I gave this book a 5 out of 5 stars!
Lady Midnight follows the main characters Julian Blackthorn and Emma Corsairs, five years after we left them in The Mortal Instruments series.
(SIDE NOTE: if you don't want to be spoiled for things you should definitely read TMI and The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare before reading this book.)
These two are inseparable, and have already made their parabatai oaths to each other in the years since the Dark War. Julian has four younger siblings who live with these two at the LA institute, along with their eccentric uncle who is mostly absent. Due to this, Julian has basically raised his siblings for the last five years.
I absolutely adored all of the Blackthorn children and the development we see of them throughout the story, along with of course all of the different crazy plot twists we get! I don't really have much to say that won't spoil things, so lets get into some of my favorite scenes of this book!
SPOILERS AHEAD.
So firstly let me say that basically every time one of our TMI/TID characters were mentioned I teared up. We find out that Julian talks to Helen regularly and petitions for her release from Wrangel Island annually (to no avail) but he consistently tells her everything is fine even when as we learn THEY ARE NOT.
We meet a new shadow hunter from Mexico, and almost right away I loved Chrsitina. I love her friendship with Emma, and how nonjudgmental but also logical she is. She holds this point of view for all our other characters that are on this emotional roller coaster and tries to keep a level headed theory on everything, because she's not tied to everyone that they are. I loved all of that. Her and Emma also cracked me up regularly!
WE FIND OUT THAT ALEC AND MAGNUS ADOPTED A WARLOCK BABY THAT THEY NAMED MAX. I cannot. handle. these. emotions. I cannot!!!!
Then we get to the part where Mark is given back to the Blackthorn family as a show of good faith for the shadowhunters to help the fairies catch the killer on the loose in LA. I was soooo not expecting for Mark to be in this book! I thought one of the main things happening in this series would be trying to save Mark. But then he's just handed back! HOWEVER the following scenes were so emotional for me to read, where Mark doesn't believe that the Blackthorns are truly his family, that they're a fairy trick. It was so heartbreaking to see the reactions of the smaller kids in particular when Mark reacts like this in front of them. Once again Christina made me fall in love with her when she calmed Mark down so well in the room. I loveeeeeddd it! I ship Christina and Mark so hard!
Okay so throughout the book we get these moments from both Julian and Emma being jealous but knowing they shouldn't be jealous about each other with other people. It was so beautifully done! It was so frustrating to read because I've felt that exact way before and it was so well executed!
One of my favorite lines from the book:
"'He bumped into a pay phone and said, 'Excuse me miss,' on our way in,' said Julian.
'It's polite to apologize,' said Mark with the same small smile.
'Not to inanimate objects.'"
THEN I FELT SO MUCH AGONY BECAUSE JULIAN GETS SHOT WITH AN ARROW AND I WAS TERRIFIED. And then I got really confused because of the glowing iratze that Emma draws? I thought for sure that was because the parabatai bond was stronger with their growing romantic feelings toward each other (literally the one thing I called in this book lol!) Also this scene felt VERY erotic to me, because Emma is straight up straddling Julian in the back of a car while drawing the iratze and then they were talking about a warm tingling sensation or something? I was questioning if that feeling happened to be in their groins. And then Julian looks at her and says "keep going" and I was like what the hell is she doing that feels so good Julian? oh my god.
I did NOT see Mark and Kieran coming!!! The introduction of this relationship made me question where I wanted Mark to end up; the love between these two seemed strong and necessary. Something they both needed to live. That made it hard for me to vehemently want Mark to stay with the Blackthorns. On the other hand I of course wanted to Mark to stay with his family. They loved him, and understanding the pain it would do to each of them, particularly the younger ones, was tough!
We get the first scene since the prologue with Kit, and it made me even more intrigued about what was the point of bringing him into the story. Why did he matter. But more importantly at this point of the book I loved the character development we get to see in Ty. He sneaks into the car and essentially follows Julian and Emma to Johnny Rook's house, and then proceeds to fuck everything up when he threatens Kit. I couldn't help but laugh but I was also proud of him for doing it?? Even though he messed up, he still was acting like a shadow hunter!
THEN MY FAVORITE SCENE HAPPENS. Mark is babysitting the children while Julian and Emma (and Ty) go to Johnny Rooks and the three of them come home to disaster. I laughed so hard I almost died from choking on my spit. I could not handle the description of everything that was happening and how unaware Mark was that he had done anything wrong! I love that he gets mad at Julian saying something along the lines of "all you said I had to do was keep them alive! You joked about it!" I laughed really hard even though Julian was really mad.
Then we get some sexy times. Emma almost drowns at the ley line convergence because theres a portal to the ocean (that was really creepy!) which almost kills Julian because he also coughs up water?? Another point where I was like THIS IS NOT A NORMAL PARABATAI BOND. After Julian saves her they go from kissing from the first time to having sex on the beach!!!! I was surprised this happened in the first book, considering it took Clary and Jace six books to do the deed, but it felt like a natural place in this relationship!! I loved it.
Then the fairies show up again. I thought they were going to kill Mark at first, so this whole scene was a little underwhelming for me. I was like someone just take the 20 lashes! At least he's not dying or being taken back to Faerie forever! But emotionally I was really happy with how it went down with Emma taking the lashes to save both Mark and Julian form going through it.
At some point around this time in the book there is a wonderful moment between Emma and Mark where Emma asks Mark if he is bisexual and he says yes that is the term you would use, but in faerie they don't have a term for it. I LOVED IT. Snaps for Cassie Clare forever including bisexuality in her stories!!!!!!
The last thing I want to talk about is the climax. I about died when we find out that Tavvy has been taken. I was having serious Max flashbacks and was just like WHY does Cassie have to put babies in danger all the time?????? We get some great action for everyone, and Kieran ends up helping them "defeat" Malcolm... I put this in quotes because I feel like he's not dead. He's a warlock and she stabbed him once. like can he heal himself?? We didn't see him die!! And we know Annabel has been awakened soooo where is this going??
Some character things and theories:
I think my favorite character is Ty. I love that he's different and so smart and he protects his sister in the last climatic scene. He's the best basically.
Diana. She's is questionable but I no longer think she's up to something bad like untrustworthy I think she's afraid of the clave. My theory is that she's in love with a mundane or has had a child with a mundane or something of the sort. Or maybe its with someone who is fae? Something like that.
Once again, I think there is a definitely possibility that Malcolm Fade is alive. If that's the case I wonder if Magnus will play a part in his eventual death. That would be tough for Magnus.
I am soooooo happy we got our little snippets of the previous characters. I SQUEALED when I read that Simon and Isabelle were getting married!!! And seeing Jace and Clary and all of the descriptions from both Julian and Emma about them were funny to read!
Okay I think this post is long enough, I hope you enjoyed!
Until next time,
MissSassyKassie
