The Effects of Relationships

There are several relationships in this novel that are important, sometimes to the characters involved and sometimes with much broader repercussions to others. The most obvious of these is a relationship that spans more than a century between Tessa Gray and Jem Carstairs, but there are other characters in committed relationships who affect others through those relationships.

Jem and Tessa knew each other when they were young Shadowhunters, and it seemed obvious they would eventually follow up on their love to marry, but Jem was involuntarily addicted to a drug called yin fen and had to become a Silent Brother in order to avoid death. Tessa married Will Herondale and they had a family, a relationship that might have been complicated by the fact that Will and Jem were parabatai (battle partners who are close in every aspect of life) while Jem was...