***/5
"'Unfortunately,' Hodge said, 'we're all out of bitter revenge at the moment, so it's either tea or nothing.'"
Originally, when I first read this, I rated it 4 stars on my bookstagram account. Upon rereading it, and after letting the entire original series digest over time, I've changed my mind. Cassandra Clare created a world I was interested in, humorous quips of dialogue that still make me chuckle when I read them, and she created several characters that I really enjoyed. However, she also utilized some plotlines for the sake of drama that did not sit well with me. (Those spoilers will be in the parental guidance section below.)
I still enjoyed this book and the rest of the series. I have plans to read more of her books to find out more about the prequel characters as well as Simon Lewis, the best friend, who quickly became my absolute favorite character of the entire series. Although I will express some very honest feelings about this book in the major spoilers section below, I am pretty confident I will still reread these books later, and some others that she has written.
Mild Spoilers:
The book opens to introduce you to Clary Fray and her best friend, the glasses-wearing, Dungeons and Dragons-playing Simon Lewis as they are going to an all-ages club in New York. This first chapter confused the heck out of me for many reasons: 1.) why are two 15 year-olds going to an all-ages club without an adult late at night in the big city and 2.) Clare makes a point to say "He was normal-enough-looking for Pandemonium" with blue dyed hair but no facial tattoos or metal bars in the ears or lips. (Um, what kind of crowd goes to Pandemonium and why do we not see people like this around town again?)
Clary Fray witnesses a trio of Shadowhunters go into a supply closet with another boy and makes to follow them, which sets the plot spinning because now it is apparent she can see them, when normal humans shouldn't be able to. All this happens in the first chapter, and sets the ball rolling for the rest of the book. Clary soon discovers that "all the stories are real", including angels and demons, and there's a whole magical world that she didn't realize existed. After her mother is taken by an enemy previously thought dead, Clary discovers she is now a part of that world and must learn quickly how to fight the Shadowhunter way to save her mother.
I found this book to be fairly fast-paced and enjoyable to read. Certain plot twists were predictable to me and the hints too obvious, but others definitely took me by surprise. The friendship between Clary and Simon is adorable and heart-warming (Simon is 100% my favorite character in this original series) and even the romance between Jace and Clary is cute at times, albeit predictable. You've got all the characters you need for a good teens-with-powers drama: the Mentor, the girl's best friend, the boy's best friend, the best friend's sister, and a few dead parents. While some of these characters seemed a little weak in the first book, they definitely grew in their relationships over the course of the series.
I felt there was a lot of insertions of brand names that, while it anchored the story in the real world, seemed a little forced at times to me. I was not a big fan of the love triangle (although I know it was a signature part of teen urban fantasy books from the early 2000s) and had a hard time believing these characters to be between 15 and 17 years old. Clary did not react as I would have expected a 15 year-old to react upon meeting with death and self-defense for the first time. It seemed a little out of place with her shy, clumsy character to be somewhat accepting of it. However, being a somewhat shy and clumsy character myself, I found myself relating to Clary on more than one occasion.
I found a lot of Clare's writing to be poetic and hypnotic in a way: "his fingers knotting in the sodden tablecloth", "a sliver of golden sunrise just visible, like the edges of a pale gilt coin", "slicing between Manhattan and the boroughs like a scar". She kept me turning the pages, not only wanting to see what happened next, but really wanted to know what beautiful imagery would pop up next.
Would I let my child read this? (Major Spoilers):
No. I would not be okay with my child reading this until she was a more mature adult, unless we were going to have a discussion afterword. While this book does deal with some violence, it was not too descriptive with any dead bodies, which I did appreciate. However, the biggest plot twist of this book, which I definitely didn't see coming, was about the main villain's relationship with both Clary and Jace. It was very obvious to me with the quick succession of revealing Clary's dad had died before she was born almost 16 years ago, and not knowing anything about him to discussing the villain Valentine who everyone thought had died 16 years ago. Wasn't hard to put two and two together for me. Jace's dad had been killed in front of him when he was 10.
But near the end, after Clary and Jace have already had their first kiss and many close calls of kissing, Valentine makes an appearance, and Jace tells Clary that Valentine is his dad that he thought had been killed. Valentine makes a huge show of this, revealing to them both that they are siblings. This threw me for a loop, and I almost threw the book at the wall in disgust and irritation. For any parents wanting to know how this is resolved, it isn't done well. This is a primary source of angst for the next 2 books, where Clary and Jace acknowledge that they are siblings, and try relationships with other people, but are constantly finding themselves in forced proximity (and even once with a forced kiss) and wanting to give in to their feelings they have for each other. There's a makeout scene in book 3, City of Glass, that I wanted to have warm, fuzzy feelings for but could only feel distaste and a bit of nausea.
I presumed that because Clare kept hinting at how strong their bond of love was (although it seemed a little ridiculous that two young teens would be so severely in love after knowing each other for a couple of months) that she would resolve this sibling plotline and reveal them to not be siblings. I was correct, but it took until almost the end of book 3 to be revealed, that it seemed Clare was fully supporting a siblings to lovers storyline without really dealing with the consequences of that. Clary and Jace even had a discussion where Clary said it was disgusting to think about even though she had strong feelings for Jace and he got angry about it. He made it very clear he didn't care what others thought, he just wanted her. Keep in mind, these two are basically two 16/17 year-olds. They've barely had a chance to live life, let alone find themselves in all-encompassing love.
This siblings to lovers plot twist took so long to resolve itself that I had such a hard time getting into the romance when they could actually be together without people giving them disgusted looks. My child may eventually read this book, but I will highly advise that she waits until she has grown up significantly, because I feel this is somewhat dangerous for young, malleable minds to read, particularly when it is presented in a way that feels approved by the author herself.
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