THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS TRILOGY BOOK REVIEW

SHADOWHUNTERS. The word that really caught my attention while walking down the hall of our local bookstore. The Mortal Instruments Trilogy is a young adult paranormal romance/urban fantasy, set in a colorful version of our reality where humans walk unaware of not just the vampires, werewolves, fey and warlocks, but also demons and their part-human enemies – the Shadowhunters. The author Judith Rumelt better known by her penname Cassandra Clare is a bestselling American author of young adult fiction. The books are inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan, Cassandra’s favorite city. As I progress through, I found that the books are fast flowing with vivid characters, a lot of action, and interesting twists.
The City of Bones, the first book of the trilogy, tells us about a seemingly ordinary teenager, Clary Fray, who live in New York City, discovers she is the descendant of a line of Shadowhunters, a race of young half-angel warriors locked in an ancient battle to protect our world from demons. After the disappearance of her mother, Clary must join forces with a group of Shadowhunters, who introduce her to a dangerous alternate New York called Downworld, filled with demons, warlocks, vampires, werewolves and other deadly creatures.

As I read through the book I found each and every character such charming personalities, as if they where real. I become aware of there presence and starts to worry. The words used by Cassandra to narrate the whole story and describe what it looks like made me see and feel as I am inside the book itself.

Clary’s personality, the protagonist, is just like other inexperienced teenage girl. She’s incredibly stubborn and a little sarcastic, but is a very caring person, with lots of compassion for her friends and family. Due to her stubbornness she goes to extreme lengths to accomplish what she wants usually putting herself the danger, leaving those people who care for her, especially Jace, extremely exasperated. As for Jace, one of the main characters who has a unexplained relationship with Clary (which is revealed in the last part of the book), gives the impression of holding most people in disdain but is quite chivalrous toward women. He is extremely arrogant, believing himself to be “The best Shadowhunter” and to be above others. He can also be very sarcastic and is shown to be very confident about his looks and has dated a lot of girls. Simon Lewis, Clary’s best friend, may appear an open geek and more of a secondary character, but he is still my favorite character through the trilogy. Despite all what happened he still releases an aura of “normality” to Clary, carrying the idea of once the world Clary had lived in. The bass player of a garage band also described as cute but doesn’t even realize it and is said to be a vegetarian since the age of 10.

The story runs smoothly, slowly enabling our mind to enter from our mundane, refer to ordinary human being, world to the Shadowhunters breathtaking yet dangerous paradise. My interest in this book tunes in and out depending on my mood. I guess the slowness of the story affected my interest but I was then surprised to an unexpected turn of events. The revelation of the female protagonist’s real identity through the end of the book and her real relationship with the male protagonist Jace makes me want to immediately start reading the second book.

As soon as I start reading City of Ashes, the second book, Jace character seemed to tone down, but still is sarcastic to people he practically hated. He faced certain situations a sixteen year old teenager could bear, but he is not just a normal teenager yet he does not need to suffer what he is suffering. Clary’s character her begins to grow magnificently. She somehow discovered something only she herself could create, a powerful gift which is said to be the outcome her biological father, Valentine’s early experiments. New characters where revealed in this book, and my favorite Simon, caught him in a no-turning-back-situation where he had bitten and was turned into a Vampire in the middle of the book. Now that he is a vampire, Simon’s been having a hard time to adjust in his new skin.

The story on this book is so full of twists that it’s hardly compared than the surprises I felt when I was reading the first book. You would love to see how each and every character, even the secondary one, will have a huge part as the book comes in the end.

I never have thought that the next book would have such interesting plots and that the Author would grow this much. It is a beautiful book and so far is my favorite book among the trilogy. I read it almost twice and still got the chills as I read it from the beginning up to the last. And as soon as I finished it, I hurriedly move on the third and last book of the trio.

City of Glass. In this book, I get to really see (as what the author has described) the hometown of my dearest Shadowhunters, the Alicante, the capital and one and only city in Idris located between Germany and France. Only Shadowhunters could enter the said country. It is said that all roads in Alicante lead to the Accords Hall. The entire city, particularly the Clave buildings and towers, are made of the demon repelling material used in Seraph Blades (Shadowhunters weapon). The towers seemed to reflect light making it look like fragile glasses. The last book reveals many questions left by the first and the last book. Clary’s character became the main weapon in the upcoming war and so is Simon’s. Jace’s character in this book seems to be down and unfocused and does not help much until the last event that killed the secondary antagonist, Sebastian Verlac right after the antagonist; Valentine was killed.

The each and every character of the story transformed dramatically even the unexpected alliance of the Shadowhunters with the Downworlders. Cassandra’s way of writing, though there is a lot of fighting scene but not really gore, is a thrilling, hair-raising imagination running wild in your mind. The most awaited war is really the thing you would love to read. I really feel like I am in the battle itself, battle against the demons is quite hard to imagine but then thanks to Cassandra’s beautiful way of describing her own world. The battle ended in a sort of not-really-what-you-expected but hey!, what to expect with Cassandra?

The book did end up well patching torn plots of the first two books. But then again, to my opinion, is not the best book in the trilogy. As I looked at the last book seems to be black and full of sorrow, but a feeling of relief that it was all over.

The Mortal Instruments Trilogy is a young adult fantasy book. I truly recommend it to young teenager which is a huge fan of fantasies and is looking for a unique plot with unique and must-be-love characters. The book contains mostly battle scenes, a bit of romance, though the romantic scene was not really focused other than the one scene with Clary and Jace had. It also has a bit of comedy and a really good humor into it. Though, it may not be the book to be compared to Harry Potter but hey, it is really worth your time. Just let the Author take you to her beautiful word full of mystery and danger and you will sure to embrace and fell in love with the Shadowhunter’s world as well.