by Cassandra Clare
Spoilers
Synopsis:
When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?
This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know...
Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.
My Thoughts:
I gave this book 4.5 stars. Honestly, this book was better than I remembered. Somehow I let the opinions of others muddy the feeling I had about this book in the past. I know people often say that The Mortal Instruments series is nowhere near as good as Cassandra Clare's new books, and that is true, but I somehow convinced myself that just because it wasn't as good that it wasn't good at all. It is though.
I haven't read this book since the movie came out, give or take about 4 years, and I haven't watched the movie in that time either, so I actually forgot most of the plot of this book. I also forgot how witty and hilarious the characters were.
The characters are mostly what I'm going to be talking about right now so bear with me. A lot of people fault Clary for being annoying and over dramatic and such, but she's a fifteen/sixteen year old girl in this book. What did you expect? I know for a fact that I was also absolutely ridiculous at fifteen, so I can't even judge Clary too harshly for freaking out. It was also really good to see her where she started. In these new books she's almost like a mentor and it's so interesting to see how much she has grown. I personally love Clary Fray and no one will be able to sway my opinion.
Now onto Jace, I also had the misconception that he was a total douchebag. I mean, he has his moments, but he also has his sweet moments. Reading this book made me notice all the things he was willing to do for Clary, Izzy and Alec were totally against most of the things that Clary wanted to do, but Jace went along with it, maybe because he's just a nice guy, or maybe he had a huge crush on Clary from the beginning. Jace is not a complete angsty asshole and I feel like everyone forgets that.
Everyone always talks about Alec and Clary's character developments, because they are huge, but no one seems to care about Izzy's character growth. Izzy starts out this book as the pretty mean girl sort of stereotype, she has Simon falling all over himself to please her, she just likes the attention and openly plans to throw him away like a used tissue after she's bored with him and honestly I couldn't stand her in this first book. However, she becomes such an amazing character throughout the rest of the series and more specifically in Tales of the Shadowhunter Academy. If you didn't like Izzy in this first book, do not fear, she blossoms.
Seeing Alec at the very beginning was just so enjoyable to me. I could see that he was so "in love" with Jace and I didn't even really notice that the first time until Clary outright thought it. The most amusing part to me was when Alec really didn't want to go to Magnus's party, he just kept complaining about it. All I could think about was how if he never went to the party then the legendary Malec would never have happened.
It felt good to dive back in to this book and just get all the details i may have missed the first few times reading the series. I could see the subtle signs of Jace's feelings for Clary along with her own jealousy when it came to other people optimizing Simon's attention.
I still don't like how Jace treats Simon though. That feeling hasn't changed. Simon is there for Clary, he's a good friend and he does have a crush on her, but that doesn't hinder his support, and for Jace to constantly be ragging on Simon just shows his own insecurities. He likes Clary but Clary is close with Simon and Jace sees him as a threat so he has to be a douchebag about it. I still can't get on board with Jace acting like that towards Simon.
Personal opinion: I don't think the show is that great of an adaption. In the books Clary is so completely ridiculous because she's 15, but in the show she's around college age which sort of negates the reasoning for her being so ridiculous. She just seems bratty on the show.
As for Jace, I feel like they've stripped him of who he is. Jace is supposed to be sarcastic and witty, but still kind, the show just feels like they took all that away and just made him as broody and angsty as humanly possible. I can't say I enjoy that. On the flip side I think that Matthew Daddario is the perfect Alec.
Quotes:
“The boy never cried again, and he never forgot what he'd learned: that to love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be the one destroyed.”
“Don't order any of the faerie food," said Jace, looking at her over the top of his menu. "It tends to make humans a little crazy. One minute you're munching a faerie plum, the next minute you're running naked down Madison Avenue with antlers on your head. Not," he added hastily, "that this has ever happened to me.”
“I figured all your classes were stuff like Slaughter 101 and Beheading for Beginners."Jace flipped a page. "Very funny, Fray.”
“He made a sound like a choked laughed before he reached out and pulled her into her arms. She was aware of Luke watching them from the window, but she shut her eyes resolutely and buried her face against Jace's shoulder. He smelled of salt and blood, and only when his mouth came close to her ear did she understand what he was saying, and it was the simplest litany of all: her name, just her name.”
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