Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare | Spoiler Review

WARNING: THE BLURB OF THIS BOOK CONTAINS SPOILERS.

Thank you Simon and Schuster Australia for sending me a review copy of Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare. Receiving a copy of this particular book did in no way impact my thoughts or feelings in this review.

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Rating: ★★★★★

Release Date: December 4th, 2018

Dates Read: December 4th to December 7th, 2018

Buddy Read with: Alexandra, Mel & Solomon

Trigger Warnings: grief, self mutilation, death, war, murder

Pages: 912

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia

Genre: young adult, fantasy, urban fantasy, magic, romance

Goodreads blurb:

What if damnation is the price of true love?

Innocent blood has been spilled on the steps of the Council Hall, the sacred stronghold of the Shadowhunters. In the wake of the tragic death of Livia Blackthorn, the Clave teeters on the brink of civil war. One fragment of the Blackthorn family flees to Los Angeles, seeking to discover the source of the blight that is destroying the race of warlocks.

Meanwhile, Julian and Emma take desperate measures to put their forbidden love aside and undertake a perilous mission to Faerie to retrieve the Black Volume of the Dead. What they find in the Courts is a secret that may tear the Shadow World asunder and open a dark path into a future they could never have imagined. Caught in a race against time, Emma and Julian must save the world of Shadowhunters before the deadly power of the parabatai curse destroys them and everyone they love.

R E V I E W

Queen of Air and Darkness is the book I have been waiting for all year. I don’t think I have ever anticipated a Cassandra Clare book as much as this one. The ending of Lord of Shadows scared me to my core and if you ask me about it today you have a 110% chance of me bursting into tears at the mere mention of it. This finale to The Dark Artifices series did not disappoint. It left me reeling and having so many damn questions. You can bet I screamed WHAT at my book around about 100 times a page. I was absolutely shattered.

This finale will probably be Cassie’s best. They continue to get better the more she writes and I am so damn happy to be able to experience this journey with everyone as we dive into the Shadowhunter realms. I am also self-proclaimed Shadowhunter trash – while also seeing everything wrong with the books and Cassie, I’m not blinded, don’t worry.

As a warning, this review will contain spoilers. The spoilers will be for the previous books in this series so you have been warned. I can’t talk about this book without mentioning certain events. If you haven’t read this series, come back after you do so we can discuss. If you haven’t read this series and don’t want to, read forward and be spoiled, my friends.

Queen of Air and Darkness picks up exactly where Lord of Shadows dropped off. With Julian holding Livvy after she has been murdered. We get to experience every ounce of grief that the Blackthorn family feels throughout the book and it is honestly enough to knock you off your feet. I promise you that you will burst into tears several times at work…not that I did that. The finale of The Dark Artifices takes you on a journey. There are countless storylines and at times it is a tad difficult to keep up. Obviously, it is better to have read all the Shadowhunter Chronicles to understand how people relate to certain things but it really isn’t needed. You can jump into this series and scream – obviously don’t just jump into Queen of Air and Darkness without having read the previous books.

Throughout this book we get to follow Julian and Emma’s struggle to tamper down their feelings, Ty dealing with his grief for Livvy in the wrong way, Kit being a Herondale, Drusilla coming in to herself, Diana and Gwyn’s love story continue, Cristina, Kieran and Mark drama, Cohort business (seriously this was some Donald Trump shit), some Faerie Drama and finally find out who the mysterious Ash is (we all knew). Within 800 pages a lot has to happen and it does. We get to see all the old characters whom we loved and I even found myself liking Clary and Jace – something I thought was impossible when I read The Mortal Instruments. I can barely even begin to talk about each plot line because there is just so much going on. You will be thrown in a whirlwind and be actively engaged no matter who’s the storyline you are reading. There are plenty of changes throughout the long ass chapters Cassie writes to get a feel for everyone.

I should probably start off with the one thing I disliked about Queen of Air and Darkness. I don’t know if I ever publicly spoke about it on my blog but anti-hero Julian was all that I ever wanted in this series. To see Cassie jump outside her comfort zone and write him would fuel me. While we did get somewhat of an antihero Julian it was not what I had imagined. In fact, it was slightly disappointing and something I’m not sure added to the plot. Julian turning off his feelings simply felt weak. You’re telling me the boy who walked miles to get groceries for his siblings would turn off his feelings for them? Try again.

That’s all I didn’t like though, so Cassie really did smash it out of the park.

Throughout the series, we have had glimpses of Aline and Helen. We have never really gotten to see them which is disheartening as the only f/f couple in the series. We finally get to really meet them and I must say that I adore them. Aline was so damn relatable to me and Helen was just an angel who wanted to care for her siblings, even if they didn’t want her to. The couple themselves were so damn sweet and I adored every moment of their relationship on the page. They were truly so special to read. I am sure we’ll see more of them in future books as well which has me squealing with excitement.

There wasn’t much Jem and Tessa in this book either which was fantastic. If you know me, you’d know I hate that ship. I get it. Everyone thinks it is the best love triangle to ever exist in the sense that you can’t ‘choose’. Bitch, I chose and now I can’t like Jem. I hate him. So, having not much of them throughout this book was fantastic. Though I could have done with more Simon and Isabelle, oh well.

Interdimensional travel is typically something that turns me off a book. However, Thule was magnificent. A world completely opposite from the one our character lives in where Sebastian Morgenstern won the war. It was chilling. The fact that Cassie thought of that? Ugh, her mind. She is a genius. However, she really didn’t include as much Annabel as I thought she would considering she is on the cover. I wonder where that will come in to play?

The relationships in this book as well. Cassie diving in to a poly relationship was fantastic, Cassie’s further development of Emma and Julian was brilliant, Magnus and Alec’s already established relationship filled me with joy and I don’t even like them, and lastly, Drusilla’s future love life will probably be complicated but y’all know I love her.

Cassandra Clare carefully crafted it so every single plotline that ran through this story intersected at the end. They all came together in a big way that you know leads off into the next series. I can truly not wait to read whatever she puts out next. I honestly need it in my hands like yesterday. The ending of this particular story left me breathless. I can’t wait to see what hints that we found throughout this book to come to fruition in future books.

I would desperately love for Cassie to give us a nice happy ending for the Blackthorns but with the fact that The Wicked Powers is based around Kit and Ty (who I can’t even begin to talk about in this book) tells me this family hasn’t had the last of its dramas.

Overall, Queen of Air and Darkness will probably be my favourite book of 2018. I am still reeling from the events and want to scream about them from the rooftops. Heck, this is the first review I’ve sat down to write straight after finishing the book. Cassandra Clare gives us a bit of everything in this finale and even more. I can’t wait to hear everyone’s thoughts and theories on what will happen next.

Happy reading everyone!

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