The Mortal Instruments Series Discussion [Summer Reading Challenge]

Hey, y'all! I'm here with another summer reading challenge post! I finished The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, and I've posted discussions about each of the books individually. Here are the links to all six posts:

City of Bones

City of Ashes

City of Glass

City of Fallen Angels

City of Lost Souls
City of Heavenly Fire

Now, I'm here to discuss the series as a whole, including my opinions about the entire series, my rankings of the books, rankings of the covers, and some of my favorite things in the series.

Series Summary

The Mortal Instruments series begins in New York City in 2007. One night while Clary Fray is out with her best friend, Simon, she sees people that no one else can see. When her mother disappears the next day, Clary is sucked into the world of these people. They're called Shadowhunters, and their job is to protect humanity by hunting and killing demons. However, Clary quickly learns that she may already play a larger part in this world than she originally understood.

Overall Opinions

I've loved this series ever since I read the first four books back in 2012. Cassandra Clare has created such a huge and detailed world, and it's so interesting and exciting that you can't help but be sucked in. Not only has she created this incredible world, but also incredible characters that you fall in love with incredibly easy. The series is, however, just a little inconsistent. All of the books are good, but Cassandra Clare faltered just a little when expanding it from the original trilogy into a 6 book series. Thankfully, however, it wasn't a huge slip, and she recovered and finished strong. 

As with the Infernal Devices discussion post, I'll be using a 10 star rating system rather than a 5 star one. Either way, I find it really hard to give it an actual rating. It's hard to be objective when, subjectively, I feel so much love toward it. I think I'm going to give it 9.5 stars out of 10. I got really close to giving it 9.6, but 9.5 at least goes by .5.

Ranking The Books

#6: City of Fallen Angels

This and #5 are pretty much tied for me. City of Fallen Angels is not my least favorite of the books (if this was solely based on my taste, it would be #5), but I do think that quality-wise, it's the least successful, which is why it is #6 rather than #5. Way too much of the book was focused upon relationship drama, and the actual plot fell by the wayside a few too many times. It didn't start to get extremely exciting until the last few chapters. 

Favorite moment: Everything after chapter 16.

Rating: Overall, continuing the 10 star system, I'd give it 8.5 stars out of 10.

#5: City of Lost Souls

This is probably my personal least favorite book of the series, mostly because the fact that my favorite character in the series isn't himself in this book. I think that quality-wise, it's better than City of Fallen Angels, which is why it's #5, rather than 6. The parts I dislike are because of personal taste, and not due to it being a bad book. It's definitely not the worst book in the series. And it's not like I hate this book, I do actually like it, I just don't like it as much as the great books in this series.

Favorite moment: Probably the final battle scene, although I thought it was too short.

Rating: I'd have to give it 9 stars out of 10.

#4: City of Ashes

Just like my 5th and 6th choices, 3 &4 are fairly equal. I just have a deeper connection to the book that got 3rd place than to City of Ashes... although once again, City of Ashes might be a touch better. I really loved the action-packed scene at the end, and some of the big plot points, but some of the book was a little slow.

Favorite moment: The action-packed scene at the end, for sure. 

Rating: I'm going to stray away from strinct .5 ratings and give it 9.3 stars out of 10.

#3: City of Bones

Is City of Bones the best book in the series? No. But it was my introduction to the entire Shadowhunter world. When I first read this book, it pulled me in so much that I read it in one day. I was so intrigued and just wanted to know more and couldn't put it down. It may not be the best, but it'll always hold a special place in my heart as the book that made me fall in love with the Shadow world. 

Favorite moment: Magnus's party, for sure. 

Rating: Once again straying from the strict .5 ratings, this gets 9.4 stars out of 10.

#2: City of Heavenly Fire

This was a really satisfying conclusion to the series. I read the entire thing in a single day, and enjoyed it immensely. I've said this before, but Cassandra Clare is really skilled at concluding series. They always have some heartbreak, but you walk away from them content with the way everything turned out. That's how I felt about this book. After a couple books that weren't my favorite, this one was a breath of fresh air.

Favorite moment: Probably the epilogue. 

Rating: I'd have to give it 10 stars out of 10.

#1: City of Glass

I'm surprised I loved this one as much as I did. It was a re-read for me, and the first time I read it, I liked it but just thought that it was about as good as the books preceding it. But it's not. It's so, SO much better. I think this one wins over City of Heavenly Fire partially due to the nostalgia aspect. However, I also think that it capped off the original trilogy really nicely. This being placed higher than City of Heavenly Fire is once again, just personal taste, since they're both really great, great books.

Favorite moment: The scene at Lake Lyn near the end with Clary and Valentine and Jace.

Rating: It was a clear 10 stars out of 10. I really, really enjoyed this book.

Ranking The Covers

#6) City of Ashes

It's nothing special. I get that the blue and orange are supposed to offset each other and look striking because they're complementary colors, but the cover just looks pretty monotone besides that little orange bit. I've never been a huge fan of having half of their faces cut off either. 

#5) City of Fallen Angels

Once again, this is a case of monotonality for me. It's all orange and yellow. If a cover is going to be interesting, the colors have to at least have some sort of contrast so that something stands out.

#4) City of Bones

This cover is a nice dose of nostalgia for me, remembering that first time I saw it and wanted to read it. However, the way I always picture Jace and the Jace on the cover don't really match (even though I'm clearly the incorrect one here). And once again, why only half a head?

#3) City of Heavenly Fire

If the inside of the jacket were included in this list, this would win hands down, because the inside is just so cool. Excluding that though, it's still a pretty cool cover. There's definitely a large gap between my 3 favorite covers and 3 least favorite covers. This one is just really dynamic with the fire and Clary's hair and the purple radiating from Sebastian. Super cool.

#2) City of Glass

This is when they got the color contrast right. The orange sky contrasted with the blue glass city looks really cool. Add in Sebastian with wings, and it just looks really dynamic. 

#1) City of Lost Souls

The choice of this cover as #1 is more for color than anything else (which seems to be the pattern, honestly). Red and grey is one of the best color combos for me, and I really like the contrast of Clary's dress and the blueish grey background. As cheesy as this embrace is, I like that we at least don't have half-head syndrome. Also, I think that this is the closest the covers got to depicting the characters as I envisioned them.

Favorites/Least Favorites

Favorite character: Jace and Magnus. They're both just so wonderful! I also really like Simon

Least favorite character: I'm not going to be obvious and choose a villain. Of our good characters, I've never been a huge fan of Maia. I don't know why, I just never particularly cared about her.

Favorite ship: Jace and Clary. Obvi. 

Least favorite ship: Simon and Maia. I never really got that one.

Spoilers!

Favorite moment: I don't know if there's really one singular moment in the series that I can say was my favorite. Lots of smaller, wonderful moments, but not one total favorite.

Least favorite moment: When Simon is stripped of his immortality and loses his memories. It was so incredibly heartbreaking. If Cassandra Clare hadn't remedied that situation, I think she would've had a mutiny on her hands.

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So, there you go, that's all for The Mortal Instruments Series Discussion! Have you read the series? What did you think of it? I plan on getting my TMI vs. ID/ Wrapup post up tomorrow, so be on the lookout for that! Regular series posts and Harry Potter posts are coming soon! Promise! 

Thanks for reading this! If you like my posts, don't forget to subscribe/follow, since it lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm doing. See y'all soon!

City of Lost Souls Discussion [Summer Reading Challenge]

Hey, y'all! I'm here with another summer reading challenge post! I'm now in the process of reading The Mortal Instruments series. The first four books of the series are re-reads for me, while the 5th and 6th books will be first-time reads, so City of Lost Souls is the first book of the series that isn't a re-read for me. As usual, I'll give a non-spoilery summary and overall thoughts/rating before jumping into a spoilery discussion and my favorite quotes.

At the time when this post goes up, I'll either be still asleep or deeply engrossed in City of Heavenly Fire. As I said on previous posts, I 100% plan on having City of Heavenly Fire finished by the end of the month. That means that I'll be reading most of the day. I'm not sure if I'll have the discussion post up Sunday, but I kinda doubt it (because it'll probably take all day Saturday, and I'll be exhausted). The following days will be the series wrap-up and the monthly wrap-up, back to back.

Book Summary

[Reminder: don't read this section if you haven't read all 4 of the previous books. I have to talk about what's happened up to this point to discuss the plot of City of Lost Souls!]

It has been two weeks since the conclusion of City of Fallen Angels, and no one has seen or heard from Jace since he disappeared. When Clary finally sees Jace again, she realizes that Lilith's magic has effected him in a significant way, and joined him to Sebastian more closely than she could have ever realized. She sets out to try and save Jace from the hold that Sebastian has on him... but is there anything left of the real Jace to save?

Overall Thoughts

Non-spoiler section!

In my last discussion, I talked about how City of Fallen Angels wasn't anywhere near my favorite Cassandra Clare novel, I thought it was still a good book and felt that it was important to separate personal like/dislike and appreciation. I feel that somewhat with City of Lost Souls as well. There were certain aspects of the book that I just didn't like, solely due to my own personal taste. These aspects were essential to the plot and made it a great quality book, but it upset me to see certain characters behaving the way they were.

City of Lost Souls was definitely back along the lines of the original trilogy as far as the intricate plots and tense, exciting scenes. There was, of course, relationship drama... but it wouldn't be a Cassie Clare book without relationship drama! It just wasn't excessive and didn't push the plot by the wayside for more than half of the book as was done in City of Fallen Angels.

One complaint I did have was with the pacing. Well, maybe not so much the pacing as just with the length of the final scene. The last bit of the book is building up to this exciting scene, and when I finally got to that scene, I checked to see how much of the book I had left (I was reading it on my kindle). I was surprised to see that it was the last chapter! I usually expect the one final scene to be at least a couple chapters. It just seemed very abrupt and short.

So, rating. At this point, I'm giving it 4.5 stars out of 5. Despite the fact that I didn't like some aspects of the book, I think that quality-wise it was definitely on par with the bar that the original trilogy set. 

Spoilery Discussion!

So, as I was discussing in the non-spoilery section, I was really bothered by Jace throughout the book. Yes, I know that he was possessed and that he couldn't control what he was doing, but I just didn't enjoy reading those bits and seeing him being... not him. Obviously, it's a very important plot point, and is instrumental in making it a good and powerful book, it just made me really sad to see him acting like that.

Also... Magnus and Alec broke up.... NO. I mean, Cassie Clare tends to give her fans really satisfying endings, so I'm sure they'll get back together at some point... right? RIGHT? I mean, Magnus Bane has gone from person to person, never really forming a real bond, but for the first time, he actually, truly, loves someone. It would be terrible of Cassandra Clare to leave an extremely loved character unhappy.

I thought that Clary definitely seemed a lot stronger in this one. She's clearly becoming a fierce fighter and is becoming a stronger character... I mean, she drove a sword through the one person she loves more than anything else. And she did it because she knew he'd rather be dead than continue living the way he was. I mean... whoa. I couldn't do that. That's for sure.

OK, so I don't have a ton more to say about the book, but I do have some theories about City of Heavenly Fire. So let's get into that, shall we?

City of Heavenly Fire: Crackpot Theories 

Spoiler Warning: If you have not read all of Cassandra Clare's books preceding City of Heavenly Fire, you shouldn't read this. It involves stuff from both the Infernal Devices and the Mortal Instruments!

I've seen a couple of my favorite booktubers talking about their crackpot theories for City of Heavenly Fire, and I liked a lot of the ideas they had, and they seemed to agree with a lot of the things I was thinking.

So right off the bat, Cassandra Clare said that 6 named characters will die. So let's list off who I think that will be.

1) Sebastian. This one's obvious, right? C Squared (This should be Cassandra Clare's new nickname) has already said that every character gets closure. If Sebastian doesn't die, NONE of our main characters get closure.
2) Maureen. C Squared (liking this name more and more) has set her up to be somewhat of a villain at the end of City of Lost Souls. And villains need to die. Every character has closure. I don't know what other closure could be given to Maureen.
3) Rafael. He's going to come after Simon once he knows Simon doesn't have the mark of Cain anymore. He's already said that. The only way for this to end well for Simon is for Rafael to die.
4) Robert Lightwood. When I saw the crackpot theories videos, they mentioned a hint about a "Shadowhunter funeral," one of the few hints I didn't know about. I think this will be Robert Lightwood's. It could be Maryse, but I think we need her around to explain one of my other theories. Plus, C Squared is more likely to kill him off because he's just not as good of a person as Maryse.
5) Jordan. This is probably the most painful one for me. I know one of the couples is going to be separated. Supposedly a boyfriend dies. C Squared isn't going to kill off Jace, Simon, Magnus, or Alec. Come on, now. But it's plausible for her to kill off Jordan. I love Jordan, but most people wouldn't be too hurt for him to die. Honestly, I'd prefer if Maia died. But she made the inside cover. She isn't going anywhere.
6) Amatis. She's become one of Sebastian's followers, whether she wanted to or not. We've been told that there's no way to change them back. Therefore, I think that she is going to have to die.

I do have 3 other people I think could be plausible substitutes for the 6 above:
1) Camille. But wait, isn't she already dead? Well... according to Maureen, she is. But do we really believe that Camille, Camille, the most powerful vampire we see throughout both series, could be killed by a fledgling vampire? I think NOT. Honestly, I think she's going to be the one to kill Rafael. But I wouldn't be surprised if she was killed as well.
2) The Seelie Queen. OK, so we don't technically know her real name, besides "The Seelie Queen" but hear me out. She's already proven that she's thrown her lot in with Sebastian. She's going to be an actual villain in this book rather than just an annoyance. The only thing I think saves her butt is that she does whatever is most beneficial to her. When she sees Sebastian losing, she'll change alliances.
3) Magnus Bane. Again, hear me out. I like the theory that Katytastic threw out, saying that Magnus will die of old age in the epilogue. I'm pretty convinced that Magnus and Alec will get back together and that Magnus will give up his immortality to grow old with Alec. However, I'm not sure that the epilogue will stretch out far enough into the future for us to see that. The only reason we saw so far into the future of Tessa and Will and Jem was because Tessa and Jem lived for that long. I think the epilogue is going to be more similar to City of Glass. Everything wraps up, we find out what their immediate plans are, and everything is happy. Because I'm sure we'll hear more about all of our favorite characters in the Dark Artifices.

Speaking of the epilogue, I think it's going to be Jocelyn and Luke's wedding. I definitely think that their wedding will take place sometime during City of Heavenly Fire. We've waited this long for their wedding- Cassie isn't going to deny that to us. However, I don't think they would drop everything to get married in the midst of all this turmoil... Unless they went all Elizabeth Swann/ Will Turner on us. That would be epic. Doubtful, but epic. Because of that, I think they'll probably get married in the epilogue.

OK, relationships. we've been told that a couple will be separated forever. I think this will be Jordan and Maia. It's painful, but it's not going to completely destroy us. That's how Cassie likes it. We've also been told that a character will die saving another character. I think this is also referring to Jordan. I wouldn't be surprised if he died saving Maia. Past that, I think that all of our major couples will stay together.

Kat (of Katytastic) and Christine (of PolandBananasBooks) have come up with a theory about Isabelle... and I think I agree with them. At some point in City of Lost Souls, there was a blatant mention of Isabelle's dark eyes and how she wished that she had her parents' blue eyes. Now, I'm no science expert, and it's been years since I've taken Bio, BUT I do remember a bit about genetics. Kat and Christine both believed it was impossible for two blue-eyed people to have a dark-eyed child. I don't think it's impossible, but it IS unlikely. Brown eyes are a dominant gene, while blue eyes are recessive. If one or both parents carried the dominant gene, there's some possibility of two blue-eyed parents having a dark eyed child, because dark eyes are dominant.

HOWEVER, let's stop talking genes, and let's start talking Cassie Clare. Kat and Christine went through their books, and couldn't find an instance where Max's eye color was mentioned. His eyes are mentioned, but never their color. We know everyone else's eye color, even some of the unimportant ones. And yet, we are never told Max's, despite the fact that his eyes are mentioned several times. I find that to be a highly unlikely coincidence. And Cassie Clare does love a good plot twist. So, Kat and Christine had an idea... What if Isabelle isn't the daughter of both Maryse and Robert? The first thought was that she was the offspring from one of his affairs. BUT she looks A LOT like Maryse and that's been mentioned several times. Then, the conclusion that I came to (approximately 30 seconds before watching the part of Kat's video where she mentioned that this was also their conclusion) is that... maybe Isabelle is the child of Maryse and VALENTINE. Valentine has dark eyes. Maryse thought she was extremely close with him. Every Shadowhunter in the circle hung on his every word. Also, Valentine was experimenting on children/pregnant women at that time. I wouldn't put it past him to get someone pregnant to experiment on their child. Which also means... could Isabelle also have some sort of different blood in her? Jace and Clary have angel blood, Sebastian has demon blood... warlock? vampire? faerie? werewolf? There are so many possibilities!

Anyway, this is all theory. There's a good chance that this is getting blown out of proportion and that Isabelle is actually full Lightwood. BUT it also seems like an unlikely coincidence.

Finally, my last theory about City of Heavenly Fire has to do with one of the things about the book that I'm most looking forward to... the overlap between TMI and ID. The most popular theory, and the one I believe, is that Jace's heavenly fire is what burns the demon blood from Jem and allows him to leave the brotherhood and become a shadowhunter again. We know that the epilogue of Clockwork Princess happens sometime during City of Heavenly Fire, but WHEN? Honestly, I hope that it's early on. After touching Jace and learning what's going on with him, I think that Brother Zachariah probably realizes that this could help him. If he acts on this quickly enough, we can have our Jem back early on and we can get Tessa into the story quickly. That part is more of a hope than a theory, but I'm sure we'll get them in the story eventually. I'm still of the mindset that the brunette Magnus Bane was speaking to at the end of City of Glass was Tessa. Maybe that'll be mentioned when Clary first sees her.

That's all the theory I really have for the book... I'm ready to just dive right into it!

Favorite Quotes

Page 71: Alec looked merely irritated by this comment. "The only way you could raise enough money to hire Magnus by selling lemonade is if you put meth in it."

Page 79: "A silent brother was present, someone sworn to secrecy, and a female warlock who took the place of the Iron sister."
Jem and Tessa. It has to be Jem and Tessa. RIGHT?

Page 94: "I was hoping they'd put up flyers like they do for lost cats," he said. "Missing, one stunningly attractive teenage boy. Answers to 'Jace,' of 'Hot Stuff.'"

Page 108: "Saint Magnus's Home for Wayward Shadowhunters," he said in a deep voice. "Welcome." He threw an arm wide. "Spare bedrooms are that way. Wipe your boots on the mat."

Page 140: Simon patten the seat beside him as if someone were sitting there. "Let me introduce you to my good friend No."........."'No' is a magical word," he told her. "Here's how it goes. You say, 'Simon, I have an insane, suicidal plan. Would you like to help me carry it out?' And I say, 'Why, no.'"

Page 198: "I hate ducks. Don't know why. I just always have."

Page 467: "I was going to start off 'Friends, Romans, evildoers...' but I didn't think they'd see the humor."

Page 478: "Speaking of hope, did you see that shot Alec got off with his bow? That's my boyfriend." He beamed and wiggled his fingers; blue sparks shot from hem. He shone all over. Only Magnus, Simon thought resignedly, could have access to sequined battle armor.

Page 505: "No, Jace's is sort of the antiaircraft artillery tank of male egos," Simon admitted.

Page 531: "Unless you want that whole baby-I'm-on-fire-when-we kiss thing to become freakishly literal."


So, there you go, that's all for this summer reading post! Like I said earlier, the next few posts will be up ASAP!

Thanks for reading this! If you like my posts, don't forget to subscribe/follow, since it lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm doing. See y'all tomorrow!