Book Review
Title: Cast Long Shadows (Ghosts of the Shadow Market #2)
Author: Cassandra Clare & Sarah Rees Brennan
Genre: YA/Fantasy/Paranormal/Romance
Rating: *****
Review: This story follows Matthew Fairchild as he discovers the Shadow Market, it takes place some years forward from Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy as he and James Herondale are already parabatai but something happens at the Shadow Market that Matthew can’t tell anyone about and I was excited to dive in. The story opens in 1901 with Jem heading to the Shadow Market, a Downworlder market, on a mission and he happens to come across Matthew who seems right at home there among the Downworlders. We then jump back two years to 1899 when James is being expelled from the Shadowhunter Academy and we learn of a conversation between Matthew and Alastair Carstairs where Alastair makes the allegation that Matthew isn’t Henry’s child but the unclaimed child of Gideon Lightwood because of how close he is with Charlotte and how their appearance are similar which leads Matthew in a rage to blow up a wing of the Academy and get himself expelled but it was something that he could never forget and then we return to 1901.
It seems that Matthew visits the Shadow Market often and Jem gets to see first-hand, that Matthew has more in common with the Downworlder community than his own but we can also see Matthew making references to Jem knowing Gideon well and we know that he is trying to find out whether Alastair’s accusations are true or not without being obvious about it. We also see Matthew use both humour and confidence to cover up the fact he feels threatened, upset or insecure about something. Matthew continues his normal life but we know he purchased a truth serum from the Market and intends to use it in order to find out if there is any truth in Alastair’s statements but we also remember Jem’s warning that not everything in the Shadow Market was for delight and this might the cause of his greatest sin, the thing he couldn’t even tell James about.
This story got so dark towards the end as Matthew uses the truth potion on his mother in her favourite scones but Charlotte suffers a bad reaction to it and it takes both Jem and Tessa to save her life but they couldn’t save the life of the baby she was carrying. This is a devastating blow to the family as they were hoping that the child would be a daughter and Gideon was escorting Charlotte to make sure she didn’t overwork herself. Jem obviously know that Matthew is behind this and why and he urges Matthew to come clean about it but he can’t let himself do that and pretends that he has no idea what Jem is talking about which obviously disappoints Jem but he promises Matthew his silence. This singular event completely crushes Matthew and I wonder whether this will appear at some point in the Last Hours series.
Buy it here:
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Also see: City of Bones
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