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Monday, May 28, 2018

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The Dark Artifices, Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare, a book review

The Dark Artifices, Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare is an interesting book. I did like a lot about it, but only recommend it with many reservations.

First, sex is represented in such a way as to suggest most, if not all, of the characters have loose morals where it is concerned, and low regard for the sanctity of it. This along is troubling enough for me to set this one in a pile of books my girls will not be allowed to read until much older. Because of other subjects and the manner in which they are handled, it is a story I will not really encourage my children to read. Any topics covered in a good way aren't worth the problems.

Another problem is the representation of sexuality… although I recognize that bisexuality and homosexuality are becoming more socially acceptable and are often visible, I find it troubling to find it represented as completely acceptable in youth literature. I know I'm on a very unpopular side of this subject.

There are a couple homosexual couples and one of the more major characters is bisexual.

Also, for many fundamentalist Christians (and some others), the amount of and representation of magic would be problematic. This is a lesser issue in my mind, honestly. Definitely something to be aware of, though!

So, the romance part of the story… basically, this girl and this guy are linked magically and forbidden by law to fall in love. They do anyway and are planning to just hide their relationship. But then the girl finds out why the law forbids it and takes matters into her own hands.

The rest of the story is all about how these two figure out who is behind a series of murders, including the girl's parents, and stopping the murderer from fulfilling an evil plan.

It is an interesting premise and story. I did like it. I do not think it is appropriately shelved in the area for teens and YA, though. I guess I'm a bit more conservative than many these days.

Have you read The Dark Artifices, Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare? What did you think of it?

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