When I first read The Mortal Instruments trilogy (as it was then) by Cassandra Clare, I thought it was the best Young Adult fiction I'd ever read. Since the movie's coming out soon(ish), I decided it was time to go back and re-read them. Was it as good as I remembered?
Better.
This is still the best written, most intense YA fiction I've ever read. From the first moment of shocking discovery to the last embrace, this series moves along at pace so swift the reader gets dragged right into the heart of the story. I guarantee that this is a series you won't be able to put down. (The amount of housework I haven't done in the last three days is a testiment to that.)
And this is the second time I've read them!
How this series doesn't have a cult following bigger than Harry Potter and Twilight put together is beyond me. The story is intense (and, unlike the other two, not repetitive), the characters are well developed (Magnus Bane, I love you!), and the world is one you never want to leave.
The thing that makes the series really great, though, is that there's nothing in it that isn't somehow important. The problem with too many series is that the first book is amazing but then the ones that follow are either too much the same or have too much filler. As a series, The Mortal Instruments is guilty of neither.
One of the things I love best about these books is the dialogue. Some of the quips between Jace and - well, anyone - are worthy of any Wheddon production. Take, for example, this conversation between Jace and Clary in City of Bones:
"It's not gray," Clary felt compelled to point out. "It's green."
"If there was such a thing as terminal literalism, you'd have died in childhood."
Or this conversation between Jace and Valentine in City of Ashes:
"They had something I needed."
"What? A sense of decency?"
Or this conversation between Jace and Simon in City of Glass:
"Have you tried talking to her?"
"No," Jace said, "we've been punching her repeatedly in the face instead. Why, do you think that won't work?"
If you haven't read this series yet, DO. And do it soon. You won't regret it. I'm currently reading the newest books in the series, City of Fallen Angels and City of Lost Souls. I don't remember them being as good as the original trilogy but I'm going to give them another go. I'll let you know what I think when I'm finished.
