I have only read The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices, and I’m not planning to read The Dark Artifices or the companion books, so this review will focus on those two series in the Shadowhunter world.
The Shadowhunter world created by Cassandra Clare has become extremely popular since its release in 2007, particularly in YA and across Booktube. In fact, I never heard anything bad about the series until I actively searched for criticisms after I read it. But the series that made Clare popular—The Mortal Instruments—is incredibly problematic, which gives a slightly alarming twinge to its popularity.
This is the basis of my opinions: The Mortal Instruments went quickly from interesting to a bit creepy in the space of one book, and then got progressively worse. The Infernal Devices tore at my heartstrings, and were everything that The Mortal Instruments were not. Let me tell you why.
Table of Contents:
The Mortal Instruments—Barely more than angsty lust
Clare’s Writing:
First of all, Cassandra Clare’s writing style is not distinct or anything special. I read mostly literary fiction, but that does not mean I am particularly pretentious about writing style. I definitely appreciate a distinctive voice, but I can also forgive mediocre writing if there’s a good plot or compelling characters. And that is how I feel about The Infernal Devices. However, I am incredibly surprised that The Mortal Instruments got past an editor. There are so many contradictions and an astounding number of instances where Clare repeated either full lines of dialogue almost verbatim or just the generals of a conversation as if the conversation hadn’t happened before. Either Clare forgot what she had already written or she thinks her readers are stupid and need constant reminders of what they already know. She also has a random obsession with the way people smell and with gold.
I think the saving grace of Clare’s writing is her humor, which I really enjoyed. I found myself laughing at either the banter or the ridiculousness of Clare’s writing or plot, which I will delve into below.
The Mortal Instruments—Barely more than angsty lust:
This series is set in a fantasy world of mundanes (regular humans), Downworlders (warlocks, werewolves, vampires, and faeries), demons, and Shadowhunters (glorified humans that protect the world from demons). There has been some discussion about whether the series is a rip-off of the Harry Potter series, but I’m not going into that here.
Disregarding the conceivable plagiarism, the worldbuilding is decent for a fantasy series. However, the world takes a backseat, and the entire series revolves around obsessive romances. I like character-driven novels, but this is something else entirely. It has barely anything to do with characterization, and everything to do with teenage romantic angst that is excessively drawn out.
None of the characters are distinctive; they are all fairly cliche. Clary (the main character?) doesn’t have a lot of character agency, although Cassandra Clare insists she is the driver of the plot. Characterization and any other type of relationship other than romantic are severely sacrificed for angsty, dramatic romantic relationships that build up over a course of two weeks. Familial relationships and friendships are flimsy and unbelievable. Cassandra Clare—note that I’m annoyingly using her full name because Clare and Clary are too similar and I’m trying to avoid confusion—claims that Jocelyn is super overprotective over Clary, and yet she allows her daughter to go to nightclubs and anywhere else with Simon? Clary and Luke have a deep father-daughter relationship, and yet they barely touch and never hug after the first book? Jocelyn loves Clary more than anything, but she surpasses her daughter to get comfort from her boyfriend every time? Jace and Alec are super close friends, and yet there are barely hints of their connection outside of the parabatai rune on their chests that gleam every once in a while? It seems like Cassandra Clare cannot write convincing relationships unless they are lustful… and even then it is all about physicality and attractiveness. Clary talked about Jace’s golden eyes, skin, and hair constantly, but she rarely talked about his personal attributes. Their attraction was nearly entirely physical, and that was the case for all of the relationships.
Speaking of characters and relationships, is it just me or is Alec the worst? He never had distinctive character traits, much less any good ones. I have no idea what Magnus sees in him, and then Cassandra Clare tried to minimize what Alec did to Magnus and tried to place the blame on Magnus for an atrocious act of Alec’s. That is kind of beside the point, but I had to mention it because Alec is beyond annoying.
Back to the point. Every book after the first part of The Mortal Instruments (or perhaps even after the first book) didn’t really have a plot other than angst and lust. There were so many character switches as an attempt to pretend there was an actual plot to these books, but they were random and not very well done. The entire series could have been three or four books, but Cassandra Clare drew it out as a money-making device, which is irritating.
Also, it never felt like anything was at stake. We pretty much knew that by the end, every “important” character was still going to be alive and well, and the good guys would win. All of the good characters who actually did die were relatively minor characters and were only included to add shock value. And instead of being devastated, the characters remaining would move on entirely too quickly, with the exception of sparse one-liners to remind the reader that—oh, yeah!—they’re grieving and in so much pain and you should feel for them! Connection to characters simply does not work like that. And to be truly invested in a series, I have to feel like something is at stake. Cassandra Clare tried to do that in the last book of the series, but she turned around and fixed it at the end, as if no sacrifice had taken place.
Is Cassandra Clare obsessed with incest?:
This is the part where I have to be careful about spoilers. In fact, if you don’t want to read spoilers, go ahead and skip this section. Although, to be honest, if I wasn’t aware of a spoiler mentioned here prior to reading, I don’t think I would have ever finished the series. So if you haven’t read the series and are planning on doing so, you may want to acquaint yourself with the next paragraph before moving on to the next section.
The most obvious incestuous relationship is between Jace and Clary. I already knew before reading it that they weren’t actually related, and that is supposed to make it okay. It is the only reason I kept reading past the first book, but it was still icky. They thought they were siblings, and yet they still pursued romantic feelings towards each other. And Cassandra Clare carried this plotline for three books! And in all that time, no one even thought about taking a DNA test? It should have been resolved a lot quicker if it had to be included at all.
The other more obvious incestuous relationship is between Sebastian and Clary, who are in fact siblings. Granted, this relationship is (almost) entirely one-sided, and Sebastian is mostly demon, but it’s still such an icky plot point. And Cassandra Clare romanticized it with the way she wrote Sebastian. She only wrote about how hot Sebastian was, even from Clary’s point of view, and was oversexualized, even from Clary’s point of view. Everything about it is creepy.
Those are the obvious ones, but Cassandra Clare doesn’t stop there. Alec has romantic feelings for Jace, who is supposed to be his adoptive brother, but no one is supposed to think this is strange. Clary also asks Jace if he had ever dated Izzy (Alec’s sister), and this is accepted as a totally appropriate question to ask, even though in the next book Izzy refers to Jace as her brother and Jace is considered a Lightwood. And no, you do not suddenly become so close within the space of two weeks to close the gap between available and “ew no, he’s my brother.” Not unless the adoption papers were signed in those two weeks, but Jace has been a part of the Lightwood family for maybe 6 years at this point? Sorry, but it’s gross.
A Freudian psychologist would have a field day with Cassandra Clare.
This isn’t directly related to incest, but was anyone else weirded out by Maia’s and Jordan’s relationship? He had physically abused Maia, but then she accepted him back into her life and started to date him. Cassandra Clare wrote their relationship as if it were canon, but then Maia started to withdraw out of nowhere, just for Clare to lessen the damage of killing off Jordan. I actually liked Jordan as a character, and I understand that his Turning into a werewolf made him overly aggressive, which he had no control over, but what does their relationship tell the younger readers? That’s it’s okay to return to an abusive partner because he’s “only angry when he’s drunk”? Because that is the way their relationship translates in a more realistic world where there are no werewolves, but there are abusive relationships.
Cassandra Clare just failed in the relationship arena, particularly when writing for a younger crowd who might not know what a healthy relationship looks like.
The Infernal Devices:
It got to the point I only continued reading Part 2 of The Mortal Instruments for bare snippets of Tessa, Jem, and Will—characters from The Infernal Devices.
I read The Infernal Devices in middle school, and I was no less enthralled reading it the second time around. Unlike The Mortal Instruments, the characters are compelling, the relationships beautiful, there were fewer writing and plot errors, and the entire plot wasn’t based on sexual frustration.
I’m not sure if Tessa was always totally honest with Jem, but I still rooted for their relationship, perhaps slightly less than I rooted for Tessa and Will’s. They are three amazing characters rooted in love, friendship, and connection. I can’t stress how beautiful I find their characters.
However, the series isn’t perfect. As mentioned before, the writing isn’t top-quality. Which I said was forgivable if the plot was compelling, but I found the plot forgettable. I definitely did not remember the majority of the plot from middle school, and I’m not sure if I will remember the plot a year from now, but the characters are unforgettable. I’m not sure how the same author could write both The Infernal Devices and The Mortal Instruments. I know that Cassandra Clare supposedly drew heavily from the characters of Harry Potter for The Mortal Instruments, but I do not know about The Infernal Devices. Perhaps it is better because it is more original? I don’t know.
If you delve into the Shadowhunter series, I recommend skipping over The Mortal Instruments, and reading The Infernal Devices instead. I’m not saying TMI wasn’t fun at times, but I can’t help feeling that reading the entire series was a waste of my time. Not that it took a lot of time, perhaps two weeks in all. It’s short and not very thought provoking, so it’s an easy read, but The Mortal Instruments are so problematic that I can’t get behind them. But if you’re in the mood for YA and want an easy read that won’t take too much of your time with characters that will break your heart, go ahead and dive into The Infernal Devices.
