieces when Mark comes back – and might not want to stay.
I adored this book.
I’ve fallen for Emma from page one, and for the Blackthorn family before they even showed up.
Emma is kickass, she’s loyal and easy to love, even though she’s sometimes hard and not very understanding.
Her new bestie Christina is strong as well, but calmer. She has her own demons in her past, I’m excited as to how this plays out. Perfect Diego is really… he’s fun. Or rather, the reactions of the others to him is fun, I don’t really know what to make of the guy. He seems too nice and too perfect, he seems cold and stiff in a way… well, we’ll find out.
But his brother is an ass.
Now to the characters I love most and find most fascinating.
Julian.
Julian is the personification of a good and loyal, kind-hearted, responsible brother. I am so, so sorry for him! All he had to do… take care of Arthur, raise his siblings, calm Helen, understand Ty, help Livvy with her twin, care for Dru with her issues, and be a father to Tavvy… and be there for Emma, in a way. Plus he had to do Arthur’s job. And he’s in love with a girl he thinks he can never have. Now this Mark business? His brother comes back but needs his love and help even more than anyone else. He threatens to hurt the people Julian loves most… and then his siblings seemingly look at Julian like he’s there captor and at Mark as if he’s there real brother. At least Jules seems to think it’s like this… which I totally get. I’m glad it’s not true, though.
This is a shit situation for him.
Especially due to Emma – I can’t believe she didn’t help him more than that! But I get that he didn’t want her help.
And I totally get why she acted like she did, in the end, but… God, poor poor Jules! How can she do this to him?! I hate the ending. I seriously hate the ending. But I’m excited for Prince of Shadows…
Mark himself is fascinating, I’m so sorry for everything he went through. I like his relationship with Kieran, even though Kieran’s punishment was more than crap. Seriously.
Apropos the punishment:
The scene was way too long and too dramatic. It should have been cut.
Now, back to the Blackthorns.
Ty is fascinating. He’s different than the average person, he’s a genius – with all the problems that come with this. The way he is drawn – the way all the characters are drawn – it’s so realistic. Almost as if they could step any moment out of the books. I like that. And I like how you immediately fall for them.
I’m sorry for Livvy, Dru and Tavvy, though.
Livvy just wants to be her twin’s parabatai, and she wants to protect him from his own dreams.
Dru has to fight with the pressure the Nephilim society makes on her – and, in brief, not growing up with a mother. I think she’d be far better off if she still had her mother. Because as wonderful as Livvy is, she’s primarily fixed on Ty. And Dru needs a woman she can look up to and who is a bit more… well, soft, more like Dru than Emma is.
As for Tavvy… he’s so sweet, so kind. And I’m so sorry about what he had go through.
The ideas are original, the story tense and the content well done. You almost don’t notice that this book has an insane amount of pages.
In brief:
Stars for content, ideas, style, characters and the Blackthorns – and how you immediately fall for them.
Prequel Series (before)
The Mortal Instruments
To the world