This book came highly recommended by my friend and fellow writer/blogger Kat McIntyre. I realized when I picked it up in the bookstore that I had considered it before, but as it had a recommendation from Stephanie Meyer right in the middle of the front cover, I'd immediately dropped it and wiped off my hands in disgust. It is no little fact that I abhor SM and believe her Twilight garbage has ushered in the downfall of writing as we know it. Case in point: Fifty Shades of Gray, which is well known as being a Twilight fanfic. I, myself, am a writer a fanfiction, and, in fact, my novel is based on a fanfic I wrote back in the beginning of the '00s, which was inspired by another fanfiction that I read. I have a theory that EVERYTHING is really just a fanfic or a fanfic of a fanfic (meta-fanfic!!), but I digress... I was very invigorated and encouraged that this series was apparently based on a Harry Potter fanfic, as I do believe nothing comes from a vacuum and a fanfic based on a quality work would be something amazing to read.
Alas, despite all the encouraging signs and high recommendations I find myself incredibly disappointed in this novel. None of the characters hold my interest in the least. I find Clary to be incredibly bland and Jace, the initial love interest, comes off as an arrogant douchebag. He is so amazingly full of himself. At one point Clary points out that there are girls staring at him and he responds with, "Of course they are! I'm incredibly attractive." Really? I guess Cassandra Clare (wait...Clare...Clary? Am I sensing a Mary Sue here??) was going for the pretentious teenage voice, but all I'm getting is the pretentiousness. The snarky, sarcastic dialogue just annoys me, and I'm usually one for witticisms. It seems almost forced as if she were trying with each conversation exchange to be as sarcastic and bitterly teen as she possibly could. Even if this is the way young adults talk, I don't think it translates very well to the written word. I also found many of the descriptions to be downright lazy. At the beginning of one chapter she starts it out with "The weapon room looked just as you would expect a weapon room to look." Um...okay, you couldn't have come up with a better description than that? I can sense the potential for better in the lines between your work Clare. It's waiting just below the surface. As for the other characters, Isabelle seemed like a bitch just to be a bitch. She's the "attractive" girl while Clary is the "plain" one and those were just the roles they were destined to play, and of course Simon is the "in love with the main girl" best friend. It's a bit trite.
I'll be honest...I didn't finish the novel. I'm only on maybe chapter 8 and then I read the blurbs on the back of the other two books so a few key points are spoiled. I know that Simon is a vampire and Jace and Clary are siblings (Star Wars anyone?) I'm only attempting to finish so I can potentially update this review, but I know once I find something better to read I'm putting this on my shelf and only thinking of it if it's brought up in conversation. I did find the world fairly interesting and honestly liked the "dreaded info dump" when it happened, which may in and of itself say something about the story. I did take note that most of the reviews on Goodreads and Amazon (I'm not linking to that...you all know how to find it) were either very good or very bad so it looks like this is one of those Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV) situations so I can't say I wouldn't recommend it because there were about equal people loving it as there were hating it. It is not the worst thing I've ever read or...haven't finished reading (Twilight *blurgh*), but I would only give it 1 out of 5 stars. 1 for what I got and a half for what could've been.
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