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. As a Silent Brother, Brother Zachariah is 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.

 

Follow Brother Zachariah and see, against the backdrop of the Shadow Market’s dark dealings and festive celebrations, Anna Lightwood’s first romance, Matthew Fairchild’s great sin and Tessa Gray 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...

My opinion about Ghosts of the Shadow Market has varied quite a bit over time (as I was reading the novellas as they were being individually published throughout 2018), depending on both the novella I was reading and how big of a fan of the Shadowhunter universe I was at the moment.

I love the overall concept of it—a series of short stories spanning almost century and a half and following the mystery of the lost line of Herondales, with Jem as the protagonist. Ever since hearing about it, I was absolutely sure I was bound to love it.

(Possible Queen of Air and Darkness spoilers ahead)
Unfortunately, as it tends to happen with most of Clare’s latest work, the whole story was kind of watered down in the process, especially in the last two novellas with all the new QoAaD developments being almost randomly thrown in (mainly, Ty-situation and Janus—trying to keep it as spoiler-free as possible).

The Lost World, in particular, seemed quite unnecessary for the overall storyline. Yes, it was amazing reading about these characters and seeing how they were faring after what went down in QoAaD, but I honestly couldn’t see any other connection between it and other novellas—with the exception of that one scene which was kind of randomly thrown in and didn’t have much to do with the rest of the novella. As a stand-alone, sure, I’d love to read it, but as a part of this “collection” that some people will pick up wanting to know the story of the Lost Herondales and the First Heir, it’s simply irrelevant

Pretty much the same goes for Forever Fallen. I was really glad for all the Carstairs family scenes, as they really made a nice little closure and I loved seeing the dynamics of them living together. But frankly, I don’t really see the need for Janus’s part. Yes, it includes a Shadow Market scene—by the way, what the actual fuck was that whole thing with “an impenetrable glamour”?? I was completely weirded out—but does it have anything to do with anything the whole series of novellas is supposed to be about? Absolutely no.

Which brings me to another thing has kind of annoyed me about Clare for quite some time now, and now she’d done it again. With both The Lost World and Forever Fallen Clare basically did nothing for the storyline of Ghosts of the Shadow Market and everything to “foreshadow” (I don’t know if I can even call it foreshadowing because in my book foreshadowing means something much more subtle than what she did here) The Wicked Powers. And maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m overreacting a bit, but at this point, it honestly looks like she does everything she possibly can in order to compel people to buy and read her upcoming books. Which is fine and all—I completely understand that she wants to keep people interested and usually I love when people drop subtle hints about their upcoming series—but to me, this is just taking it too far and I honestly can’t stand it anymore.

That issues aside, I’d like to end this review on a positive note by saying that, as much as I disliked some things, there were a lot of things I enjoyed about this series as well. Cast Long Shadows, The Wicked Ones and The Land I Lost were my favourites, but most of the other novellas were really fun to read as well, and some of them really gave me major feels (I’d definitely recommend A Deeper Love and Through Blood, Through Fire if you are a Jessa fan)

Overall, Ghosts of the Shadow Market is not a bad book/collection of stories/whatever these are called and ultimately I’m glad I’ve read it.