What is the deal with these complicated love triangles? …a contagion in YA novels these days, but I suppose you must have some love-and-tension between demon thrashings and the political scandals of Shadow Hunters, right? What would the plot be otherwise?

Speaking of plot, it’s not the first time I’ve read this one in Clare’s vast Shadow Hunter collection. Apart from the captivating setting and a few endearing characters, there’s not too much different here than in the other trilogies (and double-trilogy?) she’s tackled. The nod to Dante’s Inferno a la Belial/Lilith was more complex this time, though. Clare writes a good character, and these ones come draped in a lot of frivolous entertainment, delivered in a bountiful lexis, and peppered with some none-too-subtle real-world social issues represented by the marginalised lives of warlocks and werewolves as they scrape out their existence amid the rich and privileged little demi-angels.

It was nice to read a bit of grey in some of these flawlessly attractive characters, though they were still the flock of gorgeous almost angelic beings we’ve come to expect, with their pale skin, piercing eyes, thick locks of luscious hair, chiselled cheekbones, marble Greek-godlike physiques, and sculpted curves. Not a mediocre duckling in the whole Shadow Hunter brood. Unless we’re referring to the twisted and downright evil people, of course. Those nasties predictably have gaping mouths and black teeth with sallow skin and cackling laughs. Amid a typical dichotomy of characters, though, there was a lot more grey going on in the hearts and minds of several of the aesthetically beautiful people. We need that. Keeps us guessing. Keeps us reading. Also: Lucy keeps you reading.

I enjoyed the first two of this series, and I could see it heading somewhere newly interesting, possibly even different, but we drifted back to the same old—which one can only say if they’ve spent a whole lot of time reading these generational stories of downworlders and the descendants of angels—and though Tessa, Will, and Jem (from the best series in the whole collection imo) appeared more often, this finale was a little underwhelming. Except for Lucy, who is the best of all. But I suppose after fifteen novels of battling demons in layered pinafores and silk gloves, things become a mite *yawn* predictable (oh, dear, not more ichor spilling, but of course, as they are leaving the theatre it is befitting to be attacked by demons in the alleyway). I do prefer all the demon slaying in a frilly frock and suit jacket with a clopping escape in a horse drawn Hackney rather than the  nondescript jeans and t-shirts Clary wore when she first introduced us to the ‘down’ world. Give me flying motorcycles, though, those can stay.

As for the ending, I know a lot of people are … disappointed(?) and even angry, but as if you couldn’t see that coming some four hundred pages ago…I didn’t mind how this culminated and ended. It was fast-paced and climactic, with all the faces involved. A grand finale. 

And look, I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but these covers are quite something—and they do tell a fair sliver of the tale.

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‘So fragile, these human bodies of yours.’ — Belial 

‘And yet, you want one, isn’t that strange…’ — Matthew

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