Reviews

5/5 stars

“Where there is love, there is often also hate. They can exist side by side.”

This book has been out for 17 years so I feel like maybe I shouldn't HAVE to say this review obviously has spoilers but... this is your warning, I guess.

I have made it a point in my life that when I get really close to someone, I will watch/read/etc. whatever their favorite thing is. For Alissa, this is Shadowhunters, so I knew what had to be done. I promised myself to this of my own volition. I bought 9 of the books and decided I would take myself on this journey. And oh, what a start to the journey this was...

This book is so painfully 2007. A lot of the lines had me straight up laughing out loud. Some of them were intended to be funny, but mostly because they were so.... so '07. There is no other way to describe it. This thing deserves 5 stars for the pure entertainment I got from it. Is it a 5 star book in the aspect of peak literature? No. But I didn't say it was good, I said I had a good time. Had I read this alongside the other things I was reading around this time, I would've said this book was the peak of literature, though.

I knew about the Clary/Jace "sibling" storyline already, but I was still screaming and punching my book. How dare C.Clare get me shipping them and then do that to me? To all those people who stanned this? I can't believe her. Foul. FOUL. I can't wait for this to go away forever, please, and thank you. Also, for 2007, I am fascinated that this had gay rep in it. Like... I kinda knew that a little bit? I was an avid Tumblr user, and I knew of Malec because of the TV show, but at that time, I didn't realize when this was written. C.Clare was ahead of the curve, and I must applaud her for it.

The audiobook for this thing is horrible, by the way. All the people who are Shadowhunters have awful British accents done by Mae Whitman since (according to my source, Alissa), the actors of the City of Bones movie are British. Awful choice, and I wish they had never done it. I can not unhear them all being British now, I require my ears to be cleansed.

I will be reading the next book. Will I be reading it next? Maybe? Maybe not. I am not sure. I will contemplate this. But I will do it eventually. Especially considering the entire first 9 books are sitting on my shelf...