Family is more than blood. Family is more than bonds, or words. Family is what drives people every day, and is the leading motivation for all of the characters in Queen of Air and Darkness, even despite their different definitions of the word. Julian, Helen, Mark, Ty, Livvy, Dru, and Tavvy are blood family, but the Blackthorns are made complete with the additions of Emma, Cristina, Kieran, Diana, Kit, and Aline. They are individuals, all made stronger by their love for one another. Most of us would say the same about ourselves, in relation to our own families. In this harrowing conclusion to The Dark Artifices trilogy, readers get one last deep, intimate glimpse at this Shadowhunter family, and how they must risk it all to save each other, and the relationship between the Shadowhunters and the Downworld.Cassandra Clare is an American author with an adventurous childhood, advantageously applied to her fantasy collection The Shadowhunter Chronicles. She began her writing career in 2004, with City of Bones, the first book in the six-book series The Mortal Instruments. Since then, the Shadowhunter world has exploded, with spinoff trilogies The Infernal Devices, The Dark Artifices, and The Last Hours. With such a vast world of fantasy, it's easy to get lost. Here, I will be reviewing Queen of Air and Darkness, the third and final book in The Dark Artifices trilogy. If you find yourself interested in learning more about the Shadow World, click here for more information on where to begin. If you're interested in more of my reviews of Cassandra Clare's work, you can find them all here.
In the wake of Livia Blackthorn's and the Inquisitor's deaths, the Shadowhunters are grieving, but none so heavily than Julian Blackthorn himself. Other Shadowhunters walked out of this tragedy greedily: the Cohort, a faction of the Council, is using Livia's and the Inquisitor's deaths as an opportunity to seize power. While grief practically rolls off of the first 100 papers, readers are thrust into a plot saturated with love, revenge, power, and loss. Emma and Julian take a mission to Faerie that might lead to their destruction; Ty convinces Kit Herondale to raise Livvy from the dead; Cristina, Mark and Kieran try to figure out the cause of the warlock disease, before embarking on a rescue mission for Emma and Julian; and Diana is determined to save all of Angel kind in the political sphere. The one thing that ties all of these journeys together is each character's definition of family, and how far they'll go to save the ones they love. This is the epic conclusion Shadowhunter fans have all been waiting for.
I originally read this series as it was coming out starting a few years ago, and am rereading it now for fun and to refresh before beginning Chain of Gold (novel 1 of The Last Hours trilogy). I wrote a series review which can be found here, and would also like to take this review opportunity to revise and extend upon some of these thoughts. Please note that there are spoilers ahead, and are not individually labeled. Read with caution!
Their love is forbidden, but still neither of them have been able to squash it. With the death of the Inquisitor, Emma and Julian lost all hope in deadening their parabatai bond so that they might have the romantic relationship they wanted. But since that, and the death of Livvy, Julian took it into his own hands to get rid of his emotions entirely. I love Julian's point of view, and enjoyed his chapters greatly up until this point because he was the most relatable in his fierce love for his family. However, when he decided to get rid of his emotions, reading any part of the book with Julian as a key character was draining and annoying -- while I understood his motivation for this action, I was frustrated by him. I think it led to me not enjoying the third volume as much as the others. I know I was especially frustrated for Emma, and the loss of Julian's relatability came to me empathizing with Emma and liking her more. In the end, I think they got what they deserved. The obstacles and set backs they had, and how it all went down, was all satisfying and engaging to read. While they had their moments of unrelatability and frustration, I do think, overall, Emma and Julian are some of Clare's best protagonists within the Shadowhunter Chronicles.
One of my favorite characters, especially in this last volume, was Kit Herondale. He starred in the prologue of Lady Midnight, and throughout this series has taken a very secondary-character like role. In this volume, we learn of the true, weighty importance of his parentage, and what that means for the Shadow World. We also see how his relationships with the Shadowhunters have evolved, and how his identity in this world has been shaped. In my previous review, I mentioned how upset I was that Kit never truly said goodbye to Ty, and how unresolved that relationship was (in the face of so many other wonderful resolutions). I think, after reading this book more in depth, and not in the excitement phase of its release, I understand Kit better. He was heartbroken after his last words with Ty. I didn't expect Kit to up-and-leave (I don't believe anyone did), especially because Kit referred to himself as Ty's protector, and took genuine happiness from that role. I think Kit thought that he failed in that role, and that he deserved this sort of exile with Jem and Tessa as punishment. Humans are complicated so their actions are complicated, too. My only hope now is that when he returns for his protagonist role in The Wicked Powers, we understand his motivations for this choice better, and he reflects on his past decisions and feelings. We already see some extensions on this, particularly in the Ghosts of the Shadow Market collection (print only), and how the Wicked Powers and Kit shape up in the aftermath of the battle. And, of course, snaps for Drusilla Blackthorn for coming out of her shell! She definintely deserves to be highlighted for role in the battle on the Fields, and her dedication to her friends and family. I am also very excited to see where the journey in The Wicked Powers takes her, as she will reappear as one of the protagonists in that trilogy as well!
I mentioned how Lord of Shadows was quite possibly the most politically charged of Clare's books. We finally see the resolution of the politics in this volume, and I'm quite pleased at the direction Clare took with that. The Cohort made some decisions that have left them severed from the rest of the Shadowhunters, and there's definitely room for extension on what they do in later novels. More importantly, I think the decisions Clare takes with the politics in her novels reflect the real world. Maybe not the politics, exactly, but the sentiments and actions. Zara, Diego, Diana, Alec specifically are all characters that are epitomes, in a sense, of the different ways people think and act in response to civil rights. I think readers like myself find this trilogy so intoxicating for the reason in that it reflects the real world. It's a world that readers want to be apart of, so they'll read every book and story to feel like they have a place where they belong. And yet, the whole world is a reflection of the complexities of the world we live in, whether we like it or not. Some readers might not think of it this deeply, but as I think more and more about why the Shadowhunter world has such a draw on people, I do truly believe this is one of the biggest reasons.
Like in Lord of Shadows, Clare separates Queen of Air and Darkness into three sections: Feel No Sorrow, Thule, and Lady Vengeance. If you'll remember, a section of Lord of Shadows was also called Thule, and I like how these two sections stand in contrast to one another: the first Thule was the crew living in this terrible otherworld of grief and loss; the second Thule was Julian and Emma actually experiencing an otherworld where grief was the main contender. But, more than anything, these sections help build tension, and tie the themes of each part of the book together. The best choice she made in building tension is her use of cutting transitions. There are a lot of side stories in this novel: Emma and Julian in Faerie; Ty and Kit; Cristina, Mark, and Kieran on their own mission; and Diana in Alicante to name a few. Just as you've gotten reacquainted with the characters in a particular section of text, a bomb is dropped (figuratively, of course), and Clare neatly transitions back to another part of the story, to characters and a situation you have just almost forgotten about and were excited to return to. This keeps tension and excitement running high, where readers can't set the book down. There is strategy in this, and cleverness, in making readers almost, but not quite, forget a different set of characters' situation, only to bring us right back to it after being fully invested in another part of the story. By doing this, readers are conflicted because they want to keep reading, but are also dreading the ending of such an exciting trilogy.
Part of what makes this trilogy exciting for me is the resolution between Cristina, Mark and Kieran. I didn't realize it before, in my previous review when I discussed my joy about these three characters, how much they resembled a different trio: Jem, Will and Tessa from The Infernal Devices. But, in Cristina, Mark and Kieran's case, the three of them will get to remain together, unlike the resolution for Jem, Will and Tessa. Part of the reason their resolution is so satisfying is because none of them had to choose -- as in, they didn't have to choose between one another. I was agonized over who they would each choose, but when they decided not to choose, that decision made so much sense to me. Clare was building to that ending, I think, because from the start it was always these three together (and even if they weren't all three together, they were always thinking about each other). In my previous review, I said how Cristina, Mark and Kieran staying together was refreshing, a new insight on the complexities of love and relationships that might not otherwise be well-portrayed in other YA. I think with this series, Clare took every opportunity she could to put words to situations not otherwise portrayed in YA: LGBTQ+ relationships and experiences, mental health experiences and lifestyles, relationships in general. All of these things got light shone on them, and even if people don't have the exact language to describe all of those experiences, readers now have a language of understanding and empathy. I can only hope that Clare continues this with her other novels, including The Last Hours trilogy.
Many years have been dedicated to guessing the ending of this novel, and when it finally came, I think a lot of readers felt a lot of different things. Readers who just got into the series might have felt slight frustration: the wedding between Magnus and Alec is wholesome and marvelous, but for readers not well-acquainted with these characters, they might have felt left out of its full significance. Scenes with Jace, Clary, Simon, Isabelle, Magnus, and Alec in them (or as one of these characters as narrators) might also have been frustrating, since this journey was truly more about Emma, Julian, Ty, Kit, Livvy, Dru, and so many other Blackthorn and Blackthorn-associated characters. I know I was also wondering why they got such a big role in this last volume, especially because I would have loved more chapters with Drusilla, Kit and Ty. But, for readers who are familiar with the characters from The Mortal Instruments, these scenes and this ending was also full of happiness and excitement. Readers have long been awaiting the marriage between Magnus and Alec, and it was beautiful. In a way, no matter what readers felt at the end, I think there was poetic justice for the characters that started it all. Malcolm and Annabel, a warlock and a Shadowhunter, were separated for loving one another and driven to terrible things because of that love. Now, hundreds of years later, we see the wedding between Magnus and Alec, a warlock and a Shadowhunter, who by being together are going to make the world a better place. There is something beautiful and satisfying about that, that brings this trilogy to a wonderful close.
If you're interested in more of my reviews on the books from the Shadowhunter Chronicles, you can find them all here.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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