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luwestreads's review against another edition
5.0
Every book I have read from Cassandra Clare draws me in and consumes my mind. and this was no different! I feel like I have become a part of their lives and I'm so invested in even the little details, will Ty ever get a pet? how is Julian's cooking? What will Emma do? I wan to know more, actually I want to live the story!
Highly Recommend to anyone!
Highly Recommend to anyone!
svtplaylist's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
rcw's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
hurrikanekathrina's review against another edition
2.0
Actual rating: 1,5 stars
Here's a little best-of of all the times Julian describes Emma's hair:
"Her hair lifted, pale corn silk spilling out from the neatness of her braids..."
"...sunbleached hair mixed with the darker hair at her nape. Raw umber and Naples yellow, mixed with white."
"When he closed his eyes, he saw Emma in the witchlight, her hair tumbling out of its fastening, the light of the streetlamps shining through the strands and turning them to a sheet of pale summer-frozen ice."
"Emma's hair. Maybe because she took it down so rarely, maybe because Emma with her hair down was one of the first things he'd ever wanted to paint, but the long looping plae strands of it had always been like cords that connected directly to his nerves."
"Her hair drifted like pale gold around her face."
"I was thinking about painting you. Painting your hair. That I'd have to use titanium white to get the color right, the way it catches light and almost glows. But that wouldn't work, would it? It's not all one color, your hair, it's not just gold: It's amber and tawny and caramel and wheat and honey."
"Her hair, heavy and soaked, hung down her back like a weight."
"Her hair was down, as it was in most of the pictures, and he had made it look like the spray of the ocean at sunset, when the last rays of daylight turned the water to a brutal gold. She looked beautiful, fierce, as terrible as a goddess."
I've been one of those people to defend Cassandra Clare for writing even more books in this world, even after she already lengthened a trilogy into a 9 book series. Now she wants to write 9 more books in the world? Naturally, she got a lot of pre-hate, something that I was never on board with, because as long as she still had ideas, who are we to forbid her to write them down. And when I read CoHF, I really thought this series was going to be great. It so looked as if she still had new ideas. I. Was. Wrong.
I thought about giving this book 3 stars, just for old time's sake, but who am I kidding? Between cringeworthy writing, cooked up old characters with new hair colors and names, and a ridiculous amount of melodramatic teen angst, this book has a plot that crawls along agonizlingly slow and then is resolved in a lazy way that leaves you feeling like you just read 600 pages for nothing.
But let's start from the beginning shall we?
So, this book starts out with about 100 pages of shameless infodumping. Instead of writing the main character's personalities into the story and letting the readers experience them for themselves, making them feel organic and alive, Clare uses the old fanfiction info dump of having one character tell a new character about all the others, so that she is spared the effort of actually creating a lively atmosphere around every character and can just slap their personality traits into your face like a sticker. "This is Tiberius, called Ty. He loves Sherlock Holmes and is autistic I guess. Apart from those two oveused stereotypes, there isn't much more to his character, but hey, I'm going to drag this out for 600 more pages!" (not an actual quote).
Then, the info dumping continues, in what is probably the oldest and laziest way of introducing the new world to readers. *deep breath* The characters have a history lesson in which they get asked about the events happening in the last five years, so that we get a nice 10 page summary of what happened between CoHF and Lady Midnight. Seriously? The last time I read this poor excuse of world building was in a twilight fanfiction written by a 12 year old.
Now that the readers have sucessfully been dumped into a pile of info, it is time to further introduce to you the characters. After all, aren't we just dying to get to know all of the new, unique innovative characters that will accompany us for the next overprized, teen angst fests? Well, let's see, we have our main couple, containing of an artistic, sensitive redhead and a blonde, extremly attractive, sarcastic, witty super shadowhunter, who are in angsty, forbidden love with each other and can't even eat a slize of pizza without being torn apart by sexual tension. Oh, wait, where did I hear that before? But no guys, IT'S NOT THE SAME, because this time, the sensitive redhead is the guy, and the hot blonde sarcasm-ball is the girl! So it's totally different, right? But if that isn't rubbing it into your face enough, fear no more, Clare will even have multiple characters underline how Emma is "basically the next Jace." Yes, all too true.
But of course, our two main angstbirds are not alone. With them is our typical homo-sexual, interspecies love couple, an excentric high warlock, a suspicious tutor with a secret, and a fairy who, gasp, surprise, turns out to be a traitor (because if that isn't a trope Clare has milked enough for you, here's a reminders: FAIRIES CANNOT BE TRUSTED!)
The worst thing about this book, by far, was the horrid writing. Clare always had a tendency to dive into fanfictionesque writing, but in this book, she really went overboard with it. I expected forbidden-love angst in a CC book (and wasn't, per se, opposed to it) but there were times when I could just laugh at how bad and over the top the writing was (see the compilation above)
And then that completely creepy scene where he shows her his "secret room" (thinking Shades of Grey, are we?), which is basically a shrine of Emma-drawings that he's been working on his whole life...
"Every image was of her. There she was training, holding Cortana, playing with Tavvy, reading to Dru. In one watercolor, she was sleeping on the beach, her head pillowed on her hand. The details of the slope of her shoulder, the individual grains of sand stuck to her skin like sugar, had been rendered so lovingly that she felt almost dizzy. In another, she rose above the city of Los Angeles. She was naked, but her body was transparent - one could see only the outlines of it, and the stars of the night sky shone through her. Her hair tumbled down like brilliant light, illuminating the world."
The plot itself, or what is left if you substract the angst and drama and page long metaphors to describe Emma's hair, isn't too bad, but it takes such a long time for the plot to move along that it drowns in all the other sh*t that is happening. The plot, however, has earned one of the two stars I gave this book. What the second one is for, I don't know, maybe for the sake of old times, or maybe because despite all the problems I had with this book, it isn't the worst book I've ever read.
Here's a little best-of of all the times Julian describes Emma's hair:
"Her hair lifted, pale corn silk spilling out from the neatness of her braids..."
"...sunbleached hair mixed with the darker hair at her nape. Raw umber and Naples yellow, mixed with white."
"When he closed his eyes, he saw Emma in the witchlight, her hair tumbling out of its fastening, the light of the streetlamps shining through the strands and turning them to a sheet of pale summer-frozen ice."
"Emma's hair. Maybe because she took it down so rarely, maybe because Emma with her hair down was one of the first things he'd ever wanted to paint, but the long looping plae strands of it had always been like cords that connected directly to his nerves."
"Her hair drifted like pale gold around her face."
"I was thinking about painting you. Painting your hair. That I'd have to use titanium white to get the color right, the way it catches light and almost glows. But that wouldn't work, would it? It's not all one color, your hair, it's not just gold: It's amber and tawny and caramel and wheat and honey."
"Her hair, heavy and soaked, hung down her back like a weight."
"Her hair was down, as it was in most of the pictures, and he had made it look like the spray of the ocean at sunset, when the last rays of daylight turned the water to a brutal gold. She looked beautiful, fierce, as terrible as a goddess."
I've been one of those people to defend Cassandra Clare for writing even more books in this world, even after she already lengthened a trilogy into a 9 book series. Now she wants to write 9 more books in the world? Naturally, she got a lot of pre-hate, something that I was never on board with, because as long as she still had ideas, who are we to forbid her to write them down. And when I read CoHF, I really thought this series was going to be great. It so looked as if she still had new ideas. I. Was. Wrong.
I thought about giving this book 3 stars, just for old time's sake, but who am I kidding? Between cringeworthy writing, cooked up old characters with new hair colors and names, and a ridiculous amount of melodramatic teen angst, this book has a plot that crawls along agonizlingly slow and then is resolved in a lazy way that leaves you feeling like you just read 600 pages for nothing.
But let's start from the beginning shall we?
So, this book starts out with about 100 pages of shameless infodumping. Instead of writing the main character's personalities into the story and letting the readers experience them for themselves, making them feel organic and alive, Clare uses the old fanfiction info dump of having one character tell a new character about all the others, so that she is spared the effort of actually creating a lively atmosphere around every character and can just slap their personality traits into your face like a sticker. "This is Tiberius, called Ty. He loves Sherlock Holmes and is autistic I guess. Apart from those two oveused stereotypes, there isn't much more to his character, but hey, I'm going to drag this out for 600 more pages!" (not an actual quote).
Then, the info dumping continues, in what is probably the oldest and laziest way of introducing the new world to readers. *deep breath* The characters have a history lesson in which they get asked about the events happening in the last five years, so that we get a nice 10 page summary of what happened between CoHF and Lady Midnight. Seriously? The last time I read this poor excuse of world building was in a twilight fanfiction written by a 12 year old.
Now that the readers have sucessfully been dumped into a pile of info, it is time to further introduce to you the characters. After all, aren't we just dying to get to know all of the new, unique innovative characters that will accompany us for the next overprized, teen angst fests? Well, let's see, we have our main couple, containing of an artistic, sensitive redhead and a blonde, extremly attractive, sarcastic, witty super shadowhunter, who are in angsty, forbidden love with each other and can't even eat a slize of pizza without being torn apart by sexual tension. Oh, wait, where did I hear that before? But no guys, IT'S NOT THE SAME, because this time, the sensitive redhead is the guy, and the hot blonde sarcasm-ball is the girl! So it's totally different, right? But if that isn't rubbing it into your face enough, fear no more, Clare will even have multiple characters underline how Emma is "basically the next Jace." Yes, all too true.
But of course, our two main angstbirds are not alone. With them is our typical homo-sexual, interspecies love couple, an excentric high warlock, a suspicious tutor with a secret, and a fairy who, gasp, surprise, turns out to be a traitor (because if that isn't a trope Clare has milked enough for you, here's a reminders: FAIRIES CANNOT BE TRUSTED!)
The worst thing about this book, by far, was the horrid writing. Clare always had a tendency to dive into fanfictionesque writing, but in this book, she really went overboard with it. I expected forbidden-love angst in a CC book (and wasn't, per se, opposed to it) but there were times when I could just laugh at how bad and over the top the writing was (see the compilation above)
And then that completely creepy scene where he shows her his "secret room" (thinking Shades of Grey, are we?), which is basically a shrine of Emma-drawings that he's been working on his whole life...
"Every image was of her. There she was training, holding Cortana, playing with Tavvy, reading to Dru. In one watercolor, she was sleeping on the beach, her head pillowed on her hand. The details of the slope of her shoulder, the individual grains of sand stuck to her skin like sugar, had been rendered so lovingly that she felt almost dizzy. In another, she rose above the city of Los Angeles. She was naked, but her body was transparent - one could see only the outlines of it, and the stars of the night sky shone through her. Her hair tumbled down like brilliant light, illuminating the world."
The plot itself, or what is left if you substract the angst and drama and page long metaphors to describe Emma's hair, isn't too bad, but it takes such a long time for the plot to move along that it drowns in all the other sh*t that is happening. The plot, however, has earned one of the two stars I gave this book. What the second one is for, I don't know, maybe for the sake of old times, or maybe because despite all the problems I had with this book, it isn't the worst book I've ever read.
minniemae's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I actually think this may be my favourite of Cassandra Clare’s series.
My teenage Mark Blackthorn obsession is well and truly still present.
My teenage Mark Blackthorn obsession is well and truly still present.
laura_hart15's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
char42's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
alexandra_ninelives's review against another edition
5.0
I’m in love!!
I already knew this is my favorite shadowhunter series. I knew that Julian is my favorite shadowhunter. But rereading it made me realize that I love so much more things about this book than just Julian.
Emma is fierce, brave and so lovely and she would do anything for the people she loves. I love how she slowly realizes that she’s in love with her best friend and parabatai. It’s a shock and she’s trying to deal with it as best as she can while investigating her parents’s murders and murders that are happening now.
Julian is the best dad and brother and friend anyone could ask for. He’s gentle usually but when the situation demands it he’s the most ruthless shadowhunter you’re ever going to encounter. His love for Emma is literally my dream. If I could experience just a fraction of that love in my life, I would die a happy woman.
Mark is so much like Julian but with even more trauma.
Cristina is a great friend and a great addition to the family. She’s a badass, level-headed shadowhunter. I love her.
Diana is a mystery at this point but we can kind of see her heart is in the right place.
Kieran is a typical fae at the moment. I have no comment on him till the next book.
The children are amazing. They lived through so much and we can see that Julian did a great job at being their parent because they are all so understanding and loving. They are also great warriors.
It was nice to see Magnus, Clary, Jace and Jem. They had their moments to shine though so I’m glad they only appeared for a short time.
The villain and their motive was something I can appreciate. Truly the best story CC came up with.
I already knew this is my favorite shadowhunter series. I knew that Julian is my favorite shadowhunter. But rereading it made me realize that I love so much more things about this book than just Julian.
Emma is fierce, brave and so lovely and she would do anything for the people she loves. I love how she slowly realizes that she’s in love with her best friend and parabatai. It’s a shock and she’s trying to deal with it as best as she can while investigating her parents’s murders and murders that are happening now.
Julian is the best dad and brother and friend anyone could ask for. He’s gentle usually but when the situation demands it he’s the most ruthless shadowhunter you’re ever going to encounter. His love for Emma is literally my dream. If I could experience just a fraction of that love in my life, I would die a happy woman.
Mark is so much like Julian but with even more trauma.
Cristina is a great friend and a great addition to the family. She’s a badass, level-headed shadowhunter. I love her.
Diana is a mystery at this point but we can kind of see her heart is in the right place.
Kieran is a typical fae at the moment. I have no comment on him till the next book.
The children are amazing. They lived through so much and we can see that Julian did a great job at being their parent because they are all so understanding and loving. They are also great warriors.
It was nice to see Magnus, Clary, Jace and Jem. They had their moments to shine though so I’m glad they only appeared for a short time.
The villain and their motive was something I can appreciate. Truly the best story CC came up with.
blurrypetals's review against another edition
5.0
July 13, 2019
[re-read for Shadowhunter Summer 2019]
All my Shadowhunter Summer 2019 reviews may contain untagged spoilers for all the books in The Shadowhunter Chronicles. If you wish to read a non-spoiler review for this book, you may scroll to the review I wrote on October 30, 2017.
Hello, my name is Sara and Julian Blackthorn and Emma Carstairs fucking W R E C K M E.
It may simply be because this is her latest series, but The Dark Artifices is absolutely Cassandra Clare's strongest series as a whole. It contains two of my top 5 favorite Shadowhunter books and this is one of them.
Lady Midnight has a truly explosive energy about it and, as I pinpointed in my previous review for it, I think that energy comes from the fact that Clare didn't need to waste any time with world building, knowing that 90% of the readers coming into this book will have read either The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, or both before beginning this, and she used that to her advantage.
Another thing that works to her advantage is the fact that Emma, Julian, and the rest of the Blackthorn clan are woven into City of Lost Souls, City of Heavenly Fire, and Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, helping hardcore fans such as myself sympathize with and understand their pain literally from moment one of Lady Midnight.
It's excellence in motion and it is one reason I appreciate the fact that this universe has gotten so big. I know there are a lot of people who gripe that Cassandra Clare is beating a dead horse, but I genuinely think this series is far more akin to fine wine, better with age, even greater with practice, and poetry to the senses, and Lady Midnight as well as the rest of The Dark Artifices trilogy are excellent examples of that fact.
I am always filled with exaltation upon reading this book and, even though I know it all shakes out all right for the Blackthorns in the end, the exquisite heartache I feel for these characters is incredible and expertly handcrafted.
I don't feel the need to delve into specifics, since I think I have the specifics covered in my past review, so, as usual, I'm gonna call it here. I'll catch you on the flip!
October 30, 2017
[re-read for my Greatest Hits Bookshelf Tour 2017]
Goddamn it this book is fucking good. I have a very, very, very difficult time properly expressing all my feelings about it all. In both the other first books, City of Bones and Clockwork Angel, the reader is given a lot of time and exposition to get settled into the world long before it begins to punch you in the gut with feelings. This book, however, being a sequel to The Mortal Instruments, ends up leaping straight into things, fully formed, ready to go on this absolute stellar roller coaster ride of heartbreak and adventure.
It isn't unlike its Shadowhunter brethren, though. It's far funnier than it has any right to be, the characters are so lovable it actually physically hurts, and it has a gut punch at the end.
This being the penultimate Shadowhunters entry in my Greatest Hits Bookshelf Tour 2017, you would think I would be sick of these books after reading them so damn quickly, but you're wrong. I'm not sick of them and I can't wait to reread Lord of Shadows, a book I JUST read less than six months ago. These books are fantastic, I'm running out of different ways to communicate that, but they're fantastic, start to finish. Also, I know I haven't gotten through the Lord of Shadows reread yet but I'm dying for The Queen of Air and Darknessto be in my hands it's not even funny.
March 10, 2016
What an absolutely stellar, amazing, and incredible kickoff to a trilogy. Every single piece of this book was completely magnificent, surprising, and lovable in every way. I loved it. Comparing it to the other two first books in the Shadowhunter Chronicles thus far, it's the strongest, most compelling, and most fun of the three. Needless to say, I'm already starving for 2017 to be here so Lord of Shadows can be in my hands.
That said, the material herein is more than enough to satiate me until then. Let me count the ways. There are some spoilers ahead.
1. Julian Blackthorn is, quite possibly, my new favorite character. If he isn't most favorite, he's second only to Will Herondale. Friends on my Facebook watched me over the last couple of days as I lamented over the pain this poor, wonderful boy has been through and does go through and will go through. The shoulders on this dear boy are burdened with a heavy weight and...good god, I just want to help him. He's such a dear, sweet person and I want to see him be happy so badly.
2. Jules and Emma. Oh god. My heart is fractured in a billion pieces. One minute, I'm warmed all over when Jules stays with Emma in the night. The next, Jules is acting weird and frosty. The next they're in the car, teasing each other and quoting The Art of War. Then they're bonding over that death-defying iratze. Then Jules asks Emma to pick him up cuff links ("I don't care as long as they hold my cuffs together. Otherwise they'll be sad and unlinked." I laughed WAY too hard about this line) and she freaks out because she thinks it's a girlfriend thing to do and is just adorable about the whole thing and later when they're getting in the car, Emma's thinking all possessively. Then oh my GOD that DANCE. Then Emma remembering Jace and Clary and realizing she would never be able to have anything like that with anyone but Jules...ugh. Poor baby. BUT THEN!!! THE BEACH!!! OH MY GODDDDDD. So sweet and loving and hot. But then...the morning after. Ugh. My heart. Then, oh my GOD them talking about their feelings and Emma challenging Jules to walk away and him just saying, "God, I can't." I about lost my damn mind over it. Then after the whippings, Jules taking Emma up to see all his artwork of her and professing his love!! I JUST!!! I CRIED OKAY! And then Jules licking her ear and them being fucking adorable and then...well, god, we all know how the book ended. We all heard me screaming and crying in my car about it. We all heard Julian's and Emma's hearts break. We were there. We all felt it.
3. Cristina cutting Mark's hair was such a sweet and intimate moment. I loved it.
4. Their conversation about The Avengers at the pizzeria was honestly the greatest thing ever. I also loved the whole group convincing the mundane girls that Mark had syphilis and that he was insane because of it.
5. "Do you need any help?"
"I need SO much help you have no idea."
6. Simon and Isabelle are engaged! Jace and Clary are engaged! I'm having heart palpitations. This book was perfect. I need a minute or else I'm going to start crying again. This book is great, just like all its predecessors, and, I'm sure, its successors will be too. This whole thing is gonna be great...it just might take a couple of years.
[re-read for Shadowhunter Summer 2019]
"We are bound together, Emma, bound together—I breathe when you breathe, I bleed when you bleed, I’m yours and you’re mine, you’ve always been mine, and I have always, always belonged to you!"
All my Shadowhunter Summer 2019 reviews may contain untagged spoilers for all the books in The Shadowhunter Chronicles. If you wish to read a non-spoiler review for this book, you may scroll to the review I wrote on October 30, 2017.
Hello, my name is Sara and Julian Blackthorn and Emma Carstairs fucking W R E C K M E.
It may simply be because this is her latest series, but The Dark Artifices is absolutely Cassandra Clare's strongest series as a whole. It contains two of my top 5 favorite Shadowhunter books and this is one of them.
Lady Midnight has a truly explosive energy about it and, as I pinpointed in my previous review for it, I think that energy comes from the fact that Clare didn't need to waste any time with world building, knowing that 90% of the readers coming into this book will have read either The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, or both before beginning this, and she used that to her advantage.
Another thing that works to her advantage is the fact that Emma, Julian, and the rest of the Blackthorn clan are woven into City of Lost Souls, City of Heavenly Fire, and Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, helping hardcore fans such as myself sympathize with and understand their pain literally from moment one of Lady Midnight.
It's excellence in motion and it is one reason I appreciate the fact that this universe has gotten so big. I know there are a lot of people who gripe that Cassandra Clare is beating a dead horse, but I genuinely think this series is far more akin to fine wine, better with age, even greater with practice, and poetry to the senses, and Lady Midnight as well as the rest of The Dark Artifices trilogy are excellent examples of that fact.
I am always filled with exaltation upon reading this book and, even though I know it all shakes out all right for the Blackthorns in the end
Spoiler
unless your name is LivvyI don't feel the need to delve into specifics, since I think I have the specifics covered in my past review, so, as usual, I'm gonna call it here. I'll catch you on the flip!
October 30, 2017
[re-read for my Greatest Hits Bookshelf Tour 2017]
Goddamn it this book is fucking good. I have a very, very, very difficult time properly expressing all my feelings about it all. In both the other first books, City of Bones and Clockwork Angel, the reader is given a lot of time and exposition to get settled into the world long before it begins to punch you in the gut with feelings. This book, however, being a sequel to The Mortal Instruments, ends up leaping straight into things, fully formed, ready to go on this absolute stellar roller coaster ride of heartbreak and adventure.
It isn't unlike its Shadowhunter brethren, though. It's far funnier than it has any right to be, the characters are so lovable it actually physically hurts, and it has a gut punch at the end.
This being the penultimate Shadowhunters entry in my Greatest Hits Bookshelf Tour 2017, you would think I would be sick of these books after reading them so damn quickly, but you're wrong. I'm not sick of them and I can't wait to reread Lord of Shadows, a book I JUST read less than six months ago. These books are fantastic, I'm running out of different ways to communicate that, but they're fantastic, start to finish. Also, I know I haven't gotten through the Lord of Shadows reread yet but I'm dying for The Queen of Air and Darknessto be in my hands it's not even funny.
March 10, 2016
What an absolutely stellar, amazing, and incredible kickoff to a trilogy. Every single piece of this book was completely magnificent, surprising, and lovable in every way. I loved it. Comparing it to the other two first books in the Shadowhunter Chronicles thus far, it's the strongest, most compelling, and most fun of the three. Needless to say, I'm already starving for 2017 to be here so Lord of Shadows can be in my hands.
That said, the material herein is more than enough to satiate me until then. Let me count the ways. There are some spoilers ahead.
1. Julian Blackthorn is, quite possibly, my new favorite character. If he isn't most favorite, he's second only to Will Herondale. Friends on my Facebook watched me over the last couple of days as I lamented over the pain this poor, wonderful boy has been through and does go through and will go through. The shoulders on this dear boy are burdened with a heavy weight and...good god, I just want to help him. He's such a dear, sweet person and I want to see him be happy so badly.
2. Jules and Emma. Oh god. My heart is fractured in a billion pieces. One minute, I'm warmed all over when Jules stays with Emma in the night. The next, Jules is acting weird and frosty. The next they're in the car, teasing each other and quoting The Art of War. Then they're bonding over that death-defying iratze. Then Jules asks Emma to pick him up cuff links ("I don't care as long as they hold my cuffs together. Otherwise they'll be sad and unlinked." I laughed WAY too hard about this line) and she freaks out because she thinks it's a girlfriend thing to do and is just adorable about the whole thing and later when they're getting in the car, Emma's thinking all possessively. Then oh my GOD that DANCE. Then Emma remembering Jace and Clary and realizing she would never be able to have anything like that with anyone but Jules...ugh. Poor baby. BUT THEN!!! THE BEACH!!! OH MY GODDDDDD. So sweet and loving and hot. But then...the morning after. Ugh. My heart. Then, oh my GOD them talking about their feelings and Emma challenging Jules to walk away and him just saying, "God, I can't." I about lost my damn mind over it. Then after the whippings, Jules taking Emma up to see all his artwork of her and professing his love!! I JUST!!! I CRIED OKAY! And then Jules licking her ear and them being fucking adorable and then...well, god, we all know how the book ended. We all heard me screaming and crying in my car about it. We all heard Julian's and Emma's hearts break. We were there. We all felt it.
3. Cristina cutting Mark's hair was such a sweet and intimate moment. I loved it.
4. Their conversation about The Avengers at the pizzeria was honestly the greatest thing ever. I also loved the whole group convincing the mundane girls that Mark had syphilis and that he was insane because of it.
5. "Do you need any help?"
"I need SO much help you have no idea."
6. Simon and Isabelle are engaged! Jace and Clary are engaged! I'm having heart palpitations. This book was perfect. I need a minute or else I'm going to start crying again. This book is great, just like all its predecessors, and, I'm sure, its successors will be too. This whole thing is gonna be great...it just might take a couple of years.