Cassandra Clare - Ghosts of the Shadow Market.

Cassandra Clare – Ghosts of the Shadow Market.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars.

Hey Everyone! It sucks that I haven’t been able to upload anything in a while, technical issues are ruining my posting timeline but it’s all good, I’m now playing catch up. I haven’t had much time to read recently either if I’m honest, being an adult sucks, but this week I’ve made the time. And I re-read a favourite of mine, Ghosts of the Shadow Market by Cassandra Clare.

I loved this book the first time I read it, loved it even more the second time, and more the third, and you get the picture. Jem Carstairs will forever be my favourite character (tied with Emma Carstairs and Jace Herondale of course). I admire and love everything about the way he was written. So being able to read a whole book about things that happened to him after the events of The Infernal Devices was a dream come true naturally. I also love how the short stories tie in with characters from other stories, like Anna Lightwood, Matthew Fairchild and Tessa Gray.

I just realised I’m rambling so I’m going to get to my point, here is my review and I hope you like it.

Synopsis:

The Shadow Market is a meeting point for faeries, werewolves, warlocks and vampires. It’s no place for Shadowhunters, but through two centuries a Silent Brother has visited. Brother Zachariah was once a Shadowhunter called Jem Carstairs, and his love, then and always, is the warlock Tessa Gray. Now he is searching for a relic from his past.

Follow Jem and see, against the backdrop of the Market’s dark dealings, Anna Lightwood’s romance, Matthew Fairchild’s great sin, and Tessa Gray as she is plunged into a world war. Valentine Morgenstern buys a soul and a young Jace Wayland finds safety.

In the Market is hidden a lost heir and a beloved ghost. But no one can save you once you have traded away your heart. Not even Brother Zachariah.

A Little About The Author:

Cassandra Clare is an American writer who publishes mostly YA novels. She is most known for The Mortal Instruments series and has published a number of books based around the Shadowhunter world. Her most recent works being Chain of Gold and The Lost Book of the White.

A Little About The Story:

This book follows Jem through time in a sense. At the start of the book we see him in the Shadow Market with Matthew Fairchild, this is in 1901. And at the end of the book, we see Jem in present times, with Kit Herondale, more than a hundred years later. The books tells short stories of Jem throughout those 100+ years of key moments that led to how happy he is at the end. Further to this, a lot of the information we read in this book is key to other Shadowhunter tales too such as Chain of Gold. It gives a little backstory to characters we hadn’t yet met much of.

The main characters in this part of the Shadowhunters series are mainly just Jem. Brother Zachariah. This is Jem’s time to shine. Tessa is notably present in multiple parts of the book though. However, it occurred to me that Tessa is a part of Jem. They fit together so perfectly that I don’t think Jem’s story could be told without her. Whether he is a silent brother or not.

Jem in this story was on a mission of sorts. I don’t want to give anything away, but over the course of the short stories Jem has the same goal in mind, the same thing he has to look for and protect. It was also a case of Jem making the most of the life he was in, he was a silent brother, but he wasn’t destined to be alone in a cave.

Jem ran into many problems throughout this book. Whether it is human problems like World Wars or problems in the Shadow World he has to fight his way out of or even the matters of his own heart that he has to solve.

Did the main characters have any adventures you ask? Yes. The entire story. I find this with all of the Shadowhunter books. The entire story is the adventure. Following the lives of these characters and watching them get thrown into and climb out of sticky situations. It is the main reason I love the books so much.

I relate to Jem and his feeling of a mission he had to fulfil and having loyalties to his friends. I feel like I was put on this Earth for a reason, and everyday I am trying to figure out what that is. And I am loyal. My friends and my family are my everything and I would do anything for them. In that sense I feel strongly aligned with Jem and what he stands for.

I absolutely loved this book. I’m not really here for standalones, I don’t love them. But this one didn’t feel like a standalone, it felt like it was tying together everything about Jem Carstairs and his life into a nice neat little bow. I loved the introductions of characters that we hadn’t met much of before and I adored seeing how Tessa and Jem progressed as the years went on.

My favourite part of the book was the last story in it. Having read Queen of Air and Darkness before I had read this I knew what Kit had gone through and that he went to live with Jem and Tessa. Seeing the family unit they have made my heart so happy.

My least favourite part of the book was also in the last story and it was the mentions of Janus. It kind of seemed out of place. That wasn’t Jem’s story. I still liked it, but I would have liked it more if it wasn’t part of this book.

I would recommend this book to people that loved The Infernal Devices and Chain of Gold. It gives a little extra depth to those really important characters we all loved. I would also recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy novels. It is a wonderful book.

So there has it, my first review in a good while. I absolutely loved re-reading this book. If you have read this book I’d love to read your thoughts. If you haven’t read this book I hope my post encourages you to pick up a book.

Stay Curious! J x