Sunday, December 18, 2011

Mortal Instruments Series

In case you don't know, I am an avid reader. I constantly have a book in my hand, purse, by my bed, or in the car. Becoming a reading teacher was the most perfect job for me. My students laugh when I tell them about my piles by my bed stand. I have about 30 books by the bed right now and I always have to do the next book in the pile and never jump around. I'm crazy I know. I figured some of you all would like to know the books I'm reading. Now, most of what I read are for my classroom and are geared towards 7th graders. I try to mix books for adults in, and every once in awhile a book I think is for my class ends up being totally inappropriate for the 12 year old mind. I also know, that if you are like me, you find the young adult/teen books more interesting then the trash that gets written for our age group.

I recently just got into the Mortal Instrument series by Cassandra Clare. I was hoping I could put it into my classroom, but it needs no place in a middle school classroom. High school kiddos would like it. If you were a Twilight fan, you'll love this. If you weren't because you thought it was cheesy you will love this too. This is a more mature version of all of those books and is not just a love story.

Mortalinstruments.com

If you like to read before the movie comes out, this series is being turned into a movie too. Clary has a pretty simple life. Her mom, Jocelyn, and her are pretty close. It has always been the two of them since her father died at a young age. Jocelyn's friend, Luke, has always been like a father figure to Clary, and she also has her best friend, Simon who has been acting a little weird lately. Clary and Simon head out one night to the club in town. While there, Clary sees three people dressed funny take a good looking guy into a back closet. Clary follows them in there where she sees the three figures kill the man. She soon finds out that she is the only person who is able to see the three who we later find out are Jace, Isabelle, and Alec. Fast forward a few nights later, Clary and Jocelyn get in a rare fight. Luke and Jocelyn have decided they will be moving far away from everything they know and soon. They refuse to tell her why. In her anger, Clary storms out of the house to go see Simon's untalented, nameless band play a gig. Clary gets a phone call from her mom to stay as far away as possible and never come home. Out of nowhere Jace, one of the people she saw at the club, appears and takes her home. Once she gets home, Clary finds a torn apart apartment, her mother missing, and a demon who wants to kill her. Clary soon finds out that everything in her life has been a lie. Her mother and herself are part of a group of Shadowhunters. Their main goal is to eliminate demons from the world. She in introduced to this world by Jace and his family. Jace and Clary soon find themselves in a romantic relationship. It was one that I was really wanting to see work out. It didn't seem childish like Twilight. It also was not an unhealthy relationship which is what we normally see in these paranormal romances. A relationship where the other cannot survive anything and they will lose literally everyone for that one person.


 I really enjoyed these books. It put an adult twist on a simple story. I couldn't put the books down. There will be 6 in the whole series. This was the only thing that made me a little upset. I feel like most authors these days are jumping on the trilogy/series bandwagon. They stretch stories out longer than they should. At the end of book 3, I had no questions. I was happy with where each character was, and I wasn't wondering what happened to any part of the story. The story kept going into a 4th book. I thought the author would at least change the villain. Show what it was like now that Clary had a better hold on her life. Instead she stretched out the same one and probably will for the remainder of the series. I also have to warn you that the first book takes a disturbing twist near the end. It was something that really bothered me and took way longer to fix it self than I thought it should have. All in all, I loved these books. I'm sticking with the last two because I'm attached to the characters. I want to see what happens to each one and I'm really pushing for Clary and Jace.

 Pictures from Mortalinstruments.com


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