A review by reginacattus
Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader by Cassandra Clare

2.0

With hindsight, the blurb makes some sense, but before I started reading it I was under the false impression that it was a collection of short stories about shadowhunters and downworlders. It actually took quite a while for me to accept that we weren't leading up to some short stories. Nope, its actually a non-fiction collection of essays by YA authors about LGBTQ+ representation, taboos, relationships and... well, that's about it. Some of the essays were fairly interesting, and if I had gone in expecting essays... well I probably wouldn't have asked for the book in the first place but nonetheless hypothetically... I might have enjoyed it more. It was just a bit too fangirly and somewhat over-analysing what is, in general, a fairly basic series. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the MI and ID series when I first read them, but never to the point of writing essays about them.
In any case, go into this book expecting a series of glowing positive essays and make yourself a nice educated decision about whether you care enough to read this book.