Reviews

The Red Scrolls Of Magic by Wesley Chu, Cassandra Clare

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veesmovingcastle's review against another edition

4.0

La historia es interesante y me da un poquito de nostalgia porque me devuelve a cuando estaba completamente obsesionada con cazadores de sombras.

Le doy 4 estrellas porque no hay pareja que yo ame como amo a Malec.

meghanlew_'s review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

abiaustin's review against another edition

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5.0

4.5 ⭐️

cassidycarolann's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

4.25

eesh25's review against another edition

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4.0

The Eldest Curses, for lack of a better way to put this, is a fun little bonus for fans of The Shadowhunter Chronicles. You don't have to read these books to make sense of the main storylines (the five main series) but you can if you want to, and they'll just add to the experience. Like the short story collections.

I've read everything Shadowhunter related that Cassie has put out—except The Shadowhunters' Codex, which is a to-read still—and I love Alec and Magnus. So of course I was gonna read this. And I would definitely recommend it to any fans of The Shadowhunter Chronicles. But, unlike the main series, this one doesn't work on it's own. So if you haven't read, at least, the first three books of The Mortal Instruments, this book won't make much sense. For optimal fun, read all the books published before.

Yeah... that's might seem a little intimidating to some, but like I said, this is a bonus series. So even as it tells it's own story, it adds layers to other stories. Here's an example:

Each time he finished a postcard, Alec wrote Wish you were here at the end. And each time, Magnus snatched the card and wrote, with a flourish, Except not really.
...
Alec finished his last postcard, and Magnus reached for it, then let his hand drop. He read what Alec had written and smiled, charmed and surprised.
On the postcard to his sister, Alec had added, Wish you were here. Except not really himself.

I love this. Because in City of Fallen Angels, Jace actually mentions Alec sending photos with captions saying "Wish you were here. Except not really" and, if you know Alec, the latter part isn't some he would think to write. So now we know how that came to be. And there are so many scenes like this, ones that reference past events and foreshadow future ones.

But anyway, it seems I've yet to write the synopsis. Which is that, after the events of City of Glass, Alec and Magnus go on a vacation across Europe. It's Alec first vacation and he and Magnus are just looking to enjoy themselves as a couple. But a lot of stuff goes wrong during the trip and this book tells us about it all. Like the demon attacks, missing memories and a cult that Magnus may have jokingly founded a couple hundred years, which has now gone off the rails, with it's members getting very murder-y.

The book starts with Magnus and Alec trying to enjoy their vacation, which descents into utter chaos thanks to the aforementioned cult. And the story becomes a strange combination of beautiful European destinations, and trying to stay ahead of a demonic cult.

It was definitely an interesting book to read. We had these very familiar and loved characters and Cassie's familiar mixture of heartfelt emotion and humour. But it was also not exactly like reading a Cassandra Clare book because it lacked the urgency that can usually be found in them. Which wasn't the book's fault really. It was because we already knew the entirety of the aftermath of the events of the book. So we didn't have to worry about Magnus or Alec dying or being injured irrevocably.

Not sure what else there is to say. I really enjoyed the book. I love Alec and Magnus and this book just further showed how precious Alec is. Like you could be flirting with him in a very obvious manner, complete with suggestive wink, but unless you tell him directly that you're hitting on him, he won't see it. He has such a good heart too. And reading about his and Magnus's feeling for one another... gave me so many feels.

If there's one thing I'd have liked changed, it's the abundance of dialogue. Don't get me wrong, I love all of Cassie's clever dialogues, but sometimes, there's too much of it at the wrong moment. Like a scene would be interrupted just so a characters could say a clever line. And it disrupted the flow of that scene. Also, do we really need a description of the pretty effect different lighting on every single person or thing?

Overall, this was a good read and, again, something I would recommend to fans of the Shadow World. And being one such fan, I'm most definitely looking forward to the next book in the series—Jace, Clary, Izzy and Simon are in it!