Post Tagged with: "Mortal Instruments"

City of Lost Souls, by Cassandra Clare

City of Lost Souls, by Cassandra Clare

City of Lost Souls

by Cassandra Clare

Well it’s about time.  I’ve been waiting a flipping year for this book.

I loved it, it just lacked a bit of the pacing the other books had, which isn’t bad, but very unlike the first four.  I loved the characters as usual and I truly to love the fact that the book is written in third person and we’re not stuck inside someone’s head.  The entire plot was very…different.  And while Clare’s series are very very fantasy/paranormal, she always makes sure that it makes sense in their world.  She isn’t just going to say, “And a big polka dot bunny came to them….”  We will know, at least eventually (because her readers trust her), that there is a explanation (in the Shadowhunter world) for why there is a polka dot bunny.  So with the whole Jace/Sebastian tied together thing, she had a history of how it happened, it just didn’t “happen” for the sake of a plot and no one knows why.

From here down SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT.

May 12, 2012 1 comment Read More
Slowly but surely

Slowly but surely

Oh the edits.  I know the saying writing is rewriting, but it doesn’t really hit you until you really go through it.  The contradictions I find.  The wait, she’s in the completely wrong mood moments.  Have I mentioned I still haven’t written the end?  No, that’s not true.  I have the last like, page.  It’s a doozy.  It’s one of those endings where the reader will be like WHAT THE F I HATE YOU HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME?  Which, as I reader I equally hate, but now being on the other end, I kind of love it.

I haven’t read anything new (re-reading HP lately) because Insurgent comes out in a couple days and I don’t want to be in the midst of something new and stop it.  I guarantee I will read Insurgent in a day.  Not even in a day, I’ll have it finished before I go to the barn at 2pm.  Then City of Lost Souls comes out two weeks later and gah, I need me some shadowhunter goodness.  And somewhere in between all of that, I’ll keep on trucking with this mess of words I call my novel.

-AB
April 29, 2012 0 comments Read More
Book Review(s): Infernal Devices

Book Review(s): Infernal Devices

Clockwork Angel - Infernal Devices - Cassandra ClareThis is spoiler free, by the way. Any spoilers will be hidden.

I have already read the four books in The Mortal Instruments series before beginning this blog. I was going to write reviews for them before this, but it’s quite difficult to write a review being that a lot of the character and plot problems have been flushed out (there are two books left).  The two books in the Infernal Devices devices series, though, I had not yet.  (All of these books are by Cassandra Clare, by the way).  While TMI takes place in modern day New York, TID takes place in victorian London, though all the books are based on “Shadow hunters” known in the Bible as Nephilim; the crossbred of a human and an angel.

So, Clockwork Angel (CA) and Clockwork Prince (CP) are the first and second book.  Because of the nature they’re written, it is possible to review them together since you aren’t privy to a lot of secrets by the end of CA still.

I enjoyed them, though I have heard other opinions.  I mean, I read them both within two days (Had I not had to do that thing called “work” it would have been sooner, I’m sure.) which would not have happened had they not hooked me.  I enjoy the character of Tessa.  She is naive and asks questions, but does not do so in an annoying manner.  She is distrustful, as she should be, but not bitchy about it.  She loves her family unconditionally, even after what was done to her.  She is in a terrible situation when it comes to love, but she never comes off as a self-loathing, whiny teenage girl.

The relationship between Jem and Will is wonderful. I love Jem.  Even though I know now what Will’s secret is, I still love Jem more.  Maybe it is because he is sick (not a spoiler) and I’m a sucker? Or maybe because you can see he is truly a good, kind, person.  That he loves Will even though Will is….well, Will.  I pity Will, even after finding out his past, but I have yet to become attached to him.  My first actual feeling for him came when I realized he has had so little happiness in his life, yet would sacrifice what he could get, just to keep Jem happy.

I feel like I’m talking about the characters a lot because to me it is SUCH a character driven story. Their relationships –not only romantic like you find in some novels — with each other are what make this story. And don’t get me wrong, it’s a good plot and it has me very very intrigued.  Some events I could see coming in both books, and it took that GASP moment out of it, it was still written well to refrain from having that bumming “yeah, I knew that I was going to happen” feeling.

Read no more, lest you want to be spoiled.

February 13, 2012 0 comments Read More