Book Review: Ghosts of the Shadow Market

 

Ghosts of the Shadow Market

Cassandra Clare

5/5

I would like to inquire as to who gave Cassandra Clare and co. permission to write a book of short stories about a bunch of separate characters just so she could make me cry on multiple different timelines? It would cost ZERO dollars to just let these characters be dead without backstories but she really brought back people who I haven't thought about in eight years just to make me SAD. But I read the whole thing and I'd do it again.

Cassandra Clare's universe is insanely complex. Everyone is tied to everyone in some way even though it spans over a hundred years. It can get confusing, especially when, like I said, she likes to bring back oldies just to remind us that no one has lived without tragedy. I think that it's so amazing though that she's able to keep all these characters straight enough to co-write short stories about them just to destroy me further. 

I don't know how I could give this anything but five stars when the last story was about Jem and Tessa. Or when Jem pretty much narrated the whole thing and made me cry the whole time with his emotional turmoil. These stories are all so short and I was like short stories? I don't need them. But honestly, they're so integral to the story lines of all these characters, even ongoing ones in TLH and what is going to come up in TWP. I'm so excited to see it all come together. 

But yeah, would recommend one hundred percent even if you think you don't need them. Like, who allowed Cassandra Clare to contextualize a fictional immortal character in the tragedy of the contemporary world's World War II? Again, she was just trying to get me to cry which she totally achieved.