Queen of Air and Darkness (The Dark Artifices #3)

I know what you’re thinking-my god-another Cassandra Clare novel? What is this-number 57? You’re not wrong. This series is now spanning 15 books? Possibly? And they’re not the small-I’ll-do-this-in-my-free-time and finish in a week books.

They are all massive.

The latest installment was almost 900 pages if that gives you an idea.

And yes, while the text is quite large, it’s not so large as to excuse the page count, Mrs. Clare simply likes writing and she’s good at it in my opinion.

If you haven’t read a single Mortal Instruments novel or Infernal Devices book then you will absolutely have no idea what I am talking about in this review. If this is the case, please do yourself a favor and check out my other book reviews instead. If you have indeed read at least one of these books hopefully you can grasp the general critique of what I have to say.

So, let’s begin.

Cassandra Clare has wonderful characters. I don’t know but they’re all just…likable? She has this uncanny ability to create these unique individuals with positive and negative qualities and cast them in such a light that you just like them. Completely and irrevocably.

That is not to say that you like them all equally, but there isn’t a character in her series that I can recall at this moment that I disliked that wasn’t an intentional villain in some aspect.

All of her books rotate between several characters, although she does usually have one or two pivotal characters who you could argue are the “mains” of this particular segment. The Queen of Air and Darkness is the third and last edition of Clare’s third series all contained in the same world called The Dark Artifices.

This particular series is around 10 years post the main series and 100 years after the Infernal Devices. However, through blood and family tree logic, all the characters tend to be related in a great-gradnma-gradnpa-cousin-sister fashion. Clare is a big fan of certain families and filial characteristics.  

This particular book rotates in point-of-view between Emma Carstairs, Julian Blackthorn, Kit Herondale, Ty Blackthorn, Drusilla Blackthorn, Diego Rosales, Mark Blackthorn, Cristina Rosales, Kieran Kingson…and I think that’s it? I believe that’s everyone but I would not be flabbergasted to imagine that I missed one.

You might think-with so many rotating characters how do you get attached to anyone? Isn’t it annoying?

At times, yes. Sometimes I will like a particular character’s storyline more than another’s but there is not much you can do. Clare does a good job of intertwining plot lines and intermixing issues so that Character A’s plot line often intersects at several points with Character B’s. It’s an interweaving plot line through-and-through.

This particular book deals with the Blackthorn family’s involvement with the Clave (the shadowhunter government), Horace Dearborn’s heretical and malicious rise to power, the end of the Cold Peace with the fey, the several trips to Faerie, an accidental visit to the demon world of Thule, and most particularly, Emma and  Julian’s forbidden and intense romantic relationship falling apart because of the molds of the Parabatai bond.

That’s the summation of it.

Thinking back on it, not much seemed to happen in a novel that is 900 pages in length. That being said, it wasn’t an unpleasant read. Like most typical young adult novels, there are a lot of chapters dedicated to feeling alone and ostracized, complaining about their lack of love life or the myriad complications of said love life, interspersed action scenes of fighting demons, and dealing with a political quagmire involving multiple differing species of being.

Was it my favorite Cassandra Clare novel? No, absolutely not. But was it good? Yes, yes it was.

I enjoyed all the aspects that Clare includes that truly makes it a unique read: her description of how the Blackthorn family care and love each other, the love Emma and Julian have for one another-enough to burn the world down-the first transgender character I can remember reading about in a YA, the inclusion of several LGBT couples, one of the first representations of a polyamorous YA arrangement, her descriptions of fantasy worlds, her relations of people in power, and most especially, emotions.

Unlike other authors, I think Clare excels in explaining the human condition and everything that entails from epiphany to misery and everything in between, which is one of the main reasons I find her series and her world so enjoyable.

I could go on and on about why I like certain characters or her manner of writing or how these books tie into her other one’s, but I will end it here on the knowledge that these are fantastic books with fantastic characters and that every moment was entertaining and gratifying in different ways.

Thank you, Cassandra Clare.

Now onto the multiple year wait for the last series, The Wicked Powers, to return to my beloved Ty and Kit.

Recommendation: If you haven’t read any of The Mortal Instruments, the Infernal Devices, or The Dark Artifices, you have your novels for the next two years set and ready to go. However, if you did watch the horrid Freeform show Shadowhunters, erase all memories of that dreadful drama from your memory, pick up City of Bones and start your journey of healing and replenishment today.

Score: 8/10