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

Cassandra Clare

Start date: January 1, 2019

Finish date: January 31, 2019

Discussion: Series

Why we're reading this: Won the poll for the series BOTM
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What Members Thought

Dec 06, 2018 Danielle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-read, 2018-dec-read

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 4.5 stars

Like many fans of Cassandra Clare’s series, this has been the one that I have been waiting for ever since Lord of Shadows ended with many questions and unsolved issues that had been flooding my mind for the last year and half or so. I has been a long time in coming to finally getting my hands on this hot little book just like so many other fans around the world.

This was beyond a doozy of a book not only in length but in content as well. I had some theories going into reading of this 4.5 stars

Like many fans of Cassandra Clare’s series, this has been the one that I have been waiting for ever since Lord of Shadows ended with many questions and unsolved issues that had been flooding my mind for the last year and half or so. I has been a long time in coming to finally getting my hands on this hot little book just like so many other fans around the world.

This was beyond a doozy of a book not only in length but in content as well. I had some theories going into reading of this book of what I expected to happen and what questions would be answered and which questions wouldn’t because that would be for the upcoming series The Wicked Powers , but there were many things that I didn’t expect. I was shocked. I was surprised. I was blown away with all the twist and turns that came my way. And I have to admit at certain parts of the story I was literally freaking out in disbelief of what was happening, mainly the stuff that went on in Thule. It just blew my mind of what was in this book that I had to take time to reflect before writing this review because so much happened in the books with all the characters and their storyline as well as the main storyline. And it was a lot to take in and absorb while reading and even looking back it was a lot.

It was very hard to put down this book for even a minute because I wanted to flip the pages to see what happened next to all the characters in the story plus there were so many twists and turns and a lot of suspense along the way that it really kept me engage by the story. My heart pounded for a majority of the book while my mind was thinking of different scenarios of what would happen next with none of it being good. As I was reading I thought that if it was that bad at that point, what would it be like by book’s end. It seemed like nothing could get worse as certain in the book, but Cassandra Clare added another bombshell that just made it ten times worse than I thought it would be. Even early on in the book when a lot of things started happening I said to myself, “If this is what’s happening now, what’s going to happen by book’s end because this bad. How were they ever going to get of this situation because things are just getting worse and worse” and those thoughts ran through my mind the entire time and kept me really engaged in the story. It was mind blowing at times. Again just so much going on.

There were so many different perspectives in this book because there was so many storylines going on for each character, hence why this book was really massive. I enjoyed seeing all those stories play out from each of their perspectives and just how each character had grown throughout the series. There were so many storylines that were finished up, but also there were new storylines that were introduced for the future Wicked Powers books coming sometime in the future.

I will say though that the beginning was a little slow because of the description of each character’s perspective to Livyy’s death and mourning, and even though I know it was to show different character’s reactions but it just slowed the pace down a little bit and just wish that was hurried along a bit quicker so that it could get to the more juicier stuff quicker. I wanted to get into the action. The pace also slowed a bit after everyone got back from Thule. I get they needed a moment of respite, but by that time I was ready to go and push forward on in the story because there was so much going on and needed to be resolved, and I was happy once it picked up more speed a bit once this little lull occurred.

Another thing I wasn’t fond of was the whole resolution with the Cristina, Mark, and Kieran storyline. This was one of the things of have the biggest opinion about and I have had an opinion about it since the last book ended. I knew I wanted Cristina and Mark together in the end and was really rooting for that outcome, however that wasn’t what happened and what did happen did not make me happy. Not all. Even if to them it felt right, it didn’t feel right to me, and it was a little bit of turnoff. I get that these type of relationships do happen in real life and Mark, Cristina and Kieran all consented and was happy with the relationship that they developed, I was not. I get that Cassandra Clare thought it was the right thing for them, and maybe she felt like she was pushing the boundaries a bit with their relationship, but I just wasn’t happy with it. To me, that was the one thing that kind of turned off me a bit. There are a lot of things I will accept in books, but this wasn’t one of them.

The only thing that bothered me was that the epilogue was there, and I wish Cassandra Clare just ended it on the previous chapter. Why? Because the epilogue presented a little bit of cliffhanger, which is going to assume lead to Wicked Powers , and I hated that because it makes me now Wicked Powers even more. I don’t want it even more because I know that it will not come out for at least another five years (possible longer) in the future. I didn’t need nor did I want my appetite to be whetted but it certainly has been with that epilogue. Boy, has it been. I was prepared and I was even okay with story threads being left in the air in this book, which would later lead to Wicked Powers and I accepted it and I said okay but I could wait for the upcoming the series until that stupid epilogue then all bets were off. So, thank you so much for doing that to us Cassandra Clare. You really know how to torture us.

Aside from those few things, I throughly devoured this book and enjoyed the ride that I went on with Julian, Emma, etc as their story finally was fully told. For the most part I was satisfied with the book, and the adrenaline pumping twist and turns along the way. There were a lot of surprises along the way and things I totally didn’t see coming. I know I exclaimed quite a few times while reading because I just couldn’t believe what was happening on the page. It was shocking. It was exciting. It was suspenseful and a lot more things. I loved seeing these characters grow and their journeys along the way from book one to this one. This book really reminded me why I fell in love with this world and characters over the years and just how much I truly care about them. My heart broke when their hearts broke. I mourned when they mourned. I felt joy when they felt joy. They just touched me on so many different levels and sometimes I forget that they are just characters on page because to me they feel very real as do all the characters in the Shadowhunters Chronicles . I have been invested in these characters for so long that it’s hard to say goodbye, not that this is goodbye quite yet, but I just want to see more from them in and their lives like who gets married, who has children, how many children do they have, etc. I want to know about the rest of their lives and just revisit them in times of joy. Just little snippets to see that they are okay. These characters will stick with me forever, and I love them so much that I can’t help but crave more from them. I want this world to go on forever even if it’s just revisiting them while doing mundane things because I just want to see them happy. I was so happy that at least some of them got them happy endings especially after all the turmoil, stress and angst that they had to endure these last few books. I could go on and on about this book, but then it will be as long as this book, but this was a very enjoyable experience that certainly kept me on my toes all the way through, and I couldn’t ask for more than that. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Jan 09, 2019 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: to-buy

So good! I loved this series so much—this world gets better and better with each new series.

And I promised myself I wouldn’t reread any books this year, but I feel like that resolution might be broken soon, because finishing this just makes me want to go back and reread TMI and TID!

Like · see review