Review: Tales From The Shadowhunter Academy - Cassandra Clare

Warning: This review contains spoilers for The Mortal Instruments series!

Genre: Fantasy

Published: 15th November 2016

Length: 651 pages

My rating: 9/10

Overview: Feeling trapped by his lost memories and his 'friends' that he can barely recall, Simon goes to the Shadowhunter Academy to train to be a Shadowhunter and get his memories back.

So I'm actually quite late reading this. Although the collection came out just under a year ago, I believe each of the stories were published separately before that? I honestly don't know why I waited so long. Although you maybe wouldn't expect it of a spin-off, in my opinion this is definitely one of Cassandra Clare's best books, which could be because she co-wrote it with some other people (Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, and Robin Wasserman). They were so many good jokes that had me genuinely laughing out loud, mixed in with a lot of sad parts (I cried more than once. Especially at the end. No spoilers here, but trust me, it is heartbreaking). In the first two TMI books I didn't even like Simon that much, although I grew to love him as the series progressed, but it would be a miracle if you went into this book hating him and still hated him at the end. There was a lot of character development and I feel like we got to know Simon a lot better and that was really nice.

To be honest, I wasn't overly invested in any of Simon's fellow students, other than George. They were all a bit annoying. However George is now one of my favourite Cassandra Clare characters. The bromance and banter between him and Simon makes the book as great as it is. Also, going into the book I had the misconception that it was all about Simon, which it isn't. There's a chapter about Tessa, Magnus, and James Herondale (and after the chapter about him I AM SO HYPED for the series about him, he is so precious and adorable). There was also chapters with Mark, Julian, Emma, and Helen in - neatly setting up TDA. The chapters with Mark and Helen are both really sad and I hope in the last TDA book they are both gonna be happy and the clave sorts it's shit out. But I'm getting off track.

There was quite a lot of stuff thrown in to satisfy the fans of the previous book - Izzy, Jace and Clary are around quite a bit, there's some Clace, Malec, Jessa, and Sizzy action. If you're a Malec shipper (who isn't) their chapter will literally drown in you feels. Cassandra also tries to show a different side to people we may not have liked previously, such as Robert, Alec and Izzy's dad. There is a lot of character development all round.

In conclusion - if you are a Cassandra Clare fan, YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK. Now. Also bring tissues, because you WILL cry.

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