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make me choose: @alinepenhallow​ asked: alec lightwood or horace dearborn

“And when one day people look back on me and what my life meant, I don’t want them to say, ‘Alec Lightwood fought in the Dark War’ or even ‘Alec Lightwood was Consul once.’ I want them to think, ‘Alec Lightwood loved one man so much he changed the world for him.’ ”

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The girls of The Last Hours- in sketch.

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Queen of Air and Darkness Review

3 out of 5 Stars

NonSpoiler Review 

I am a dedicated TSC blog, and I believe Cassandra Clare can be a great author. I’ve been amazed at how she manages to juggle characters and storylines blending surprises as she weaves different eras and generations together like she did with her TMI finale COHF. I had high expectations that Qoaad would WOW me and I would be amazed at the brilliance of the TDA finale.

That did not happen in this book. For me, there wasn’t so much a WOW, as a HUH?

I’ve seen this happen with other writers who have written successful series of books, where a title is published, and it just isn’t of the same caliber. I don’t know if it was an issue of pressure from the publisher to complete by a certain date, but the entire book felt like a first draft that could have been greatly improved by a ruthless editor, a challenging peer editing group and multiple revisions.

It felt like any random idea Cassie had somehow made it into the book, whether it made sense to the overall story or not. There were so many inconsistencies and random tangents that it made the entire book off key and only added to a lack of continuity. This added to the serious issues with the overall structure of the story; because balancing all of her storylines into a meaningful and coherent overall arc didn’t happen. 

There were too many competing storylines and a huge cast of characters that jumbled everything. This is a personal opinion: I understand TDA is the chronological center of multiple series that connect the Shadowhunter Chronicles but it seemed she spent more time dropping hints or forcing connections (many that we don’t know because half her other series aren’t written yet) or needing to make cameos for every character that has survived a previous TSC series, that she forgot what the main focus of what TDA was about. I feel like there were a lot of things that didn’t quite make sense, because they weren’t really a TDA thing, but something more related to TLH or TEC, but it can’t be explained now because it will be a spoiler, but she decided to leave it in anyway.

I’d been waiting years for answers and while I did get resolution I was disappointed not to see anything unique or wholly new. There was a lot of overlap and repetition from her other series. For a 900 page book it got to be very annoying to see the amount conversations and even whole scenes be a rehash. 

The good news:

*For such a long book it was divided into 3 very different parts. Each section is like its own separate book, so it’s like 3 books in one

*I was attached to this series because I love the characters of Julian and Emma: there is a large chunk of uninterrupted time dedicated to these two without the constant distraction and disruptions from the other multiple storylines of so many other characters. It reminded me of why I loved Lady Midnight (and why it’s still my favorite of the three) even if their circumstances were strange and bizarre.

*There was a good deal of resolution by the end of the story. Even if it were an anticlimactic HUH? instead of a wow! there were for the most part answers

*A really pleasant surprise was the character of Dru. She is one of the best things about this book! She’s a minor character, but with every scene she was adept with emotional realism that was frankly lacking with most of the other main characters. In every scene she was in she had purpose, and did some frankly cool things by the end that expressed her bravery and independence. Finishing Qoaad did not make eager to dive into Cassie’s new series (not if this is what the other books will be like), but if she can write her new series with the same level of quality that she wrote Dru in this book, then TWP will be an automatic winner.

I’ve considered writing a post about why this story didn’t work on a structural level from a writing perspective, but I’ve put QoAD on my bookshelf and really don’t want to have to go back and ever reread it again. As a TSC blogger I’m not really sure where to go from here either. This book wasn’t a great inspiration for me, but I want to try to stay more positive than negative, so I’ll continue to reblog great moodboard edits and fanart.

#queen of air and darkness #qooad #qoaad review #cassandra clare #tda

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This will probably be me all next week. I’m clocking out of tumblr till I’m done with QoaaD and won’t be posting or reblogging anything for a few weeks. Everyone be careful of spoilers out there!

ah books…

http://i.imgur.com/NvSi8LQ.png

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That car scene… oh boy

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I didn’t want to love you like this. It’s the worst idea in the world that I love you like this. But I can’t stop.

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tsc meme: [1/1] Series- The Dark Artifices

No one is ever the villain of their own story. - Emma Carstairs, Lady Midnight, @cassandraclare

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Lady Midnight Deleted Scene

via Cassandra Clare’s email newsletter

Emma discovered the sea caves when she was eleven years old. She’d been at the beach with her parents when she found them — great fingers of gray rock reaching into the ocean, and boring through them, like tunnels in the stone, were the caves. They were open to the ocean on both ends, and they smelled delightful, like sea water and wet rock and dark, secret things. She was thirteen years old when she and Julian declared the sea caves their official meeting place. If anything ever happened at or to the Institute — and they both had nightmares about it, ever since the attack during the Dark War — they would meet at the caves. She was fourteen years old when she first showed the sea caves to Cameron Ashdown. The Ashdowns had come to Los Angeles after the Dark War, easily situating themselves among the small Conclave of Shadowhunters who lived in the city. Although all Conclaves were small now, since the deaths in the war. The Clave was doing everything it could to track down every wayward mundane who might have a drop of Nephilim blood, even if their family had left the Shadowhunters generations ago. Still, it would be decades before they were the strength they once had been. Cameron, his parents, and his younger sister, Paige, moved into a house in Santa Monica and, as soon as they could, arranged to visit the Institute to decide if Paige and Cameron were going to have lessons with the Blackthorns or hire their own tutor. Diana was there to greet them and show them the training rooms, the library, and the classroom. Emma was in the training room, practicing fencing with Livvy. She was taller and stronger than Livvy, but Livvy was lightning-fast on her feet, which gave her the advantage with a saber. Ty and Julian were watching: Ty was cheering for Livvy, and Jules for Emma, as if it were a real match. The door opened, and Cameron and his sister came in with Diana. Emma stopped in her tracks, which allowed Livvy to score with the side of her blade across Emma’s shoulder. “Emma!” she complained. “You’re not paying attention.” But Emma was already pushing her mask back, letting her hair spill down. Cameron Ashdown might have grown up in Idris, but he looked like the perfect California boy, with fiery red hair, tanned skin, broad shoulders, and hazel eyes. His nose looked as if it had been broken before, but it lent his face a charming asymmetry. His sister Paige was a small copy of him, with short red hair and a pointed chin. She regarded Emma with dislike, perhaps because Emma was staring at her brother. Emma had been thinking lately, rather scientifically, about the fact that she was fourteen years old and hadn’t kissed anyone yet. Nor, she thought, growing up in the Blackthorn house, was it likely. They rarely saw other children their age; the Conclave simply wasn’t that big, and now that the Academy in Idris had re-opened, most younger Shadowhunters were being trained there. She thought of Julian, the way that when he smiled at her, he seemed to put his whole self into the smile. The way it lit up the room and made her heart catch. Cameron Ashdown was looking at her curiously as Diana made the introductions; Livvy was tugging off her helmet. Lowering her blade, Emma smiled at Cameron, putting all of herself into it. When he smiled back, he looked dazzled. Later, after the Ashdowns had gone, Ty said, “I didn’t like them.” Julian ruffled his hair. Instead of saying what Emma had expected — something about how Ty had to give them a chance — he said, “I didn’t like them either.” “Why not?” she asked, curious. He shrugged. “I just didn’t.” “Well, too bad,” said Diana. “You kids need to spend time with some people who aren’t Blackthorns.” She eyed Emma. “Or Carstairs.” The Ashdowns came back, the next weekend, and the next weekend after that. It was the summer, and the group spent their time at the beach, getting sunburned, swimming in the water — all except Emma — and building sandcastles with the younger children. Ty built meticulous sandcastles, carefully sculpted, while Livvy’s were shapeless and towering, collapsing under their own weight as they climbed toward the sky. They buried Tavvy in sand, and Drusilla sat cross-legged and lost in a book — Paige was nearly the same age as her, but the girls ignored each other. Later, Emma thought that should have been a warning to her. Later she blamed herself for everything. She was fourteen when she brought Cameron to see the caves. He had been teasing her about never going into the water; she laughed, but didn’t tell him why. Instead she drew him away from the group and brought him into her favorite of the caves: not the biggest, but the longest and most winding. It was possible to find a bend in the tunnel where the ocean couldn’t be seen from either side. She drew Cameron in after her and faced him, her heart pounding. She studied the hazel color of his eyes in the shadows, their mixture of blue and brown and green. She held out her hands, not knowing how to be anything but direct. “Do you want to kiss me?” she said. He swallowed hard and nodded. He was shaking as he pulled her toward him and kissed her gently, her head tipping back, her hands finding purchase on his shoulders. She stroked his arms, lightly, timidly; his mouth was warm and soft, and he tasted like strawberry ice cream. Kissing was everything she’d hoped it would be. It was like a good kind of drowning, filling her ears and eyes with forgetfulness, blocking out the crashing sound of the waves against the shore. Cameron’s touch became more urgent, sliding up from her waist, and she leaned harder against him, and that was when she heard someone scream. 

It sounded like a scream of anger rather than pain or fear, but Emma had heard screams at a distance before and she tore away from Cameron without a thought and burst into a run. He followed her. When they reached the beach where they’d left the others, they both stared: Ty was sitting on the sand, and Julian was holding Paige by the collar of her t-shirt, his face white with rage. Later, Emma found out what had happened. Livvy and Dru had gone to collect seashells; Julian was sketching up by the dunes, and Ty had been making a sandcastle with Paige half-heartedly helping him. He’d picked up a piece of sea glass and become fascinated with it. Ty became fascinated with things sometimes: the way an ink blot spread across a page, or the way dye feathered into water. He would sit and look at them, lost in contemplation. If he was especially distracted, it would take a gentle hand on his shoulder, or his name spoken softly, to rouse him. But Paige had done neither of those things. When she’d asked him what he was doing and he hadn’t reacted, she’d thrown a handful of sand into his face. Ty had come back to himself choking and blinded and gasping. He’d started rocking, his hands fluttering, his butterflies frantic. “Freak,” Paige had snapped. “Stop doing that, you freak.” And then Julian had been there, hauling Paige bodily to her feet. As Emma ran up, Cameron beside her, they heard him hiss. “If you ever,” he said, “ever, call my brother names again, I’ll kill you. I don’t care if you’re a girl. I’ll kill you.” “Stop it! Stop!” Cameron darted ahead of Emma and yanked his sister away from Julian; she promptly started crying. Julian looked at him in a daze. In the distance, Emma could see Livvy and Dru running toward them across the sand. “Get her away,” he said. “Both of you get away, and don’t come back.” Cameron turned to Emma, his face open, puzzled. “We could talk about this,” he said. “We — we should talk about this.” Emma looked from him, to Julian, who was crouching down by Ty now, saying his name, softly, his voice full of love and panic. And she turned to Cameron, who was holding his red-faced sister and looking at her with a look that said that he expected her to take his side. That their kiss in the caves had been a signal that her allegiance had changed. That she would be loyal to him now, and not Julian. “Go away,” she said. “Like Julian said. And don’t ever bring her back.” A few weeks later, she and Julian left for Idris, for their parabatai ceremony. When they came back, Paige had been sent to the Academy. A month after that, Emma began dating Cameron for the first time.

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Cameron: this is my boyfriend, Julian, and that’s Julian’s girlfriend, Emma, and this is Emma’s girlfriend ,Cristina, and this is Cristina’s boyfriend, Mark, and this is Mark’s and Cristina’s boyfriend, Kieran, and this is Kieran’s boyfriend, Diego, and this is Diego’s bethroded that no one likes and everybody wants to punch, Zara.

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The Unseelie King: I have an army

Julian: we have an Emma

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This is an amazing post! I did a similar analysis for the LoS poem, Dreamland, here. Dreamland is about a lone foreigner travelling through a ghostly land ruled by death and I’d love to know what you think of the two poems having any crossover between the books. Thule is very important in Dreamland (ruled by an Eidolon demon and it is my impression is that it is a place the dead go and I’m wondering if you think Thule is the mysterious place Julian and Emma will go to, and if that is where this ‘submerged city’ could exist? 

QoAaD and theories based on the chapter titles

Today, Cassandra Clare released the chapter titles of QoAaD and as a faithful literature student, I decided to analyse the poem they are based on.‘The City in the Sea’ by Edgar Allan Poe (1845) is the poem they are inspired from so I will be analysing the poem and theorising any possible events. The chapter titles aren’t chronological to the linear structure of the poem so this will go according to the poem and not the sequence of the titles.   I’ll be mostly blurting out random thoughts so this is just some general points of interest and maybe they’re far-fetched but let’s just get into it. 

The poem was initially published under the titles of  'The Doomed City’, and 'The City of Sin’ and tells the story of a city ruled by the personification of Death, perhaps alluding to many deaths in the upcoming novel. The city resides near “melancholy waters” (title of chapter 2) and the water element has been a theme throughout 'The Dark Artifices’ and is a key aspect of all three book covers. The poem ends with the city sinking, which many argue is symbolic of the descent to Hell - most likely caused by mortal sin. One interpretation of this is the downfall of the Shadowhunter race by the sin of some - an idea the Cohort have already undertaken as they strive to restore the Nephilim to the old 'golden age’. The submersion of the city could allude to the downfall of the Cohort that is brought about by their own ideology, or the downfall of individual Shadowhunters due to unspeakable deeds they have committed (perhaps Julian’s punishment for his willingness to transgress morals and laws for the benefit of his loved ones, seen when he was open to the idea of severing all parabatai bonds so he could be with Emma whilst also keeping his family). 

The city is located “far down within the dim West”, which is the direction of the setting sun and could symbolise the descent from light to darkness as night-time prevails in the poem. Downfall is a key theme and as “everything changes” in  QoAaD, it’s quite obvious that dark and sinister forces will arise. “Holy heaven come down” and “Hell, rising”, convey a feeling of good forces being defeated or supressed by the villainous opposition. The most powerful villain yet is said make an appearance so the allusions are probably spot on as the Shadowhunters will struggle against a powerful enemy. 

A chilling rhyming couplet goes: “Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best / Have gone to their eternal rest”, suggesting that people from both the 'good’ (Livvia’s Watch etc) and from the 'bad’ (Cohort, Unseelie King) side will die. Cassandra Clare hasn’t revealed a precise death count which supports the idea that many will be lost. Death’s city is described as elaborate and impressive with “kingly halls” and “marvellous” shrines, but the magnificence is juxtaposed because the architecture is “long forgotten” and “shadowy”. There is an overwhelming absence of life and it reminds me of Edom’s history from CoHF, a reality where Shadowhunters perished because they lacked certain equipment such as seraph blades, but ultimately because they were too prideful to accept the help of Downworlders in order to fight demons. This is a chilling parallel to the current situation in Idris, where a blight caused by the Unseelie King is not only present in large parts of Faerie, but it has also spread into parts of Brocelind Forest. Shadowhunters would be unable to use their tools in the case of an invasion, and if the Cohort’s ideology spreads and Downworlders are alienated, the Nephilim could perish exactly as they did in Edom. The presence of ruins is also in the cover of QoAaD where the ruins of a city are seen in the background.

“Babylon” is the title of chapter 3, and I believe will focus on the Cohort. The term 'Babylon’ is used by Rastafarians (a religious movement in Jamaica) to refer to oppressive colonial institutions as Jamaica was a British colony. There is an inextricable link between the Cohort’s fascist ideology and the ideology shared by colonial powers who saw non-white races as inherently inferior, and the Cohort represents the rise of extremism in contemporary US politics.  Perhaps Downwolders will rally up in opposition to the Cohort (maybe ally themselves with Livvia’s Watch) the same way the Rastafarians do with Britain’s oppressive establishments that are still present in Jamaica to this day. The title of chapter 15 is “Turrets and Shadows” which likely alludes to Julian’s dark nature as he is further isolated from others by his secrets. There are plenty of theories on Julian’s downfall and he is an anti-hero so this isn’t surprising. Similarly to the tower covered by thorns on his bedroom wall, Julian is metaphorically trapped by his own darkness (his lies and deceitful nature). Cassie has revealed that Julian will be more isolated in QoAaD than Emma will be because he has no one to talk to, to share his burden with, and this isolation reflects the entrapment of a tower. Julian is a Blackthorn and his fairy tale is Sleeping Beauty where he is Beauty that lies in the tower so this imagery is very familiar with his character. 

Another terrifying chapter title is that of 31: “A redder glow.” In Poe’s poem, this is about the water’s colour right before Death’s city begins sinking, but in the context of TSC, this is frighteningly close to the glow of the demon tower’s in Alicante during a demon invasion. A war is certainly coming and will likely take place in Alicante like it did in TMI. 

Lastly, “Hell Rising” of chapter 18 reminds me of Sebastian’s quote, “If I cannot move  Heaven, I will raise Hell”, something that Satan said in Paradise Lost by John Milton. Sebastian’s known legacy right now is Ash who is generally accepted by the fandom to be his son which makes me question if Ash will follow his father’s footsteps.  

I might add more later but I’m too tired at the moment, let me know what you guys think of this! I finally put my literature skills into use for this fandom since I don’t draw or write fanfiction and doing this was really fun (and time-consuming). I’m posting this on the 10th of November 2018 and please tag me if you want to use any of these points so I can read your theories!

#city in the sea #dreamland #edgar alan poe #queen of air and darkness #ultima thule

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starting fresh

hi, it’s me anniek, i used to be @octavianblackthorn, but that blog got suspended because of me being a ridiculous url hoarder. i’ve used the sideblog @faheyjesper for a while, hoping i’d get my other account back, but it’s been 2 months so i’ve given up hope. i decided to start fresh with a new blog, with mixed feelings, but here i am! i would greatly appreciate signal boosts so people can find me again. if you’re new to my blog, hi, i mostly post ya literature and mythology here!

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I can’t believe its 2018 and people still think Will and Jem are straight. literally every single interaction they have it’s like….there is no heterosexual explanation for that

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There’s no way Magnus didn’t call a very confused Ragnor around Christmas of 1966 and sing the entirety of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” at him, laughing especially hard at the ‘seasick crocodile’ line.

Ragnor probably hung up and called Catarina to see if Magnus had sustained a head injury.

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the inhabitants of the los angeles institute

“you belong where you are loved..”

@cassandraclare

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“Zhe shi jie shang, wo shi zui ai ne de.” 🖤  @cassandraclare

Commissions are open! Info below.

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