The series we chose to begin with was The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. In my case, I picked them up because of the movie that just came out, and because I am a sap for these kinds of story lines, I started the first book the day after I watched the movie. And I couldn't put it down! In a way, LUC Book Club was formed around this series, so for that we will always be grateful. It turned out that Courtney had already read the series and she was the person I turned to gossip about them with. And because we are like book devils at heart, we sucked Urvi in shortly after.
Anyways, back to the books! Thus far, there are only five books in the series, with a final novel coming out in May 2013. However, Clare has short novellas on her website and some related books published. She also has a prequel trilogy out, so we hope to tackle those next!
The main plot line of the first novel City of Bones revolves around protagonist Clarrisa (Clary) Fray as she discovers an entire hidden world around her after her mother disappears. Thrust into this world unexpectedly, she quickly learns that she descends from a line of warriors called Shadowhunters and she must join their ranks in order to help save her mother. Set in New York, Clary has to adapt to her new life and navigate the dangers it leads her into.
As always, there is a love interest present (several, actually!), but this one in particular gets a little more complicated than one would expect. As we progressed through the books, we agreed that the plot line only got stronger as the story grew in intricacy. Clare manages to weave such an intense story that she leaves her readers rushing to catch up with all the twists and turns. It is exactly that kind of urgency that makes a series as strong and dynamic as hers.
Not only are her ideas well thought out and developed, but so are her characters. Each and every one is dynamic and has a personality of their own making them that more interesting. They each have something different to offer to the story and they complement each other incredibly well. There's a saying that writers do not direct their characters for it is their own creations that go where they please and lead their author along for the ride. For this series, I could easily see how Clare was the one being lead by her own characters because they are all so strong willed and have a mind of their own.
The series in order is as follows: City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, and City of Lost Souls with City of Heavenly Fire set to debut May 27th, 2013. My personal favorite will forever be Glass, but Courtney's is Lost Souls. She and I argue extensively over those respective rankings because while her second favorite is Glass, for me Lost Souls is probably in fourth place. Oops! I guess to each her own haha:) However, all three of us agreed that our least favorite by a landslide was Fallen Angels. I'm interested in knowing how anyone else who reads them would rank each book!
It's funny how some people mock the YA genre because of it's 'juvenile subject matter' when in reality, the only reason YA books are labeled as such is because the characters in them are of that age. In most cases, the topics covered in YA books rival some of the best contemporary adult novels. Regardless, Mortal Instruments was the perfect series to debut Book CLub with and we had so much fun reading them!
If you read the series, I'm interested in knowing what you thought of them! Also, have you seen the movie? If so, did you watch it before or after? In my case, I watched it before and I think my perception of the characters were changed because of it. In my opinion, I liked the movie castings (for the most part) but Courtney and Urvi, who hadn't seen the movie prior to reading, absolutely detest the actor choices! Let me know what you think of the characters and their film representations, and of the series as a whole!
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