Also, the ratings under the titles are based on the Goodreads scale of 1 to 5 Stars. In the end, it's just easier for me to access my account over there to write my reviews but I'm determined to keep this site updated as well.
Now I get to do both, just the way I've always wanted to. Hooray for me!
Now on towards the latest review, one of my most highly anticipated releases of 2016.
Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Starting off here with the plain old truth.
I don't like The Mortal Instruments, I don't like Jace, and I definitely don't like Clary. But I did take a chance and tried reading Lady Midnight.
And damn if I didn't end up loving this book compared to the The Mortal Instruments.
In fact, I only read The Mortal Instruments because my sister told me about Magnus and Alec. Listening to her talk about them, I thought I'd give the books a chance and initially only borrowed City of Bones from her. But I only managed to get through the first 40 pages before I put the book down. I just couldn't connect with Clary. I thought she was selfish and childish, with nothing really appealing to her as a character. And Jace was even worse. Eventually I picked the book up again and finally managed to get past the 50 page mark, after which a good number of the characters were introduced and I didn't have to stick with only Clary and Jace for large amounts of time while reading. So from there, I actually managed to get around to reading the rest of the original trilogy of books. And I thought they were good. Nothing to write home about but I definitely didn't feel like I'd wasted my time with reading them.
But then I heard about this book, Lady Midnight, set in the world of The Mortal Instruments but focused on a different set of characters.
Really? I thought. No Clary and Jace?......
Dare I? I wondered. Dare I take a chance and read this book?
Well, the point of the matter is that YES, I gave this book a chance. I spent an entire day going around to different stores on errands and seeing this book on the shelf and doing the whole do I, don't I? dance about buying it. But I did buy a copy and once I had the chance, I took a deep breath and started reading.
By the time I looked up again, I'd read close to 150 pages. So again, YES, definitely a good decision to read this book.
I loved the character of Emma Carstairs. I thought she was awesome, a great fighter with a good head on her shoulders. Realistically, she made mistakes and did her damned best to fix things when she had the power to do so. She made great sacrifices for her family and she was 10x better to me than Clary Fray ever was. I loved her relationship with Julian Blackthorn and the rest of the Blackthorn family. I thought the plot and the writing was tight, everything done with a clear sense of getting to a certain goal and knowing every thread to get there. Nothing seemed out of place or unnecessary which is impressive considering the massive amount of pages this book has to its name. My thoughts were, and I told my sister this, that Cassandra Clare had definitely managed to hone her skills as a writer, and Lady Midnight was the proof.
I was particularly impressed with the use of Annabel Lee for both the plot and the chapter headings. I've always loved that poem, the heartbreak and tragedy in Poe's words, so to see it used like this made me that much more invested in the story. I knew there would be some big significance to its use and Clare did not disappoint when all was said and done by the end of the book. By the time I finished reading, I immediately checked to see when the next book would be released and also learned about the companion series, The Last Hours, which will interconnect with this series. I'm looking forward to reading those books as well.
Thanks to Lady Midnight, I finally got my copies of The Infernal Devices off the shelf and started reading them. I'm grateful I got copies of those when I did because I've been enjoying those books so much more than I expected myself to.
Again, if you tried reading The Mortal Instruments and just couldn't get yourself to finish them, like I kept doing, I do think you should give Lady Midnight a chance. Just try finding a copy at the library and give it a shot. Clare managed to work some great book magic with this release and I hope that more readers will give it a shot for the sake of its contents because yeah, I really ended up loving this book.
My rating on a scale of 1 to 10 Stars: 10 Stars. That's how much I loved this.
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