Book Review #3 | Ghosts of the Shadow Market (part 1)
By C. Clare, M. Johnson, K. Link, S. Brennan, and R. Wasserman
[Beware! This review contains spoilers, so read at your own peril.]
“The Shadow Market is a meeting point for faeries, werewolves, warlocks and vampires. There the Downworlders buy and sell magical objects, make dark bargains, and whisper secrets they do not want the Nephilim to know. Through two centuries, however, there has been a frequent visitor to the Shadow Market from the City of Bones, the very heart of the Shadowhunters. As a Silent Brother, Brother Zachariah is sworn keeper of the laws and lore of the Nephilim. But once he was a Shadowhunter called Jem Carstairs, and his love, then and always, is the warlock Tessa Gray.
Follow Brother Zachariah and see, against the backdrop of the Shadow Market’s dark dealings and festive celebrations, Anna Lightwood’s first romance, Matthew Fairchild’s great sin and Tessa Gray plunged into a world war. Valentine Morgenstern buys a soul at the Market and a young Jace Wayland’s soul finds safe harbor. In the Market is hidden a lost heir and a beloved ghost, and no one can save you once you have traded away your heart. Not even Brother Zachariah.”
[Official synopsis of the book.]
After something like three hundred and eighty-four years, we finally get the Jem Carstairs content we desperately needed since the end of TID. Because a life without Brother Snack-ariah is no life at all, am I right?
The book consists of ten short stories and follows the adventures of Brother Zackariah, our beloved Jem, searching through the shadow market in order to find some information about the Lost Herondale.
Set in 1901, the first two stories (“Cast Long Shadows”, and “Every Exquisite Thing”) are an introduction of the upcoming The Last Hours trilogy, whose first book (Chain of Gold) is coming out on March 2020.
Just eight more months until its release. We can do it, guys. It’s not like we are doing our waiting… Twelve years of it… In Azkaban. By comparison, March 2020… that’s like tomorrow.
Anyway, the co-protagonist of Cast Long Shadows is Matthew Fairchild, Charlotte and Henry’s second born. Matthew’s interests include his parabatai James, fashion, Oscar Wilde quotes, and being adorable 24/7.
The faerie woman looked almost sad. “You come of a brutal people, sweet child.”
“Not me,” said Matthew. “I believe in art and beauty.”
“You might be pitiless one day, for all that.”
“No, never” Matthew insisted. “I don’t care for the Shadowhunter customs at all. I like Downworlder ways much more.”
It’s been a few years since our Scooby gang was expelled from the Shadowhunters Academy, and now Matthew and James are parabatai. I’ve always loved their relationship, especially at the beginning when they were still rivals, and I can’t wait to read more about them.
“Bless you, my Herondales,” said Matthew grandly, scrambling up from the floor and making Lucie his bow. “I come upon an urgent errand. Tell me – be honest! – what do you think of my waistcoat?”
Lucie dimpled. “Devastating.”
“What Lucie said,” James agreed peacefully.
“Not fantastic?” Matthew asked. “Not positively stunning?”
“I suppose I am stunned,” said James. “But am I positively stunned?”
The Last Hours is going to shatter our hearts. I already know it. You already know it. Everybody already knows it. Which is why I keep asking myself, why am I still reading Cassandra’s books even though each time they seem to inexorably destroy what is left of my soul? Give me a call when you find out the answer.
All right, I never thought The Last Hours was going to be sugar, spice and everything nice, but this is way too much. How am I supposed to live knowing that Matthew is hurting and that there is nothing I can do about it?
I hated reading this novel. I really did hate it. Because Matthew is young and naïve and innocent and so unselfish and sensitive, and yet he was exploited and manipulated by a psycho Downworlder who wanted to hurt the Shadowhunters. His only fault was giving too much credit to the insecurity that he always tried to hide behind an overconfident façade, and this endangered his mother and killed his unborn sister.
Instead of telling the truth, he decides to keep it a secret from everyone, even from his parabatai, since he feels so ashamed of himself and thinks that there cannot be forgiveness for what he has done. So from now on, something in Matthew changes, and he will never be the same.
In the second novella, Every Exquisite Thing, the co-protagonist is Anna, Cecily and Gabriel Lightwoorm’s eldest daughter. Chapeau to the artist for making such a beautiful drawing of her! She’s perfect... and she also looks like Ruby Rose, doesn’t she?
Beside stealing her brother’s clothes, she enjoys getting weird (see: voluptuous) glances from other women while walking down the streets. I mean, even Brother Six-pack-ariah states that she looks a lot like her uncle Will, which is something that could give her the power to turn freaking rocks on.
Although Anna was definitely born in the wrong period, she’s still lucky enough to have a supportive family that loves her no matter what.
Anna thought of all the pain of the day again – the wound that had ripped her chest open and exposed her heart. But now it was as if her mother had drawn a rune over it and closed it. The scar was there, but she was whole.
It was like being Marked all over again, defining who she was. This was Anna Lightwood.
When I read this novella for the first time, I was on a plane, so I was like Elsa from Frozen. Conceal, don’t feeeel, don’t let them knowwwwww.
Little did I know that something even more heart-breaking was coming... and it answers to the name of Learn about Loss. Which was the moment when the Elsa in me was like well, now they knooowwwwww.
Let it gooooo, let it goooooo.
Can’t hold it back anymooooooreeeee.
In Learn about loss, we follow Brother Mlml-ariah back to the United States, where he and Sister Emilia (a James Carstairs stan) are investigating some weird activities regarding adamas. They end up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where a Mysterious Merchants’ Bazar is promising the inhabitants of the city whatever they most desire.
We all know that in the shadow world there is no such thing as coincidences, so the one who is stealing the adamas is the one behind this market... and he is also of the Greater Demons, Belial, who happens to know something important about the Lost Herondale.
“I might know a cure,” Belial said. “Yes, I think I know a sure cure. You could be who you once were. You could be Jem again. Or.”
Brother Zachariah said, Or?
Belial’s long tongue flickered out, as if he was tasting the air and found it delicious. “Or I could tell you a thing you don’t know. There are Herondales, not the ones you know, but of the same blood as your parabatai.”
It could be a great dilemma. Getting rid of a curse that ended your life and becoming a Shadowhunters again – or remaining a Silent Brother just to help out the two people you love the most? But what could be a great dilemma to most... means nothing to Brother Zachariah, who, even as a Silent Brother, is devoted to his loved ones more than ever.
The Carstairs owe a life debt to the Herondales.
which is a deeper and stronger way to say «I love you».
At the end of the novella, Sister Emilia makes a deal with Belial, who promises her to give Brother Zachariah some extra time with his dying parabatai in form of a vision.
In the vision, Will and Jem are young again, and it’s the period before their parabatai ceremony. They find themselves in Shangai, which is the place where Jem was born... a place they never got to visit. For once in a long time, even though for a short moment, Jem is himself again and gets to be with his other half before Will passes away.
I love the way Cassandra Clare describes the bond between parabatai. It is so intimate yet it makes you feel part of something bigger just by reading about it.
There was a lightness in Jem’s chest that he realized, finally, was joy. He saw that joy mirrored in his parabatai’s face. The face of the one you love is the best mirror of all. It shows you your own happines and your own pain and it helps you bear both, because to bear alone is to be overwhelmed by the flood.
We had been waiting for this moment since The infernal devices... and it’s more than perfect.
I think I speak for everyone when I say that we could never thank Cassandra enough for this reunion. Unless she decided to write a new series about them...
Anyway, this is where the first part of my review ends. I hope you guys enjoyed it; in this case, let me know! On the contrary, let me know too!
