I only had to crack about five pages of this thing before its snark started bleeding out of the words and staining my hands.
When I first saw this book, with its cover picture of a sexy man-torso, green sparkles, and a random city, I rolled my eyes and thought that it was gonna be some generic YA novel with either the typical fiery, plucky heroine/the plain Average Jane, snarky bad-boy love interest, pretty Alpha Bitch, and uber-vampie powahz.
I was right, to some degree- but the actual thing proved to be better.
For one, there's Action Girls. Even Clary, who's a normal girl at first, manages to share in the action- in a VERY BELIEVABLE WAY. That made me smile. Oh, and Isabelle? By jove, don't get me started on her- HER WHIP PWNS.
At first, my hate started piling up when I saw Clary get a case of the Green Eyed monster at Simon and Isabelle getting some Ship Tease. I mean, really? Clary, you were ignoring the poor boy in favor of that hottie who you saw murder someone the night before- AND YOU STILL HAVE THE GALL TO BITCH OVER ISABELLE AND SIMON'S BUDDING ROMANCE?!
Back to Isabelle: I'm so glad that she's an Alpha Bitch with Hidden depths, thus making her a Defrosting Ice Queen. If there wasn't any more characterization for her, I would've chucked the book into the nearest fireplace
Characters are cool. Clary disappointed a bit by being a bit bland, but bit by bit, as she developed, she grew on me- although she was annoying at times, with her mindset of BISHIE = DESERVES MY ATTENTION AT ALL TIMES. And Jace was a great send-up of the Charmer/Playboy archetype. Simon, however, was a greater highlight, with his hopeless crush on Clary, adorkable-ness, and his tendency to not be too much of a stereotypical loser. Alec and Magnus were cool, didn't catch too much of my interest (after all, CC IS a former fanfic writer; who'd be too surprised at the Ho Yay?), while Luke's premise was intriguing.
The plot was good. It didn't drag on, nor was it too fast. Just the right pacing. Not too much to talk or complain about.
The worldbuilding was okay. The Shadowhunter > Shadowlanders thing got my attention. That's a really promising aspect of this whole series. It can delve into moral issues, along with the differences between an ordinary human and a Shadowhunter.
I recommend this to anyone with a taste for snark pie.
the pages drip with snark
I only had to crack about five pages of this thing before its snark started bleeding out of the words and staining my hands.
When I first saw this book, with its cover picture of a sexy man-torso, green sparkles, and a random city, I rolled my eyes and thought that it was gonna be some generic YA novel with either the typical fiery, plucky heroine/the plain Average Jane, snarky bad-boy love interest, pretty Alpha Bitch, and uber-vampie powahz.
I was right, to some degree- but the actual thing proved to be better.
For one, there's Action Girls. Even Clary, who's a normal girl at first, manages to share in the action- in a VERY BELIEVABLE WAY. That made me smile. Oh, and Isabelle? By jove, don't get me started on her- HER WHIP PWNS.
At first, my hate started piling up when I saw Clary get a case of the Green Eyed monster at Simon and Isabelle getting some Ship Tease. I mean, really? Clary, you were ignoring the poor boy in favor of that hottie who you saw murder someone the night before- AND YOU STILL HAVE THE GALL TO BITCH OVER ISABELLE AND SIMON'S BUDDING ROMANCE?!
Back to Isabelle: I'm so glad that she's an Alpha Bitch with Hidden depths, thus making her a Defrosting Ice Queen. If there wasn't any more characterization for her, I would've chucked the book into the nearest fireplace
Characters are cool. Clary disappointed a bit by being a bit bland, but bit by bit, as she developed, she grew on me- although she was annoying at times, with her mindset of BISHIE = DESERVES MY ATTENTION AT ALL TIMES. And Jace was a great send-up of the Charmer/Playboy archetype. Simon, however, was a greater highlight, with his hopeless crush on Clary, adorkable-ness, and his tendency to not be too much of a stereotypical loser. Alec and Magnus were cool, didn't catch too much of my interest (after all, CC IS a former fanfic writer; who'd be too surprised at the Ho Yay?), while Luke's premise was intriguing.
The plot was good. It didn't drag on, nor was it too fast. Just the right pacing. Not too much to talk or complain about.
The worldbuilding was okay. The Shadowhunter > Shadowlanders thing got my attention. That's a really promising aspect of this whole series. It can delve into moral issues, along with the differences between an ordinary human and a Shadowhunter.
I recommend this to anyone with a taste for snark pie.