haddy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Felt deeply uncomfortable for parts of this book. You know which parts I’m talking about.
Clary and jace annoyed me for like 90% of this book.
Enjoyed some of the bits that didn’t make me want to vom?? Forgot how unhinged this plot is.
Clary and jace annoyed me for like 90% of this book.
Enjoyed some of the bits that didn’t make me want to vom?? Forgot how unhinged this plot is.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest, Misogyny, and Violence
Moderate: Child death
lim's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
0.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Child death and Homophobia
Sibling incest, romanticizing incest, toxic masculinity, internalized misogyny.blakethebookeater's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Ok so this book gets back to the fun antics from the first novel, but actually way more interesting now! The world starts to feel more fleshed out and lived in and traveling to the Shadowhunters’ homeland really gave me a sense of what their culture actually is.
There was fun twists and turns and action moments but in the end it was all overshadowed by one infuriating plot line: the incest.
Literally it’s so in your face and drawn out and I hated it sooooo much. Like that “forbidden love” thing disgusts me and doesn’t intrigue me at all so my brain basically shut off everytime that plot line came to the forefront and that was way too often for my liking. Like I was able to mostly handle it in the last book because they knew it was forbidden and tried to resist but at this point they just don’t care and it made me not even want to pick up the novel tbh.
The ending was sweet and left some small threads dangling (presumably for when she stretched a trilogy into six books), and overall this first trilogy was a solid 3 stars from me. Like intriguing at times, fun at others, bad and very bad at times, and sometimes just meh. I can see how it had a foothold in late 00’s YA culture and I’m glad I read them, but I probably wouldn’t read them again.
(One thing I will give Cassandra Clare props for though is a canon gay relationship in the late 00’s when I was still getting called a faggot in middle school. It would’ve made me feel less alone even if I had read about some gay rep at all! Obviously there are better queer books out there but to have a gay relationship in such a major series at the time is pretty awesome.)
3.5/5 stars
There was fun twists and turns and action moments but in the end it was all overshadowed by one infuriating plot line: the incest.
Literally it’s so in your face and drawn out and I hated it sooooo much. Like that “forbidden love” thing disgusts me and doesn’t intrigue me at all so my brain basically shut off everytime that plot line came to the forefront and that was way too often for my liking. Like I was able to mostly handle it in the last book because they knew it was forbidden and tried to resist but at this point they just don’t care and it made me not even want to pick up the novel tbh.
The ending was sweet and left some small threads dangling (presumably for when she stretched a trilogy into six books), and overall this first trilogy was a solid 3 stars from me. Like intriguing at times, fun at others, bad and very bad at times, and sometimes just meh. I can see how it had a foothold in late 00’s YA culture and I’m glad I read them, but I probably wouldn’t read them again.
(One thing I will give Cassandra Clare props for though is a canon gay relationship in the late 00’s when I was still getting called a faggot in middle school. It would’ve made me feel less alone even if I had read about some gay rep at all! Obviously there are better queer books out there but to have a gay relationship in such a major series at the time is pretty awesome.)
3.5/5 stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest and Violence
Moderate: Hate crime, Genocide, Misogyny, and Child abuse
Minor: Body horror
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