Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare

Genre: young adult, fantasy

I have mixed feelings about this book. It held on to my attention, had some beautiful writing (Clare’s gotten so far since her first book, it made me smile when I realized) and it had parts that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. But there’s also things I get caught up on and the ending left me with a bad feeling.

the shadowhunter universe

I like how Clare has extended the universe and continued to explore it, “The Infernal Devices” was a great series that I wouldn’t want to be without. “Lady of Midnight” had some cringy moments (parabati curse and forbidden love among them) that was drawn out, reminding me too much of Jace and Clary’s brother-sister scare. This book had some of the same problems, but more the fact that it floated on “guest-appearances” from earlier characters which hindered getting to know these new characters better. Still, it’s amazing how many point of views this story is told from and I liked their individual voices.

I love Julian’s personality and his protectiveness, it’s a different toughness than the previous shadowhunters we’ve gotten to know. That’s one of the things of shadowhunter’s ideology I wish was explored more. There’s a whole culture which the kids off-handedly struggles with and dislikes, but it’s not really explained. I mean – what would the next series be about then, ahhh. For example, it’s mentioned how all the kids likes things that are somewhat forbidden (computers, mudane culture, etc) and Diane’s history, but somehow we ended up with Institue-drama and talk about how corrupt the Clave’s council is or something. The focus feels off. Diving into the shadowhunter warrior culture that promotes certain thinking and brute solutions, and maybe a possible shift, is more interesting than circling back to these Clave-so-corrupt plots we’ve followed before.

*ALL THE SPOILERS BELOW*

the ending, a rant & a question

The ending’s fucking stupid. I wasn’t even surprised, it was just so ill-fitting, making Livvy’s murder the big shock at the end. “Random death for shock” is added to my hate list of endings. Robert’s death makes more sense, being in the middle of the situation. But Livvy’s didn’t. An author can kill of all the character they want, but do it in a way that fits with the story, please. I haven’t seen anyone else criticizing how she died, so maybe it’s nothing, but I couldn’t help but think “maybe it’s a good choice to kill off another child, if a twin and sibling who gets the least attention dies, who cares right?” Ahh, I feel sick at that, surely that’s not the case, but it was what I finished this book with. I didn’t even like Livvy.

I don’t know the intentions behind the choice, maybe there’s a good one, but it feels so much like a cheap way to further the plotline and give the other characters more struggles the next book can feed off of. I feel for Julian, but I don’t think I will pick up the next book to see if he can handle Livvy’s death, not to mention the others. I’m pretty done with this series. I genuinely want to know, what’s your thoughts on Livvy’s death?