Ghosts of Shadow Market by Cassandra Clare (and others)

6/13/2019

SYNOPSIS

The Shadow Market is a meeting point for faeries, werewolves, warlocks and vampires. There the Downworlders buy and sell magical objects, make dark bargains, and whisper secrets they do not want the Nephilim to know.

Through two centuries, however, there has been a frequent visitor to the Shadow Market from the City of Bones, the very heart of the Shadowhunters. As a Silent Brother, Brother Zachariah is sworn keeper of the laws and lore of the Nephilim.

But once he was a Shadowhunter called Jem Carstairs, and his love, then and always, is the warlock Tessa Gray.

Follow Brother Zachariah and see, against the backdrop of the Shadow Market’s dark dealings and festive celebrations, Anna Lightwood’s first romance, Matthew Fairchild’s great sin and Tessa Gray plunged into a world war. Valentine Morgenstern buys a soul at the Market and a young Jace Wayland’s soul finds safe harbor.

In the Market is hidden a lost heir and a beloved ghost, and no one can save you once you have traded away your heart. Not even Brother Zachariah...

Synopsis from Goodreads

PERSONAL REVIEW

I always find it hard to review anthologies because there are so many stories and writers involved that I don't always know how to properly get my thoughts on paper. In the case of Ghosts of Shadow Market, there's an overarching theme in the novellas that make it a bit easier to review as a whole as the stories are basically following Jem's journey to finding the Lost Herondale. Because there are so many characters, timelines, and stories within this anthology, I'm going to concentrate on what I thought of the novellas as a whole and which stories were my favourite.

Rereading My Favourite Novella
Hands down, my favourite novella was "The Land I Lost", the story of Alec Lightwood meeting Rafael, an orphaned Shadowhunter living in the Brazilian Shadow Market. I've reread this story so many time and continue to fall more and more in love with it. It is Alec at his finest: protective, in charge, and changing the world for the better. I also enjoyed that he worked with Jem and Tessa, because it gave readers the chance to see how far all of them had come. I can't wait to see more of Alec and his family in the future!

Additional Two Stories
There are two new stories with this collection that had not been published independently, and there are definitely giving us HUGE hints for what Cassandra Clare has in store for this series in the future. No spoilers, but Queen of Air and Darkness ended with two characters making their way from Thule to this world...and we are seeing them both again in the final story in this collection! It gets intense, we get insight into one of these characters AND we're given a glimpse into how Kit is doing. I think it's safe to say that the next series is going to be about Ty and Kit growing up...and I can't wait!

Interesting Bridge to Clare's New Series
This book is definitely meant to be a way to encourage interest into Clare's new series, taking us back to England and meeting the children of Tessa, Will, Ceily, Gabriel and the gang. While I appreciate their stories (and I'm really excited to spend more time with them!) I feel like we've been getting these stories for so long and it's really dragging out. Since Tales from Shadowhunter Academy was released, we've started learning about these new characters, but without an actual series, I feel like we've been left hanging. Let's publish these guys already!

Overall, this is another book that's really best for fans of the Shadowhunter series. You'll need to have a decent idea about what's happening in the series to really appreciate the characters that we're meeting. That said, this is a really fun series of short stories that give loyal readers some background into characters and insight into what we can expect to see coming.

FINAL RATING: 3.5/5