All the Shadowhunters were beautiful, like moonlight shearing off the edges of broken glass: lovely and deadly. Beautiful things, cruel things, cruel in that way that only people who absolutely believed in the rightness of their cause could be cruel. 
 I've been a massive fan of the Shadowhunters books for almost half of my life. I read TMI--the original trilogy--about nine years ago, and have followed each new release since with great anticipation. (I have a vivid memory of bringing a copy of City of Bones--you know, that old cover that had Jace's shirtless chest on it--to the beach one day, and my friend's mom thinking it was erotica and telling me that she didn't think that book looked like it was appropriate for me.) I know there are some people who don't particularly like the fact that CC has continued to write in this universe, but I personally love it. It's incredible how richly developed and complex the characters and settings become with each book. The Dark Artifices is exploring so many new parts of the Shadowhunter world, and I loved how its plot intertwines with both new and familiar places and characters. 
 First of all, I just want to address why this wasn't a five-star read for me. 
 As much as I loved Lord of Shadows, I'm docking one star because the pacing and plot were kinda all over the place. (Honestly, if I didn't already have so much established love for these characters and this world, my rating would probably be closer to 3.5 stars.) It took me a while to really get into the story. Not much seemed to happen for the first third of the book, and the plot was still meandering somewhat aimlessly until the last third AKA when everyone finally got all their shit on the same page and started making sense. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the entire book because these characters are pretty much my life and I could--usually--happily read about them doing anything. BUT I did feel like the beginning of the book was way too focused on catching up on all the characters' feelings and emotional drama. It took me almost two weeks to read this, which is probably a record for me when it comes to Cassandra Clare books, and I kept putting it down because of the frustrating plotlessness of the first half. 
 Now that I've got that off my chest, let's talk about what I did love. 
 ***the rest of this review will contain some minor spoilers*** 
 TDA has one of the largest casts of main characters I've ever read. It's been over a year since I read Lady Midnight, so I struggled a bit at first to keep the names of all the Blackthorn kids straight, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly. It's incredible that despite there being roughly 9 main characters (I'm counting Emma, Cristina, Kieran, and all the Blackthorns excluding Tavvy because he's too small to count as a real human yet), each person has a well-developed and individual personality. I genuinely loved all of them, which is something I can rarely say about a book. There's also just so much love between all of the characters and my heart breaks for how much they already have and will continue to sacrifice for each other. 
 As fantastic as each character is, though, there were definitely a few who really stood out in this book. 
 Mark was my favorite, which surprised me because I didn't remember loving him quite this much in the first book. He's just such a genuinely good person, but he's really struggling to figure out where he fits into the Shadowhunter and Faerie worlds. He's trying so hard to be a normal human but he's awkward sometimes (and if that isn't relatable AF idk what is). Mark has been through so much and faced so much hatred but he still genuinely cares about people and the world and ugh my heart breaks for this boy. 
 One of my absolute favorite parts of this book was Diana's plotline. This is a non-spoilery review so I won't go into too many details, but it was heartbreaking to hear about the struggles she'd faced to truly be herself, and how the Clave still blocked her from helping the people she loved. It made my heart so happy that she found someone who she could share her story with, and I'm really looking forward to seeing more of her in the next book. 
 Ty is such a fantastically written and important character. He's a fifteen-year-old who's grown up autistic in a world that has little understanding of mental disabilities, and yet he is never presented as anything less than a strong, intelligent, and capable Shadowhunter. The way Kit and Livvy and the rest of the family help him to work around some of the challenges he faces is so kind and considerate and made me cry a couple of times. Kids--and adult--like Ty deserve to be able to read about characters like them, characters who may experience the world differently than most people but are no less capable. Additionally, people who may not have encountered autistic people in their lives also need to read about these characters. Whether we are conscious of it or not, representation influences the way we interact with and understand people who are different from us, and that's why good representation is so important. It makes all of us better more empathetic humans. 
 Moving on to the relationships in this book......To sum it up, they're a hot fucking mess. I cannot remember ever reading a book with such tangled romantic relationships between so many different characters. There aren't really love triangles, there aren't even any kind of recognizable geometric shapes. I'm honestly so stressed about this because I just want all of these amazing characters to be happy but ???? I have absolutely no clue how any of this is going to work out and it's low-key terrifying. 
 Emma and Julian destroy me, like they care about each other so much and the fact that they can't be together is hurting both of them and I just wanna cry for them because they deserve to be happy with each other and it seems like there is genuinely no solution?? Also Ty and Kit !!!! I know it hasn't really happened yet so for now they just have a cute friendship but knowing that's where it's going and that we're gonna get more books about them is so exciting!!! And then Mark and Kieran and Cristina have this weird thing where I feel like they all kinda like each other so who tf knows where that's going, I'd be down for them to have a threesome tho. 
 There were also some wonderful friendships in this book! I love how much Emma and Cristina support each other and help each other through hard times and difficult decisions, and the Ty/Kit/Livvy squad was friendship goals. 
 I absolutely love the fact that the TMI and TID characters appear in this series as well.......but it's also really scary because if anything happens to my favs I don't even know what I'll do. (Side note: how fucking adorable are Alec and Magnus and their kids I just want them to live a happy life together) 
 Anyway, although the characters and ships were amazing, one of the most powerful aspects of this book for me was its message. 
 I had mixed feelings about Zara as a character when she was introduced. I was frustrated by her at first because she seemed to have been thrown in to fulfill the archetypal role of the bitchy popular girl, but as we got to know her it became clear that she was much more--and much worse--than that. It was incredibly difficult to read about her, because there are unfortunately many people like her who exist in this world: people who spew hatred and prejudice and rhetoric that urges listeners to resist social progress, hearkening back to a so-called age of former glory that never truly existed. It can be easy to disregard them at first, to dismiss these people as simply a fringe group of radicals who won't actually manage to do anything with their ideas, but this book shows just how far a group like that can rise if they are allowed to continue unchecked. Zara Dearborn (read as: Tomi Lahren's long-lost twin), her father, and their band of followers are dangerous. 
 Cristina (I'm pretty sure this quote was her, please correct me if I'm wrong) sums it up best: 
 "When a decision like that is made by a government, it emboldens those who are already prejudiced to speak their deepest thoughts of hate. They assume they are simply brave enough to say what everyone really thinks." 
 This book does a really fantastic job of portraying institutionalized racial prejudice, and how terrifyingly easy it is for radical groups to normalize it. Shadowhunters' belief of their superiority over Downworlders and mundanes has been a common theme throughout both TMI and TID, but The Dark Artifices finally tackles this subject head-on. There's talk of creating a registry of Downworlders, of maintaining a distance between them and the Nephilim, supposedly for the benefit and safety of both groups. So many of the main characters' frustrations, anger, and despair in the face of such blatant institutionalized prejudice form a chilling parallel to the current events of our own world. This book makes it abundantly clear that fear and isolation are never the answer, and if--as Kit suggests--you look into how these patterns have played out over the course of mundane history, they almost universally lead to further violence and hatred. Similarly to what I mentioned above about the importance of Ty's character, this plot is important. When we read about these trends in books, we can see the horror and wrongness of them, but it's often more difficult to address the ones we witness in real life. If an issue doesn't immediately affect you, it can be easy to remain passive, to disregard it and assume it will blow over. This book reminds us that is not the case, that if such hatred is ignored, the wounds it leaves will only continue to fester. Changing a social stigma starts with individual people, with challenging the assumptions that you and many of the people you know may never have thought to question. 
 I think that's all I have to say, apologies for how insanely long this review was. I have A LOT of thoughts and feelings about this book and this series, so thanks for bearing with me. <3 
 Favorite quotes (obvs somewhat spoilery): 
 "I couldn't keep a fish alive," she said. "I kill plants just by looking at them." 
 "I suspect I would have the same problem," Mark said, eyeing the fish. "It is too bad--I was going to name it Magnus, because it has sparkly scales." 
 There was something about him, something indefinably strange, a trace of the wildness of faerie that never failed to make Emma think of untrammeled, wide-open spaces, of freedom and lawlessness. I am a lost boy, his eyes seemed to say. Find me. 
 "There was never anything like a chance of redemption for Sebastian. But it doesn't stop the dreams, does it? In my dreams, I still sometimes see the brother I might have had, in some other world. The one with green eyes. And you might see the friend you had in Malcolm. When people die, our dreams of what they could be die with them. Even if ours is the hand that ends them." 
 "There is truth in stories," said Arthur. "There is truth in one of your paintings, boy, or in a subset or a couplet from Homer. Fiction is truth even if it is not fact. If you believe only in facts and forget stories, your brain will live, but your heart will die." 
 But you couldn't speak to fear, couldn't tell it the truth: fear lived in your bones. 
 Emma drew Cortana. It flashed like the setting sun, just before it drowned in the sea. 
 So this is the Wild Hunt, he thought. This freedom, this expanse, this ferocity of joy. For the first time, he understood how and why Mark's choice to stay with his family might not have been an easy one. For the first time he thought in wonder of how much his brother must love him after all, to have given up the sky for his sake. 
 "Everyone is afraid of something. We fear things because we value them. We fear losing people because we love them. We fear dying because we value being alive. Don't wish you didn't fear anything. All that would mean is that you didn't feel anything." 
 "There's something about a place you've been with someone you love. It takes on a meaning in your mind. It becomes more than a place. It becomes a distillation of what you felt for each other. The moments you spend in a place with someone... they become part of its bricks and mortar. Part of its soul." 
 Julian sought Mark in the crowd on the steps. He was standing with his hands behind his back, exchanging a mistrustful look with a carved stone garden gnome. "Your pretense does not fool me, gnome," he muttered. "My eye will be upon you." 
 "So what's the Herondale family motto? 'Chiseled but angsty'?" 
 He shrugged. 'If you don't know what your last name is, it's probably Herondale'?" 
 "I had never realized before how much you can take from someone by not allowing them the words they need to describe themselves." 
 He caught her by the wrist, brought her hand to his bare chest. Splayed her fingers over his heart. It beat against her palm, like a fist punching its way through his sternum. "Break my heart, he said. "Break it in pieces. I give you permission."