The Mortal Instrument Series by Cassandra Clare: Review
Spoilers in the review
The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare is a classic young adult fantasy series. The 6 books in the series (in order) city of bones (2007), City of Ash, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls and City of Heavenly Fire (2014).
I would rate the series ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ overall. Each book builds on the previous one. She builds the world and the depth of character through each book and laces it all with adventures that challenge everyone. For me it was hard to separate each book from one another to write a single review for each book as they melted so well into each other; hence a review for the whole series.
Clary and her best friend Simon are in a New York City club when a very attractive, mysterious boy catches Clary’s eye. Following him to the back of the club she witnesses what appears to be a murder, weirder yet Simon can not see anything that she is seeing, not the three people with interesting black tattoos decked out in weapons; later finding out to be Jace, Alec and Isabelle or the person they just killed. The next day Clary is still wrapping her head around what happened the previous night while she is out with Simon when she spots Jace again. Before much more can occur Clary realizes her mom has gone missing and is in trouble; races straight back to the apartment. Jace, concerned follows her back and luckily enough as the apartment is not empty. Clary wakes up in the institute with Jace by her side and ready to introduce her to the shadow world that has been kept so secret from her whole life.
Throughout the rest of the book, Clary and Simon get brought deeper into the shadow world as they search for Clary’s mom. Cassandra Clare’s writing is fast-paced, and builds the world intentionally though-out the book, giving off details as they would naturally come up through conversations as well the natural building of relationships between characters. Of course, this is classic young adult fantasy fiction so there are of course love plots, drama and finding oneself throughout the whole series.
I love the relationship between Clary and Simon. Their friendship runs deep, through all their childhood adventures, to the new shadow world and also surviving through the exploration of is there more than friendship between or is that just the bond of their friendship? There are many instances throughout the series where the reader gets to see just how far one will go to save the other. How they put aside fear and self-preservation to do what other needs; it is of one the reason Jace later admits to loving Clary for. Watching Simon struggle with his feelings for Clary throughout the first few books is very retable for the audience. A lot of us have had one friend they have been so close with and at some point, the feelings grow into more than friendship and we are left to wonder if we should act on them if we should take that risk. Cassandra takes the time to explores this internal struggle, this dimension of their relationship throughout the entire series. How the two of come survive and come through their struggles both internally and externally shows the reader the depth and closeness of their relationship in a truly natural fashion.
Additionally, it is cool to watch both Clary and Simon react and find their way through the shadow world. Clary seems to have a clearer path as she is a shadowhunter and brings Simon along for the ride until Simon becomes a Vampire and has to come to terms with that.
The other half of these intense bond is Alec, Izzy and Jace. Alec and Izzy are siblings and Alec and Jace are parabatai; a lifelong bond to fight together, it is closeness, an oath that not all shadowhunters have; their share a deep connection with each other able to sense the other feelings and whereabouts – making the deadly duo but also strengthens their relationship. The parabatai bond is a magical and intense one and is widely recognized and accepted much the same as marriage. Isabelle, Alec’s younger sister has always trained with them and is as strong as they are, she makes up the rest of the trio of warriors. They are bonded together through blood and friendship from a young age. These relationships are truly the base of the books. Throughout the series, the reader can see how these two groups of people who would do anything for the other become one family that ultimately will do anything for each other. The power behind that is so immense and makes every obstacle they face possible, but also adds a spark to the whole series as they try to figure it all out.
Spoilers
As the books go on there is this whole Jace and Clary are brother and sister bit. I honestly initially hated that part of the books. It has so much angsty drama; leaving you with cringe-worthy moments and the whole time you are reading you are just thinking this can not be true; it has to be some messed up plot twist. Their feelings toward each other are anything but brotherly/sisterly and you just want to skip ahead to the plot twist/reveal of when this is not the case so they can be together. The second time reading this section of the series, I understood it a little bit better from the character development point of view. The longly they have to be near each other, but also how Jace character is given more insight into his past and as read more of understanding where he came from. He may not be related to Clary but her brother and he were brought up by the same person. Cassandra Clare plays with the idea of nature verse nurture with all three of them (Jace, Clary and Clary’s actual brother Jonathan). It is still hard to say which one is more important but arguably they both play huge roles in their personalities throughout the series.
As far as Jace’s overall character I am biased as I love a good confident, sarcastic, smart, broody bad boy. Not to mention fierce warrior with an excellent body and protector of those he loves. A lot of his character development is centred around his love for Clary as well his need to find out his family history. As the series goes on his mindset changes from “to love is to destroy” to “love makes us stronger”. This is a classic outlook on YA novels as well as the reality of life. It gives everyone something to believe in, as well the hope that we will find someone that will love us as fiercely as they do and other characters in the book as well.
The series is written from Clary’s perceptive, however, Alec and Izzy’s characters are so underrated. I love them both fiercely. They have such strong personalities, so willing to sacrifice for their family (which includes Jace, Clary, Simon and Magnus), not to mention they are both extremely badass fighters. I love Clary think she strong female lead however, Izzy is way more relatable for me. Raised alongside the boys, being just as good as them. She is one of the boys in all their adventures, being totally confident in who she is her body, extremely smart and nonetheless doing all in heels…dammm girl you are a rockstar. It is also cool to watch her and Clary’s friendship grow throughout the series, yes they both girls who only have boys who are friends, it is just easier that way..totally retable, but their closeness as being girls develops into sisterly love for another. I love it shows girls yes it is great to be one of the boys and be as strong as they are but it equally important to have a girlfriend with you, just needs to be the right one.
Although Alec and Clary start not on the best terms, potentially because they both have feelings for Jace, I think ultimately it is what brings them closer together; understand that the other will always protect Jace. It also helps when Alec moves past his unrequited love and into himself and a relationship with Magnus; one that is immensely strong and real. They have real problems and battles to overcome but ultimately choose each other over and over again. Part of their fight, and seems to be an underlying theme in The Mortal Instruments is creating equality between the shadowhunters and downworlders something they all fight for, and Alec and Magnus relationship, Clary and Simon friendship, Izzy dalliances are the for the front of fighting grounds on this subject. Additionally, Alec is also badass, such precession with his bow just wow. He has patience, clarity and a logical approach to battles which helps balance out Jace’s fierce risk-taking side in battle. They work so beautifully together showing the power of their bond. Jace would likely not be alive with Alec at his side, which shows how subtly awesome Alec is.
Overall I think Jace and Alec give us a few unrealistic standards towards future men in our lives haha; rock-solid bodies, crazy good fighting abilities, intense protection and acceptance of those they love and also super smart; not to mention heroes for saving the world haha. Yet the ones we do have are pretty sweet too, again it just about finding the right one.
Cassandra can develop all the main characters throughout the series of six giving each of them a good arc, and showing them all coming into their own as individuals and family. Her writing can transport the reader into another world, filled with love, war, and amazing characters. The plot of the series is pretty straightforward; fall in love, be a badass and save the world; however it much more magical than that on paper. The world is wonderfully constructed to allow us to escape from ordinary life and believe this could be happening, and desire to be apart of it all. They are easy to read and I would for recommending this series to all those who enjoy the young adult fantasy fiction vibe.
p.s I am also a fan of the TV show on Netflix even though it does not follow the plot of books as close as it could. They add and take out some storylines, however, the actors make the story come to life on the screen.
