Review: Queen of Air and Darkness

Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I do believe Children of Blood and Bone has finally been brought down from #1 to #2 on the Pinecone Awards list, and that's on the strength of this book, the biggest one Cassie Clare's published for us yet. Almost 900 whole pages! And as the conclusion to her best series yet, The Dark Artifices, it's also every bit what we expect a big-name YA finale to be. I'm talking on a level with Deathly Hallows, Mockingjay, or Allegiant here. And that was already to be found in the previous series finales Clare's given us, City of Heavenly Fire and Clockwork Princess. Both of those were epic in size and scope and in feels...but here, she's well and truly outdone herself.


Picking up from the infamously devastating cliffhanger of Lord of Shadows, this book is nothing short of weapons-grade feels from end to end. There's a few good jokes in there, of course, and plenty of action. But we're all so busy reeling from the death that ended the last book, 18 months ago or so, that we're all left in ruins right alongside all our friends and family. And then more twists throw themselves into the mix. A spell to eliminate someone's feelings that leaves this character a hollow shell. The ongoing threat of the Cohort - dear God, they're so aggravating because of how they mirror the alt-right. And a storyline that I think the Shadowhunters TV series kinda dipped into for one episode, but here, if they were to adapt this section of the 'verse to a TV series, it'd take as many as three or four. A storyline that's going to have a lot of impact going forward, especially into The Wicked Powers.

Queen of Air and Darkness takes a very long time to read, but it was, for me, the perfect book to cap off 2018 with. It's quintessentially 2018, quintessentially Clare, and quintessentially dangerously emotional. All the love, especially, and the depths to which love drives us all. I'll also say that while this book is perhaps Clare's most R-rated yet in terms of sexuality (scenes that don't fade to black so much, a brewing polyamorous relationship), it's also, thankfully, not super explicit like some of Sarah J. Maas' books, say.

The only real gripe I have is that one ship in particular doesn't sail as I was really hoping to see above all others. But hey, that's what the next series will be for. Now I hope Clare doesn't intend to have us wait three years or more to continue the series chronologically in The Wicked Powers!

For now, though, to The Dark Artifices, I bid ave atque vale.

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