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amberinpieces's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Confinement, and Murder
Moderate: Body horror, Chronic illness, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Terminal illness, Addiction, and Violence
Minor: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, and Infertility
ohgull's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book was really good! The beginning was dreadfully slow, but in exchange the characters were lovable and I was drawn to them immediately. My personal favorite was Will Herondale. :) I liked how the protagonist, Tessa, grew over the course of the story and took more action than I expected. I appreciated the touches on gender roles at the time and how that affects the Shadowhunter culture and lifestyle. Overall, I loved this book, but I did lose some motivation halfway through. Once I passed the first half, the book was fast paced and I was unable to put it down.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Blood
Moderate: Kidnapping
Minor: Drug use and Ableism
keysmashhh's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Plot: 3/5
Character: 4.75/5
Relationships: 4.5/5
World-Building: 4/5
Genre: 4.5/5
Plot: I always find Cassandra Clare's books to be a bit lacking in the plot but honestly she always makes up for it with her characters and relationships. This plot I found to be a bit slow (kind of like exposition for the other books to follow but I really didn't mind. The pace could be considered slow but I love that she took the time to flesh out the characters and the subtleties of their relationships and didn't lose the plot completely. The betrayal! now that was a good plotline - which honestly I didn't see coming the first OR THE SECOND time I read this book which is amazing! I was genuinely moved by the deaths as well - Will saying goodbye to Thomas made a few tears in my eyes
Character: CASSANDRA CLARE YOU ARE AMAZING AT WRITING CHARACTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JEM CARSTAIRS IS THE BEST FICTIONAL MAN - THERE I SAID IT! WILL IS SO COMPLICATED AND ANGSTY BUT IS STILL SO AMAZING AND TESSA - SHE IS THE PERFECT BALANCE OF QUIRKY WITHOUT GETTING ON MY NERVES. All of the side characters work as well - I don't really feel that emotionally attached but considering she has somehow created 3 main characters I love - I will let that go. I also loved that we got to see more of Camille and MAGNUS in this book - it was nice to flesh out their characters in other centuries
Relationships: ugh this book makes me so torn when it comes to romance - on the one hand, Will and Jem are perfect for each other - they are such a power couple and so caring and perfect and I love them. On the other hand, the intellectual, flirty snarkiness of Will and Tessa fuels my main character syndrome but finally Jem and Tessa are perfect, they are the epitome of balance in a couple - so I give up and think they should all just kiss each other and be done with it - I'm not choosing
World-Building: The world of shadowhunters is so intricate and amazing whilst also seemingly having no useless exposition - it manages the balance of amazing descriptions of Victorian London (which are so sensory) and forwarding the plot - it really is amazing. The tiny details CC added in this such as the colours of mourning and the differences in vocab between England and America make this book so authentic
Genre: The teen fantasy romance adventure chaotic genre is so dense but these always rise to the top - not just for their characters but they rise even higher than the original Mortal Instruments series - there is something so amazing and so heart-breakingly well written in these books are that will always make me love them
1st Read: March 2021
Finally, I'm back reading Cassandra Clare books again! I read this in a day and loved it. It is so much better than the 1st books in my opinion. Maybe that's to do with me being British and loving books set in London, maybe I am just a sucker for Victorian London?Jem is my favourite by far, I would protect him with all my heart. Im interested in how Jems addiction is going to effect the rest of the plot and hopefully I will get some good content out of that in the future I loved that we got to see more Magnus content because boy oh boy does my little heart sing when he talks. I loved the bit where he mentioned his type and then basically described Alec. Also the bit right at the end with Will and him is intriguing. Tessa is so much more likeable than Clary, she is 10x more intresting and I don't roll my eyes every time she opens her mouth. Romance: Jem x Will is the supreme couple. However, I don't totally hate Will and Tessa, they are the predictable couple but they don't make me want to throw up like Clary and Jace.
Character: 4.75/5
Relationships: 4.5/5
World-Building: 4/5
Genre: 4.5/5
Plot: I always find Cassandra Clare's books to be a bit lacking in the plot but honestly she always makes up for it with her characters and relationships. This plot I found to be a bit slow (kind of like exposition for the other books to follow but I really didn't mind. The pace could be considered slow but I love that she took the time to flesh out the characters and the subtleties of their relationships and didn't lose the plot completely. The betrayal! now that was a good plotline - which honestly I didn't see coming the first OR THE SECOND time I read this book which is amazing! I was genuinely moved by the deaths as well - Will saying goodbye to Thomas made a few tears in my eyes
Character: CASSANDRA CLARE YOU ARE AMAZING AT WRITING CHARACTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JEM CARSTAIRS IS THE BEST FICTIONAL MAN - THERE I SAID IT! WILL IS SO COMPLICATED AND ANGSTY BUT IS STILL SO AMAZING AND TESSA - SHE IS THE PERFECT BALANCE OF QUIRKY WITHOUT GETTING ON MY NERVES. All of the side characters work as well - I don't really feel that emotionally attached but considering she has somehow created 3 main characters I love - I will let that go. I also loved that we got to see more of Camille and MAGNUS in this book - it was nice to flesh out their characters in other centuries
Relationships: ugh this book makes me so torn when it comes to romance - on the one hand, Will and Jem are perfect for each other - they are such a power couple and so caring and perfect and I love them. On the other hand, the intellectual, flirty snarkiness of Will and Tessa fuels my main character syndrome but finally Jem and Tessa are perfect, they are the epitome of balance in a couple - so I give up and think they should all just kiss each other and be done with it - I'm not choosing
World-Building: The world of shadowhunters is so intricate and amazing whilst also seemingly having no useless exposition - it manages the balance of amazing descriptions of Victorian London (which are so sensory) and forwarding the plot - it really is amazing. The tiny details CC added in this such as the colours of mourning and the differences in vocab between England and America make this book so authentic
Genre: The teen fantasy romance adventure chaotic genre is so dense but these always rise to the top - not just for their characters but they rise even higher than the original Mortal Instruments series - there is something so amazing and so heart-breakingly well written in these books are that will always make me love them
1st Read: March 2021
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction and Terminal illness
Moderate: Death, Murder, and Grief
Minor: Drug use, Infertility, and Death of parent
dododenise's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Reading this was an odd experience. I couldn’t decide whether I liked it, whether the tropes were bothering me, whether the plot was exciting, whether I liked the characters.
Never has a reading experience of mine been so subjective. Maybe that is why I’m not sure whether I really liked this book or not. I’ve first visited the shadowhunter world with 12, 7 years ago. I fell in love with it. I don’t think I’ve ever read more than when I read the mortal instruments series. For this book, I wanted to get that experience back. I’m not a child anymore, but as I still like YA as much as I did then, so I thought it possible. For that I went back and listened to the exact same music I also listened to when I read the mortal instrument. In the past few years, that music had always been able to pull me back into that world and fill me with nostalgia. Therefore, it happened even more while reading a shadowhunter book. It gave me the same feeling. But through gaining back that same feeling, I didn’t know what to make of this book specifically.
I wasn’t really drawn into this book. I wish it did but I could’ve just left it be in the middle of it and I would’ve been fine with it. But I still enjoyed reading it.
Will and Jem feel like versions of Jace and Alec. Maybe I just misremember how they really were, but their personalities seemed almost interchangeable. Idk whether that is something to like, considering I like Jace and Alec, or just really lazy.
And then there’s the love triangle of course. I honestly think they would work brilliantly in a polyamorous relationship. They’d bounce of each other so well. They already do now as friends (are they friends? Idk how to describe their current relationship). I’m probably setting myself up for disappointment hoping for it.
The highlight of this book, without a doubt, was Magnus. He was so much better than I remember him being and I really hope he’ll get a bigger role in the next two books.
This review ended up being so long it seems I had a lot more thoughts about it than I thought I did. But even from writing this I’m still not sure how much I actually liked the book.
Never has a reading experience of mine been so subjective. Maybe that is why I’m not sure whether I really liked this book or not. I’ve first visited the shadowhunter world with 12, 7 years ago. I fell in love with it. I don’t think I’ve ever read more than when I read the mortal instruments series. For this book, I wanted to get that experience back. I’m not a child anymore, but as I still like YA as much as I did then, so I thought it possible. For that I went back and listened to the exact same music I also listened to when I read the mortal instrument. In the past few years, that music had always been able to pull me back into that world and fill me with nostalgia. Therefore, it happened even more while reading a shadowhunter book. It gave me the same feeling. But through gaining back that same feeling, I didn’t know what to make of this book specifically.
I wasn’t really drawn into this book. I wish it did but I could’ve just left it be in the middle of it and I would’ve been fine with it. But I still enjoyed reading it.
Will and Jem feel like versions of Jace and Alec. Maybe I just misremember how they really were, but their personalities seemed almost interchangeable. Idk whether that is something to like, considering I like Jace and Alec, or just really lazy.
And then there’s the love triangle of course. I honestly think they would work brilliantly in a polyamorous relationship. They’d bounce of each other so well. They already do now as friends (are they friends? Idk how to describe their current relationship). I’m probably setting myself up for disappointment hoping for it.
The highlight of this book, without a doubt, was Magnus. He was so much better than I remember him being and I really hope he’ll get a bigger role in the next two books.
This review ended up being so long it seems I had a lot more thoughts about it than I thought I did. But even from writing this I’m still not sure how much I actually liked the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Addiction, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent and Drug use
Minor: Sexism, Infidelity, and Alcohol
lucy_36's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping
theoverbookedshelf's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, Infertility, and Addiction
tiana_king's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
An exciting story with plenty of plot twists and action. Personally I find Victorian era British people to be a bit boring no matter what circumstances so that’s the only reason it’s not 5 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Classism and Drug use
Minor: Racism, Alcohol, Infidelity, Infertility, and Rape
a_ira's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use and Addiction
Minor: Sexism
kiaelisereads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Drug use, Gore, Death, and Violence
Minor: Death of parent
holly_rose's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
this was my first real fantasy read and i really really enjoyed it. there were so many plot twist that i did not expect and it was so well written. it was hard to get used to the different names for things but i soon caught on. i loved the ending and can’t wait to read the next one!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use