"Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy" Novella Review

Title: Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy
Series: Tales From the Shadowhunter Academy (Novella #1) and The Shadowhunter Chronicles
Author: Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 8 out of 10 possums in the wardrobe

*WARNING: THIS REVIEW WILL SPOIL CITY OF HEAVENLY FIRE*

What It's About: Simon Lewis has gone from being a mundane to a vampire to a mundane again and now he's training to become a Shadowhunter. He's lost his memories, and though a few of them are coming back, he doesn't remember this adventures, his heroics, or his friends. Simon is sent to the Shadowhunter Academy in Idris, where he's going to spend two years learning about Shadowhunter history and trying to become the hero he once was. This first novella introduces Simon and the reader to the Academy and the new cast of characters.

Recommended For: Fans of the Shadowhunter Chronicles

Review: I was not too thrilled with the Bane Chronicles because I felt like it was irrelevant to what was happening in the rest of the Shadowhunter Chronicles. But with The Shadowhunter Academy, we know that each story is going to tie into another part of the Shadowhunter books. I also feel like this series will be the perfect bridge between The Mortal Instruments and The Dark Artifices. I really like the new characters. George Lovelace is Simon's roommate (who hopefully meets a better fate than Simon's last roommate) and he immediately jumps off the page, Catarina Loss is a warlock who works at the Academy and she's just as fun as the other warlocks we've gotten to know. The Academy is very rundown and gross and the food is terrible, and the Shadowhunters are still a bunch of racist pricks. I like that this two year journey isn't going to be easy for Simon. But the one thing I do not like goes back to City of Heavenly Fire. Taking Simon's memories makes this a lot less fun. I feel like when he's going through training and learning Shadowhunter history, it'd be a lot more fun if we saw him draw comparisons to his past experience with Shadowhunters. When he only knows a tenth of all that he went through, there are a lot of missed opportunities for inside jokes with the reader. And it makes his interactions with his old friends seem... off. I can't enjoy Simon talking to Isabelle because it's not really Simon. I should be jumping for joy when Izzy shows up and shouts at everyone that Simon is her boyfriend, but I can't. The amnesia plot device takes a lot more away from the story than it adds to it. But anyway, I'm definitely going to enjoy reading the rest of the ebooks as they come out, and each one will somehow tie into The Last Hours and The Dark Artifices, which can help boost both series and provide more background than we currently have.

Links:
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