Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

** spoiler alert ** More like a two-and-a-half, really. The thing was, after reading TMI and getting sucked into the Shadowhunter's modern-day world . . . I knew I was going to compare the prequel to the orginal series. I know myself too well, because that's exactly what I did. Sorry to the fans of this new trilogy, but I just didn't get it. Don't hate me! :(

Now, I have some praises and complaints about this first book to a trilogy I couldn't wait to get my hands on. *Notice I put "couldn't". Past tense*. I'll start with the pros. (1) I liked the plot, actually. I also loved the Vicotrian setting and I loved London when I visited there so I thought CC (Cassandra Clare) would praise it for its beautiful ammounts of architectural values and history. I just loved the basis. (2) She made the actions of the characters and how real people acted back then accurate. Everyone was proper (except for Will, of course!), even the Shadowhunters themselves. If you read the TMI series, you'd know these characters run circles around TMI's character kindness! (3) Not really a praise, but I usually hate love-triangles because you mainly always know who the person's going to end up with. I only read this book with a potential lov-triagnle because TMI was too good to NOT read the sequel!

I tried to think of a third thing I liked about it, but I just couldn't! The cons outweighed the pros, to my dismay. (1) When I mentioned the beauty of London . . . Yeah, CC definitely has some New York pride in her blood. Which I love, because it tells me she loves her city. But London's nice, too! And I got annoyed when all Tessa (the main character) could do was whine about the rain and smell. Like New York City didn't smell bad back then, either? (2) I couldn't find myself to like any of the potential love interests. Will didn't have Jace's . . . ability to be kind and have a "just joking" attitude when he was being sarcastic. I found myself getting digusted by some of the things he told his friends. And Jem . . . so far the only interesting thing about him is his illness. As bad as that sounds, he really needs to come up with something interesting to say or I'm giving up on him altogether. And Jessamine's reluctant attitude about the Shadowhunters threw me off a bit. I don't like it when characters complain so much, so she was an immediate dislike for me. I knew she was based off of Isabelle, like Will was based off of Jace and Jem was Simon and Tessa was Clary *yawn*, but Isabelle was very loyal and protective. Jessamine, to me, is just a pain in the arse! No offense!

Overall, I didn't like it. It was a dissapointment and the only thing I like is Clare's ability to write detail without making it boring. The best thing about it BY FAR was the one and only Magnus Bane. I love him to death and he was the only reason why I didn't put the book down . . . or throw it across the room.