Hey reader dudes, I think I have come across one of the golden ones, one of the best books I have ever read!
Little Summary: We follow out main character, Clary who has just witnessed 3 strangely tattooed teenagers commit a murder. The next thing she knows the body has disappeared and she is both the only person who saw it happened and the only person that can see the murderers. Madness ensues, Clary comes the next day, her home is destroyed, her mother is missing, and a demon is attacking her. She finds out that the man she saw murdered was actually a demon as well, that the murderers were shadow hunters, and that because she has "the sight" she might be one too. Clary discovers that basically her entire life thus far was a lie; there is an entire world that she is a part of that she knows nothing about. She is now out to find her mom with the new Shadowhunters --specifically Jace Wayland-- she meets, who want to know about her just as much as she does herself.
This is the first book in the mortal instruments series. I was instantly sucked in and it barely ever let up. For the most part I really enjoyed this book. For a never before seen world (I mean that in the sense that most people can follow vampire books without an explanation really of what said world entails) shown mostly through the eyes of someone who is just as confused about it as the reader is I found that there were no real information dumps and that it was not hard to get through at all. It isn't a quick read in that there isn't a lot of content in it. It is a quick read in that the plot and story is so exciting that you don't want to put the book down.
The characters are super fascinating and the adventure and action aspect is very fun to read about.
NOW FOR THE SPOILER PARTS
Let us talk characters, shall we?
A lot of people disliked clary and felt that she didn't think our her decisions and effects of said decisions as much as she should, but those that say that neglect to appreciate how much of a genius writer Cassandra Clare is! She wore Clary like that in --my opinion-- because she is a 16/17 year old girl! As a girl of that age I can confidently say that is how most of us think! When you are young you don't understand the full weight of your decisions, and especially in Clary's case it is even harder because her decisions are... well... ya know, LIFE THREATENING! Also, this entire world is new to her and she just found out her life has basically been a whole lie, of course she's going to make tough decisions!
Jace, what a super gnarly character. He is full of himself and cocky but not in an annoying way, in an entertaining and funny way. When people say that they think he was annoying I would say to that, the book would be undoubtedly dry without his peculiarly cocky anecdotes in them, so for that I greatly appreciate him. Also, him and clary have a phenomenal character dynamic. I like that Clary doesn't immediately trust him as most female protagonists do with male protagonists. He is a complete stranger to her whom she thought was a murderer at one point and she is fare to be skeptical of him and I like the jokes made about that. His cocky humor I think made for the beginning of the book to go a lot faster!
Simon is eh at best. He has some solid potential but I was soooo tired of him making Clary feel bad about herself for like 300 pages, like we get it Simon. You are in love with her but you just have to accept that you are just friends and chill. He was funny at some points though and the author is did very well at writing dialogue for him, so I would say 7.5/10 character for now. The book would be lame without him and I like to an extent that he keeps Clary grounded I just don't like it when he is mean to her for being different now, because well, her mom is missing and she found out about an entirely secret world, obviously she is going to be going through some changes. He was a positive light in the book and that I did greatly enjoy as well. :)
Isabelle and Alec. I don't have much an opinion about them. Alec is kind of bland, despises Clary which I don't so can't really relate to him on that level. 3/10 character if I'm being for real, all he contributed in this story was hate Clary which just didn't do much for the plot. and Isabelle is super cool. If I had to be a character in this book I would TOTALLY choose her. She is a lady boss 10/10, knows what's up. She is a 10/10 character for sure. I wish she had more time in the book!
I have said in my other reviews that typically I don't care much and usually skim through the kind of Plot B dynamics, I.E. the relationship blah blah blahs, but I did genuinely like the Plot B dynamic in this book. It was entertaining and funny and all in all a good time.
Crazy plot twists in this book, plot twists that made me so mad I nearly did not pick up the second book in the series. However, I did end up picking it up and am reading it currently (City of Ashes review to come soon) because I had to look up to see if the final plot twist about Jace and Clary (I don't want to say it incase there are people that are reading the spoilers, even though they didn't read it and might want to read it later) to see if it was actually true because it frustrated me so much and I knew that if it was true I couldn't read the rest of the series. So I did spoil myself in that regard, but in none other. I looked up my question of that spoiler and all I read was the first word in the paragraph that said no. So, I do not know any details about it and I hope that I will sooner rather than later because I am tired of reading about this dynamic that I so greatly dislike.
DONE WITH SPOILERS
Anyways, I REALLY enjoyed this book and gave is 5/5 stars on Goodreads so I would absolutely recommend it to all of you rad readers.
More Mortal Instruments series reviews to come :)
-C8