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A review by rachcannoli
The Shadowhunter's Codex by Joshua Lewis, Cassandra Clare
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.