I once again find myself loving literally the entire book but hating the way Clare chooses to end it/what she ends it on. (Especially considering it'll be at least a year until this situation RESOLVES ITSELF). It's really hard not to dwell on how it ended right now, and it's kinda tarnishing how I'm currently thinking about the book overall unfortunately. However, I'm going to try to explain my feelings for the book as a whole without letting that ending ruin it all!

This cast is absolutely wonderful, like I'm pleasantly surprised Clare has once again managed to make a group of Shadowhunters as unique and interesting again. I loved them almost from page one, they're just so dramatic yet fleshed out at the same time, and I'm here for it. I honestly have reasons to love every single character, though I definitely have some favorites right now. Clare is also leaving a lot open right now in terms of relationships, but I have theories!!

I also really like the focus of this series, so far at least, as well. We're really getting back into demons again (which is nice considering TDA was mainly internal politics + fairies, and TWP will probably follow a similar path), and it just feels like we're going back to basics again. We're hearing more about the Princes of Hell, Lilith, and all the demons we started to really know in TID and TMI. I honestly can't wait to learn more about all the realms too, since that'll shine more of a light on some of the plots of the other series as well. It's also interesting to see how James and Lucie, and their demon blood, plays more and more of a role in the story and lore of the world, and I'm curious where that all is going to lead to!

I'm just... really frustrated by that ending though. Like honestly, Clare always leaves the characters in increasingly worse spots at the ends of her book, but this was more frustrating than annoying. Almost all of the sudden drama was actually nice and kept me hooked for the next book, except for

Spoiler

James having the bracelet on again. It's just honestly really frustrating, from a reader's point of view, because it's insanely obvious that the bracelet is the one doing the mind control stuff/creating loyalty and love to Grace. However, at the same time, it's also obvious that literally no one else is going to guess it for a long time, and that combined with the sometimes heavy handed "hints" from Clare to the reader is just getting annoying. It also just sucks because the bracelet obviously flattens James as a character, not only do his friends see his "Mask", but the readers do as well...

Overall, I'm dying for the sequel already and only slightly angry at Clare right now :))