Yep, I know I'm a little on the slow side with this one but unless it's a Star Wars book, I don't usually rush out to buy it on release day. The 4th Harry Potter book came out before I read the first one, #6 with the House of Night series and everybody else heard about Sookie Stackhouse before I did. But once I get hooked on a series or an author, I'm scrambling to read everything they've ever written. Case in point- the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare.
The Mortal Instruments is a trilogy- City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass. The main character, Clary, is a typical teenager in NYC, fighting with her mom, wondering if her best friend-boy should become her boyfriend, clubbing, etc. Then she gets sucked into the "real" world. Most mundanes (normal humans) have no clue that there is so much more out there in the world. Shadowhunters, descendents of angels who mated with humans, fight to save the world from demons. It's simply good vs. evil. What's not so simple is that there are sort of halfbreeds in between- vampires, werewolves, magicians and fairies. Neither good nor evil, they are all viewed as second class citizens by the Shadowhunters. Where does Clary fit into all of this? You'll just have to read them and find out! You'll be glad you did (I read all three 400+ page books in about 4 days because I couldn't put them down and now I'm starting them over again to see what I missed the first time around).
I do have to address one thing- Ms. Clare got a lot of flack when the first book hit the shelves. There were accusations that she "borrowed" a lot of her ideas from other books. You guys know how I am about plagiarism- big no-no, punishable by death! But, even though I saw lots of ideas that are out there in many books, I never saw anything that made me doubt that this was her story. To me, this is what writing is supposed to be- taking traditional (and well worn in the case of vampires) ideas and putting your own spin on them. I love the world she created and can't wait for her to write more stuff!
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