This review covers the “original” trilogy of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, City of Ashes, and City of Glass. More
books have been written and the series is up to five now; I have no
idea how long the author intends for the series to run at this point.
Look at those covers — aren’t they kind of
hilarious? Anyway, being the dedicated Tumblr user that I am, I couldn’t
help but notice the fervor over these, particularly with the movie
adaptation currently filming and slated for release in spring 2013.
Turns out, I’m way behind on this phenomenon, since City of Bones was first released in 2008. Anyway. Onto the actual review-y stuff.
Set in modern New York, the series concerns
the re-education of “mundane” Clary Fray, who grew up much like you and
I, blind to the supernatural worlds that exist intertwined with ours.
That changes one evening at a nightclub when she witnesses a group of
Shadowhunters engaged in a bit of demon-slaying. Shadowhunters are
humans that are angel-blessed and have the ability (and responsibility)
to fight demons and other forces of evil. Shadowhunters are born only
from the established bloodline of known Shadowhunters, so when the
supposedly-normal Clary is able to see what ordinary humans, called
“mundanes,” cannot, the Shadowhunter group takes her back to their lair.
Meanwhile, her mother is kidnapped, as it turns out, by demons, and
Clary and her new companions, along with her other mundane friend Simon,
learn Clary’s true heritage and begin a quest to rescue her mother.
This is basically the setup for the first
three books in the series, which has everything you would expect from a
supernatural YA series: the epic and passionate romance that appears
delayed by insurmountable circumstances and kind of leads to a love
triangle, except that you’re never quite convinced that there is really
any competition; the showdown between good and evil, which in this case
is led by a former Shadowhunter-turned-bad; appearances from vampires,
warlocks, werewolves, and faeries — etc, etc. There is also a lot of
meta humor and current pop culture references, which make the books fun
now but will probably lead to them seeming really dated in another few
years.
Overall, yes, these were really fun. I read
all three over the course of a single weekend, and I can understand why
teenagers (aka, the actual target market for YA) have gone rabid over
them. I really enjoyed the world-building and fast paced plot, both of
which kept me engaged and caused me to want to zip through these
quickly. The romance was fun too, due to a legitimately surprising
twist, which keeps them “apart” for a good 2/3 of the trilogy and makes
for some deliciously conflicted sexual tension. The writing itself was
kind of hokey and immature, and didn’t really achieve the same kind of
character depth or development that, say, Collins does in The Hunger Games, or even that THG would-be competitors like Divergent
(Roth) do. What the characters lack in depth, though, they make up for
in sassy quips. Again, these lend themselves to fun, quick reads rather
than truly thought-provoking YA, but I’m not really complaining. One of
the things that the Cannonball has done for me is taken away a bit of my
prejudice regarding “serious” books. If I’m trying to read at least 52
books in a year, I owe myself a few silly fun ones along the way! So
that’s what I recommend to my audience. The Mortal Instruments
make a great palate-cleanser if you're used to reading more serious stuff: you’ll probably
enjoy them, even if they don’t “stay with you,” as they say. And if this kind of stuff is actually right up your alley, you've probably already read them, since like I said, I'm late to this game.
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