Highly Addictive Fantasy: Review of Ghosts of the Shadow Market by Cassandra Clare

Fans of Cassandra Clare will be beyond excited to get their hands on yet another book from this unstoppable author. Ghosts of the Shadow Market is a Shadowhunters novel and a companion to the New York Times Bestselling series The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices. Like The Bane Chronicles and Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, these short stories are collaborations between Cassandra Clare and an exciting group of fantasy and YA writers, Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, Robin Wasserman, and Kelly Link.

Linked by the Shadow Market where faeries, werewolves, warlocks and vampires gather to buy and trade, the stories are centred around Silent Brother Zachariah who was once Shadowhunter Jem Carstairs. Despite the market being a place primarily for Downworlders, Brother Zachariah has been visiting these strange and sometimes dangerous gatherings looking for a relic from his past.

Initially released as individual eBooks, each of the ten stories in the collection are different and focus on another family and era including the Herondales, Lightwoods and Fairchild family. We learn more about Jem and Tessa, how Jace Wayland joined the Lightwoods, watch as Matthew Fairchild learns a tragic lesson and Anna Lightwood explores her new identity, then follow Celine, Stephan, and Valentine on their exploits. All this while generally soaking up the atmosphere of the Shadow Market as Cassandra Clare returns to many Shadowhunter stories to reveal more details and depth about pervious story lines.

This anthology doesn’t disappoint, lots of action, lots of drama and delving into complex relationships. Cassandra Clare has most definitely created a place with complex worlds and rich layers of mythology, religion and history that fantasy readers will yearn to return to again and again.

If your teens haven’t yet discovered Cassandra Clare then read our reviews of Queen of Air and Darkness here and The Red Scrolls of Magic here to familiarise yourself with this fantasy world. While this is fantasy there are many mature concepts covered so you may want to take a quick read before handing it over – you’ll probably enjoy it yourself if you’re a fantasy reader.

The great thing about a teen that is hooked on Cassandra Clare novels is that they become prolific readers, with plenty of books in the series and always another one just about to be released. In this case fans will only have to wait until March 2020 for Chain of Gold, the first book in a sequel trilogy to the Infernal Devices series. The novels often come in at 6-800 pages there will be a lot of spare time spent reading and that can only be a good thing! 14+yrs

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Cassandra Clare is the #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of Lady Midnight, Lord of Shadows, and Queen of Air and Darkness, as well as the internationally bestselling Mortal Instruments series and Infernal Devices trilogy. She is the coauthor of The Bane Chronicles with Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson and Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy with Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, and Robin Wasserman. Her books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide and have been translated into more than thirty-five languages and made into a feature film and a TV show. Cassandra lives in western Massachusetts. Visit her at CassandraClare.com. Learn more about the world of the Shadowhunters at Shadowhunters.com.