Life of Bry

I’m all caught up. 

I’ve spent almost a year reading through Cassandra Clare’s extensive collection of Shadowhunter books, and I’m officially caught up. I’m not saying goodbye to the Shadow World just yet. I’m practically foaming at the mouth for Chain of Thorns in November and Secrets of Blackthorn Hall is keeping me firmly clinging to my chalkboard and red string in anticipation for both CoI and the fever dream that is The Wicked Powers. 

But I felt it was appropriate to do a round up of sorts on The Shadowhunter Chronicles to mark the occasion.

These books got me back into reading. I sold most of my book collection before my freshman year of college to help pay for my textbooks, and I gave up reading for pleasure because I didn’t have time or energy between 18-credit semesters and working. After college, I would pick up a book here or there, but never more than a few a year.

It was my 2021 goal to do more things for myself, which mostly included getting back into reading, writing more for fun and restarting this blog. Like so many others, I found an escape in books at a young age from a world that hurt, and I wanted to rediscover that comfort. 

I received The Mortal Instruments box set as a Christmas gift after it spent nearly a decade on my TBR list. It seemed like the perfect way to start my journey back into reading — and it absolutely was. 

TMI was such a breath of fresh air after years of reading stuffy classics for college (some are good, most are dreadful). I fell head over heels for all the characters and the themes and the world in general.

It made me feel like I was in high school again, reading The Hunger Games for the first time and screaming into a pillow at two in the morning when Peeta announced he was in love with Katniss. But it was even better because with some more life under my belt and more tools for literary analysis, I felt a stronger connection to the text. 

I loved breaking down these books, tearing apart the characters and theorizing each plot twist. I made so many new book friends and it was tons of fun to analyze together and share thoughts. 

TMI isn’t my favorite Clare series, but it opened the door to a magical world that stole my heart and I’m really grateful for it.

I don’t know why, but as soon as I finished Chain of Iron, I had a need to rank all 19 of the Shadowhunter books and then I thought about superlatives … and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So, here we are! It just feels like a nice way to wrap up my journey so far as I wait (impatiently) for CoT.

Rankings:

1. Lord of Shadows

2. City of Lost Souls

3. Chain of Gold

4. Clockwork Prince

5. Lady Midnight 

6. City of Heavenly Fire

7. Clockwork Princess

8. Chain of Iron

9. Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy

10. City of Glass

11. Queen of Air and Darkness

12. The Red Scrolls of Magic

13. City of Bones

14. The Lost Book of the White

15. The Bane Chronicles

16. Ghosts of the Shadow Market

17. City of Fallen Angels

18. City of Ashes

19. Clockwork Angel

Explanations: I feel like my list is … controversial … mostly because of Clockwork Angel being dead last. However, Clockwork Angel was the only book on this list that I read and didn’t want to finish the rest of the series. I hated Will Herondale with a passion, didn’t understand why Tessa would be so infatuated with him when he was being such a douche canoe and didn’t care at all for the plot. Luckily, I finished the series and fell in love with Will. But I don’t think I’ll ever do a reread of Clockwork Angel. I’ll skip it.

City of Ashes and City of Fallen Angels I barely remembered what happened in them. Even after skimming through my analysis for each, I found them forgettable. Ghosts of the Shadow Market and The Bane Chronicles were pretty great novella collections that I enjoyed, but, compared to Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, they just didn’t have as much of an impact on the overall world building, in my opinion. So that rounds out my bottom five.

The top of my list was the easiest to put together. 

Lord of Shadows was incredible from start to finish. We got the iconic “I came of age in the Dark War” monolog in this book! Emma and Mark fake dating! Endless political mind games! The cottage scene! That cliffhanger! Ugh — the best! 

City of Lost Souls was just a wild adventure. It’s the TMI book I remember the most about. It had such an interesting individual story concept with Jace and Sebastian being tied together, and it set up City of Heavenly Fire exceptionally well. It also made me like Clary’s character so much more, which is something I never thought possible after City of Bones. 

I moved Chain of Gold throughout my first list. I think I originally had it at No. 5 or 6, because I was hesitant to put it so high since I just read it a few weeks ago. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it’s just a really great opener that did such a fantastic job at setting the tone of the series and establishing the plot, themes and characters. The same goes for Lady Midnight at No. 5. They’re just damn near flawless.

Clockwork Prince takes the No. 4 spot because it redeemed The Infernal Devices for me. I was so ready to give up on that series, but this really brought me back in. I learned to love Will in this book, and Jem’s character development SOARED. Plus, we got not one but TWO love confessions! Jem’s proposal to Tessa? Kill me where I stand. “It was books that kept me from taking my own life …”. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Tessa wrapping her hand around the fire poker after Will confesses his feelings? DEAD. Clockwork Prince was everything. It served me endless pain on a silver platter, and I ATE IT UP. 

As for everything else … it is what it is. Feel free to ask me about any of them in the comments or catch me on Tumblr/Instagram. I’m always up to debate. AND I need to know everyone else’s rankings. It’s for science.

Superlatives

While reading Chain of Iron, I wrote in my reading journal this one question: If you put all the Herondales in one room and forced them to fight, who would win? (Keep reading to figure out my pick.) It got me thinking about other random questions … There’s so many characters and books that there’s an endless amount of possibilities, so I put together my Shadowhunters Superlatives:

Favorite female character(s): Emma and Cordelia Carstairs

Favorite male character(s): Julian Blackthorn and Matthew Fairchild

Favorite parabatai duo: Matthew Fairchild and James Herondale

Favorite Herondale: Kit Herondale

Favorite ship: Blackstairs and Malec

Favorite series: The Dark Artifices

Best literary parallel: Great Expectations (The Last Hours) and “Annabel Lee” (Lady Midnight)

Best character development: Simon Lovelace and Alec Lightwood-Bane (excuse me, Consul Alec Lightwood-Bane)

Minor character I still need to know more about: Celine Montclair

Most tragic backstory: Jace Herondale

Book I think I could write better: Queen of Air and Darkness

Book that disappointed me: Ghosts of the Shadow Market

Book I wanted to like more than I did: Lost Book of the White

Favorite villain: Sebastian Morgenstern (He loves some good theatrics.)

Character I didn’t care about at first, but learned to love: Raphael Santiago

Character I think I could take in a fight: Robert Lightwood (I just wanna fight him tbh.)

Character I had no right falling in love with as quickly as I did: Jesse Blackthorn

Character I love to hate: Stephen Herondale 

Character that I would kill for (in Minecraft): Tavvy Blackthorn

Character with the best *vibe*: Lily Chen

Character Cassie did dirty: Jem Carstairs

Character with the most chaotic energy: Lucie Herondale

Character I don’t know if I want to be or be with: Isabelle Lightwood (and Anna Lightwood)

Character I think I’d actually be friends with: Matthew Fairchild or Emma Carstairs

Character I’m low key scared of: Julian Blackthorn

Character I’m high key scared of: Magnus Bane 

Most feral character: Kit Herondale (He went to public school … I know what public school does to a person)

Coolest weapon: The right answer is Cortana … but, the American in me is screaming James’ revolver.

Best plot twist: When Cordelia stood up and announced James compromised her to give him an alibi in Chain of Gold. 

Sweetest quote: “Alec, with his heartbreaking contradictions, shy and brave, relentless and tender. Alec’s midnight-blue eyes, and the look on his face when they had their first kiss. And their last. Magnus had not thought today’s kiss would be their last. But nobody ever did know, when the last kiss came.” (Magnus, The Red Scrolls of Magic)

Underrated scene: When Livvy practically gave Kit a shovel talk in Lord of Shadows.

Scene that made me laugh the hardest: In City of Ashes, when the Seelie Queen says she’ll let TMI gang free for the price of a kiss and we get this iconic BROTP moment between Jace and Simon … “I guess it’s true what they say. There are no straight men in the trenches.” “That’s atheists, jackass. There are no atheists in the trenches.”

Scene that made me throw my book across the room: “I came of age in the Dark War. I was baptized in blood and fire. … I killed my own father. You think I won’t kill your son?” (Lord of Shadows)

Scene that lives in my mind rent free: The Bone Chandelier scene between Jace and Clary from City of Lost Souls.

Scene that made me squeal at 3 a.m.: When Belial tosses the revolver to James to shoot Lilith in Chain of Iron.

Scene that made me cry for absolutely no reason: At the end of “The Land I Lost” when Alec starts to teach Max and Rafe Shadowhunter skills.

Scene that made me audibly gasp: When Alec shot Meliorn in City of Heavenly Fire … “Die, then, liar.”

Scenes that shattered my heart into a million pieces (excluding the CP2 epilogue, because that’s not even a fair fight): 

1. Kit trying to stop Ty from raising Livvy in Queen of Air and Darkness …

“You think you can’t survive without Livvy, but you can. We will go through it together. I love you, Ty. I love you. … She’s gone, Ty. She’s gone forever. You have to get through this. Your family will help you. I will help you. But not if you do this. Not if you do this, Ty.”

“I have to get her back, Kit. I have to.”

2. When Will feels the parabatai bond snap in Clockwork Princess …

“For five years it had been his absolute truth. Jem and Will. Will and Jem. Will Herondale lives, therefore Jem Carstairs lives also.”

3. Julian holding Livvy on the dais in Lord of Shadows …

“Livia. Livvy, my baby, please, sweetheart, open your eyes, it’s Jules, I’m here for you, I’m always here for you, please, please —”

4. When Matthew and James fight at the Shadow Market in Chain of Iron …

“Look at me and tell me there is someone you love more than that bottle in your hand. …”

“I cut myself and James brought me back here for a healing rune. So silly of me. Who knew toys had sharp edges.”

5. When Jace is bound to Jonathan in City of Lost Souls, but the Mark is temporarily cut, allowing him to tell Clary how he feels …

“This is all I ever wanted, to live with you like this, be with you like this. What am I supposed to think, when the worst thing that has ever happened to me gives me exactly what I want? Maybe Jace Lightwood can see all the ways this is wrong and messed-up, but Jace Wayland, Valentine’s son … loves this life.”

And finally … if all the Herondales fought, who would come out on top? I would say Jace or James. Jace was raised to be a weapon. If that man is anything, it’s a fighter. But James legit has a revolver and that’s a wildcard up his sleeve. (Rosemary is a close third because of her feral energy.)

Theories

To wrap everything together, I figured it would be appropriate to give some quick theories on future books:

Chain of Thorns

• There will be absolutely no consequences for Lucie raising Jesse. They’ll get their HEA, because, if they don’t, all the trouble Lucie went through to bring him back to life is kind of nulled and defeats the purpose of the story. (However, I’m all for actions having consequences, so give me tragedy. But not for Jesse. He’s been through enough.)
• Lucie and Cordelia won’t become parabatai.
• James is going to get hurt doing something reckless, which is how Matthew and Cordelia will be brought back from Paris — after they healed a bit, please. I want it to be an unhinged Malcolm that does something wild, but it will probably be a Belial thing.
• Grace will kill Tatiana. I need this. I need Grace with a sword in her hand, telling Tatiana, “You made me a blade.” We know Jesse trained her a bit. GIVE ME THIS. PLEASE. 
• I don’t think James will actually defeat Belial. We know Belial shows up in the 1930s in Ghosts of the Shadow Market, and he owed Jem a favor. Perhaps Cordelia almost wounds him, and Jem shows up to teach mercy (even with a Prince of Hell). Seems less cool than letting Cordelia skewer him, but I could see Clare doing it.
• Matthew will sacrifice himself for James. This seems like the likely scenario IMO. Once he realizes James actually does love Cordelia, he’ll feel guilty, and this will be his way of making it up to himself. I hate to say it, but I just don’t see Math getting out of this series alive. He’s destined for tragedy, and it hurts. I want him to live a long and happy life, but, if he has to die, I want a disastrously beautiful speech on his dying breath about forgiving himself and the world. It’s the least Cassie could give me.
• It’s going to end with a real wedding between James and Cordelia. I feel it in my bones. 

The Black Volume of the Dead

• The Eldest Curses trilogy holds the least weight to me in terms of importance. I think because it’s so scattered in the timeline, it’s hard to really put any pressure on it in pushing the overall story of TSC forward. It’s great for Malec fluff and cute TMI gang moments, but I wasn’t as into it as I thought I would be. I have the least amount of theories for this series.
• So something has to take TMI gang away from The Wicked Powers gang so that those characters aren’t crowding a new story. That something is most likely Lucifer based on the ending of The Lost Book of the White. We’re going to see TMI gang face down the ultimate Prince of Hell. I think Clare will give us another hell dimension. It’s their thing. 
• So, there’s multiple copies of The Black Volume of the Dead. Ethna destroyed the copy for the Seelie Queen, and Ty threw his phone with the pictures into the ocean. I’m pretty sure Julian’s phone got smashed somewhere, so he doesn’t have his photos anymore either. Which means the only copy left is the one Annabel had in Thule. I want to see Thule again just to see what Livvy has been up to, so I think maybe they’ll team up with Janus to get to Thule to find the book. Or they could find the OfficeMax Julian went to and see if they have the print job saved. 
• (Something that 100 percent won’t happen, but I wish would: Julian has the original copy still. He took it from Annabel and kept it a secret as future leverage. We know his father brought the book to L.A. from London, so maybe he thought the Blackthorns have a right to it, in a way.)
• We’ll get a Sizzy wedding. PLEASE.
• Malec adopts a third kid. Maybe a sister for Max and Rafe? 
• Jace will have to kill Janus. I think that has the most impact — much like Julian having to kill his Endarkened self in Thule. I also don’t think the others could do it. 
• One of TMI gang is going to die. I’m kidding. Clare is too much of a coward to do that, especially in what’s essentially a spinoff series. But, it would make the most sense. You don’t face Lucifer and come home without casualties. Like Simon says in TLBoTW, you can’t keep winning. Eventually you have to lose. And, I agree. It ruins the suspense of the book, which is my main issue with TEC. We know these characters show up in later volumes, so there’s no actual sense of dread or fear for their safety. 

The Wicked Powers

• KIT/TY REUNION. KIT/TY REUNION. KIT/TY REUNION. KIT/TY REUNION. KIT/TY REUNION. KIT/TY REUNION. KIT/TY REUNION. KIT/TY REUNION.
  • This reunion will be the angstiest thing Clare will ever write, and I NEED IT to be. My first theory was they would run into each other at Clary and Jace’s wedding and we’d get a super cute moment where maybe Kit asks him to dance (*swoon*), but Clare has since said that a Clace wedding won’t happen until things settle down. That leads me to think that we’re going to get a reunion based on a life/death situation. Less cute, way more angsty. I think we’re going to see Kit save Ty in some way, because it does the most for his character development.
• If Thule doesn’t return in TEC, it needs to play a part in TWP. We left Thule Livvy with the Mortal Cup, Sebastian dead and the name of the Unseelie King. I feel like it would be a major disappointment to never have any sort of closure on if Livvy was able to revive Nephilim. Could you imagine Ty meeting Thule Livvy? Livvy’s ghost seeing herself in Thule? That could be a really heartbreaking way for Ty to come to terms with letting his sister go despite his own wants.
  • That last statement brings me to the theory that Kit and Ty will work together to put Livvy’s ghost to rest. I don’t think Livvy wants to be a ghost, but she wants to protect Ty. Maybe with Kit back in his life, the friends he made at the Scholomance and him simply growing up will be enough for her to let go, as well.
  • Is Kit alive in Thule? In this world, is his family still together?
• Julian is going to be named the Inquisitor. (In TRSoM, Helen says her little brother Julian is smart, “He could be Consul one day.” I think that’s foreshadowing, but Alec is Consul so I think something bad will happen to Perfect Diego and Julian will step in his place. It makes sense for his character. Also he’s probably held the Mortal Sword more than any other Nephilim that wasn’t an Inquisitor, so he’s qualified.
• Somebody from The Last Hours is an immortal Downworlder and shows up to help. I think there’s going to be a connection between Belial and Lucifer. I just don’t know what.
• Either Kit or Ash will take up the Seelie throne to unite the kingdoms. Clare mentioned that TWP will be loosely based on the legends of King Arthur, who was born royalty but didn’t know it. His adviser is a wizard. I think this points to Kit because he didn’t know about his royal bloodline and he’s now being raised by a warlock and a former Silent Brother.
  • Going along with the King Arthur theory, I think the Blackthorn sword is going to be equivalent to Excalibur (or maybe we’ll just get straight up Excalibur). Jesse has the sword in TLH, but it’s not mentioned in TDA, so I think it’s going to be of importance. I want Dru to find it and wield it like the badass babe I know she is.
• Let Emma kill Zara. I was all for mercy in TDA, but I’ve had time to think about it now and she needs to die. Let Emma stab her. Stab for stab, ya know? (I also think the Cohort will be working with the Seelie Court from Idris. That’s how they have spies.)
• Idris will fall. Clare mentioned that the events of TWP are going to change the Shadow World forever. Maybe if all these Shadowhunters come together to defeat Lucifer, the world will be rid of demons and there will be no more use for the Nephilim. That would be a devastating way to close out this chapter of Clare’s writing, and I kind of love the idea. File it under things that won’t happen.

I probably have several hundred more theories (especially on TWP), but these are the big ones. Please, please, please … let me know your theories! And your answers to the superlatives. I NEED THEM. I need them to fuel me until Chain of Thorns.

19 books.

27 blog posts.

10,905 pages read.

80,000-plus words written.

An infinite amount of tears.

It’s been a hell of a journey. Thanks for sticking with me through my adventure through the Shadow World, and I hope you’ll hang around as I dive into non-Shadowhunter books. If not, I’ll see you in November when I become absolutely UNHINGED for Chain of Thorns. 

Well, that’s all, I guess. Thanks for crying with me. ❤