Ghosts of the Shadow Market

Ghosts of the Shadow Market is a companion to Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, and The Dark Artifices series written in collaboration with Maureen Johnson, Sarah Rees Brennan, Robin Wasserman, and Kelly Link. It’s a world full of Shadowhunters — human Angel hybrids with a mandate to protect the rest of humanity from demons, Downworlders — anybody who is neither Shadowhunter nor demon, such as vampires, werewolves, and faeries — and, of course, demons. Beings that are neither Shadowhunters nor Downworlders — ordinary humans, in other words — are called mundanes. Some mundanes, however, have what’s called the Sight. This means that they can see everything: Shadowhunters, Downworlders, and possibly even demons.

Ghosts of the Shadow Market is an anthology of stories following James Carstairs, a character from The Infernal Devices. He’s on a mission to find the lost Herondale — someone from another Shadowhunter family whose ancestor went rogue, and so they don’t know the full story of their heritage — and they don’t really want to.

For longtime fans of Clare’s work, this is a treat. It’s fun to see characters from other stories incorporated into brand-new ones. Some of the characters themselves are brand-new, and that’s really fun as well. However, this means that it does help to have some knowledge of the other books. If a reader is new to all of it, The Ghosts of the Shadow Market isn’t the book they want to start with.

But it’s still great. Adventurous, warm and fuzzy, everything Clare’s audience has come to expect and is probably what makes her “the new queen of fantasy.” At least that’s what The Wall Street Journal calls her.

Not to mention the suspense is off the charts. Even when things get so sad that someone might have to put the book down for a little while, the need to know what happens next is enough to pull them back in.

While this is definitely a stay-up-late-on-the-edge-of-your-seat page turner, it’s also full of stories that the reader will want to savor. They’re so adorably warm and fuzzy that the heart seems to spontaneously melt.

Even though it’s definitely fantasy, the characters feel like friends. People that readers would hang out with, and maybe even look up to, in real life.