A rollercoaster finale for a rollercoaster trilogy. This cast of characters has been through it all and now as a reader we have to bare witness to the absolute heartache that is Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare. I cannot even begin to describe how this book had me in a chokehold for the first third, threw me into a multiverse for the second third (quite literally) and then sucker-punched me for the final third. This book had a fight with me and it almost won – the weight of it alone would’ve been enough to really plant a good one to my eye socket and I’m eternally grateful I didn’t drop this on my face while reading.

Jules Blackthorn. Julian. Blackthorn. I swear, this boy rips my heart out for fun. I truly didn’t know how to feel about his actions, all I knew was that Emma was forced to deal with someone she didn’t know and it made me feel so protective over her. Then we have Cristina, Mark and Kieran and the juggling that goes on with them being apart, two pairing up, then the third comes back in and someone else gets split up from them. What I will say is that there wasn’t a single moment where I didn’t love the three of them together. We stan mutual polyamory on this blog.

Drusilla! My little emo horror queen! One thing I love about Queen of Air and Darkness is that we get to see more Dru and not only that but more interactions between Ty and Dru. I won’t start talking about Ty because I may very well start balling, but sweet boy Ty is just going through it. I hold so much respect and gratitude towards Kit and Diego for showing these two what a friend is and for being there for them before they could be there for each other. This reread really got me excited for the Ty, Kit and Dru trilogy in the works (fingers crossed it get released maybe end of the year or early next year).

Thule was a great feat of worldbuilding and multiverse theory. Seeing Rafael again was all my heart wanted (I’m about to read City of Glass again and I remember something happens soon) and seeing the other supernatural characters from the original series gives my heart the warm fuzzies. I love it when a plethora of characters come together. It also makes me things in detail about what it would be like if there was an institute in my country. My nearest one would be the Melbourne Institute and that has next to no canon detail in the whole of the Shadowhunter Chronicles.

Cassandra Clare’s writing has developed so much across the fifteen years her books have been published. You can see in the way she develops her characters, delves into more detail in perspectives, how they interact with each other both actively and subconsciously, and it’s genuinely a pleasure to read her books. She remains, in my eyes, a pinnacle of YA Fantasy and an author to aspire to become. With the coming and going of names in the YA sphere, Cassandra Clare’s remain is a constant and I hope it upholds the quality within YA Fantasy in the early 21st century for decades to come.