Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Dark Artifices #1
Genre: Urban Fantasy/YA/Romance
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication Date: March 8th, 2016
Edition: Kindle Edition, 669 pages
Source: Library
Purchase: Amazon US | Kobo | Barnes and Noble | Book Depository | iBooks | BAM
Synopsis:
It’s been five years since the events of City of Heavenly Fire that brought the Shadowhunters to the brink of oblivion. Emma Carstairs is no longer a child in mourning, but a young woman bent on discovering what killed her parents and avenging her losses.
Together with her Parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches across Los Angeles, from the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica. If only her heart didn’t lead her in treacherous directions…
Making things even more complicated, Julian’s brother Mark—who was captured by the faeries five years ago—has been returned as a bargaining chip. The faeries are desperate to find out who is murdering their kind—and they need the Shadowhunters’ help to do it. But time works differently in faerie, so Mark has barely aged and doesn’t recognize his family. Can he ever truly return to them? Will the faeries really allow it?
Review:
So, I didn't know how much I was going to like this book. The first half or so of this book felt really boring and a little convoluted.
Some of the characters seemed a little too forced into a role. Ty is possibly autistic, Dru is described as being "fat" but only off-hand by a crabby old Aunt, their uncle possibly has dementia. Mark is bisexual. It felt a little like Clare was checking off boxes for what diverse characters she wanted to talk about. It was, thankfully, done in a way that felt natural, but since not all these characters had equal page time, and not all of it was really explored, it felt a moot to even mention it. Unless it's going to expand on these things in future books which I hope they do. Especially Ty.
The romance between Emma and Julian, I felt, took too much of a front seat for too much of the book. It didn't really make sense as to why until later on in the book, and then it seemed like there were too many missed opportunities. Though the Parabati Curse was a really interesting layer to add to the Shadowhunter world. I like that she is adding layers to the world.
I didn't really remember Mark from the Mortal Instruments series other than what was already mentioned in this book. That he was taken by the Wild Hunt, and that he is a Blackthorn. But I liked getting to know his character. I kind of felt like Cristina in this instance, she didn't know Mark before now either. Speaking of her, I was unsure of her character for a bit. This big secret she had, when it was finally revealed what it was, was a little underwhelming. I was thinking it was something bigger.
The murder mystery aspect of the book seemed a little unorganized at times.
Emma did a lot of running off on her own, and keeping things from the people that were supposed to also be involved. There are a lot of plot points for this trilogy that need to be introduced, and only so many pages to do it in and not info dump at the same time. There was almost more introduced than resolved for this first book, and I do wonder what Malcolm's involvement will be in the future books, as well as his Annabel Lee.
I really do hope that things are more fleshed out in the next book. There are a lot of things that are really left up in the air in this book. It has been a while since I read the Mortal Instruments, and I read those books when I first heard the movie was going to be made, so I had 5 books already out to read and not have to wait for the next book in the series to be confused about how things were going to tie together. I am very curious about Kit, and if we'll be seeing all our favorite characters again.
Some of the characters seemed a little too forced into a role. Ty is possibly autistic, Dru is described as being "fat" but only off-hand by a crabby old Aunt, their uncle possibly has dementia. Mark is bisexual. It felt a little like Clare was checking off boxes for what diverse characters she wanted to talk about. It was, thankfully, done in a way that felt natural, but since not all these characters had equal page time, and not all of it was really explored, it felt a moot to even mention it. Unless it's going to expand on these things in future books which I hope they do. Especially Ty.
The romance between Emma and Julian, I felt, took too much of a front seat for too much of the book. It didn't really make sense as to why until later on in the book, and then it seemed like there were too many missed opportunities. Though the Parabati Curse was a really interesting layer to add to the Shadowhunter world. I like that she is adding layers to the world.
I didn't really remember Mark from the Mortal Instruments series other than what was already mentioned in this book. That he was taken by the Wild Hunt, and that he is a Blackthorn. But I liked getting to know his character. I kind of felt like Cristina in this instance, she didn't know Mark before now either. Speaking of her, I was unsure of her character for a bit. This big secret she had, when it was finally revealed what it was, was a little underwhelming. I was thinking it was something bigger.
The murder mystery aspect of the book seemed a little unorganized at times.
Emma did a lot of running off on her own, and keeping things from the people that were supposed to also be involved. There are a lot of plot points for this trilogy that need to be introduced, and only so many pages to do it in and not info dump at the same time. There was almost more introduced than resolved for this first book, and I do wonder what Malcolm's involvement will be in the future books, as well as his Annabel Lee.
I really do hope that things are more fleshed out in the next book. There are a lot of things that are really left up in the air in this book. It has been a while since I read the Mortal Instruments, and I read those books when I first heard the movie was going to be made, so I had 5 books already out to read and not have to wait for the next book in the series to be confused about how things were going to tie together. I am very curious about Kit, and if we'll be seeing all our favorite characters again.
Wonderful honest review! I've not read this one yet because I need to re-read TMI first, but I'm not surprised the romance ended up taking the front seat. I feel like when Clare first wrote TMI and it was just gonna be a trilogy, the romance was there but it wasn't too prominent, and then she expanded the series and she wrote TID and he books became more romance-focused.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review, though! Now I have a few things to keep in mind when I finally crack this baby open.
- Lefty @ The Left-Handed Book Lover