Hello Rad Readers!
I wanted to make some amendments to my previous thoughts on the Shadowhunter novels that I wrote about a long time ago on this blog! So, this is going to be a low-key hot take but also not that hot of a take because people have been saying this for a while regarding this series. My Rad Readerness just refused to acknowledge it because I was clouded by my love for these books. Now, a year later and many better books later I come to you with a new take on the series that I once held so near and dear.
First, let me give you the Spider Man origin story of my time with these books. I read them last year which is not that long ago but also in terms of relativity and in terms of books that I have read since then, it is a VERY long time ago. I have read MANY books since that have led me to really change my thoughts on this series. Okay... Soooo, when I first picked up City of Bones I was like WOAH! This is a great story, this is exciting and magical and fun. And here it is... brace yourselves... It reminded me a little bit of Harry Potter... Turn on the sirens ladies and gentlemen, because apparently I am not the only person in the world that felt like this series was similar to J.K. Rowling's books.
Whenever I finish reading a book I will usually go directly to watching other people's book talks or book reviews just to see if there was anything I missed, if I agree with the general consensus or if I don't (that way I can write about it here!) or if there is anything behind the book that is worth knowing. When I finished City of Bones and looked up some book talks... boy oh boy was I met with a wholeeeee bunch of hot takes, and I mean unpopular opinions central. BookTube and GoodReads were an epicenter of opinions. People were saying that Cassandra Clare had plagiarized J.K. Rowling and other series that I had never heard of, saying she was directly copy and pasting entire pages from other online works that I had also not read, and at first I rejected that completely out of hand. I thought that a lot of people were grabbing at straws when they were saying that a stele was just a wand with a different name and I was like dawg... J.K. Rowling didn't invent the wand! People were saying that the vampires and werewolves were a copy from Twilight and I was like... DAWG Twilight didn't invent them... they can be found in literal hieroglyphics you fools! And some of those points I still do stand by, a lot of this plagiarism scandal was a reach to say the least but some of it was plenty reasonable and honestly quite messed up. You can look it up if you care to know, it would take WAYYYY too long to summarize and I am just not down for that. Anyways, this was the first reddish flag. I will not say completely red, it was more like a deep orange. Some of it was fair but the majority definitely wasn't.
Next, let us tackle the actual content in this book. Like I said, I feel like I read these books in a different lifetime even though it was only last year because I have read so so so many books since. I have refined my reading taste and I just don't find what happened in The Mortal Instruments to be all that groundbreaking anymore. The twist at the end of The City of Bones was a big fat yikes that I don't think anyone liked or thought was okay. I hated it and I even knew then that I hated it, but I also knew that the twist actually wasn't the real twist and that twist would get twisted later on in the series... if you know what I mean... Ugh so complicated! (Also I am not making an exact reference to the twist because I don't want to spoil it for anyone that hasn't read it yet, but if you read City of Bones then you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.) It was a whole ugh and a really big egh. We found out in City of Glass that it wasn't true, but I think that Cassandra Clare only changed it because of the backlash she got from the bookish community. That is all speculation however with 0% evidence behind it, and absolutely nothing to base any fair opinions off of. Regardless, as I have read better books since, if I read a book now that ended like thattttt I would rip it to SHREDS on this blog. I would annihilate it and donate it to GoodWill so as to get it off my shelf as quickly as possible. Now thatttt is what we call a red flag.
Also, here is another hot take coming at you, the story line really isn't that ground breaking. Main character that doesn't know s/he is magical can use magic... finds a band of friends that show her/him the ropes... finds out that there is a secret world/society that s/he and the rest of the general population didn't know about... I mean, it honestly isn't that nuts. The concept isn't anything special. I think what sold it to me, and made me be okay with the repetitive tropes that show up in every other average young adult novel was the fact that Cassandra Clare is a phenomenal writer. The way the world was built and the way the characters were developed was great. It really did feel magical, but like I said, not so much anymore. I have read better books that put it to shame and I just don't worship it as much as I once did.
I read The Infernal Devices series and I feel completely different about that series. I really do think those books were great. They too carry many of the oh so basic cliches, but only the really great books don't, and us Rad Readers know that and have acknowledged that here before. I think Clockwork Princess was a phenomenal conclusion to the series and I loved the other books as well. I just began Lady Midnight, the first book in The Dark Artifices series and that is what brought me to this great realization you are reading right now. As I was reading this I realized that the many layers of the Shadowhunter chronicles are just repeats of one another with the exception of The Infernal Devices (but only kind of an exception). What I am trying to say is --and trust me, I know I am far from the first one to say these exact words, but-- I feel like I have fulfilled all my interest in the Shadowhunter world. I no longer see the magic that I used to in it, I think all the books are too similar to one another and too repetitive. Emma Carstairs in The Dark Artifices is a carbon copy of Jace Herondale from The Mortal Instruments. Sorry not sorry. It is just not what I am looking for in a book anymore.
Don't get me wrong, I do not hate these books. They will hold a special place in my heart for a long time because of the fun I had reading them the first time, and how excited I was to read them, and the time in my life that they remind me of. I don't hate Cassandra Clare's books or writing. I think she is a great writer, but I just certainly don't feel the same way about her books as I did before. Upon reflection the themes are... troublesome, the plagiarism claims are... sketchy, and you really do have to take that into account when you purchase a writers work. I think it is very very wrong to steal someone else's hard work and thoughts so I find it difficult to look at her books with the same fondness I once did. After reading so so so many of her books it just isn't an interesting universe to me anymore. Will I finish The Dark Artifices series? Maybe? I really don't know! I think my taste in books has refined a lot and I look for something a little more than the same old same old now!
This is probably the last time I will sign out a blog with this Shadowhunter lingo... but...
Ave atque vale,
- C8 ;)