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nieve24's review against another edition
4.0
This book is a must read for any shadowhunter fans out there!!! It provides lots of background information to the world Cassandra Claire has created to give a more in-depth look at the shadow world whilst also being a fun read with commentary from our favourite book characters. Also the illustrations in this book are amazing ☺️❤️
haniah__x's review against another edition
2.0
So I think this book is pretty unnecessary. I am going to be honest - I skimmed through much of the excessively long explanations because it was tedious.
As a Shadowhunter fanatic myself, I stumbled upon this in the library one day and decided I would check it out. I knew it would read like a textbook
I am not usually that impatient with real textbooks, but here we are.
and expected no more. Various characters in all these books such as Clary and Tessa are known to have read this book to learn more about the hidden world. There are little notes on the pages by Simon, Clary and Jace - making The Shadowhunter's Codex a little less tiresome but not by much.
As much as I love Cassie's Shadowhunter novels, I see no reason to read an in depth history book on a history that doesn't exist. I also didn't like the mention of Jonathan Shadowhunter and his friends being part of the Crusades - due to all the criminal atrocities committed, it didn't sit well for me.
We do get explanations on various things like steles, silent brothers, Idris, downworlders - all that sort of thing - however most of it I already knew from my reading of dozens of Shadowhunter books. There was hardly anything I didn't already know, and what I didn't - I was not really interested in.
Suffice to say - you will not be missing anything by giving this book a pass. Not only does it not contain characters or plot, the information given is superfluous, and reading Cassandra Clare's other series such as The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, The Dark Artifices etc. provide more than enough backstory and explanations to the world. Sounds like a poor money grab attempt to me.
As a Shadowhunter fanatic myself, I stumbled upon this in the library one day and decided I would check it out. I knew it would read like a textbook
and expected no more. Various characters in all these books such as Clary and Tessa are known to have read this book to learn more about the hidden world. There are little notes on the pages by Simon, Clary and Jace - making The Shadowhunter's Codex a little less tiresome but not by much.
As much as I love Cassie's Shadowhunter novels, I see no reason to read an in depth history book on a history that doesn't exist. I also didn't like the mention of Jonathan Shadowhunter and his friends being part of the Crusades - due to all the criminal atrocities committed, it didn't sit well for me.
We do get explanations on various things like steles, silent brothers, Idris, downworlders - all that sort of thing - however most of it I already knew from my reading of dozens of Shadowhunter books. There was hardly anything I didn't already know, and what I didn't - I was not really interested in.
Suffice to say - you will not be missing anything by giving this book a pass. Not only does it not contain characters or plot, the information given is superfluous, and reading Cassandra Clare's other series such as The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, The Dark Artifices etc. provide more than enough backstory and explanations to the world. Sounds like a poor money grab attempt to me.
breedawnwriter's review against another edition
3.0
This was an interesting read. It’s basically the school book that Clary reads to learn about the Shadowhunter life and history.
I loved the annotations by Clary, Jace, and Simon. I just wish there were more of them.
I loved the annotations by Clary, Jace, and Simon. I just wish there were more of them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, War, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Torture, Classism, and Genocide
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
thebooklovingpanda's review against another edition
2.0
I dunno...I picked it up in the library because I've read the original series and quite liked it, but this read too much like an actual textbook for me to enjoy it that much. I do get that it's technically supposed to be a textbook, but other authors have done the 'textbook'/companion book thing which I enjoyed more (e.g. [b:The School For Good and Evil: The Ever Never Handbook|27203016|The School For Good and Evil The Ever Never Handbook|Soman Chainani|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1444845540s/27203016.jpg|47243841], [b:Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them|41899|Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them|Newt Scamander|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1303738520s/41899.jpg|4195128], [b:The Demigod Files|3992598|The Demigod Files (Percy Jackson and the Olympians)|Rick Riordan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1293421593s/3992598.jpg|4038656]). Maybe because they were shorter?
The illustrations were lovely though.
savvy810's review against another edition
5.0
This was such a fun guide! I felt that it was a lot to comprehend and remember. Definitely something every Shadowhunter fan should keep on hand.
rachcannoli's review against another edition
3.0
THE SHADOWHUNTER'S CODEX is a must read for any mega fan of the source and definitely for those going through a completionist's journey, like me. This reminds me A LOT of FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM in that it's a textbook that has been borrowed by Clary, Jace, and Simon. So while I love their commentary, the book straight up reads like an old text it is intended to be and is, of the most part, incredibly boring, though the comments, mainly Simon's, are really fun.
*mild spoilers for MORTAL INSTRUMENTS BOOK 2 ON* this does take place AT LEAST post CITY OF ASHES. Clary has the Codex in the first place since she's training to be a Shadowhunter, but Simon is currently a vamp and it's mentioned multiple times, so we know this is at least post book 2. Not super important as I can't imagine anyone that'd grab his book who wasn't already so deep in the lore and world they didn't know this, but just in case they grabbed this post book 1 but before 2, that's def quite a spoiler haha.
Some of the stuff is interesting, like you find out how shadowhunters are actually created and began along with a lot of the other things you bump into. But what's dumb is a lot of it isn't even accurate, as we get many an interjection from Simon about vampires or Luke about werewolves, so it's kind of stupid.
I would recommend to the hardcore fans, but most certainly not necessary and not a real story so not nearly as much fun as the other supplementary works. I do think it's cool this kind of book exists because it shows just how large and expansive this world is to have something that's just detailing the finer details about it. So that's cool in and of itself, but definitely not needed unless you really want every morsel of this world.
*mild spoilers for MORTAL INSTRUMENTS BOOK 2 ON* this does take place AT LEAST post CITY OF ASHES. Clary has the Codex in the first place since she's training to be a Shadowhunter, but Simon is currently a vamp and it's mentioned multiple times, so we know this is at least post book 2. Not super important as I can't imagine anyone that'd grab his book who wasn't already so deep in the lore and world they didn't know this, but just in case they grabbed this post book 1 but before 2, that's def quite a spoiler haha.
Some of the stuff is interesting, like you find out how shadowhunters are actually created and began along with a lot of the other things you bump into. But what's dumb is a lot of it isn't even accurate, as we get many an interjection from Simon about vampires or Luke about werewolves, so it's kind of stupid.
I would recommend to the hardcore fans, but most certainly not necessary and not a real story so not nearly as much fun as the other supplementary works. I do think it's cool this kind of book exists because it shows just how large and expansive this world is to have something that's just detailing the finer details about it. So that's cool in and of itself, but definitely not needed unless you really want every morsel of this world.