Review: CITY OF LOST SOULS by Cassandra Clare

Rating: 4/5 stars

*This review contains spoilers for the first four books in The Mortal Instruments series, but not for this book, City of Lost Souls.*

I read a lot of reviews where people said this book was really slow, but I didn’t see that. I enjoyed the whole thing; although, I was listening to the audiobook so that might have contributed to my enjoyment. Also, I was slugging through Clockwork Prince right before I started this book but decided to put it down out of boredom and because I just really wanted to get back into this story instead. Because of that, I don’t know how that book connects to this book, but I really wish I did because I bet there are tons of crossover details.

First, let’s talk about the characters. I’m irritated with Jace again. Why is it always Jace who’s in trouble? What happened with him in City of Fallen Angels and this book reminded me of City of Ashes where he almost trusted Valentine and got in trouble with the Clave. Like why can’t someone else be in the hot seat for a change? Jace hasn’t been himself for the last two books for certain reasons, but it just feels like Clare is picking on his character because it seems he’s always the one to get the short end of the stick. I get that it’s because of what happened at the end of City of Glass, but I still feel like she turned a main character on us for a few hundred pages there.

Anyway, I’m still loving Simon. He was the first character I like backed in City of Bones, and he remains my favorite character of this series. I just love watching him grow as a vampire. He faces real struggles when it comes to his family, and it’s nice to see characters work through their problems and emerge stronger, which he does. I’m glad he was able to work out some of the tension in his family. He has been instrumental to the lives of the Shadowhunters in this whole series, and I think he’s a living testament that Downworlders and Shadowhunters are supposed to work together to fight demons and villains, that there never should have been animosity between the two races.

Clary really showed her loyalty to Jace in this book. Up until now I considered their relationship to be like any other teenage relationship that you think is going to last forever until it ends abruptly over something stupid. But now I realize how invested Clary is, and I have to give her credit for what she endured for Jace during this book. I bet she learned a lot about herself, too, in how far she was willing to go for him. Also, I’m glad Clary finally used her charm to summon the Seelie Queen because when we found out about that back in City of Fallen Angels, I’d been wondering when it was going to show up again. I hate when authors introduce an important artifact or a piece of crucial information and then it never gets mentioned again. I also loved the rings that Clary acquired and their properties. All of the magical items in this series—and there are quite a few—are my favorite things to read about.

Jordan and Maia grew on me during this book too. I kept blowing them off as disposable side characters but after this book, I started to like them, Jordan especially.

I really enjoyed Alec and Magnus’s relationship for most of this book. (I’m hoping what happened at the end will be solved in the final book.) The bounds were tested, and I think they both learned what their relationship was worth to each of them. I was also kind of excited to see Alec keeping secrets from the rest of the crew because that’s so unlike him and it really stretched his character.

And lastly, Sebastian. What’s to like? I’m a bit upset that he’s back in this series because he was supposed to be dead. . . . But here he is anyhow, and I don’t like him. He actually seemed pretty charming and normal for most of the book, which was an interesting change of character for him, but I still never trusted him for a second. What I did like, though, was his house that could teleport anywhere. I want a house like that.

After five books, I’ve spent a lot of time with these characters and have really grown to love them all. I remember hating Isabelle and Jace in the first book, but now Isabelle is one of my favorite characters, and Jace is good when he can finally think for himself. This book had a great deal of character development in it for all the characters, and that might be why some people think it’s slow, because of the lack of action for a few hundred pages. However, while there is no action in the beginning, the events that do take place are just as important.

I thought there were quite a few tropes in this book. Normally I don’t really notice or care about tropes but for some reason in this book I really noticed them, and it had me rolling my eyes at times. Something I hate in books that feels like a cop-out is dead people coming back to life. Simon coming back to life in the earlier books I liked because it wasn’t the typical resurrection spell and he was changed, but Sebastian, who was originally dead when the trilogy “ended” the first time, coming back in the second arc of this series seemed like a ploy just to create more content and sell more books. He is also so similar to Valentine that the end of this book felt too much like it was slipping into the plotline of the first three books. I know that Valentine and Sebastian have different ideas of a “utopia” that they’re trying to build, but it’s all the same concept.

Another trope that bothered me was the one where “the main character gets never-before-seen unnatural powers” that happened. This happened with Clary and her rune-creating abilities that happened in the first arc, and here it is happening again. I just don’t like when one person is more special than the entire rest of their race. Or “the super important artifact that is the key to everything goes missing so the whole plan is foiled” trope that happens to Clary.

I remember commending Cassandra Clare in my review of City of Bones for addressing all the questions in the plot that the reader would have, such as Why can’t the characters just use this spell instead? or Why can’t they solve the problem this simpler way? But after reading this book, I’ve noticed that technique doesn’t apply so much anymore. There were plenty of times I asked myself while reading City of Lost Souls, Why are they doing this? Why is it happening this way? Why didn’t this obvious idea work? It was a bit disappointing.

Once again, I love how the doctrine from the Bible is used to tell the history of Shadowhunters. Clare takes really interesting concepts from the Bible and uses them to make her world seem more realistic, and it’s great. It is curious, though, that it is mentioned multiple times in this series that Shadowhunters have no religion because they essentially worship the angel Raziel for creating them, but they base a lot of things on Christian scripture. I would be interested to learn more about this. Reading about religion in fantasy novels is one of my favorite aspects of any fantastical world.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed City of Lost Souls and all the character development and details it contributed to the world of the Shadowhunters. I was a little irritated with how the big battle happened at the end, but this book still had some surprises for me. I can’t wait to read the sixth and final book! I can’t say why it took me so long to finally read The Mortal Instruments, but I am glad I got to it this summer.

Review: THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Rating: 5/5 stars

I have so much to say about this book, yet I also have no idea what to say. I think this is a masterpiece of literature, and I am immensely glad that I decided to read it.

My thoughts are all jumbled, but I really admired the portrait that Reid painted of what it was like to be a biracial, queer, sex symbol actress in the ’60s, of what it was like to be Evelyn Hugo. I felt like I really knew her throughout this story. We got to hear Evelyn tell her own story from her youth through her old age, adding in all the dirty bits and secrets about her life that she’s been keeping hidden from the world for decades. It felt realistic and so honest, and I could not stop listening to the audiobook because I just really wanted to know more about Evelyn Hugo’s life.

This story sounded a bit shallow to be at first, but it isn’t by any means. Evelyn Hugo really communicated a lot of emotions and concepts with the reader: what it’s like to be biracial in the ’60s, what it’s like to be queer in the ’60s, what it’s like to be a famous biracial and queer actress in the ’60s, how the media actually has no idea what the truth is and will tell you whatever story they want to sell you, how to fight for what you believe in, and why none of the fame and money really matters because family is the most important thing. Evelyn Hugo manipulates a lot of people to get what she wants. She plays her fans and her husbands and the reporters to construct the story she wants them to know in order to get more famous, to get a new role in a film, to make more money, or to save face. Evelyn Hugo knows that people only like the idea of her but don’t like the reality of who she is once they get to know her. And she uses this to her advantage. I feel like I would be mortified if I lived her life, yet she unashamedly stomps through life letting everyone know exactly who she is and that she’s not sorry for any of her actions. And somehow that made me really admire her. She’s someone who knows what she wants and is not afraid to go out there and get it. I wish I were more confident like that.

Even though I don’t know hardly anything about Marilyn Monroe, I kept thinking of her while reading this book. She and Evelyn Hugo were both highly famous, sex icon actresses in the mid-twentieth century (albeit one was real and one is fictional). I know people also compare Evelyn Hugo to Elizabeth Taylor because of the many husbands. I would be curious to know if Reid based her character off of either of these real actresses in any way.

I didn’t think I would love this book as much as I did. The more I sit and think about it after finishing it, the more I like it. I think this is one I will revisit in the future because I just loved the story and all the characters. My favorite character was Celia because she was just so sweet, and I also loved Harry, but there honestly weren’t any characters I disliked. Everyone had both redeeming qualities and vices, making them all seem very human; no one is completely good or completely bad but a mixture of the two. Each character developed and changed over the years, so someone I didn’t like at the start was different by the end and I couldn’t justify not liking them anymore. And many characters that I thought were just side characters there for no reason turned out to be some of the most dynamic and influential characters in the end (read: Celia).

As far as Monique, the interviewer, I loved how as Evelyn was telling her story, it directly impacted the decisions that Monique made day by day. Monique even makes the comment that had it not been for Evelyn, she wouldn’t have done this or said that, and I just loved seeing her grab life by the reigns and take control. And as far as the ending, I did not guess the connection between Evelyn and Monique. I had two theories, but neither seemed probable and I was hoping I was wrong anyway. Gladly, I was, and I was actually shocked to learn what the true connection was. I think it was very clever of Reid to not take a typical route but to write it how she did instead.

Reid’s writing ability really shone through in this story, in terms of both character development and plot, and I’d be interested to read more of her books in the future.

I would definitely recommend this book, but know that it is scandalous and probably would not be as enjoyable for more conservative audiences. I listened to the audiobook and I would highly recommend that as well. The voice actors were excellent, and it really aided the fact that Evelyn was telling her story in the book. I felt like I was directly listening to her instead of reading a transcript of the interview.

Overall, this is top-quality work.

Review: CITY OF FALLEN ANGELS by Cassandra Clare

Rating: 4/5 stars

This book was the most interesting of the series so far. City of Bones was okay, I didn’t like City of Ashes, I liked City of Glass, and I really liked City of Fallen Angels. I think one of the reasons I liked this so much (when so many other people didn’t) is because I knew about it before I started book one. I didn’t read the series back in high school when they were initially being published, so I didn’t expect City of Glass to be the end of this world until this fourth book was published; I went in expecting more story than the original trilogy, and I ended up really liking this book.

I think I liked this book so much because the stakes were much higher and the plot was more intriguing here than in the original trilogy. I liked the idea of the villain here a lot more than I did Valentine for the first three books. It feels like the first three books were a preamble, or a backstory, and now we’re finally getting to the real story now that all that Valentine business is taken care of.

I loved that Simon was a huge part of this book. He is one of my favorite characters, so it was nice to see him have a bigger impact on the order of things and be one of the main perspectives. I love seeing him evolve as a character and become more comfortable with being a vampire.

At first I thought the “people” that attacked Simon were the “people” in Clockwork Angel. I thought there would be some connection, but I was wrong. I hope the books overlap more in the rest of the series because I am going through the effort of reading the Infernal Devices, even though I don’t really want to, just so I can enjoy the Mortal Instruments better. [Update a week after writing this review: I have decided not to continue on with the Infernal Devices because I was quite uninterested in the story and the characters that were historical photocopies of the characters from the Mortal Instruments. I am still interested in how the books overlap and connect, so I looked up a spoilery review for the last two books in the Infernal Devices.]

Jace really irritated me in this book, and I hate that he was punishing himself so much for what was going on with him and Clary. He really was just hurting Clary, and it was irritating how he couldn’t be reasoned with. I knew something was wrong with him, and I just wanted to figure out what that was. I had some guesses, but of course they were all wrong.

Overall, I thought this book was a nice addition to the original trilogy. City of Fallen Angels had more details about the Shadowhunter universe, which was helpful. We got to learn about more history and rituals for Shadowhunters, and I really appreciate having more details to build a fuller imaginative world. I am liking this series the longer I read it, and I’m glad I finally started it this year.

Review: LOVE WARRIOR by Glennon Doyle Melton

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

I feel very conflicted about Love Warrior. From the first page until page 65, I absolutely loathed the book. I hated her depressing story so much that I almost put it down, but something in me kept reading. When she found out she was pregnant the second time and decided to keep the baby, that’s when the story turned around for me, at least for a little bit. I ended up liking the next part until page 92, which is when her son was probably a few months old. Pages 93 to 179 were not that enjoyable, but I didn’t hate them like I did the beginning. Then Glennon starts to undergo a transformation of herself on page 180 that was actually quite profound, and I think she learned a lot about herself and about life and love, lessons that we might all benefit from learning regardless if we’re single or married or divorced. So while there were parts of this book that I found interesting, my rating is so low because the parts I didn’t like were so negative, which was most of the book it seems, especially that awful first third.

Glennon was an imposter her whole youth. No wonder she got sucked into alcohol and cocaine and pot and shameful nights in the basement: she was trying to be someone else, putting on a facade every day of her life, so she never knew who her true self was. She constantly talked about how her “representative” was saying and doing things, but not her “real self.” How can anyone enjoy living a lie? I think she brought a lot of her issues on herself because of how she lived throughout her childhood and college years. Grow some morals and stop trying to live someone else’s life and maybe you’ll realize there was happiness in your own life all along.

Throughout this whole book, it constantly felt like Glennon was whining and playing the victim, even though she was only the victim of her own decisions. Yet I also felt like she glorified the degenerate times of her youth, which is just atrocious. I don’t understand a lot of the choices that Glennon made, especially in her younger days. I felt like she was acting so stupid all the time and really lacked common sense, and I could not relate to her at all.

These two sentences were in the same paragraph during her time about her college days: “I love my people [parents] more than normal people love their people,” and, “My survival means I have to keep harming my people. But it is not because I don’t love them, it is because I love them too much.” Oh puh-lease. Clearly you don’t love your parents more than normal people love their parents or you wouldn’t keep living that kind of life. How can hurting them possibly mean you love them too much? Loving someone means to choose the best thing for that person, regardless of how it affects yourself. Stop being a selfish twit.

Here are some other issues I had with the first third of her story, which helps to explain why I hated it so much: “The abortion doesn’t explain the past fifteen years of my nonlife.” It sure was a nonlife, and the abortion only added to that. Your own choices explain your last fifteen years. “I’m not killing myself. I’m just doing what’s required to live.” Right, because getting blackout drunk and lying to those who you apparently love is a requirement for life. Also, I don’t like that she claimed that you can’t talk to a hot guy if you’re sober. What a lie. The whole beginning of the book was like this: Glennon making poor decisions and lying about them and overall just being a horrible person that I didn’t care to read about.

She makes the comment at some point, “What is the point of getting sober if I don’t even like my sober self?” This is actually profound. I think way too many people feel this way and that is why they drink and drink and drink. What a sad way to live. The point is to become a person that you do like.

This is the first paragraph in the book that I didn’t have negative thoughts about: “Having this baby will mean getting sober. This is the difference between God and booze. God requires something of us. The booze numbs the pain but God insists on nothing short of healing. God deals only with truth and the truth will set you free, but it will hurt so badly first. Sobering up will be like walking toward my own crucifixion. That’s what it will take, though. That’s what it will take to rise.” That is so true. God does require something of us (religions that tell you otherwise make no sense to me). He is always on our side and always wanting to help us, no matter how low we’ve sunk. We will have to put forth a lot of effort, but with His help, we can emerge better than we were before. It’s wonderful that she discovered this bit of truth. This is the part in the book where my viewpoint started to change and I began enjoying the story.

I think my biggest issue with Love Warrior is that I just do not relate to Glennon in any way. I live a completely different lifestyle than she in that I’ve never drunk alcohol or done drugs or been to scandalous parties. My marriage is also the complete opposite of hers in that my husband is my best friend and we actually communicated about the future before we got married, and we continue to communicate truthfully with each other every day. Honest communication makes for the best companionship, and that is something she was severely lacking throughout her whole life. It is hard for me to empathize with someone like her, but I do believe that anyone who does live like her and have a marriage like hers will really relate to this book and find her story to be wonderful and helpful. I think Glennon represents a large portion of women who have similar pasts and marriages as hers, and that is the real audience for this book that will get the most out of it.

Lastly, I don’t think Love Warrior is an appropriate title for this book, especially given that (spoiler) she divorces her husband anyway sometime after the book was published, which makes her whole journey feel like a lie. The book ended on such a hopeful and positive note, and I really felt like she had made a ton of progress in defining who she was and what she wanted out of life, and it seemed like she was finally starting to be happy again. But then I come to find out that she isn’t even with Craig anymore and she’s remarried. It just made her whole journey seem false and conceited.

Review: RUTHLESS MAGIC by Megan Crewe

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Ruthless Magic is ruthless indeed.

This book follows three young mages that have just graduated from high school. Upon graduating, one may be Chosen, meaning they get to keep their magical ability and continue on studying it at college, or Dampered, meaning nearly all of their magical ability is taken away except for a small amount that manifests itself as an area of heightened skill. Those who are Dampered have the option to accept that fate or declare for the Mages’ Exam, a brutal test against other mages to become a Champion. A Champion gets to keep their magical ability like a Chosen mage, but all those who fail will have their magic burnt out completely, not even allowed to be Dampered anymore. Is it worth the risk of having no magic at all for the chance to be Champion?

For our three protagonists, that answer is yes. We follow the perspectives of Finn Lockwood, a descendant of old magic that navigates the Exam with his best friend Prisha Mathur, and Rocío Lopez, a highly skilled new-magic mage who wants to avenge the death of her brother who died while taking the Exam some years before.

I really enjoyed this story. I haven’t read a book this magical in a long time, like with mages and enchantments. I feel like books usually have more of an ethereal magical quality, but this one has more of a hard magic. One thing I didn’t like about this magic system, however, was that I had a very weak grasp on it. It was not clearly explained at all, and the limitations weren’t defined, so I never really felt sure what the mages could or could not do with their magic. It seemed that magic just floated through the air and any mage could tap into and use that magic. I got the sense that there were some rules put in place by the Confederation of Mages, but that was also only vaguely explained. I would have liked to have a more concrete understanding at the beginning of this book of how the magical abilities worked and how mages could summon the magic; I think that extra detail alone would have prevented any confusion I felt throughout the rest of the story. But overall, the magic was very expansive and I did enjoy it a lot.

I think what the blurb says about Ruthless Magic combining “the magic of Harry Potter with the ferocity of The Hunger Games” is true. Like l said earlier, this book is full of magic in a way that I don’t often see, and Harry Potter is a close resemblance on the magic front (I don’t like when people say any book is the next Harry Potter because they’re always wrong and that’s not what I’m saying here, just that this book has lots of hard magic like Harry Potter). As for The Hunger Games, this book is even more brutal since the mages go through a similar test of strength and survival against other young mages (although this book isn’t set in a dystopian world). At first, I thought the description of “fierce” was an overstatement because the story seemed chill and friendly during the first few chapters, but then we got to day two of the Mages’ Exam and I realized I was so wrong: this book is savage. I didn’t think it could get any worse but every day of the Exam was a new level of scary. And I loved every minute of it.

I really liked all three main characters and their relationships. One thing I love seeing in multi-perspective stories is when the book starts out with two characters that don’t know each other and throughout the story become acquainted, so the reader can see how the characters evolve in the other characters’ eyes. Ruthless Magic included this element and I quite enjoyed it.

I loved this book way more than I expected to. It is a fast-paced and engaging roller coaster ride; I constantly wanted to pick up the book again whenever I paused reading because the story was so intense. Megan Crewe is an excellent storyteller and I can’t wait to read the sequel to Ruthless Magic and all the rest in this series. I also look forward to reading some of her other books as well.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. 

Review: THE OPPOSITE OF LONELINESS by Marina Keegan

Rating: 5/5 stars

I don’t usually read—or enjoy—short stories, but this collection piqued my interest, probably because of the tragedy that happened to Marina. I got this book for free from a selection of otherwise uninteresting choices, but I probably wouldn’t have picked it up otherwise. I started casually browsing through it the day I got it, but then I decided I wanted to sit down and actually read the whole thing immediately. This is the first time I can remember when I read a whole book within a week of acquiring it.

I will summarize my thoughts on each story and essay below:

• I really enjoyed reading the introduction by Anne Fadiman about Marina’s life and her enthusiasm to be a writer. This really set the ground for her stories, giving me some background into who she was.
• “The Opposite of Loneliness” was wonderful and very empowering, especially to recent graduates and young people. Some lines of it spoke to a part of me that needed to hear them, and I’m glad I discovered this essay (which I actually read three times in a row).
• The first fiction story, “Cold Pastoral,” was pretty good but also sad. In my opinion, it was her best story in this collection.
• The next story, “Winter Break,” honestly seemed dull and pointless, and I wasn’t really sure what she was trying to communicate with that one. It was my least favorite piece in this collection.
• “Reading Aloud” was very different, a unique concept. I can’t say that I entirely enjoyed it, but I was so enthralled that I couldn’t stop reading.
• “The Ingenue” was an interesting story that shows how one inconsequential detail can make all the difference. I did like it.
• Even though I didn’t care for “The Emerald City” (I just don’t really like war stories), the descriptive writing was great. And I loved how we got to read the email correspondences from only one person, even though it was implied that the other person was writing back. That’s a unique way to tell a story.
• “Baggage Claim” was the shortest and most forgettable of the stories, but it was still based on a unique concept.
• I want more of the story told in “Hail, Full of Grace.” I want to know what’s going to happen to the characters. I’m also impressed that Marina was able to write someone twice her age so well. I don’t think it’s very common for authors to write about a protagonist older than themselves, but she did a good job.
• “Sclerotherapy” was a nice, very short story about the permanence of our choices. I wonder where Marina came up with the ideas for her stories such as this one.
• “Challenger Deep” was the saddest of all the stories and I didn’t really care for it, but it continues to show Marina’s gift of writing.
• Now on to the nonfiction. The first essay was “Stability in Motion,” and I loved it. I just love her writing style so much in the way she describes scents and memories, everyday visuals with such detail that I wonder if I’ve ever even seen those things at all before now. I could never write an essay about my car as poetic and beautiful as this one. Definitely a favorite.
• “Why We Care about Whales” reads like a paper for school, but how I wish I could have written papers like this. It is not formal. It is whimsical. It illustrates her argument beautifully while other essays might be rigid with forced concern. The way she wrote this really made me interested in the topic, and I love how the point isn’t even about the whales. She really was a gifted writer.
• “Against the Grain” was an important story. I learned a lot from it. I didn’t realize people could feel so left out being gluten-free. I really like the title of this story as it doesn’t mean what you think it means at first; it’s very clever. This might be my favorite nonfiction story.
• “Putting the ‘Fun’ Back in Eschatology,” at barely two pages long, felt like the introduction to a science paper. It didn’t feel like a full essay because it just brushed on the topic of preserving our solar system with no real depth, and I felt it introduced contradictory ideas. This was my least favorite essay in this book.
• In “I Kill for Money,” Marina was distant as the author, writing entirely in third person and inserting no real opinions. It felt like a documentary but it read like a fiction story. And it was an odd sort of story. I wonder what led Marina to interview and shadow a bug exterminator for a day.
• Yes! “Even Artichokes Have Doubts” is an excellent essay that supports an epiphany I’ve been having for the past three months (more on that at the end of this review). This essay definitely had the biggest impact on me. Pursue your passions, people!
• “The Art of Observation” sounds like a journal entry. It’s raw and honest, but it also recognizes a great truth in the world.
• “Song for the Special” is another really good essay. There’s a quotation in here that immediately resonated with me (see my epiphany below for details): “There’s a really good chance I’ll never do anything.” I feel like that all the time.

I have a hard time believing that Marina was my age or younger when she wrote these stories. The fiction stories are very evocative and emotional. She has a way of noticing the smallest details, and in writing about them, she creates a very realistic portrayal of life. Her descriptions are immaculate. For a book titled The Opposite of Loneliness though, these stories are all very lonely. It intrigues me that someone who advocates for not being lonely, being surrounded by friends and love, would write such sad stories.

I especially love all the opening lines and titles that Marina comes up with. The titles are refreshing and original, giving me a different perspective on her stories before I even start, and the first lines are so shocking that they draw me in in fifteen words or less and I’m already invested before I finish the first paragraph.

Overall, I loved this collection. I thought I’d mildly enjoy it as I do any average book, then forget about it a few weeks later, but I was wrong. This book showed me that short stories can actually be good. They can, in fact, make me feel emotions after ten minutes that I normally only feel after spending hours with a character. They can be profound and deep, which I never expected. I guess I’ve just never read any good short stories before now because I never knew that good ones existed. This book also showed me that essays don’t have to be stuffy and boring. They can be engaging and resonate with me in ways I never imagined, and they can even teach me about myself.

Marina was a very talented author, and it is a blessing she could share even this much of her passion with the world. If Marina had lived to write a full-length novel, I have no doubt it would have gotten published, and I predict I would have loved it. Her writing style is wonderful, even if the content of her fiction stories is a bit depressing. But it’s touching and it makes me feel things, which is the mark of a good writer. Again, I can’t believe she was only twenty-two or younger when she wrote these stories. She has a raw talent that I think is hard to find in writers these days, especially young ones.


*Here is more about my epiphany: The people who really make a difference in the world and are the happiest at what they’re doing and are living a “dream” life are the people who have a passion and have sought after it to no end. You cannot dedicate your life to something you’re not wholeheartedly passionate about. But not everyone has a passion. In fact, I would say that most people don’t. For example, I’ve casually thought my whole life that because I collect words and I like reading, because I’m good at writing and editing, I would become a writer someday. Not necessarily an author, but maybe a writer for a magazine or something. Now I realize that isn’t true. I haven’t been writing my whole life. In fact, other than writing in my journal to comprehend my emotions and writing all these book reviews, I’ve never written anything that wasn’t required for school or for some kind of application. I’ve never written a short story, a nonfiction essay, or even a basic novel outline. I’m the age of Marina when she died, and I have no collection of writing to my name, nothing to show for my “love” of writing. Marina had so much to show, so many poems and essays and stories. That is what defines a true writer: someone who cannot stop writing, who writes everything they can think of, all the time. I’m glad Marina wrote all these pieces for me to read. I’m glad I could see what determines a real writer from a fake one. (I am the fake one.)
   The difference is that Marina had a passion for writing, whereas I do not. I’m interested in a lot of things from reading and writing to playing the piano, dancing, creating all forms of art, photography, horseback riding, interior design and graphic design, traveling, rock climbing, and the list goes on. But I’m not passionate about any of that. I don’t want to devote my life to only one of those activities and abandon the rest, but that’s what having a passion is. You give up everything to pursue your passion, even when it’s completely illogical and your family thinks you’re crazy and you’re up all night working on your project because nothing will stop you until you get there. The people who quit their jobs to start non-profits because they want to help people in a specific way are people with passions. The people who travel around the world to visit strangers and research history just to learn are people with passions. The people who dedicate a decade of their lives to being nearly homeless and broke just so they can be a drummer or a singer in this no-name band are people with passions.
   I wish desperately that I had a passion, but I don’t think I do. Logic rules my life, sometimes a little too much, and it always gets in the way of me making decisions and following any one path. I’m rambling now, but this particular essay, “Even Artichokes Have Doubts,” really shows me that I’m not alone in wanting to do something with my life but being scared and not knowing what to do so taking the easy way out instead. It is so common, and it is so sad.

Review: CITY OF GLASS by Cassandra Clare

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

I liked this book better than the first two in the series. It had higher stakes and gave me the answers I've been craving. (City of Glass's Chapter 17 was the most important chapter in all three books. When Jocelyn tells Clary all the details she needs to know, I was utterly lost in the audiobook and couldn't stop listening.)

I don't really have much to say about this book, or about this series in general, but I do want to make one statement about Cassandra Clare as a writer. One thing I've seen her do well in all three books is to make the characters question her own writing. What I mean by this is that readers always have questions about how the world works, why this can't happen, why things don't work a certain way. I, for one, always question the logic in a book because it seems like far too often characters make stupid decisions only because the author can't think of a better way to solve a problem. But Cassandra Clare isn't like that. She challenges the logic and answers the questions that most other writers don't address. Here's one of many examples from this book: Simon asks Clary why she can't just create a rune to destroy all demons or to destroy Valentine. This is the kind of question an intuitive reader would ask, but most authors would gloss over that point, probably thinking, Well she could create that rune but that would make the story less exciting and fun, so as long as that thought doesn't cross her mind, I can make the plot go this more exciting route instead. Like I said, Clare doesn't do this; she answers all those kinds of questions I had and explains why the world doesn't allow for this or that, and that made the story so much more realistic and enjoyable for me. This is the biggest compliment I can give her as a writer.

Another thing I really liked is how much this story ties into Bible theology. I think a lot of writers shy away from religious aspects, thinking it will alienate part of the audience they are trying to reach, but Clare really embraces Biblical concepts in her stories. For example, I love the idea that the mark of Cain was actually an ancient rune. Ideas like that are so cool and help to make the magical system seem more realistic.

Overall, City of Glass was a strong concluding novel to the original trilogy. It answered all my questions and wrapped up all the loose ends. I'm really happy with how the book ended, both with the main storyline and with the direction all the relationships took. (I don't understand why there are three more books though.) I think there are a lot of good messages and morals in the whole story, which I was glad for because we don't always see that in young adult novels.

Next, I plan on starting Clockwork Angel before continuing on with City of Fallen Angels. I've heard it's best to read the books in publication order, so that's what I'm going to do. I'm looking forward to delving deeper into the world of Shadowhunters.

Review: CITY OF BONES by Cassandra Clare

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

I don’t know how I’ve managed to avoid all spoilers for this entire series, considering how popular it is and how long it has been around, but I seriously knew next to nothing before I started the book. I knew it was an urban fantasy, there are beings called Shadowhunters, and the main characters are Clary and Jace. That’s it. I’ve been wanting to read The Mortal Instruments for quite some time but kept putting it off because it’s a long commitment, but I really wanted to get to it this year, so here I am.

City of Bones is about Clary, who finds out she is a Shadowhunter (which is a demon hunter). The story basically just follows her as she learns about and gets used to the Shadowhunter world while fighting some monsters in the meantime. This was a very foundational book because most of the story is introducing us readers to the main cast of characters and how the “magic” system works and what the world looks like. Of course, there is also drama occurring and secrets being revealed, but nearly everything that happened felt like a plot device so Clare would have a reason to explain X, Y, and Z about her world without just throwing those details at us randomly.

I could tell this was a debut novel because the writing did seem amateurish at times, but I have heard from many people that Clare’s writing gets better as the series continues. I love seeing how authors’ writing styles progress over their careers. The writing is my favorite part of any book.

For the most part, I did not feel like there was a lot of info-dumping, which was nice. Going into a brand new fantasy world with unknown creatures and abilities, it can be hard to adequately explain it all without overloading the reader all at one time. There were a few times when a lot of information was being handed to me, and I had to slow down and reread to process it all, but overall the descriptions were spread out enough throughout the book to be interesting and engaging but not overwhelming.

I did not like the characterization in this book. A lot of the characters felt very stereotypical, predictable, and one-dimensional. Especially Isabelle. What a stuck-up snob. And Jace isn’t any better. He’s your typical bad boy who’s actually just a piece of crap. I like Clary, although sometimes she can be melodramatic, and Simon is my favorite character for his humor. I hope as the series progresses, the characters will become more fleshed out and realistic and relatable.

I do not like when people compare books to other books, but City of Bones definitely gave off Twilight vibes. There was just something about the writing style, the character traits, and the plot nuances that reminded me of Twilight. Except I liked Twilight more.

I enjoyed this book, but I didn’t love it. I found it to be entertaining, but also highly melodramatic (and reading the blurb for the next book, it sounds like the whole series is going to be that way). I wasn’t at the edge of my seat, waiting to see what happened next, which is how I usually am when I’m reading a fantasy. In fact, I didn’t have a problem pausing in the middle of an intense high-action scene and coming back to the book at a later time. I guess I just didn’t feel as emotionally invested in this story as I usually do when I’m reading. I’m hoping as I continue the series that I will become more connected to the characters and the plot.

What I didn’t like the most was the ending of this book. There was no resolution in the ending, no cliffhanger to make me want to read more, and it honestly felt like nothing really happened. I think this first book of The Mortal Instruments was fairly weak, but at least it was entertaining for the most part. If I were younger (like if I had read this book when it was released), I might have enjoyed it more. But as it is now, I don’t feel especially compelled to read City of Ashes, but I am still going to because it was my goal this year to read this series, and I own all six books. I’m hoping I will enjoy each one more and more.