#cassandra clare needs to understand

[tyblackthornfrog]

i literally can't shut up once shadowhunters becomes the discussion topic. favorite book series? tda. but let me tell you why. favorite fictional character? probably ty blackthorn. BUT LET ME TELL YOU—

[wikitpowers]

i swear if they don't make one of those cute kit plushies once twp comes out i'm sueing

[kitty-gray]

No, you don't understand. "Love means you see someone, that's all" is such an important quote. For both, Dru and Ty.

Like, throughout TDA Dru felt invisible. Too young to fight but old enough to feel left aside. She's resolved to put herself in danger on her own if that means she can help in any way that matters. Even in TWP she hides her panic attacks, and probably so many other ways her trauma affected her.

And Ty, he dreams of being a detective and solving mysteries. He's always been the one trying to understand the world, but the only people who ever tried to understand him were his family.

They both see. They both are comfortable and used to it. But to be seen? I bet it's gonna be pretty epic.

[shellii-c]

How does everyone ask @cassandraclare questions to get answered??

I've been dying to ask about her extra content she sometimes sends out...Life is a book for The Infernal Devices Extras...We Jace you a Clary christmas for Clary and Jace extras in TMI..

I NEED to know is there one for TDA...all those juicy Emma and Julian extras and deleted scenes....and if she will ever grace us with its presence.

[icyminghao]

(pretty) hungry

pairing: minghao x gn!reader genre: fluff, drabble, established relationship word count: 0.6k warning(s): mentions of food

summary: minghao attempts to flirt with you in chinese, but ends up getting extremely shy when you confront him to translate whatever he said for you.

from the universe of i don’t understand (but i love you), you nailed it! and a little sweet, but can be read as a standalone.

inspired by jem carstairs from the infernal devices by cassandra clare!

“Baobei*, ni hao piao liang**,” Minghao randomly pipes up, breaking the silence that loomed over the both of you in your weekly reading session.

You look up from your book, ears perking up at the sound of Minghao speaking in his native tongue. “What does that mean?”

There’s a pause. Minghao seems taken aback. You quirk a curious brow at him.

“It means I’m hungry. Let’s go get some food,” Minghao places the book he was reading down on the coffee table before getting up and walking towards you.

You would have believed his translation, if not for the fact that his ears were tinged with the deepest shade of red you’ve ever seen.

Minghao extends his hands for you to grab onto to get up, and you withhold a giggle at how hard he’s trying to hide the blush slowly creeping up his cheeks. You willingly grab onto his hands and lift yourself up, a teasing smile appearing on your endeared expression.

“It means ‘I’m hungry’? I could use it on Junhui the next time we meet, show him how good of a teacher you are,” you smile, eyes focused on his reaction. “Baobei, ni hao piao liang.”

“You can’t tell Junhui that.” Minghao replies immediately. You don’t know how it’s possible, but Minghao only gets redder as he practically squirms under your gaze, looking down at his feet to avoid your eyes. You simply grin wider at how cute he’s being, all because of a few simple words from his native language that he’s refusing to translate for you.

“Why not?” you feign innocence, lowering yourself a little so you could make eye contact with his lowered head. “It’s a pretty useful phrase, isn’t it?”

Minghao sighs, lifting his head up. His face is completely red now. “Well, yes, but it can only be used in specific contexts.”

“Specific contexts?” you raise a brow at Minghao, leaning closer to him. “Do enlighten me, Hao.”

“You can just Google it, y/n,” Minghao presses his lips into a thin line, obviously trying to avoid the topic, “what do you feel like eating?”

Unfortunately for him, you do not give in easily.

“But Hao,” you whine, removing your hands from his to shake his shoulders for dramatic effect, “why would I need to ask Google when I’ve got you?”

You stop shaking his shoulders after a while, moving to cup his face in your hands instead. “What does it really mean? I promise I won’t laugh.”

Minghao’s eyes widen. “How did you know it doesn’t mean ‘I’m hungry’?”

“That’s because you taught me that phrase before, silly. Your excuse sucked from the beginning,” you giggle, booping his nose with your finger before going back to rest your hand on his cheek.

Minghao sighs, reaching up to rest one hand over yours, resigning himself to his fate. “It means you’re really pretty, love.”

Now it was your turn to be flustered. Your hands on his cheek stiffened just a little bit, clearly not expecting the words that came out of Minghao’s mouth so easily. Your gaze fell on everything else but Minghao, and he chuckles in amusement.

“What’s wrong, Baobei?” Minghao teases, leaning closer towards you.

You lightly punch his chest in mock frustration. “You can’t just say stuff like that out of the blue!”

“Well, you were the one who pushed for me to tell you what it meant,” Minghao retorts playfully, smile growing impossibly wider. You huff, and Minghao reaches to take your hand in his.

“Okay, let’s finally go eat, hm?” Minghao smiles softly, turning to lead you towards the front door.

“Wait!” you call after Minghao, and he stops in his tracks before turning to you with a confused expression.

“Ni hao piao liang.”

Oh, if only you took a picture of his stunned, absolutely flustered expression to keep forever (and maybe use as blackmail). You guess you’d just have to keep the image in your memory.

*: Baobei (宝贝) — Chinese term of endearment for “baby” or “love”.

**: Ni hao piao liang (你好漂亮) — “you’re really beautiful/pretty”.

a/n: i love hao sm can u tell (also i may or may not have written this bc of that weibo live earlier omg minghao needs to stop like rn.)

taglist (send an ask to be added!): @slytherinshua @xomingyu @pepperonidk @belladaises @tastymintchocolate @dahliatopia

masterlist

[clockworkbee]

when they're so desperate to be with the one they love that they don't even care if they get hurt in order to stay together

“Come with me, then,” he said. “Stay with me. I saw the look on your face when you saw the horses of the Hunt. You would do anything to ride again.” Suddenly furious, Mark leaned down over him. “Not anything,” he said. His voice throbbed with low anger. Kieran gave a slight hiss. He caught at Mark's shirt. “There,” he said. “Be angry with me, Mark Blackthorn. Shout at me. Feel something.”

—Lord of Shadows, Cassandra Clare

“We're staying together,” he promised. “You're not getting away from me. Never again.” Only then did she understand what would happen. A one-way trip. A very hard fall. “As long as we're together,” she said. [...] Then Percy let go of his tiny ledge, and together, holding hands, he and Annabeth fell into the endless darkness.

—The Mark of Athena, Rick Riordan

“I've been broken for weeks,” he said unsteadily, and she knew what that cost him, that admission of lack of control. “I need to be whole again. Even if it doesn't last.” “It can't last,” she said, staring at him, because how could it, when they could never keep what they had? “It'll break our hearts.” He caught her by the wrist, brought her hand to his bare chest. Splayed her fingers over his heart. It beat against her palm, like a fist punching its way through his sternum. “Break my heart,” he said. “Break it in pieces. I give you permission.”

—Lord of Shadows, Cassandra Clare

“Can I?” he asks. Can you what, Simon? Kiss me? Kill me? Break my heart? I touch him like he's made of butterfly wings. “You don't have to ask.” I say it loud enough that he'll hear me, over everything.

—Wayward Son, Rainbow Rowell

“You cannot hurt yourself, Daisy. You must not. Hate me, hit me, do anything you want to me. Cut up my suits and set fire to my books. Tear my heart into pieces, scatter them across England. But do not harm yourself—”

—Chain of Thorns, Cassandra Clare

Come home. Come home and shout at me. Come home and fight with me. Come home and break my heart, if you must. Just come home.

—Queen of Nothing, Holly Black

[linnaearosie]

So this post is a little rant because I tried to read Crescent City 2 and it is so messy and shallow. In fact all sjm books are shallow even Tog that I like

Let me say first:

-if you are fan of sjm please do not sand hate to me ( if you want to type actual response you are welcome) if you don't want to see this block me or tags anti sjm, sjm critical anti cc, anti tog, tog critical,

-when I recognize that sjm is not responsible for quality of other people work she definitely started trend,

- sjm is probably normal but a little bit ignorant and privileged person and so if you don't like her please don't call her slurs in my comments as I think her mistakes are often result of publisher negligence or cuddles ( her growth as author regressed bc they wanted more money),

- there's political massage in every creation. We humans are social animals and politic is element of our lives. Creating something apolitical is political statement on its own. And sjm's books aren't apolitical to begin.

So here my rant (multiple mini rants):

I hate how sjm's books are just aesthetic tm and how they revert fantasy to early 00s. Her worldbuilding is atrocious. She picks and chooses elements of different cultures and she doesn't mash them well but smack them together. Just like fantasy authors did in the past. Early 00s cartoons from Disney had more respect and understanding of cultures. Her biggest crime in my opinion is creating this female predator trope (Maeve, Amaranth) just to explain bad behaviour of her male characters, bc her morally grey male fea was "forced to" act this way towards his true mate but if female character act half as bad she is crucified. Never mind, her true crime is normalizing usage of male/ female/ mating. It wasn't popular before and if you think it is normal I'm sorry but this literally men's trying to explain why they behave predatory towards women narrative "baby i need to act this way it's my instinct" (its giving Jacob from twilight toward baby).

Recently, I tried rereading some scenes from tog and Bi Aedion comparing his bisexuality to lysandra experience as slave is just sad. I legit expected him to say that he was raped by aderlan's soldiers after battle and not him coming out to her. The only logical explanation is that sjm can't understand what she is writing. Bc Aedion seems like decent guy at this point of story and this was framed as important moment in their relationship. This and whole making babies that look like aelin, so lysandra's cover as aelin is not blown are the reasons why I can't ship aedion/lysandra. This is also a prime example of sjm inability to write good lgbt characters or presenting them as equal to others in narrative. Hasar ( tod charcter) is described as ugly with long nose. She is also only semi positive, cunning, but good lesbian character that is in our main characters age bracket. Only gay couple in tog are your typical gay dads, but also one of them was too weak to become immortal so they are now living in fantasy border camp and aren't motioned after hof. There is also Manon's grandmother who is basically salling other witches to be breading stocks for demons and oh she is lesbian. So great selection. again i will stick to good luck Charlie lesbian moms from that one episode. Before anyone say that she couldn't possibly have same sex couple in main cast cassandra clare had in early 10s, rick riordan's nico had on page coming out in 2014. the answer is simply she didn't want one.

Nehemia was my favourite character in first books and I refused to believe in this bs that she chose to die. No it was retcon to make aelin poor little mow mow, that suffer so much. Nehemia literally promised to dorian that she will teach him magic (top 10 ships that never sailed), why would she made sacrifice before aelin or dorian tapped into their potential?

Elide is so confusing character bc she should be witch but isn't. But there's still some witch in her. Sjm's established that witch only needs witch mother to be full witch. But I guess it's something skip generation. Also, why sjm needs to make pregnancy to every species difficult and then make them have several babies. Witches and fea are the main offenders of this. And several times it is only to advance men (rowan fake mate being pregnant ). Sjm stop creating worlds where women have it worse than men and then have them risking their lives simply bc men want son.

Several people were praising sjm bc her characters had past relationships and didn't end up with first boyfriend they were in series. But her characters don't break up in normal way in later books. Chaol was blamed for nehemia death and his rational fears were presented as this stupid takes. Rowan previous lover was turned into this fake decoy. after mating bond is established between rowan and aelin, they are completely disregarding past experience. Everything is better, more right and simply as it should be. Aelin, who didn't start relationship with dorian bc of rationality can't wait to make out with 500 yo dude. I wonder what if rowan's child had survived? They would be older then fenrys. Why isn't aelin thinking about it? Why isn't she thinking that her husband is her uncle's age? He calls fenrys boyo. Fenrys calls aedion boyo. Yet aelin's only thinking how she and rowan will have multiple world conquerin babies and how if something happens to her rowan would be great king. She knows him not even year

It is long post, and frankly, I'm exhausted after long day. If you read it all I'm sorry for my emotional rumbling. Don't be afraid to interact and please be mindful of rules that I made at the beginning.

[jeahreading]

(This mood board is freaking awesome and everything you really need to know about me, the love of my life @im-on-crack-send-help made this)

(Right I think It's time for me to finally get this over with )

Helloo and Welcome to my Blog, This is Primarily a Writer/readerBlr, but there are other things too(Particularly listening to podcasts ) since I can't be bothered to make a side one.

My reader side - I am an avid reader and am almost always in the middle of a book, I will be updating here on which books I'm reading

Current read list -

Dracula (Bram Stoker)

The Screaming Staircase (Jonathan Stroud)

A Dance with the Fae Prince (Elise Kova)

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Kai Bird)

The Silver Birds (Apolline Lucy)

That Night (Nidhi Upadhyay)

The Complete Adventures of Feluda, Vol 1 (Satyajit Ray)

The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)

The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy)

The War of Lanka (Amish Tripathi) (YES I CAN FINALLY TAKE THIS OFF MY LIST I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED THIS I CAN'T BE HAPPIER)

City of Bones (Cassandra Clare)

Circe (Madeline Miller)

The Housemaid is Watching (Freida McFadden)

And that's all I can remember Right about now , Yes I'm reading 10 books or more simultaneously, no I do not have an explanation to that.

My main Genre is Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery and thriller, But I do love widening my scope so do recommend me any books you might think may pique my interest. 😁

My reader side also includes me obsessing over podcasts, I'm including my Favourite podcasts here too, and I assure you they are amazing!

Podcasts for you - I usually listen to them on Spotify and love True crime, mystery, Murder mysteries etc. Here they are -

Rotten Mango by Stephanie Soo (True Crime) - I wouldn't suggest you listen to this if you get disgusted or scared easily, I usually am not affected by these kinds of things and I was still very disturbed, The first 2 episodes are quite... I would suggest you research about it more before you listen to it.

Baking a Murder by Stephanie Soo (Books and movies) - This podcast is again one of my favourites, the way she explains the movie is just so immersive, if you want to understand a story but don't have time to sit down and read the book/watch the movie then this is for you.

7 Suspects by Cryptic Radio(Murder Mystery ) - OH MY GOD, holy- this is probably one of the best mystery podcasts I've ever listened to, tbh you think you know what is going on and till the very end that is kinda sorta true, but then in the like the last 5 moments the plot twist so intense you are left sinking on to the floor thinking "What just happened", listen to, right now.

Magnus Archives by Rusty Quill (Story? horror? not sure what it comes under) - I've started listening to it after getting intense FOMO and can confirm it's going pretty well, I mean I have a LOT to catch up to, but I can say, it's caught my interest.

Murder in HR by Caspian Studios (Murder Mystery) - Again OH MY GOD, again, this is one of the best mystery podcasts I've ever listened to, I mean yeah, the gym ad thingy gets a little bit annoying but the rest of the story compensates for it, again, you think you know where you are going, again up until the very end you just don't know what the hell is going on, and again (Do you see a pattern) when the mystery hits you you are flabbergasted, soo I suggest give it a listen(also kinda obsessed with the soundtrack).

Murphy's Inc. by 97toNow Productions (Scifi mystery) - This is one of the better ones, I'm still listening to it and it's just actually really good, It's kinda the thing you listen to once a day, kinda relaxing (for me at least )

Ok, so this one is a bit different, there is a podcast Caso 63: Enigma: Spotify studios but it's in Spanish which I still haven't quite learnt and I didn't know this existed. I was recommended 2063 theke Esechi by Spotify Studios which is in Bengali which I do, in fact, understand. It was voiced by one of my favourite actors and I was absolutely in love with it, It feels like I wasn't listening to a podcast but a movie and there is so much confusion and so many twists. This podcast has been made in other languages as well, the other two ik are Case 63 (In English) and Virus 2062(In Hindi). So check it out!!

Treat by C13Features (Horror, gory) - This is like a podcast movie, it's around 2 hours long maybe? this is pretty good I would say, you can give it a listen.

Welcome to Night Vale by Night Vale Presents (Absurdity?) - I really don't think I need to say anythi_-_- HAIL THE GLOWCLOUD.

Morning Cup of Murder by Morning Cup of Murder (True Crime) - True crime yk...

The Sounds of Nightmares by Little Nightmares - Bandai Namco Europe (Horror, gore, mystery) - Uhh it's a little unnerving how detailed the actions of characters are As if they were compensating for the fact that there are no visuals, but it was pretty good I would say(Also like the soundtrack)

My writer side- My most popularly known name is Jeah (jee - ah) and I'll be using that here, I am a new author getting started on writing. I still have a looong way to go but, I enjoy writing very much even though my mind and body are definitely not on par with my will to write which is why my second unintended hobby is procrastination. Most of the time that I'm here on Tumblr I am supposed to be doing some other work, like right now.

Anywaysss here are my current WIP's

Mirror My Way - This is my first and only properly published Book. Tbh Not very proud of it, I did it in a hurry, because I took part in the school's Writing program, did nothing the whole year, and finished it in the last week, I honestly think It had potential but I kinda ruined it trying to finish it within the deadline. I wouldn't recommend you read it, It was supposed to be a part of a duology or trilogy but I think I'm just gonna let it sit in the corner for now, let it be there, think upon its mistakes, it did wrong 😤.

Tots and Coffee - Now this one I like better, this was actually inspired by the Scam Caller post here on Tumblr. Kinda had a sudden burst of inspiration and Wrote the first Chapter and since then it's still going pretty strong. Unlike the previous one, it is there on Ao3 if you wish to read it 😁.

I dunno what to call this but I occasionally write short stories in the replies of Pinterest pins when I come across writing prompts. This isn't a wip exactly but , I once posted the starting of a story and jokingly wrote "Continue-!" at the end thinking that would be the end of it, but someone did eventually continue it and that led to a string of events and a very weirdly Eledritch, beautiful Frankestine story formation, I'll be posting it slowly here on Tumblr as well, so keep checking!

Forgot to put it in earlier, but check out @the-writers-corner-inc It's a group blog I initiated, and you can find lots of fun stories, prompts, visuals and more!!

Oh just a side note, I amde another side blog where I post the answer of the everyday wordle.@answer-of-the-everyday-wordle

And that's about it, I don't what else to say, but while you're here, grab a cup of coffee or tea, pick out a book and read a page, I'm right here on the other side with a book as well, let's be booky buddies 😄😄😃😃🍵☕

[lady-bluebird-luv]

Youre making me want to pick back up acotar lmfao

Welllllll if you do, you'll have at least one friend you can talk about it with. :)

I don't know how similar this is to your experience, but I actually wasn't a big ACOTAR fan when I first read it in 2017-ish. I thought the first book was OK, got obsessed with ACOMAF, got frustrated with ACOFAS, and didn't think about the series again for years. I had gone down a manga rabbit hole and started writing SnK fic around the same time, so I directed all my fandom energy at that.

Last winter, I got nostalgic and re-read a lot of Cassandra Clare novels. I studied world literature, so I read a lot in my day-to-day life, but that winter was when I remembered how nice it is to read unpretentiously. Romantasy was my original bread and butter, and not everything has to be high-brow, award-winning Literature with a big L. Then I re-read ACOMAF, and one thing led to another.

I'll be the first person to admit that ACOTAR has its fair share of issues, and I don't adore SJM as an author or as a person. But ACOTAR is still meaningful to me. It brought me a lot of joy at a time when I needed it. It inspired me to write fic for the first time in a while. I don't think it's good for all the reasons why SJM intended it to be good. Like, SJM doesn't understand how morally grey some of her protagonists are, but they are morally grey, and I love them for that. One of the best things about fandom is that you can give canon/authors' interpretations the middle finger and do whatever the fuck you want.

I'm new in ACOTAR fandom spaces, but the culture is definitely different from SnK. IDK if the ACOTAR fandom can be so negative because it's starved for new content, or what, but I've never seen "pro" or "anti" tags to this extent. It also seems like there are a lot of people here who aren't familiar with fandom netiquette. I hate the moral policing, although that problem isn't ACOTAR-specific - I got off ereri Twitter to avoid the harassment/doxing that people were getting there. That all being said, there are also some lovely, insanely talented people here who inspired me to create my own ACOTAR content, and I definitely want to stay to connect with them more. I'm trying to avoid the bickering discourse and just reblog pretty fanart on my silly little blog.

I would be psyched if you joined us, but if not, no harm no foul. The series and fandom is whatever you find in it. Either way, I'm genuinely flattered, and thanks so much for the ask! Sorry that this got a little rambley.

[catreadsbooks]

hey queen, you are literally the glue of this fandom and keep everyone up to date bless youuu, you’re literally an angel!!!!!!!!

the masterlist of all the extras some links dont work, do you know where we can find everything. because that masterlist was my lifeline and i need to consume evry bit of tsc content!!! if ur able would you be able to make an updated one, if not queen you already do enough and i salute your efforts queen 🫡 xoxoxoxoxxooxoxo

Hi there!

Thank you for your incredibly sweet message! This was a very lovely thing to wake up to this week. I'm sorry that some of the links are broken! I'm currently working on updating my list and have made pretty good progess so far.

I'm still going through my very big Cassandra Clare folder to unearth the stuff that I can share, and I've also asked my friend Rò from shadowhunters.it for help. Just an FYI, though: Some extras were exclusives and haven't been shared by Cassie yet, so I won't share them either. Hope you understand!

Cat xo

[lizbethborden]

honestly as a locked tomb enjoyer I don't give a fuck what Muir's personal life is like, maybe she's bi, maybe she married a closeted trans woman, maybe her husband is trans but wasn't out when they met, maybe she just likes to lie, what matters to me is that her books are well made and the lesbians in it are relatable. But the obfuscation around it is really puzzling. First of all I've always found authors marketing their personal life and gender as being weird, irrelevant (as far as I know Muir isnt a necromancer cultist and yet she can write about necromancy cults) and borderline dangerous (bc it sort of puts this expectation on the author to come out...), so I don't understand why 'Muir is a lesbian' would need to be in that bio in the first place. Then, even if it was put there as a marketing ploy, I don't see in what world marketing yourself as a lesbian as opposed to bisexual is a beneficial move. The wider your audience reach the better, no? and God knows lesbians are a niche population to pander to. idk.

I also genuinely dgaf about how authors of books live and identify but it makes me mad asf that not only is she appropriating a label that isn't hers, she's doing it married to a whole man.

I also have to be honest, having read some the books are also profoundly twitterfied, meme-y, and "Cassandra Clare stealing quips from BTVS"-esque, so it makes perfect sense to me that an extremely logged on bi woman would do what logged on bi women so often do, which is call themselves lesbians while being with men because they feel soooooo cool and awesome doing it. That's how you get that bisexual lesbian phenomenon and "it's bigoted to say lesbians don't date men" etc.

[josephinevalor]

Clockwork Prince Review

By: Cassandra Clare

Quick Thoughts about the Book

Some of the problems with Clockwork Angel where fixed in this one. 

The plot felt a bit slower than Clockwork Angel but it still had the same engagement factor. It just gave the story a bit more breathing room and for some of the characters to develop better. 

There aren’t as many action scenes. But there are plenty of other interesting things that happen. The focus shifts more towards relationships between characters, especially Tessa’s love triangle, Jem’s relationship with Will (their parabatai bond dynamic) and we get to see more of Sophie.

POV

The POV shifts a lot more and isn’t as stuck on Tessa anymore. And so as a result, it doesn’t have that "unnatural feeling".

Inciting Incident

Henry and Charlotte need to find Mortmain within 2 weeks or they lose control of the institute. They basically get fired.

WARNING: FROM THIS POINT, SPOILERS!!

Characters

Tessa:

Inconsistent characterization. Tessa is unhappy she doesn’t want to train to fight during the clave meeting. In the previous book, she was unhappy that Will and Tessa left to fight without her. And here she’s like, “I don’t want to train to fight.” It felt like Cassandra just did this to create drama around the idea. But it just doesn’t work with Tessa’s character.  

Continues calling everyone out and taking no prisoners. Holds Will accountable. 

Learns how to fight so she takes a more active role in physically fighting but subtle cunning use of powers is still there and takes a more central role as far as Tessa goes than brute force. That aspect of Tessa that I loved is still there.  

Jessamine:

Continued to grow on me. We find out she is a traitor and spied for Nate and Mortmain. She comes across as being too naive and easily manipulated for me to hate her. It’s obvious that Mortmain and Nate were the ones pulling the strings and she just fell for it. I felt for her. Especially during the scene when she was trying to carve out her initials in the wall with her ring and her ring broke against it.

At the same time, what she had done had been inexcusably bad. She does deserve to be stuck in the silent city.

Jessamine perfectly demonstrates how you can feel sorry for someone while at the same time understanding that they deserve to suffer the consequences of their actions.

Will:

The mystery of why he is the way that he is is revealed. A demon cursed him. Through out most of the book, we have some good old dramatic irony, where we know why Will is behaving this way but the other characters don’t. I couldn’t wait for Will to reveal it. It was painful to read how he has to continue to pretend to be bad and mistreat everyone and not be able to reveal the truth. Painful but in a good way. 

James:

Such a gentlemen.

He is the opposite of Will. I’m still team James. He ends up proposing to Tessa. Right around when Will finds out that the curse wasn’t even real and he pushed everyone away from himself for nothing. Will has to pretend to be happy for Jem, due to them being parabatai, which was sad but hilarious at the same time.

Charlotte:

I did not like her in this book.

It feels like she is constantly on the verge of a mental breakdown. She complains a lot more. I understand her emotions make sense. She is extremely stressed out about losing the institute. And the Clave giving her the impossible challenge of finding Mortmain within 2 weeks was extremely unfair. But I still don’t like it. And as someone who is in such a high leadership position, she should have been able to handle it a tad bit better.

Charlotte throwing Jessamine into the silent city was a badass moment. But then she had to ruin it by having a mental breakdown about how “it had to be done” when I was on Charlette's side to begin with. 

Charlotte allowing for Tessa to just casually stroll around was not the smartest idea. It increased the probability of her being kidnapped. Tessa should have been only allowed to go out and about in disguise, especially since she can shape shift, which would make disguising pretty easy.

Having Will just casually stroll around wherever he pleases is also not the best idea. Charlotte and Henry should be on high alert after everything that happened with Mortmain. But Charlotte and Henry are just not. 

Henry:

Starts to grow on me more.

He might not show it all the time but he cares about her. During the battle with Nate, he fights with a gigantic automaton to try to defend Charlotte. I still don’t love him but I like him a lot more.

Sophie

She is given a lot more space on the page. Starts to graduate into the main cast of characters from the supporting cast.

Her relationship with Gideon captures the dynamic of a servant employer relationship spot on. 

Mortmain:

We find out his motives. And I found his backstory to be quite interesting. Basically, he has a vendetta against Shadowhunters due to them (from his POV wrongfully) killing his adoptive parents, who were Warlocks. And based on how horribly Shadowhunters treated Warlocks, it's not even unreasonable that it was in fact wrongful.

There is a sense of calm before the storm through out this novel, due to him not making any direct attacks. Automotons did attack Tessa near the manor where Will’s family and his sister lives. When Tessa gets behind Will and Jem, that automaton tried to attack her. But that attack had an extremely low probability of success because Tessa's necklace could save her (which Mortmain knew it would. I can’t say how or why because that would be revealed in the next book but he knew), Will and Jem are near by, and Tessa had also been training, which Mortmain also knew about. So the whole attack was meant more to just screw around with the Shadowhunters than to actually achieve anything.

He is the “you can��t see him but he is there” type of villain through out this book. He doesn't show himself even once. Which is what I love about him because it makes him seem so much more calculating and ominous.

He also got involved in Shadowhunter politics, created an artificial shortage of Yin Fen in order to make Jem's life hell, and used that Yin Fen to increase the productivity of werewolves that had been working for him. He is a smart villain and I love that about him.

Magnus:

Love him. Can’t get enough of him.

Amazing quote about death: “Death is oblivion”. If you assume there is no afterlife, it's so true, since once you die, you will not be able to experience anything and hence will be oblivious to everything.

He is so much better as a character here than in The Bane Chronicles.

There is a lot more depth to him. He seems a lot wiser. Especially in contrast with Will. 

Alecent Starkweather

Perfectly incapsulates the old racist grandpa trope that we all hope to avoid becoming one day. It's so funny how he perfectly fits it.

Benedict Lightwood

While never a sympathetic character, it was still surprising that he was working for Mortmain. The reason was Demonpox, which had been stated to not be real. “Every myth is partially true” motif is a major thing through out Cassandra's work. 

Rating: 4.5/5

[daily-clace]

A smile ghosted across his face. “You know I want to beg you to stay out of this, right? It’s going to be a vicious battle. More vicious than I think the Clave even begins to understand.”

“But you’re not going to do that,” Clary said. “Because that would make you an idiot.”

“You mean because we need your rune powers?”

“Well, that, and— Did you not listen to anything you just said? That whole business about protecting each other?”

“I will have you know I practiced that speech. In front of a mirror before you got here.”

“So what do you think it meant?”

“I’m not sure,” Jace admitted, “but I know I look damn good delivering it.”

Cassandra Clare, City of Lost Souls

[daystobook]

Day 6: Neil Gaiman Master Class, Dreyer's English, More Addie Larue, Advancing into the Story

Allegation/Trigger Warning: Neil has been accused by 5 women of sexual assault/rape.

The thing about writing early on—which I am at—is that it's too easy to give up. To become impatient and blurt, 'why is this not working?' leave it, and don't feel bad about it after a while—because there's nothing to feel bad about in the first place, nothing came of it so there's no accountability.

I was stuck with another story yesterday. Listening to VE Schwab's podcast with Cassandra Clare, when Cassandra said that she loves to run her stories by some of her close writer friends, and VE Schwab said something similar, I realised that as much as writing is a lonely occupation, it doesn't have to be. So I asked my friend Amrita a question, posed to answer as a character, and I got my unblocking. Thanks Amrita! I had been able to do something similar for her a few days back, it feels good to be of help.

I continued to write. Every bleh word after you realise this isn't working is a struggle. But I powered through and something I didn't know about the characters unfolded. I took VE Schwab's advice of going outside of the story and thinking about where I want it to go, and started creating a Miro board. Miro boards are nice! I didn't know about how effective they could be before Imagine 2200 folks created an interesting writing exercise for us on a zoom call before they started this year's edition of the writing competition.

At the same time, I also just kept pantsing. I was planning the story alongside of letting it unfold in parallel. Today in Neil Gaiman's masterclass chapter 4—Finding your Voice, I took away two things

Make mistakes.

Only way to make mistakes is to finish writing what I start.

You learn more by finishing a failure than by writing a success. And you definitely learn more by finishing a failure than you ever do by beginning something that's fantastic but stops. —Neil Gaiman, Masterclass, Chapter 4, Finding Your Voice

I haven't had finished failed stories. I don't have stories archived somewhere, which I know nobody will ever read. How will my voice ever develop, if I can't sustain copying others and ensuring an end, no matter how terrible. Listening to Neil, the bucket in which I put 'not good', or 'failed' writing has changed from useless to medals.

I also started reading Dreyer's English. Em dashes and commas, when used effectively can make a long winded thought sentence into something tangible. Dreyer's introduction was funny and full of easily understandable long sentences.

I'm not supposed to use

very

really

rather

quite

in fact

just

so

pretty

of course

actually

extremely

surely

for a week, as an exercise from first chapter of Dreyer's English. That was the whole chapter.

I also realised my one pastel highlighter is the last one standing, and I'll need to order more soon. I am going away from wax highlighters, at least for a bit, because of the ease of order, comfort, contrast, and aesthetic of pastel lightness of liquid highlighters.

There's an interesting exercise I'm going to try from the Neil's masterclass workbook:

Challenge yourself to write a short story in one sitting to fight fear of mistakes. You're not allowed to go away from the project until you have a completed draft. It can be any length, but tell a complete story that will satisfy a reader. Don't do too much editing while you write, let your ideas flow and then structure them once you've got everything on the page.

Hopefully in between the next couple of posts.

[livvyofthelake]

speaking of cars. which no one was. other than my girl addison rae of course. anyway. re: cassandra clare’s the wicked powers. i fear i’m still gonna need more information about this “road trip” cassandra. who is driving the car… you don’t understand this haunts me it’s 3am and all i can think is like. in what world does it make any sense that ty knows how to drive… he is nottttt a driver that boy is not driving a car. cassie let’s get serious tell me the real plot of that book

[poeticexhalations]

Mrs. Miller’s Antics

My old literature teacher in seventh grade was a gentle soul with a unique charm. Her name was Mrs. Miller, and I can see her face clearly to this day; I can see every wrinkle, every wink of her toffee eyes, every time her worn hands waved through the air like she was casting a protection spell on me. She was somewhat eccentric, and her aged face was a testament to her years of wisdom. When I was being bullied, she’d let me scurry into her crowded classroom during lunch where I could hide in the cabinets, books, and disarrays of ungraded work. 

One afternoon, my bully came to look for me. I squeezed my tiny body behind a turquoise filing cabinet and crushed myself against the brick wall next to a spider. When the bully asked Mrs. Miller if I was there, she simply replied, “I haven’t seen her.”

I was thirteen, and Mrs. Miller was my favorite person in the world. 

It was around this age that I realized what a deep, ardent passion I had for the literary world. Math was numbers, science was logic, but literature? It was the study of humanity. 

It was resurrecting dead voices and embracing each others’ pains. Literature helped me understand worlds outside of my small corner of Albuquerque; I read stories from Nashik, Puebla, Ireland, and even Hogwarts. The characters I read about became close friends to me; I felt like I truly understood them, and as silly as it sounds, I think those characters saw me, too. I was so gifted in her class that if I nuzzled my face into a dusty book from her bookshelf while she was instructing the class, she’d leave me alone because she understood that I already knew the content. 

I just needed to meet a new friend.

My desire for literature, for magic, started here. I picked up every book I could, and my father, who was so enthusiastic about shoving me in my bedroom to be quiet for a little while, offered to buy me books as long as I’d actually read them. My first Barnes and Noble trip is still ironed into my memory. I had never seen so many books in one place under an artificial tree. And fuck, did I read them.

And read.

And read.

The Warriors series by Erin Hunter.

The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare (my first literary crush. Oof.)

Blue is for Nightmares by Laurie Faria Stolarz.

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

Eragon by Christopher Paolini.

The Tale of Desperaux by Kate DiCamillo. 

The Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer.

The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead.

The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman.

The Merlin Prophecy books by T.H. White.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

The Angel of Death by Alane Ferguson.

The Night World series by L.J. Smith.

And so, so many more.