Ghosts of the Shadow Market Review: All the Parabatai Feels

From New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Cassandra Clare comes an exciting new short story collection that follows Jem Carstairs as he travels through the many Shadow Markets around the world. Ghosts of the Shadow Market is a Shadowhunters novel.

The Shadow Market is a meeting point for faeries, werewolves, warlocks, and vampires. There, the Downworlders buy and sell magical objects, make dark bargains, and whisper secrets they do not want the Nephilim to know. Through two centuries, however, there has been a frequent visitor to the Shadow Market from the City of Bones, the very heart of the Shadowhunters’ world. As a Silent Brother, Brother Zachariah is a sworn keeper of the laws and lore of the Nephilim. But once he was a Shadowhunter called Jem Carstairs, and his love, then and always, is the warlock Tessa Gray. And Jem is searching through the Shadow Markets, in many different cities over long years, for a relic from his past.

Follow Jem and see, against the backdrop of the Shadow Market’s dark dealings and festival, Anna Lightwood’s doomed romance, Matthew Fairchild’s great sin, and Tessa Gray as she is plunged into a world war. Valentine Morgenstern buys a soul at the Market and a young Jace Wayland’s soul finds safe harbor. In the Market is hidden a lost heir and a beloved ghost, and no one can save you once you have traded away your heart. Not even Brother Zachariah.

Warning: This review is mostly spoiler free but may contain minor spoilers for The Infernal Devices. The book itself contains spoilers for The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices and The Dark Artifices.

I’ve never hidden my love for the Shadowhunter books and it’s definitely no secret that my favourite YA series is The Infernal Devices. So when I first heard about Ghosts of the Shadow Market and that it was going to be a short story collection featuring Brother Zachariah, I was super duper ecstatic! The whole collection has definitely delivered in every way possible.

Ghosts of the Shadow Markets isn’t the book to pick up if you’ve never read a single Shadowhunters book before. It’s definitely more of an adjunct to the main series books, providing you with more information about certain things that were kind of glossed over. Without reading the main series books, I’m afraid that these short stories might not make much sense (plus, it would spoil what happens in those books!) You can definitely read individual short stories depending on which of the Shadowhunter series you’ve read and my individual short story reviews will tell you which ones you should read and which ones you should skip depending on which of the Shadowhunter trilogies you’ve already read.

Ghosts of the Shadow Markets follows Brother Zachariah through 2 centuries as he visits Shadow Markets around the world in search of the Lost Heir (introduced in The Dark Artifices). Just like in the other Shadowhunters short story collections, the stories are arranged in chronological order so it almost reads like a companion novel rather than a collection of short stories. But the stories definitely do stand on their own and can be read out of order. This bound collection does contain two short stories at the end that you should only read after completing The Dark Artifices. 

Without further ado, here are my individual reviews of each of the 10 stories:

Cast Long Shadows (5 stars)

I loved this story so so so much! It contains some spoilers for The Infernal Devices but was a fantastic way to introduce new characters that we will see a lot more of in The Last Hours. I cannot even express how excited I am for The Last Hours and to be back with at the London Institute with the Herondales. This story features Matthew Fairchild and gave a really good sense of Matthew’s playful character, while highlighting his major sin. And of course, I absolutely loved the Will and Jem scene at the end.

Every Exquisite Thing (4.5 stars)

This story also has some minor spoilers for The Infernal Devices. Every Exquisite Thing introduces us to Anna Lightwood and was a really interesting coming of age story. I loved her supportive parents and it was great to be introduced a little more to another character who I assume we’ll see quite a bit of in The Last Hours.

Learn About Loss (3.75 stars)

There are some minor spoilers for The Infernal Devices and The Dark Artifices in this one. Will and Jem’s parabatai bond really made this short story for me. I wasn’t that interested in the rest of what was going on since it was kind of about the Lost Heir but it was a shorter one that was easy to get through.

A Deeper Love (4.5 stars)

This is a Tessa and Jem story, so I felt kind of conflicted because Wessa is my OTP. But I loved it anyway because Jem is the most pure and gorgeous thing ever (besides Will!). The mentions of Will and Jem’s parabatai bond had me ugly crying throughout parts of this one! Needless to say, this story contains spoilers for The Infernal Devices.

The Wicked Ones (3.75 stars)

This short story loses a star just for having Valentine in it, to be honest. The story features Celine Montclaire and how she became part of the Circle and Stephen Herondale’s second wife. I’m still not quite sure how I feel about this one because I did enjoy learning more about Celine. I’m just not quite sure whether I liked what I learnt about her… This story contains spoilers for The Mortal Instruments.

Son of the Dawn (4 stars)

This story features Jace meeting and joining the Lightwood family for the first time. It was a really endearing story and again there were soooo many Will and Jem feels! I don’t actually think this story contains spoilers for anything but there may be very minor spoilers for The Mortal Instruments that I haven’t picked up on.

The Land I Lost (4 stars)

Boy, this one was a long one! It was about 120 pages and kind of had me itching to move on to the next one. This one features Alec Lightwood and there were lots and lots of Malec feels, which really boosted the story for me. It also features the adoption of Rafael. This one contains some spoilers for The Mortal Instruments.

Through Blood, Through Fire (3.75 stars)

This one contains spoilers for The Dark Artifices and is focused on finding the Lost Heir. I wasn’t really that interested in the Lost Heir stuff so this one didn’t really have my attention. But I did really enjoy seeing more of Tessa in this one!

The Lost World (3.5 stars)

This story contains major spoilers for The Dark Artifices and follows Livvy Blackthorn after what happens in Queen of Air and Darkness. It didn’t really have anything to do with the Shadow Markets and is more of just a bonus story for those who have finished The Dark Artifices. This was probably a set-up for The Wicked Powers trilogy that are set to feature the younger Blackthorn children… but it didn’t really capture my interest.

Forever Fallen (3.5 stars)

This story also contains major spoilers for The Dark Artifices, especially the end of Queen of Air and Darkness. The story contained lots of really great Tessa and Jem moments, but I was really let down by the other plotline that was happening with Janus. Janus ruined the entire story for me but it was kind of redeemed by all the Will and Jem feels I was having.

I really loved Ghosts of the Shadow Market even though there were some stories at the end that I didn’t really enjoy. It was just lovely to be back in this world. You can probably tell my love for The Infernal Devices given the high ratings for the first few stories!

Overall, if you’re looking for an introduction to the Shadowhunters books, this one isn’t for you because of the spoilers that are in every single short story. However, if you’ve read some or all of the main series books, I would definitely recommend this collection as an adjunct (especially if you love Brother Zachariah)!

Rating: 5 out of 5

Thanks to Walker Books for providing a review copy.

Ghosts of the Shadow Market is available at Australian retailers for $27.99.

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Jenna

Co-Blogger at Happy Indulgence Books

Jenna is an Aussie blogger and reader who loves to indulge in great books and great food. She is a doctor (of philosophy) and can usually be found fangirling about something, devouring delicious food, or taking a nap. You can find her on Twitter @readwithjenna and on Instagram @readingwithjenna.

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