Too many characters, not enough interest
Cassandra Clare’s dry spell
The beautiful cover art for “Queen of Air and Darkness” lies to any potential readers about the book’s true quality. The anticipation proved to be in vain for this unnecessary finale to an unnecessary trilogy.
December 18, 2018
The last of book of Cassandra Clare’s latest trilogy, “The Queen of Air and Darkness,” is just as dreary and dragged out as the dreary and dragged out title might suggest.
Set in a thoroughly overused setting, in the world of shadowhunters once again, you can’t help but wonder if she’s capable of thinking up anything else.
This last book was supposed to bring everything to an end with a bang, with something actually being done about the forbidden romance and the tortured soul, but to no avail.
— Staff Writer Grace Maneein
Her first book in the series, “Lady Midnight,” tells a tale of forbidden romance (because it’s a Clare novel) and an attempt to stop someone from bringing someone back from the dead.
The second continues the journey with the continued story of forbidden romance and a tortured soul who was wrongly brought back from the dead who also happens to have possession of an all-important spellbook.
This last book was supposed to bring everything to an end with a bang, with something actually being done about the forbidden romance and the tortured soul, but to no avail.
Or maybe something happened. I wouldn’t know, as I didn’t care enough in the story to finish the book. So what went wrong?
In a nutshell, the characters. Or more specifically, the fact that Clare has too many of them. There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of them. They’re all full and dynamic characters. But the fact that she feels the need to narrate from the point of view of every protagonist is simply unnecessary. While this approach had worked in the previous two books in this trilogy, the cast of characters had been growing longer and longer to the point where opening with the points of view of thirteen or so main characters is simply too fractured.
It’s because of this that the novel became unenjoyable. The plot became much too confusing to actually follow, cluttered with the emotions of all of those characters. Worse, everything from the characters to the people to the pacing of the book seemed to be at an eerie standstill, as nothing seemed new or enjoyable in what Clare wrote. And that’s for one simple reason — it wasn’t.
While writing a prequel trilogy to her bestselling series “The Mortal Instruments” was smart, writing a third series, heralding the same heroes made in the first book is agitating.
Nothing is original in her newest series, and even as the plot supposedly draws to a close in this last book, it’s bland and unappetizing. She’s reusing every plot device she’s ever used to lead to the same endings she always goes for.
If there’s anything to be said about this series, let it be this: don’t waste your time or money. Pick up another book.
