Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare - review

Hi there!

I FINISHED LADY MIDNIGHT!! My most anticipated book of 2016, and it well and truly lived up to my expectations. It is incredible.

For anyone who is not a part of the Shadowhunters fandom, and doesn't know what Lady Midnight is about,it is the first installment in Cassandra Clare's new Dark Artifices series. It follows Emma Carstairs, who lives in the LA institute with the Blackthorn family. When mysterious murders begin to occur over the city, Emma and her parabatai Julian, along with other members of the institute must uncover the killer. Of course, this is a super broad summary!!

This book is full of friendship, family, love, and so many intricate aspects of the Shadowhunter world that we haven't learnt about before in Cassandra Clare's previous series. The characters are so well fleshed out, and that includes minor characters as well as the protagonists. The relationships are complicated and beautiful. And the storyline interweaves magically; I literally never guessed what was going to come next!! This is definitely my favourite first book in a series by Cassandra Clare, and I am so desperate to find out how the series is going to go from here.

Rating: 5/5

SPOILERY SECTION:
Ahhhhh, I am so ridiculously excited about this book. Cassandra Clare really does just keep getting better and better with her writing, and now I cannot wait to see where this series will go!!

I'll start with my thoughts on the characters. I absolutely LOVE the characters in this book. Emma is such an intricate character - she's so strong, yet so gentle, and you can really see how her past has developed her into the person that she is. Similarly, it's so evident how Julian has developed as a result of having to be the parent for his siblings. Even throughout the book itself you see how they continue to grow both as individuals, and in relation to one another.

I also loved Cristina and Diego! Cristina is such a wonderful friend, not just to Emma, but to the whole Blackthorn family. And Diego is hilarious, I was so not expecting it when he appeared, and at first I thought he was kind of two dimensional, but he continued to surprise me in his character development.

And, of course, all of the Blackthorn children - each and every one of them are so detailed and interesting. I was so excited when Mark came back, and found every scene with him so intriguing. His faerie quirks mixed with his Shadowhunter history are constantly at war with one another, until finally he realises that his family really is everything. That was such a beautiful moment when he made up his mind to definitely stay with them. The younger children, despite there being so many of them, are all just as detailed. I love how learning difficulties, mental illness, and sexuality are all explored subtly through the characters.

Now for the relationships. There are SO many beautiful relationships in this book, whether they be romantic, friends, or family. I'll tackle the main one first - Julian and Emma. Where to start. I love how, even though you don't directly see it, you can see how their long history together affects the way that they act around one another. And while the romantic feelings sort of appear straight away, it doesn't feel insta-lovey at all, because you know that they've been together since they were young, especially if you've read TMI. I found this relationship so deeply entrenched in their characters, and such a beautiful and gentle thing. They knew each other so well, yet continued to be amazed by one another.

The family relationships are also major, which I adore. Cassandra Clare captures how difficult it is for Julian to act as a parent rather than a brother for the children, which is so heart-breaking. Every one of them has a different relationship with one another, so it was always interesting to read scenes between any of the characters.

I also really enjoyed the relationship between Mark and Kieran, it was another heart-wrenching one. It felt so real and intense, and even though Kieran was pretty awful at times, it was still so upsetting when they had to leave each other.

Now, finally, for the plot!! What an incredible story. I never knew what was going to happen next, and continued to be surprised right to the very last page. Can I just say - Malcolm. I did not suspect him at all! I thought he seemed like such a cool character, and was so sad when he turned out to be the killer. It was amazing how Cassandra made you really connect with his story at the same time as not liking him for being a murderer, particularly when Emma says that she'd probably do the same for Julian.

How awesome was it when Jace, Clary and Magnus appear at the end!! I got so excited; it was so funny seeing how their characters had developed too. Also, I'm not sure if it's in every copy of the book, but the short story at the end about Simon's wedding!! SO GOOD. I actually could not deal with that.

So overall, as you can clearly tell, I am totally obsessed with this book and have no idea how I'm going to wait for the next book in the series.

Let me know in the comments if you've read Lady Midnight, what are your thoughts? How amazing is it!!

Love always,

Ari

Happy Easter, And Some Of My Favourite TV Shows!

Hi all!

Whether you celebrate it or not, I hope you've had a wonderful Easter weekend!

I've come home from college for my midsemester break, which is one week long, and it's so nice and relaxing to be home! I'm so excited to be able to just cuddle up with my dogs (I have two adorable toy poodles!) and read my book or watch TV shows with my mum.

I know this is primarily a book blog, but being in the holiday mood I've been thinking about some of my favourite TV shows, and thought I'd share them with you!!

So, in no particular order, here they are:

Reign
As most of my favourite shows are, Reign is a perfect one for historical fiction lovers! It's based loosely on the story of Mary, Queen of Scots while she is in France, engaged to and eventually married to King Francis II. It's super dramatic, with a sort of Gossip Girl like vibe, which I actually adore! Who doesn't love a bit of historical fiction mixed with drama, right!! The acting in this is great, and while it's totally historically inaccurate, the storyline is super fun and exciting and I absolutely adore it.

Shadowhunters
I've written a full discussion on my thoughts on Shadowhunters, and while I do have quite a few issues with it, I'm still really enjoying it. Because I am such a loyal fan of the books, I will be watching however many seasons they release. Sure, the acting and script writing isn't great but it's still super fun!! Also, Matthew Daddario. Need I say more.

Outlander
I'm sure I don't need to explain this one, if you've read my blog before you'll know that I'm absolutely obsessed with Outlander. I also have a discussion of the show and book if you're interested on more detailed thoughts. Outlander is based on a woman named Clare, who is on a second honeymoon with her husband in the Scottish highlands after WWII, when she is transported back in time to the 1700s! So incredible, if you haven't read the book, please please do and check out the show, they are both absolutely amazing!!

Downton Abbey
I've adore Downton Abbey since it first came out. Again, being a history nerd and lover of anything UK, I find it so relaxing and heartwarming sitting down to watch Downton Abbey. If you haven't seen it before, it follows an upper class family in England from around WWI as the country begins to become modernized, and the whole idea of aristocracy is dying out. Again, super dramatic, with amazing characters and acting and I just love it.

Escape to the Country/Continent
Finally, Escape to the Country is mine and my mum's favourite thing to watch together when I come home for holidays. There is nothing better than lying on my couch with mum and the dogs, a cup of tea in hand and checking out all the houses!

Let me know in the comments if you did anything exciting on the long weekend. Also, tell me if you like any of these shows, or what your all-time favourite shows are!

Love always,

Ari

My Thoughts On The Shadowhunters TV Series

Hey!!

So I just watched episode 11 of the Shadowhunters TV show on Netflix, and thought it would be fun to discuss what I'm thinking of the show so far, and see if you guys agree or have other opinions!

For non-spoilery people, as a broad overview I'll say that I am finding the show very entertaining and am enjoying watching it (Matthew Daddario in particular!). However, don't go into it expecting accuracy to the book series because it is COMPLETELY different. This bothered me initially, but as the show's gone on I've decided to just look at it as a complete different entity to the book series, and enjoy it for what it is on it's own. The show definitely had a rough start in regards to acting and script writing, and has since had it's ups and downs but for sure has improved. That's about all I can say that isn't spoiler, so for sure go check the show out, then come back and read the rest of this post and comment what you think!!

SPOILERY SECTION:
Okay, so since there's quite a lot for me to discuss in regards to what has occurred in the show so far, I'm going to split it up into rough categories.

Characters:
I'm pretty divided with my opinion on how the characters are being represented in the show, as I adore some of them, and am really disappointed by others. Initially I wasn't sure about Clary, however as the show's gone on I feel like she's settled into her role much more, and the problem is now more to do with the script writing than the acting.

Jace, on the other hand, I am super disappointed in! I know I shouldn't judge the show too much in relation to the book, as they're so different, but this Jace is unrecognisable!! He is literally nothing like the book Jace that we know and love. Of course, this is pretty much entirely due to the awful script that Dom has been given - it is missing Jace's snarkiness and confidence, and at the moment he is feeling pretty two-dimensional.

Some of the characters I'm loving, however, are Simon, Alec, Izzy and Magnus. Starting with Simon, I'm pretty confident in saying he is my favourite character in the show. He is exactly as I imagine Simon in the books, although his personality did seem to shift super fast after he was changed to a vampire.

Alec I also adore, of course partly because I'm in love with Matthew Daddario, but mostly because of the wonderful acting, and semi-wonderful script. Alec is just so sarcastic and funny, and has been extremely well fleshed out I feel, particularly surrounding his sexuality, and his issues with always being second best to Jace.

Certain aspects of Izzy I'm loving - her acting and most of the script, however I do have a major problem with how sexualised she's been. Yes, in the books Izzy in very confident in her sexuality, but in the show she is transformed into a sexual object, sleeping with Meliorn to get information... not cool.

Valentine I feel is absolutely fantastic. He is super scary, but complex at the some time when we see his almost obsessive love for Jocelyn. I'm really excited to start seeing him appear more in the episodes!

And finally, Magnus! I love Magnus so much!! He's hilarious, and has that air about him that reminds you that he's actually hundreds of years old. Great representation of his character.

Relationships:
As you can probably guess from my discussion about the characters of Clary and Jace, I am not enjoying their romance. They seem to have zero chemistry, and I'm finding it makes no sense in the show why they are in love all of a sudden. Hopefully it will improve as their relationship develops, but at the moment I'm not enjoying it.

The relationship between Jace and Alec I also have massive issues with. They are PARABATAI for goodness sake!! They would not be treating each other like this. Alec legit said in the show that Jace is dead to him....WHAT. NO. That is so not okay. This relationship had better fix itself soon or I'm going to be super upset.

On a more positive note, I love the sibling relationship between Alec and Izzy. They seem extremely close and open with one another, so great!

Similarly, Clary and Simon truly feel like best friends, their chemistry is great. It's been obvious from the beginning that Simon is in love with Clary and she doesn't realise it, so will be interesting to see if anything else is done with this...

And finally, my favourite relationship from the books...Malec!! I'm loving all of the Malec action going on in the show, the writers obviously know that the fans love Malec so they're giving us a load of it!! I feel like it's being done very well, their chemistry is obvious and super adorable, I literally get so excited whenever Alec and Magnus are in a scene together!

Plot:
I don't even know where to start with the plot. So many random things seem to be going on that have serious plot holes and make zero sense, I have no idea how they are going to be resolved. I'll refer to episode 11 as it is the most fresh in my brain - random things like going to get blood from the vampires when Jace gets bitten by a demon... when they have runes for things like that. There are so many little plot holes that prevent the story from having any continuity.

Also, in episode 11, I feel like the whole Jace and Clary brother-sister drama wasn't really played out to it's full potential. It seemed very forced and rushed, and Clary did not seem surprised or upset when she found out. Anyways, we'll see where it goes from here, I'm always hoping for improvement!

Overall, I am for sure enjoying the show entertainment-wise, however am not overly impressed with the quality of writing or acting, and definitely not accuracy to the books!

Let me know in the comments what your opinion is on the Shadowhunters TV show, I'd love to know!!

Love always,

Ari