Review: Ghosts of the Shadow Market

Ghosts of the Shadow Market by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The third compilation of previously e-book exclusive Shadowhunters-world novellas is a pretty unique one, with all ten of its stories centering on the Shadow Market that's been increasingly explored as Clare has written more and more series in this world. The stories in this compilation take place in chronological order, going back as far as the 19th century of the Infernal Devices era, going through the early 1900s with some hints about what to expect in The Last Hours, plus some unexpected mid-to-late-20th century points that have hitherto been unexplored in the larger Shadowhunters universe. By the time of the second half of the compilation, we're pretty close to the modern day, with most of these stories being set in 2012 or 2013 and having a lot of references to The Mortal Instruments, The Dark Artifices, and The Eldest Curses. So yeah, even though a lot of these stories came out during 2018, it's actually a better idea to do what I did and wait till the print compilation came out, well after both Queen of Air and Darkness and The Red Scrolls of Magic. It's a more rewarding experience that way, granting the reader the ability to understand a lot of the Easter eggs a lot more clearly...and meanwhile, there's still room to interpret a lot of scenes as signs and portents of what's to come in both The Last Hours and The Wicked Powers. So while this may be the last Cassandra Clare book we get this decade, she's looking to start the next one off strongly when Chain of Gold blesses our shelves in March 2020!

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