Ghosts of the Shadow Market is a book by Cassandra Clare, co-written by Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, Kelly Link, and Robin Wasserman. It takes place in Clare’s The Shadowhunter Chronicles Universe, and is a series of short stories following Jem Carstairs, or Brother Zachariah, to various shadow markets at various points in time ranging from 1901 to 2012 as he tries to track down a lost line of Shadowhunters. Though this is the overall narrative, many of the stories have their own plots and are capable of standing alone.

I really enjoyed seeing Jem/Brother Zachariah, and later Tessa, investigate the lost line of Herondale’s. I think that having that overall plot shaping the individual short stories helped give a structure to the book that still allowed all of the stories to be individual in their tone and plot.

Jem Carstairs/Brother Zachariah: I loved all of the characters from The Infernal Devices, but Jem was one of my favorites, so I appreciated that this book was so focused on him. I was especially interested in hearing his perspective on how being a Silent Brother changed him and his emotions and thoughts, and later I liked being able to see his and Tessa’s relationship.

Tessa Gray: Tessa was my other favorite character from The Infernal Devices, and I liked being able to see smaller parts of her life, such as being a nurse during the Blitz, or taking care of her daughter.

One thing that I think this book did really well was focusing on many different characters, from Matthew Fairchild and Anna Lightwood to Céline Montclair to Lily Chen to Rosemary Herondale, and allow each of them to shine within their separate stories. There were so many characters, but, with the exception of orienting myself to “Cast Long Shadows,” I didn’t find myself confused as to who they were and what their goals and personalities were.

“Cast Long Shadows” was co-written by Sarah Rees Brennan, and was quite confusing at first due to there being so many new characters. It was difficult to keep track of which of them were related to which of the Infernal Devices characters. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it and I think it served as a good introduction to the central characters that The Last Hours trilogy will follow (I have not yet read Chain of Gold). It mostly follows Matthew Fairchild as his attempts to find our if a rumor about his birth is true leads him to take drastic measures. Overall I would give it a 4/5.

“Every Exquisite Thing” was co-written by Maureen Johnson and was easily one of my favorite stories in the book. It follows Anna Lightwood, a lesbian Shadowhunter, as she gets together with Ariadne Bridgestock. There is the demon slaying aspect present in all Shadowhunter stories, but this is overall a story of Anna refusing to deny herself her identity, and accepting herself for who she is. 5/5

“Learn About Loss” was co-written by Kelly Link, and takes place at a carnival during the Great Depression, and follows Brother Zachariah and Sister Emilia, a very minor character from Queen of Air and Darkness who is an Iron Sister, as they investigate the festivities, which have much darker underlying causes than they seem to at the surface level. I think this story mainly served to advance the overall plot of the book, but it did have a really interesting setting, and had Jem reflecting on Will Herondale, his former parabatai who is quite old at this point. Their friendship is one of my favorites in The Shadowhunter Chronicles, so that definitely bumped the story up a few notches for me. 3.5/5

“A Deeper Love” was co-written by Maureen Johnson, and follows Tessa Gray and Catarina Loss as they work as nurses during the Blitz in World War II while they take care of an injured Brother Zachariah. There were lots of Jem/Tessa moments, which I love, but it was overall bittersweet because he is still a Silent Brother at this point. 4/5

“The Wicked Ones” was co-written by Robin Wasserman, and follows Céline Montclair, Jace Herondale’s mother, as she is on a mission for Valentine’s Circle. It shows how exactly her eventual marriage to Stephen Herondale happened, and more of the workings of the Circle than The Mortal Instruments did, so that was interesting. It also had some more plot development in terms of Brother Zachariah finally speaking to the descendant of the lost line that he had been tracking, Kit Herondale’s mother. 4/5

“Son of the Dawn” was co-written by Sarah Rees Brennan, and follows Brother Zachariah as he works with Raphael Santiago, Lily Chen, and Robert Lightwood to prevent a shipment of yin fei on the boat carrying Jace Herondale to live with the Lightwood’s from reaching New York. Raphael and Lily are two of my favorite minor characters, so I loved how much they were featured in this. It also showed young Isabelle and Alec, who are less likeable than teenage Isabelle and Alec, but are still interesting to read about. 4.5/5

“The Land I Lost” was co-written by Sarah Rees Brennan, and follows Alec Lightwood as he, alongside Jem, Tessa, and Lily investigate the Buenos Aires Institute and Shadow Market. Alec isn’t my favorite character in the series (I don’t dislike him, he just doesn’t have much personality), but his interactions with Rafael, an orphaned Shadowhunter child they find, were adorable. 4.5/5

“Through Blood, Through Fire” was co-written by Robin Wasserman, and featured Tessa and Jem attempting to track down Rosemary Herondale. It had plenty of cute moments between them, and even had them finding out that Tessa is pregnant, so obviously I liked it. 4.5/5

“The Lost World” was co-written by Kelly Link, and follows Ty and Livvy Blackthorn as they investigate Livvy’s ghost-hood. They were my two favorite characters from The Dark Artifices, so I loved reading more about them. Though it did have Jem in it, its relative lack of the Shadow Market made it feel a little out of place in the context of the rest of the book, but I think it mostly existed as set-up for The Wicked Powers, which the twins and Kit Herondale will likely play large roles in. 5/5

“Forever Fallen” was co-written by Sarah Rees Brennan and was strange in that I hated half of it and adored the other half. It follows the version of Jace Herondale from Thule as he plotted to replace the Jace Herondale from the main universe of the series, and I despised all of the scenes with him in it. It also seemed like set-up for The Wicked Powers, which makes me less optimistic for that series because I don’t know how much more of him that I can take. The story also simultaneously follows Kit as he is settling into life living with Jem and Tessa and their newborn daughter, Mina. Those parts of the story had tons of sweet interactions as Kit began to feel at home with them, and I loved them. However, they weren’t enough to save the story for me; if they’d stood alone from the Jace parts, which I think they ought to have done, the Kit parts would get a 5/5 and the Jace parts a 3/5. Overall, I give this story a 4/5.