Much has happened since the last book blog. We left off with Mark returning to the Blackthorn family, soon after he accepts the Blackthorns as his family and agrees to help try and solve the murders. They manage to deceiver one of incantations on the corpses and come to a realization that all the dead bodies were placed where the ley lines meet, ley lines are magic lines that meet and amplify well magic. This means that the incantations, corpses, and placement of the corpses would mean that the murderer would be trying to summon an ancient demonic power, which is no bueno. At the same time Julian and Emma have a few intimate moments where it becomes more apparent of their feelings for one another, again really not good. While this and the other Blackthorn members, plus Christina, are discovering more key points, Ty and Livvy discover another clue and manage to decipher the the drawings, which translates to Edgar Allan Poe’s poem Annabel Lee, I’ll link below because it’s a pretty great poem. Julian and Emma do some detective work and look through a recent victim’s belongings where they discover an invite to the Lottery, a cultish event that takes place every month where people of the demonic world would bet for good fortune in exchange for killing someone and giving up their hand. So the gang attends and of course they run into trouble. They follow the man chosen to die in hopes of finding out who the leader of the Followers and creator of the Lottery is but instead are lead to a dead end. Emma goes back to the cave where Annabel Lee clue was discovered and finds a lever, because she is dumb she decides to pull it and guess what, it’s a trap. Naturally Julian is also affected, he coughs up saltwater as Emma is being drowned so he rushes to save her. It’s actually a really intense scene, she battles a demon in the ocean and nearly dies. Well after that debacle Julian accidentally admits his feelings for her in a fit of rage...then they seal the deal if you catch my drift. More detective work ensues and another piece of the incantation is translated which mentions Blackthorn blood and past. The gang then walks in on the Sterling, the man who was chosen at the Lottery, stabbing a young witch for “glory” and “riches”. It’s then that the Followers show up to the institute with a lust for Sterlings blood. The shadowhunters were overpowered and it seemed like everything was coming to an end until Julian comes out with cool angel sword and is able to defend their home. Unfortunately Sterling was killed in the battle. We then learn that it is in fact the Followers trying to bring back someone from the dead which prompts Tavvy ( youngest Blackthorn) to remember an old children's rhyme from a storybook; Lady Midnight. She was a young shadowhunter that fell into a tragic and forbidden love which led to her imprisonment where she died of sadness. Her lover went to the Faerie king in hopes of finding a way to bring her back, it was then that he told him a rhyme that helps reveal that Lady Midnight was a Blackthorn and that whoever the killer is wants to bring back Lady Midnight and is using the Black Volume of the Dead, a book of extreme dark magic to do it. Of course when the plot gets good more complications happen. You see while all this was going on, Mark and Christina were getting close and a secret was slipped which leads to the leaders of Hunt coming to punish Mark. Mark then decides to rebel against the Hunt and Julian and Emma take his punishment instead. This causes their bond to strengthen and confessions of love to ensue. Eventually they uncover Lady Midnight’s identity as Annabel Blackthorn who fell in love with a warlock and was sent away to be an iron sister by her family. Slowly the pieces fall into place and it is revealed that Malcom, the high warlock of Los Angeles, biggest supporter and very close family friend is the Guardian aka the leader of the Followers. He had been attempting to keep the family in the dark the whole time and the next step of the spell is Blackthorn blood, which leads to the capture of Tavvy by Malcolm. Emma and Julian try to contact the Clave but find that all connections have been cut off, this means it’s final battle time. It also comes into light that Emma’s parents were murdered by Malcolm as an experiment to see if the spell would work. To wrap this up I will say that it is pretty epic final battle that of course ends in Malcolm's gruesome death. BUT WE”RE NOT DONE YET. Because of his death his spells disappear including a protection spell that shielded Johnny Rook and his son from demons. Emma receives a distress signal from Johnny’s son Kit saying that the demons had killed his father and to send help. Kit is then brought back to the institute where he discovers that he’s not just a mundane but a shadowhunter and not just a shadowhunter A HERONDALE. I threw up when I read that it’s a big deal. Emma decides to end things with Julian for their protection because she learns how dangerous their romantic feelings are and asks Mark to pretend to be in a relationship with her to try and ward Julian off. Also Malcolm’s blood drips into Annabel's coffin and she awakens.
I think that in the next book, which there is, the Annabel issue will certainly come up again along with other sources of dark magic. Kit will also have a huge impact on the next book I feel, just because of how important the shadowhunter family Herondale is. If I could write the next book I would include backstories about Annabel so that the reader could feel more connected to the character so that when she finally has an introduction it’s exciting. I would want the next book to be less about the drama between Emma, Julian and Mark but rather more Kit and his new role in the story. I feel that Emma should educate him and be able to have a teacher student relationship with Kit where she also learns character shaping lessons from him so that her character can grow more. The main conflict would be more the mystery of Annabel and the Blackthorn’s discovering more clues and history. I would recommend to a friend that loves reading, this book is definitely for book lovers who are committed to reading. As you can tell it’s a pretty long book so it’s easy to stray away from it. Annabel Lee: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44885/annabel-lee
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So far in the book Emma, Julian, his siblings, and Cristina ( Emma’s friend from Mexico who is learning at the Institute) are all in on the murder mystery. That is until 3 figures burst in on the scene. 3 faeries, all 3 from the Unseelie Court except 1 of them is prince and part of the Hunt. For clarification purposes there was a big war in 2007 where this really bad shadowhunter killed tried to wipe out the Nephilim. This is relevant because the fairies were on the bad side of the war and as a punishment the Clave ( Nephilim/Shadowhunter government) declared the Cold Peace, an arrangement in which faeries are to receive no aid or contact. Every faerie or half faerie was to be exiled, including Julian’s older half siblings Mark and Helen. Their mother was a princess of the Seelie Court which made Mark and Helen half faerie. Mark was taken by the Hunt and had not been seen by any of the Blackthorn family sense the death of Andrew Blackthorn, Julian’s father during the Dark War, that is until now. The faeries show up and their like the murder is killing our people and your people let’s team up even though it’s against the law and find the murderer. At first the Blackthorns refuse and then after revealing Mark, who is now very much faerie and of the Hunt, they’re like yes please give us Mark. Little do they know that Mark is very loyal to the Hunt and to Kieran, prince of the Unseelie Court (eyebrow waggle).
I think that if I were in the book I would be friends with Julian because he’s lowkey and not as brutal and reckless as the other characters. In this world if I were a shadowhunter I would definitely die an early deaths, most shadowhunters actually do die really early, but yeah I would not survive. Ignorance towards vampires, tricked by a faerie, demon fight, kidnapped at the shadow market, I could go on. I probably wouldn’t get along with Emma because of her stubborn personality, we’d most likely clash. In the chapters I have read so far the Blackthorn family, inculdes Emma's parabatai Julian, and his brothers and sisters, have returned from England and back to the institute. Almost right away there is tension between Emma and Julian, who have been best friends there whole lives. Because they are parabatai, meaning Nephilim warriors that are bound together by an oath making them lifelong partners (not romantically it's actually against Nephilim law for parabatais to be romantically involved), they understand everything about each other, thre was never a time where they couldn't tell what the other one was thinking. Since the family returned back to the institute Julian acts somewhat shifty toward her, even saying that if he could go back in time he wouldn't have chosen to have her as a parabatai. My advice to the pair would be to actually say what's on their mind because it's better than being passive agressive.
So far in the book Emma hasn't had much interacrtion with anyone but the Blackthorn family and the few in the institute. But from what I can tell she treats all of the Blackthorn siblings, Livia, Tiberius, Drusilla, and Octavian, like her own brothers and sisters. They all seem to have great respect and love for Emma, for example when told about her leads on the murder of her parents they all jump into to help without second thought, even 7 year old Octavian. The relationship between Emma and her parents is more complicated then the first chapters of the book. It's apparent that she loves them very much, no question about that. But she reveals that sometimes she hates them for dying. That for some reason it's their fault for being mysteriously murdered and leaving her alone. That's weird. Lady Midnight is about a young shadowhunter, shadowhunters are appointed warriors of the angel Raziel that carry angel blood within them, that lives in the Los Angeles Institute. The first we see of Emma in the book she is interegating a faerie creature, we later learn that this is because she trying to track down the person responsible for the murder of her parents during the Dark War in 2007.
I'm pretty sure that in the near future something suspious will happen that gives her a lead on the murder, and ties into a bigger picture problem. I'm guessing Emma will get obessesed with the lead seeing as it is her parents. So far the book seems really promising, it has plenty of action, sad backstory, tragic love story, and comedy. Will comment on Andrew and Joseph's blog posts :) |
Author:Cassandra Claire Plot:Emma Carstairs is a Shadowhunter, one in a long line of Shadowhunters tasked with protecting the world from demons. With her parabatai Julian Blackthorn, she patrols the streets of an secret Los Angeles where vampires party on the Sunset Strip, and faeries teeter on the edge of open war with Shadowhunters
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