Ariel Elson

The series as a whole is unnecessarily long and the relationships and conflicts between most of the characters seemed random and pointless at times. City of Bones was Cassie Clare's first book, so even though it wasn't the best and the plot of the book as a whole was mediocre at best, I won't judge too harshly. I didn't understand Jace and Clary's romance, or more importantly, how it started. Some of the characters were lacking any actually likable traits, and every novel written after City of Glass didn't feel necessary and just felt like a bunch of fanservice. While all this may be true to me, please note that I did read the franchise out of order and began with Cassie's latest series in the Shadow Hunter Chronicles, The Dark Artifices. And I am also I high level reader for my age. So of course going back and reading her old books after reading her most recent works was like reading a children's novel to me. However, I believe what Cassie needs to work on most in her books overall is character perspective and proper buildup. Especially at the conclusion of her individual shadowhunters series. Though I can clearly tell her writing has improved overtime, she needs to focus on more recent and relevant characters instead of constantly bringing the old TMI gang back for no reason and pace herself better with her conclusions. She also needs to find a way to seriously make better "roll credits" moments. I definitely felt like most of these elements were lacking in Queen of Air and Darkness. The conclusion to The Dark Artifices series. While I can say Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows were my favorite books in Clare's franchise, Queen was very disappointing and didn't do the series any justice. Quite sad honestly. But though I am not a crazy fan of all her work, I can say that she can easily improve if she just learns to see the difference between hate comments and constructive criticism. A problem I noticed this author seems to struggle with.