Review: STRANGE THE DREAMER by Laini Taylor

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

I started listening to this book on a whim when I was in the mood for an audiobook, and I’m so glad that I did. The audiobook is excellent, the story is absolutely wonderful, and my heart is full of compassion for these characters.

At first, I was a little confused about what was happening. The timeline was jumping around and all the descriptions felt very abstract. But then about an hour into the book I started focusing better and fell in love with the story.

Lazlo Strange is a librarian, hungry for any knowledge about the “mythical” city of Weep. When Lazlo was a child, he dreamed of going to Weep. Then one day the true name of the city disappeared from his mind and he has been forever enthralled with trying to discover why that happened.

What’s interesting is that the story is written in a third-person omniscient voice, which is rather unusual, I think. There would be two sentences in the same paragraph about two people who don’t know each other doing two different things in two different locations. It was very different, and I think it might have added to some of the confusion, but I’m glad to have read a book like this anyway.

Unfortunately, I felt detached from all the characters in the book except for Lazlo and, eventually, Sarai. I don’t know if that was because of the omnipresent voice or because I listened to the audiobook, but it made me a little sad that I didn’t connect with more of the characters. However, Lazlo and Sarai are so precious and I love them so much.

This book made me think about what it means to be a god. If a god can be killed and controlled by humans, is he or she really even a god? Is a god someone with an unnatural ability? What happens then when an ordinary human develops or discovers an unnatural ability, do they become a god? Is it someone who lives away from the rest and looks over the people? What happens then when they come to earth? What does a human have to do to become a god? There are godchildren in this book, but I can’t really tell why they’re considered “gods,” or what even makes a god. I see this issue quite a bit in fantastical literature, so it’d be interesting to research it more.

Laini Taylor’s descriptions of the ethereal dreamscapes are so vivid and lush. I’ve never read a book before in which the main character spends half the book sleeping, yet I found myself looking forward to the chapters when Lazlo would lie down in bed each night. It made me so happy to see Sarai and Lazlo together in his dreams.

Strange the Dreamer is about dreams and books and libraries and alchemy and fairy tales and magic. It’s turning out to be quite difficult to fully describe or review this book, but it was such a beautiful story. I’m so glad I listened to it, and now I’m ready to devour Muse of Nightmares when it comes out in a few days!

Review: THE BANDS OF MOURNING by Brandon Sanderson

Rating: 5/5 stars

Even though I love this complex world and all these dynamic characters and the intricate magic system, and I wanted to read this book so badly, I struggled to pick it up. I kept procrastinating reading it for some reason, and I could focus only for a short amount of time before I had to put the book down and come back to it later.

I think this is partially my own fault and partially the book’s fault. If I had read The Bands of Mourning two years ago when I finished Shadows of Self, I think I would have been much more engaged in the story. (I did have to do about two hours of research into the world, the characters, and the three magic systems, including rereading the last three chapters of Shadows of Self, before starting this book so I would remember what was going on.) I cannot tell you why I waited two years to read this book, only that it happened and I wish it didn’t. Alas, here we are and that’s how it is.

Why I think the book is partially at fault is because of the general story. Being a western on top of an epic fantasy, I struggled with the book for that reason because I do not really care for westerns (this series excluded), and I’m still fairly new to epic fantasy. Plus, this book had about five separate main plot lines going on at the same time, not to mention the many minor plot lines happening in the background, and I think I was just very skeptical that everything would go well by the end.

Obviously, everything did end well and I had no reason to be worried. This is Brandon Sanderson we’re talking about, and he can do no wrong. I wish I didn’t struggle with the beginning of the book, but it did not lessen my enjoyment of the whole story (as you can see, I still gave this book five well-deserved stars).

I cannot stop thinking about the six pages when the crew gets to the hotel in New Seran because it is the absolute funniest and most entertaining part of the entire book. I read it twice and I could not stop laughing like a maniac at this scene because it was just that good.

Wayne is hilarious as usual, and it’s no surprise he’s the most interesting character in this series. Even though I think I like Wax more as a technicality, Wayne has the better personality. His chapters are always so entertaining, and his personality is so specific that I never know what to expect with him except that he’ll always come up with something clever to say.

I really like Marasi. I love that she makes use of her Allomantic ability in this book after feeling mostly useless in that regard. She’s really the brains of the group, and that might be why I’ve always liked her the best. However, that might be changing now. . . .

Steris really steps up her game in this book. Her character development blew me away, and I didn’t know I could like her this much. I love how she is always prepared for even the worst situations, and I think she’s become a great asset to the team. She’s funny in subtle ways. I love her banter with Wax, and I think they’re actually becoming close despite their arranged situation, which makes me very happy.

Wax is great in this book, as usual. His fight scenes are highly entertaining and I kept wondering how he was going to pull himself out of each next fight. I liked that we got to see some of his internal struggles as he tried to decide what pathway to pursue since there were about five things happening that each could have easily become their own plot line in their own book.

I don’t remember if MeLaan was a significant character in the previous books, but she was definitely pertinent to this one. She was just as funny as Wayne, which surprised me, and always lightened the situation with some Kandra humor. She’s a new favorite for sure.

I’m glad this book didn’t become convoluted with too much happening because after all the possibilities for main plot lines were established (around the 30% mark), I was worried that they were trying to do too much in too short a book and the ending would either be rushed or not everything would be resolved. Luckily, the book stuck to the one main storyline with a few side plot lines, which actually answered a lot of questions surrounding the other possible plot lines, so that worked out nicely. Leave it to Sanderson to accomplish something like that; no other author could introduce so many problems and ideas and quests and tie them up in the end so satisfactorily without leaving out important details.

The Bands of Mourning is the only Mistborn book I’ve reviewed so far (as I got into reviewing books after I had already read the rest of the series), but I do plan to go back and reread the first five books and review each of them at some point, although probably not for a few years. This is one of my favorite series of all time, and each of its books deserves a glowing review.

What I love most about this series is how unique and dynamic it is. There are not one, not two, but three magic systems in this world, each of which is unique to this series alone. I love the concept behind metal magic, and seeing all the ways Sanderson plays with that system is phenomenal. It is deep and advanced, and there are endless possibilities for what to do with Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy, especially when you start to mix them together.

Another reason I’m so in love with this series is how it blends genres so well. The first era of three books is no doubt an epic fantasy in a typical historical-type setting, but it’s not dense or difficult to understand at all. It’s a very approachable world with enjoyable characters. Then the second era is a western fantasy. I never thought I would read a western, but here we are, and I love this era (not as much as the original trilogy but it’s still quite good). It is so cool to see the world that we came to love now a few centuries into the future with new characters and new ways to use the same old magic systems to fit with modern technology. I love that the first era is like the origin story that is usually only told as background to the main story, but here it is the main story and then we get to see how it influences the future of the world. And era three, coming way in the future, will be a 1980s spy-thriller setting (according to Sanderson himself on his website). I love so much that he has taken this world and its magic systems and is placing them in vastly different time periods with different technologies, and then experimenting with it to see what it would be like to use Allomancy or Feruchemy in these differing settings.

This series has cemented Sanderson as one of my favorite authors of all time. I need to read everything else he wrote, and I am genuinely so excited to immerse myself in more of his insanely cool and intricate worlds. I also think I like him even more than I do other authors because I got to meet him and take the writing class he taught at my college. It’s crazy to see the behind-the-scenes of how an author’s mind works to create their stories. I’m so glad I discovered him and his books because they have made such a difference in my reading tastes and are some I know I’ll read again and again for the rest of my life.

Review: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee

Rating: 3/5 stars

I had to read this book for school in the fourth grade, and it was the only school-assigned reading that I never finished, believe it or not. I always read the assigned books in school because I’ve always loved reading, but I just hated this book so much that I could not bring myself to continue. (I think I reached about 30% before I gave up and watched the movie, which I also didn’t like.)

My life and views and understanding of the world have changed quite a bit in the last fourteen years since I first read this book at eight years old, so I wanted to give it another chance because it is such a beloved classic that I simply feel like I read too early in life.

I originally decided I wanted to reread To Kill a Mockingbird back when I read Beautiful Creatures and learned that Lena’s favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird and her dog’s name is Boo Radley (after finishing this book, I realized there are a ton of references to it in Beautiful Creatures that I had never noticed before). I liked Lena so much that I knew I needed to reread this book to know why it was her favorite. That’s probably a superficial reason but I don’t care because it was the reason that led me to not completely shun this book for the rest of my life. It has been nine years since I first read Beautiful Creatures, but at least I did finally pick up To Kill a Mockingbird again.

Let’s talk about the characters.

Miss Caroline is a deplorable teacher. She’s such a minor character that barely makes an appearance but she still frustrated me. What kind of teacher refuses to let her students excel when they are able? She won’t allow Scout to read or write in the first (and second) grade and gets angry that she already knows how to do so. Early literacy is something to celebrate! (And in today’s era, first grade isn’t even early to be reading or writing anymore.) I just have to remind myself that this book was written sixty years ago and leave it at that.

Atticus is a nice man and a good father, and I like the values he stands for, but he is a bit one-dimensional in this notion because his entire characterization is who he is from Scout’s point of view. He is the wise figure of the story and teaches Jem and Scout many lessons that any reader could benefit from. If only all men of this era could view equality the same way that Atticus does.

Scout is my favorite character. I like the innocence about her and how outspoken and determined she is.

Jem is another nice character who I totally forgot existed. I like that he is Scout’s friend and not just her brother, and that he protects her.

Dill is okay but I really only see him as a troublemaker. Did he really serve a purpose other than to be a random friend?

Boo Radley is kind of the central focus of the story, even though he’s really not. He’s an interesting character that you think you know everything about until he actually shows up at the end. I’m glad that Scout did eventually get to meet him.

I don’t have much to say about any of the other characters except that Bob Ewell got what he deserved and Tom Robinson deserved more than he got.

This story was eons more interesting now than I remember it being in the fourth grade. It might have helped that I listened to the audiobook this time, though. I actually don’t think I would’ve gotten through the book if it wasn’t for the audiobook because it made the slang and southern dialect much easier to digest. I am also glad that the narrator was enjoyable to listen to and didn’t have a heavy southern accent. I know that I would have had no desire to pick up this book and keep reading if it weren’t for the audio version.

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.”
I think this quote encapsulates a lot of what this book is about. There are a lot of valuable lessons and morals taught herein, and I think that’s why it’s such a beloved story.

Well, my rating increased from a 1.5 to a 3, so I’d say this was a worthwhile read that I’m glad I gave another chance to, but To Kill a Mockingbird still isn’t a book that I loved. I think my initial reading experience influenced my view of this book too much because when I think about this book I immediately think about how much I hated it when I was eight (and then how I spent fourteen years continually thinking it was a terrible book until now). While I don’t think it’s a terrible book anymore, I also don’t think it’s the best thing ever. I might reread it again one day in the very distant future, but it won’t ever become a beloved classic for me.

Side note: I have no desire to read Go Set a Watchman. That book is supposedly the early rough draft of To Kill a Mockingbird, not its sequel. It was written before To Kill a Mockingbird and supposedly couldn’t sell to a publisher initially. Lee found an editor to help her with the story, and they crafted it into what we know at To Kill a Mockingbird. I don’t want to read Go Set a Watchman because A) I wasn’t interested in the story enough to want to read more about the characters, B) I have no interest in reading an unedited rough draft of Mockingbird because I’ve already had enough of that story, C) I’m aware that the characterization of key characters is vastly different in Watchman than it is in Mockingbird, and I do not want my view of the characters to be tainted (I’ve heard that Atticus is very racist in Go Set a Watchman, but I’m struggling to see how that’s possible after everything he did in To Kill a Mockingbird. That seems very inconsistent to me.), and D) I’m fairly sure I wouldn’t like the book anyway, so reading it would only be a waste of my time.

Review: LORD OF SHADOWS by Cassandra Clare

Rating: 5/5 stars

The characters in Lord of Shadows are just so excellent. Every character has such a distinct, dynamic personality, and I really loved that. Julian might be my favorite, just because of how much he cares about his siblings and how he will go to any lengths to protect the people he loves.

Emma was great, too. She is turning out to be fierce just like Clary, but she still has her own voice. I liked watching her work to overcome struggle after struggle. Also, I love Emma’s obsession with chocolate that is prevalent throughout the book.

“We’ll have to get our energy the old-fashioned way.”
Mark looked puzzled. “Drugs?”
“Chocolate,” Emma said. “I brought chocolate. Mark, where do you even come up with these things?”

Kit was also excellent, and I’m glad to see him becoming more of a regular in this series and learning the ways of the Shadowhunters. I love his relationship with Tiberius, who is such a precious ray of sunshine. As I said in my review of Lady Midnight, I really enjoy seeing all of Julian’s siblings playing important roles in the story. I’m glad that Mark’s role got bigger in Lord of Shadows, too, because I love Mark. He is just different from the others, and I feel that he is the trustworthy friend that everyone needs.

What’s nice about Cassandra Clare’s books is that no matter how many points-of-view they’re told from (and this one had so many I lost count), it never feels confusing or overwhelming. Because the entire story is third-person POV and has such a large cast of characters, it feels natural to hear from so many of those characters. It keeps everyone’s story straight since there are a lot of things happening at the same time with different characters in different locations. It’s like in a movie when it switches between scenes of different people—that’s how this book (and all her books, really) felt, and I really enjoyed it. I will add, though, that I listened to this book on audio, so I don’t know if that influenced my ability to keep viewpoints straight or not.

Something else that’s neat about this series is how Clare subtly includes lots of diversity. I rather dislike when a person’s race or sexual orientation becomes who they are, and they seem to have no other defining traits aside from that, but that was not the case at all with any of the characters in this book. There was lots of representation, which was great to see, but no one made a big deal about it, which seemed very natural to me and added to the excellence of this story.

The ending of the book slayed me. So many questions left unanswered and details dangling in the air waiting for more information to come. I am so excited to read Queen of Air and Darkness later this year. This is one of the only times I can think of when I read a book and had to wait for the next book to be published. I very rarely start series that are not complete because I don’t want to lose interest in a story or forget what happened in previous books while I’m waiting for a new book, but after binge-reading The Mortal Instruments and some of The Infernal Devices, plus Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, I only wanted more stories set in this world and decided to start Lady Midnight right away. I am so glad I did because now I have something to look forward to later this year. Lord of Shadows’s ending was utterly insane with many unexpected events happening, and I really want to know what happens next.

I realized when reading this book how cool it actually is that Clare keeps writing books in this world. If you think about any fantasy series, when the last book ends it’s not like there are never any problems or villains ever again and life goes back to being boring; no, there will always be more adventures to go on and enemies to fight. But, as readers, we are just supposed to imagine the future for the characters and infer what would happen after the end, even after a really good ending that wraps everything up. But what’s so awesome about all the Shadowhunter books is that we do get to see a future for the Mortal Instruments characters in the Dark Artifices series. Clary and Jace still show up even though only as cameos now, but it’s still neat to see what happened after the “happily ever after” at the end of City of Heavenly Fire. And even then, that secondary trilogy was what happened after City of Glass. I guess this is a rather obvious observation, but I never thought about it before and it makes me happy.

After eleven Shadowhunter books, I can say that Lord of Shadows was the best one yet. The plot was fast-paced and interesting, the characters were so realistic and experienced great development and relationships, and the overall writing was engaging enough throughout the 700-page tome that I never felt like the story was dragging. I honestly was so invested in the book that I didn’t stop reading to write my review (which I usually do in segments throughout a book) until it was over. Because of that, I do not have much to say as far as spoilers or specific details go, but just know this book was excellent. If you liked any of the books that take place in the Shadowhunter universe so far, I would highly recommend reading The Dark Artifices.

Review: SINCE YOU'VE BEEN GONE by Morgan Matson

Rating: 4/5 stars

I picked this book up amid my fantasy craze because I wanted to read a summery contemporary while it was actually still summer outside, and I was not disappointed. This book was cute and adventurous, I ended up really liking it.

Unfortunately, though, the book got off to a bad start for me. I felt like the first two chapters (chapter two especially) were way too long and drawn out, detailing almost every minute of Emily’s life. The book moved very slowly, and I found myself wondering why so many of those details were pertinent or even included in the story. It really bogged down the book right from the start, plus I was put off because I was noticing a lot of minor errors, things not really worth mentioning but that should have been caught by an editor. One example that really bothered me is this: Frank, as a high school student, was in charge of the bank deposits for his job. There is no way a teenager, who has been working at his job for only two weeks and isn’t even the manager, would be trusted to handle taking a large sum of money to the bank. That’s very unbelievable and unrealistic, and the one thing I want out of a book is a realistic story (just to clarify, fantasy can be realistic too, but it has to be realistic within its own world).

On top of that, something else that really bothered me in the beginning was that the dialogue was badly broken up. Someone would ask a question on the first line of a page, and the question wouldn’t be answered until the last line of the page, or sometimes even the next page. By the time it was answered, I had forgotten what the question was and had to backtrack to find out. It was common in the first couple of chapters for a one-minute conversation to span several pages because of all the description mixed in with the few lines of dialogue. This was very distracting to read and poor structuring in my opinion. Thankfully, this was really only a problem at the beginning, and the story did pick up quite a bit as I continued reading it. It’s honestly surprising to me how much I ended up liking this book after that rocky start.

So this book is about Emily, who’s ready to have the best summer ever, only to discover that her best friend, Sloane, has disappeared without a word. The only clue Emily has is a list she received from Sloane of thirteen things for her to do, tasks that are way beyond Emily’s comfort zone. Believing that completing the list will lead her to Sloane, Emily makes it her summer goal to accomplish all thirteen items.

Something I enjoyed was that Emily would say she was going to accomplish a specific thing on the list next, but then the next chapter’s title would be a different objective on the list. I liked that it was unpredictable in that manner, that Emily’s intentions turned into something else. It kept my curiosity piqued throughout the book about what she would actually do next. I was also glad to see that the things Emily was doing led her to take chances that helped her to grow and become more comfortable with herself.

When Emily mentioned that her playwright parents were working on a new script and were basically shut-ins during this time, I rolled my eyes because that’s just a way to write parents out of a young adult novel. I see way too often books where the teenagers are roaming free with no parental control, and that’s just so unrealistic to me. However, I am happy to say that this book did not live up to that expectation. Despite being engrossed in their play, Emily’s parents were still present in the book more than I expected, and they still disciplined her. I thought this was a much more realistic approach because, at least for me, my mom was very involved in my life as a teenager. We got to see Emily trying to evade her parents’ notice at times, which I totally get, instead of her just acting like they don’t care. Unfortunately, this was only the case with Emily’s parents. Frank’s parents, on the other hand, were completely absent and unresponsible, and I just cannot see two parents leaving their teenage son home alone for basically the entire summer. That is asking for trouble. So the absent-parent-syndrome still affects this book, but not as much as I originally thought it would.

For some reason, ever since about mid-college, whenever I read contemporary books with characters in high school, I always feel like I’m too old for those books. Like I would have loved them in high school when I could’ve immediately related to the characters because of our shared ages and stages in life, but now that I’m past that point, those books just don’t feel like they’re for me anymore. I loved contemporary when I was younger—in fact, it was the only genre I read for most of my childhood—but now I just struggle with it when it’s of the young adult category. Adult contemporary books or non-contemporary books (fantasy, sci-fi, historical fiction, etc.) with high-school-aged characters are fine though, and I have no problem reading those. But Since You’ve Been Gone is a young adult contemporary with a 17-year-old protagonist, and while I did really like the book, I know I would have absolutely loved it if I were still 16 or 17, when what Emily was going through was similar to my own experiences. It is really sad for me that I don’t feel like I can fully relate to young adult contemporaries anymore since a lot of them, this book included, are great stories that tackle real issues teens might be facing. That being said, I do not believe I will ever stop reading young adult contemporaries, but the number I read does decrease year by year.

I had a good time reading Since You’ve Been Gone. It kept my attention throughout the whole book in that I didn’t feel like I needed to take a break every few chapters, which is usually how I read. I do want to check out more of Morgan Matson’s books, although this one sounded the most interesting to me so I don’t know if I will like the others as much. Overall, I would recommend this book if you’re looking for a nice summer read about friends, a clean romance, a mystery aspect, and a great adventure.

Review: HUMANS OF NEW YORK by Brandon Stanton

Rating: 4/5 stars

I really don’t have much to say about this book. I’ve heard of both the blog and the Facebook page called Humans of New York, but I never followed either of them before. I saw this book at a library sale this week and it intrigued me, as I have a deep appreciation for photography, so I decided to give it a shot. I ended up really enjoying it.

The photographs are beautiful and candid, capturing the extremists as well as the ordinary people in all boroughs of New York. I’ve never been to New York, and I’ve never really had the desire to go because I don’t like big cities, but this book may have changed that for me, at least a little bit. I want to have the experience of New York City, at least once.

Honestly, looking at these photographs and reading the captions or quotations from the people in them was really eye-opening for me. There are so many people on this planet, and everyone is so different. I’m really only familiar with my own culture, but there are so many cultures out there, even just in New York, that I know nothing about, and I got to see glimpses of them through Stanton’s work in this book. I love seeing how people express themselves. And something I learned about myself while reading this book is that how I want to dress and how I do dress are totally different styles. I need to work on my own self-expression.

Review: LADY MIDNIGHT by Cassandra Clare

Rating: 4/5 stars

Dead bodies are being found all over Los Angeles with strange markings on them, four years after the end of the Dark War. Emma’s parents were found dead the same way, so she’s convinced that the deaths are related. She sets out to investigate the murders and, in the process of uncovering the truth, learns a lot about herself and makes new friends (and enemies). I thought Lady Midnight was a refreshing new Shadowhunter book.

I loved the prologue and it really got me excited to read the rest of the book. I learned about some things that have been going on in the shadow world since City of Heavenly Fire ended, plus I got a nice review of how the world worked.

I liked that Lady Midnight mentioned all the pertinent details we learned in Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy. After reading both books, I can say that I do not think reading Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy is necessary before Lady Midnight. In Lady Midnight, Clare tells us the outcome of the stories, but in Tales, we get the journey of the stories. The only story that I really think gives necessary information at all is “The Fiery Trial,” which features Emma and Julian when they became parabatai, as well as Clary getting a parabatai.

Lady Midnight was my tenth Shadowhunter book, yet I didn’t feel like the story was one I’d read before in this world. It was a new story and it was relevant to these new characters. I love that the story does follow new characters on the other side of the country that are not related to the people in the Mortal Instruments. (I get that Jace is like the “coolest Shadowhunter ever” but not everything has to involve him.) It broadened the world of Shadowhunters for me and showed that not all problems are big enough for the whole world and the Clave to get involved in, yet the story was still big enough to be important to Emma and Julian and their crew.

Speaking of our new characters, I like Emma a lot more in this book than I did in City of Heavenly Fire. I’m glad that she speaks and acts more like an adult now. She’s grown up a lot in the past four years since the end of the Dark War, when she acted about 8 instead of 12. She was less irritating in this book, which I greatly appreciated.

I also liked Julian a lot. He is such a great “father” to his four younger siblings, and I appreciated seeing his struggles to be a good Shadowhunter while also caring for his family. The family dynamics were much different in this book than we have seen before in Clare’s books, which was a breath of fresh air. I also love that Julian came from such a big family. He had four siblings, two half-siblings, and Emma, who lives with him at the Institute. So often in books I see characters being an only child or having one or two siblings, but having six siblings is rare. I’m glad that each of his brothers and sisters had a part in this story, too, and weren’t just disposable side characters. I hope they continue to play a big role in the rest of the series.

The tension between Julian and Emma was so strong, and I have no idea what’s going to happen to them. As parabatai, they aren’t allowed to fall in love, but a law cannot actually stop someone from feeling something. I am so glad it was explained WHY parabatai are forbidden to love each other, and it all makes sense. Somehow I feel like they will find a way to get around this by uncovering a new spell or somehow breaking their parabatai bond or something to allow them to legally fall in love, but I will have to read the next two books to see. Although the ending of the last chapter (pre-epilogue) has me shocked and I really don’t know what’s going to happen in the next book. Obviously something horribly wrong.

And the epilogue—that left me very confused. The thing did not actually occur to allow the thing that happened in the epilogue to actually happen, so how did it happen? Hopefully, this will be clarified in Lord of Shadows.

Another thing that left me confused was the short story at the end of the book, “A Long Conversation.” What is Clary’s issue and why is she dreading what she has to do? I hope this is addressed in another short story at the end of Lord of Shadows.

Overall, I really enjoyed Lady Midnight. I thought it was a strong addition to the Shadowhunter world and featured a great new cast of characters with a unique new problem to solve. I liked the ending and where the story is headed in the next book, and I can’t wait to go read it.

Do I think you need to read the whole Mortal Instruments series prior to reading Lady Midnight? No, this story stands on its own and all the facets of the Shadowhunter universe are explained as if you had never read the other books, so everything should make sense to a new reader. But do I think reading the other books will enhance your reading experience of this book? Yes, greatly so. Events that happened to these characters at the end of City of Heavenly Fire are addressed and having read that book will help those parts of this book make more sense. Plus, reading Clare’s other books helps you to be able to catch all the Easter eggs she planted in this book, which is just so fun.

Review: TALES FROM THE SHADOWHUNTER ACADEMY by Cassandra Clare

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

I wasn’t originally going to read this short story collection, but right after I read the prologue of Lady Midnight, a detail was revealed that intrigued me. Then I looked up this book and discovered it was about Simon, who I love, training to be a Shadowhunter. I had already hoped I would get to learn about that aspect of his story in Lady Midnight, so I decided to read this collection of stories before continuing with that book.

My ratings for each individual story:

1. “Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy”—3/5 stars. This is a good story to give some background on the Academy (not sure if it’s relevant in other Shadowhunter books, though) and to show how Simon is adapting to the “new” Shadowhunter world when he goes to the Academy to train. It also features how Simon is handling his relationship with Isabelle after not remembering their past together.
2. “The Lost Herondale”—3/5 stars. Simon is at the Academy learning to fight. Catarina Loss tells Simon a story of Tobias Herondale, in which Simon learns there’s a possible Herondale generation out there that don’t know they’re Shadowhunters.
3. “The Whitechapel Fiend”—3.5/5 stars. This story is about guest lecturer Tessa Grey teaching the students at the Academy about Jack the Ripper. Fans of the Infernal Devices (of which I am not one) will probably enjoy this story because it features Will and their young child James. I didn’t care for the characters, but this still is an interesting story. At the end we also see Simon writing a letter to Isabelle.
4. “Nothing but Shadows”—3/5 stars. This story is about the shy James Herondale, Will and Tessa’s son, as he goes to school and learns to make friends. I found this story to be way too drawn out, plus I didn’t really know (or care) who many of the characters were. However, I did enjoy the ending, and I think fans of the Herondales will enjoy this story.
5. “The Evil We Love”—4/5 stars. In this story, Robert Lightwood tells the Academy about his time in the Circle as well as sharing his own intimate history with the students. I enjoyed seeing the flashbacks to the 1980s and learning some more details to strengthen the original story in the Mortal Instruments. There’s also more drama going on with Simon and Isabelle’s relationship in between the lectures.
6. “Pale Kings and Princes”—3/5 stars. Helen Blackthorn comes to the Academy to tell a story to Simon and his classmates of her father, Andrew Blackthorn, and how he got involved with fairies. Also, Simon and Isabelle are trying to fix their relationship.
7. “Bitter of Tongue”—3.5/5 stars. Simon meets up with Mark Blackthorn and they have a chat. I think this story is relevant if you plan to read Lady Midnight because something important happens at the end with some of the characters present in that book. 
8. “The Fiery Trial”—4/5 stars. Part of this story is really weird, but the reason for that is eventually explained, and it made me appreciate what had happened. This story is ultimately about parabatai. Simon and Clary attend the parabatai ceremony for Julian and Emma all while considering the possibility of having parabatai for themselves. I would recommend reading this story before Lady Midnight.
9. “Born to Endless Night”—4/5 stars. Magnus comes to the Academy to teach, and then an abandoned warlock baby shows up on its doorstep. Magnus and Alec have a deep discussion, then Simon and Alec have a deep discussion, and then Simon and Magnus have a deep discussion. I enjoyed the honesty in this story, and I think it’s my favorite one in the collection. Some important decisions are made that impact the future of our favorite main characters, and my guess is that this story is pertinent if you plan on reading The Red Scrolls of Magic.
10. “Angels Twice Descending”—4/5 stars. Two years after entering the Academy, Simon drinks from the Mortal Cup and Ascends to Shadowhunter. This story wraps up the collection and ends on both a happy note and a sad note. [Spoiler: I am sad that George died because I could have seen him becoming part of the crew, but this side character’s fate felt inevitable, knowing how Clare writes her books. However, his death helped Simon choose a Shadowhunter name with meaning, so I appreciate that aspect of it. Still sad George died though.]

I liked that the stories were all connected in chronological order. I do not usually like or read short stories or novellas, but reading these all in order almost felt like reading an actual novel, except with really long chapters.

I was started listening to these as audiobooks, but halfway through, I checked out the book from the library to read along. I was pleasantly surprised to see that at the beginning of each story is a one-page comic-style illustration. I really enjoyed seeing these.

Overall, I enjoyed these stories, and I’m glad I read them before continuing on with Lady Midnight. I could tell a difference in Simon’s personality in this book compared to him in the Mortal Instruments, but that is to be expected since he lost all his memories, and also because this book was written by three other authors along with Cassandra Clare. He was more serious and less humorous, and his humor is one of the reasons I originally liked him, but by the end, I could see his old personality coming back.

For reference, you need to read all of the Mortal Instruments books before this one. I would also recommend reading the Infernal Devices prior to this book. I read only the first Infernal Devices book, and I wasn’t confused about any of these stories, so if you at least know the gist of that series then you will be fine. I would also recommend reading this book or at least looking at spoilers for all the stories before starting Lady Midnight.

Edit after reading Lady Midnight: All of the important details from Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy are explained in Lady Midnight, so that book will make complete sense even if you do not read this one first. It just depends if you merely want to hear the outcomes of these stories or if you want to experience the journey for yourself. I will say, though, that the one story I would recommend reading prior to Lady Midnight is “The Fiery Trial” because I think it is the most important story that pertains to the Dark Artifices trilogy, and also to the Mortal Instruments series. This is just my opinion though, and I know many other people prefer to read this whole story collection before continuing on with future books.