Thursday 2 July 2015

THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS #2


First and foremost, I'm already in love with this series and I'm only on book two.

But.

Would you like to know what I found SOOOooo frustrating about City of Ashes? I'll tell you. IT CREATED SO MANY MORE QUESTIONS. I already had a dozen questions from City of Bones that needed to be answered, and the second book just added to those. But do you know what's even worse? There were a few moments during this book when the questions were SO close to being answered but the conversation was interrupted or someone was killed right at the last, crucial moment. Great going Cassandra Clare, I really appreciate that.

And THE FRUSTRATION. THE TENSION. I could literally feel it seeping off the pages, and settling around my shoulders making me all tense and uncomfortable. At times all the despair I felt actually gave me a stomach ache. Clare definitely isn't afraid to write about controversial topics, and even though I'm pretty sure (desperately hoping) that it's all one big misunderstanding/trick, it's still weird to read and experience through the depth of the characters emotions.

Despite all the doom and gloom, City of Ashes is still pretty hilarious. I'm quite impressed with Clare's ability to place 'laugh out loud' humour right next to 'omg kill me now' horribleness.

In other news, I'm really liking the new girl Maia! I appreciate the diversity of Clare's characters, and I'm looking forward to seeing how she develops Maia's character/what role she plays in this vortex of pain/frustration/confusion :D

Oh and Magnus Bane might just be my new favourite character. He's so funny, powerful and attractive in his tall glittery 800-year-old-warlock way.


Speaking of Magunus. When is Alec going to get his crap together? Your inability to say how you really feel is hurting people. Like Magnus. My warlock friend. (Don't question it.)

Also *spoiler alert* I'm still not sure how I feel about Simon turning into a vampire... on one hand it's great because he's now far more powerful and can actually be of more use. Plus thanks to Jace's blood (which I'm presuming is the reason) he doesn't have to spend daylight hours hidden underneath his blanket. But... a vampire... really :/ I guess something crazy had to happen for his character to develop so he wouldn't be a whimpering mundane who had nothing better to do than pine over someone who would never really be his. Who knows, maybe I'll come to love new superhuman Simon! 

If you haven't read The Mortal Instruments and you're wondering what a 'mundane' is, that's the word for 'normal' humans who can't see/aren't aware of the supernatural world they live in. Sort of like muggles in Harry Potter, which brings me to my next point. I noticed a few things that reminded me of the Harry Potter books in City of Bones but that suspicion has definitely been solidified after completing City of Ashes. I read somewhere that The Mortal Instruments started off as Harry Potter fanfiction? Regardless of whether that's true or not I can definitely see elements of the series within Clare's books. There are the basic things like the stele (similar to a wand) and the use of the word 'mundane' but there are also bigger things like Valentine's 'circle' *cough* death eaters *cough* and the Demon of Fear known as 'Agamemnon' who literally takes the shape of whatever the person in front of him fears the most until they... die. Pretty similar to Rowling's Dementor's no?

The thing is, though taking elements from other books feels a little cheap, I don't hate it here. It'll never seem as good as the 'original' but that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. 

After finishing City of Ashes I find myself struggling to remember what actually happened in this book (even though some pretty crazy things occurred). Maybe that's because it was more of a bridge between the first book in the series, and the third? I'm not sure yet, but I'll let you guys know what I think after I finish City of Glass! 


Did you guys also notice the similarities between The Mortal Instruments and Harry Potter? Can you confirm the fanfiction theory? Also, how did you guys get through the Jace/Clary scenario? And what did you think about Simon's new identity? (I know I know, so many questions. I just need to discuss all the things!)

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2 comments

  1. Ahh, I remember reading this a couple of years ago and I was so frustrated with all the tensions too! Back then, I used to ship Clace so much so that ending was like whATS WHY HOW but now I barely remmeber what happened except for something about an exploding ship and the Inquisitor. Magnus is still my favorite and that gif from the movie thoughh ❤ Loved Godfrey Gao as Magnus but he barely got enough fab lines.

    I don't know if The Mortal Instruments started off as HP fanfiction but I heard Cassandra Clare used to write HP fanfiction so maybe her fangirl feels influenced TMI somehow. There are actual quoted comparisons of everything in TMI similar to HP and the list is so long, I stopped reading halfway haha. But that doesn't mean TMI can't stand on its own as a fun series.

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    1. I agree! TMI is a great series and the harry potter references feed my inner fangirl happiness so I don't mind them too much :') Also you should definitely re-read the series, I'm sure it'll be far less painful now that you know when and how the Clary/Jace catastrophe is resolved!

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