Book Review
Title: Nothing but Shadows (Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy #4)
Author: Cassandra Clare & Sarah Rees Brennan
Genre: YA/Fantasy/Paranormal/Romance
Rating: *****
Review: When I learnt that this story was going to follow only on Simon and Jace’s time at the Shadowhunter Academy but that of James Herondale, Tessa, and Will’s oldest child I was so excited as we meet him as a toddler in The Whitechapel Fiend and it is a prelude to the Last Hours series which is my next series in the Shadowhunter universe. As James arrives at the Academy with his father, we get to see Christopher and Thomas Lightwood, the children of Gabriel and Gideon as well as Matthew Fairchild, Charlotte and Henry’s child who are all friends. This is an issue for James because despite looking like his father he is more like is mother, a quiet and shy child. He was hoping to become friends with the Lightwood boys but Matthew who is older and very confident has beaten him to it and we also know from the present timeline that Matthew and James didn’t really like each other at all. James is also hoping to find his parabatai at the Academy but I am excited to see how this progresses.
James has a hard time fitting in at the Academy and with making friends and this is only made worse when he manifests some warlock magic during a training exercise gone wrong, which is sort of expected since his mother is half-warlock but he is able to take runes unlike Tessa. Due to this he is moving to stay with the mundanes hoping to Ascend but most of the Academy is terrified of him and make fun of him and his ability to turn into a shadow. In a later training exercise where the students have to hunt and kill demons a student is killed and James uses his magic to destroy the demon which leads to him being expelled from the Academy and has to return home. Tessa is obviously upset when Jem explains he gave James the chance to return home and he refuses because he knew Tessa would blame herself for it when it was beyond her control. In the wake of this Matthew also gets expelled by blowing up the South Wing of the Academy because he wants to return home to his father, Henry and make sure he is ok. Will is reluctant to bring Matthew back with James because he knows how Charlotte will react but when Matthew claims they are going to be parabatai he relents. James has also worked out his issues with Matthew as they were both jealous of each other and even tells Matthew that he would like to parabatai with him as they balance each other out in addition to complimenting each other.
Overall, I really liked Nothing but Shadows as it introduces us to some of the main characters that we will get to know in the Last Hours series and gives us a feel for the children of the characters we came to love in the Infernal Devices series and I can’t wait to see more of them.
Buy it here:
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Also see: City of Bones
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