Ghosts of the Shadow Market

Cassandra Clare’s Ghosts of the Shadow Market came out on Tuesday, and I was so excited to read it! While I know a lot of the novellas came out earlier, I didn’t buy them and decided to wait until this week to read them. I loved this book, and am now excited to try to find time to reread some of these books!

This book assumes you are familiar with The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, and The Dark Artifices. My review may contain spoilers for these books.

Ghosts of the Shadow Market contains ten short stories (some of which are novella length). Jem/Brother Zechariah is a constant presence in these. They should probably be read in order (at least for the first read-through). There is a common thread running through these stories: Jem is looking for the Lost Heir. The stories take place between 1901 (with the children of The Infernal Devices characters) and 2013 (which occurs after The Dark Artifices).

What I Loved

The Characters. Because this book takes place over a long period of time, there are a ton of characters in this book. Some you’ll be familiar with, but there are others that will appear in The Last Hours trilogy. I never realized that Lily (the head of the New York vampires) was so smitten with James Carstairs! It was fun to see little Jace and the little Lightwoods years before The Mortal Instruments, along with the other characters.

The Worldbuilding. This is one of the things that I love about Cassandra Clare’s books. The world and lore is so intertwined and full.

The Historical Background. I’m a student of history, so I’m familiar with The Great Depression, World War II, etc. The book was well-researched, and I even learned something. When London was bombed, the shops tried to stay open. Some of them that had been bombed were still open, hanging out signs saying they were “more open than usual.” I thought that was funny (I checked, and they actually did have these signs out).

The Humor. I laughed out loud in several places in this book. “Isabelle is the love of my life, but her seven-layer dip is like the nine circles of Hell,” Lily’s constant nicknames for Jem, and several other places in the book were quite funny.

The Story. In Ghosts of the Shadow Market, you get to find out things that happened after Queen of Air and Darkness, and how Alec and Magnus ended up adopting Rafael. While it won’t be necessary to read this book to enjoy The Last Hours or The Wicked Powers, this book enriches the Shadowhunter universe.

What Could Be Better

Because The Last Hours won’t be released until next March, it took me a while to figure out who was whose kid (and don’t quiz me even now, I’m still a little fuzzy on these). I still enjoyed the stories that took place in 1901, but I think I will like them better once I’m more familiar with these characters and who is who.

One of the stories takes place in 1989 and one of the characters refers to Cindy Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”. The song came out in 1983 and was mostly popular in that year and 1984. I really couldn’t imagine someone referring to the song in 1989 unless they were hopelessly behind the times. Which perhaps the character is.

Conclusion

If you enjoyed The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, and The Dark Artifices, I recommend this book. If you haven’t read all twelve of those books yet, I recommend you read those first. Ghosts of the Shadow Market adds to the Shadowhunter world and advances the story. It’s made me more excited for Chain of Gold, which is coming out next March!