2nd Read: November 22 -November 22, 2020
why is this already better the second time around

I literally speed read that because I needed some form of happiness

“We all feel the same things, only the shapes of our feelings are different.”

1st Read: November 12 -November 18, 2020
I underestimated the amount of angst that this book was capable of.

Spoiler

Seeing Jem and Tessa did not help lessen the angst the smallest bit because I just miss the TID cast everytime they are mentioned. Not to mention Mr. Kit Herondale

I find it so funny that there’s a whole love square but it doesn’t even involve our two mains. Like, Julian and Emma are just chilling (not really, Julian is a stressed monkey) and living their best life while the other 4 sort-of-adults fight over each other.

Spoiler

That was what I wrote before I finished reading the last 50 pages of this book.

“I don’t know where I belong,
But if you let me, I will try to belong here.”

— overall thoughts: 4.5 —

WRITING STYLE/PLOT
This feels like the most modern and admittedly, darkest, of CC’s works in terms of writing style and plot + character dynamics among the shadowhunter novels.

Plot-wise, I thought that this is one of her strongest books. The mystery was there and it's packed with all the secrets and yearning that I was looking for. There are cheesy moments but that was to be expected and I need that every once in a while. Fast-paced plot as usual with a lot of easter eggs dropped and revealed (or soon to be revealed).

In my opinion, all the right plot points were dropped at the right times to make me keep reading. Because I initially just wanted to get this book over with so that I can read CoG but I'm actually attached to the characters.

“A scientist said once that if the ocean were as clear as the sky, if we could see everything in it, no one would ever go into the sea. It’s horrifying, what lives in the water, five miles down.”

“There speaks one who does not know the terrors of the sky.”

The thing is, I feel like CC just keeps writing more and more addicting storylines and characters with every book in this never ending series but she always manages to put unique twists in them — especially for a world that she has already embedded in my entire being for the past 5 years.

I didn’t need too much world-building because it felt like coming home. Nevertheless, I think it could have used some work if you are knew to the world but I think CC is assuming you have read at least some of the previous books before reading this since... that would make sense.

The way Poe's Annabel Lee poem was incorporated into the story felt so realistic to me and it was so clever. I have always loved the poem and the inspiration was spot on.

And of course, this was just filled with parabatai content and I think we can all agree that any kind of parabatai content, is good content.

“We’re parabatai. We’re forever.”

The best friends to lovers trope? We are weak for it.

I came here for the angst and it delivered. Only the Shadowhunter books can still make me care about teenage drama this much.

“I gave the stars your names so that when I saw them wink to light in the sky I felt as if you were with me.”

CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS
I know we always talk about how much we all love the found family trope… but when those dynamics are put on actual family, especially one with a bond as strong as the blackthorns + Emma + Cristina +

Spoiler

Diego

, we get one of the best full cast chemistry I have read and no doubt that this will build up in the second book.

A lot of Cassie Clare’s book revolves around found families and she always nails the character dynamics in my opinion. The fact that we get to see that put into play with an actual family (and still a mix of found family) was so heartwarming to read.

Something about Cassie Clare and the Shadowhunter books always makes it feel like I am just jumping back into a compartment in my brain. I can just dive right back into this world I know without having to build it all up in my head all over again.

A Very Logical Character Breakdown:
Mark ⤳ looks like kind quirky cinnamon roll, is actually kind quirky cinnamon roll
Julian ⤳ Mr. Rules because he’s committing one of the most unlawful acts ever... love *gasp*, but is capable of cold-blooded murder if you hurt anyone in his family; he could be a Will Herondale descendant in terms of brooding tendency and personality let’s be honest
Emma ⤳ greek warrior goddess of risky decisions
Christina ⤳ amazonian warrior goddess of running away from my problems
Drusilla ⤳ actually me; because she’s always just reading a book
Tiberius/Ty ⤳ can probably take me on in coding and hand-to-hand combat at the same time
Livvy ⤳ can probably take me on in fencing and

Spoiler

the one that I got spoiled about

Octavian/Tavvy ⤳ lowkey reminds me of Will...
Kit ⤳ I knew it.

Julian's character... made me want to sob because of the cards he was dealt with. It's so heartbreaking to think about and even though I had some problems with the writing regarding his character, I couldn't help but appreciate everything that he does for his family. With that, I highly appreciated Ty's mental health rep and how it was handled by Julian in particular.

But we need a Mark Blackthorn appreciation section so here are my favorite MB lines from this book:

“There was beauty in the idea of freedom, but it was an illusion. Every human heart was chained by love.”

“He bumped into a pay phone and said, 'Excuse me, miss,' on our way in," said Julian.
"It's polite to apologize," said Mark with the same small voice.

“Why are you wearing a T-shirt under your other T-shirt?" Livvy asked.
"In case one of them is stolen," Marked said, as it were entirely normal.”

“This cat is looking at me with judgment.”“He’s not,” said Jules. “That’s just his face.”“You look at me the same way,” Mark said, glancing at Julian. “Judgy face.”

"Why are you calling me 'some people'?" Mark inquired. "I am only one person.”

[+ that whole scene of him ordering a plate of strawberries]

WHAT WAS OFF TO ME
That whipping scene felt unnecessarily weird. I don't know why. The intensity in the writing felt lacking and it just did not hit me like I imagine it would. There were inconsistencies in the writing that I just could not ignore so it bothered me.

And there are just lines in general that were meh to me. Which makes me see why people don't like some of these books... I really do.... but I also really don't care XD The world of the Shadowhunters is already so intricate and layered in my mind because of how I read the previous books when I was younger so everything just adds up to my love for it.

Easter eggs that I want to mention:

Spoiler

Jem's violin, Jem's cane, Church, Tessa's whole person

Now because I am once again writing this at 3 in the morning, I will now go to sleep because this series makes me too emotional to write non-ranty reviews. If only I had my own Julian or Jem.

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FAQ
I get a lot of questions as to how to start reading the Shadowhunter chronicles and if they can just jump into Lady Midnight without reading anything else or just reading TID… I want to say yes but at the same time you are just going to be missing out on the 101 easter eggs that are all over this book. To me, it just adds to the experience and I would say that you should read all of the previous books but most especially “Tales to the Shadowhunter Academy” which is one of the short story bind ups before Lady Midnight. There were just so many missing pieces that I would not have been able to piece together if I did not read that book first.

Long story, short: if you don’t want to read any of the Shadowhunter series before Lady Midnight, just read “Tales to the Shadowhunter Academy” because you’ll get spoiled about everything you need to know about the world prior to TDA without actually reading the books. It will 100% affect your reading experience of all the previous books but if you have no intention of reading those… feel free to do that.

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I realized the reason I held off reading this was because I was spoiled and I wanted to forget the spoiler... and 2 years later I guess it worked.

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PRE READ:

I feel like the reason people are surprised that I'm only now reading TDA is because I've read TID 3 times