Shadowhunters: "The Mortal Cup" and "The Descent Into Hell Isn't Easy" Review

Maxim Roy and Kat McNamara as Jocelyn and Clary Fray in Freeform's Shadowhunters

I’ve been waiting for this show for a very long time. This is the first time I’ve followed the production of a series so closely and been so wrapped up in it. I was optimistic about everything, though I had a few “I don’t know about that” moments throughout production. I knew that the first few episodes would probably be lackluster but most supernatural shows are lacking at the beginning (Teen Wolf, The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural). The beginning of a series isn’t meant to be this wild, epic thing. It’s there to introduce plots, characters, and some mythology. So anyone expecting to be blown away by the first two episodes needs to bring down their expectations to a more realistic level. This review will contain spoilers for the first two episodes of Shadowhunters. That being said, let’s rip this baby apart (please don’t rip apart an actual baby, you’ll get blood everywhere).


The bad:

- “The Mortal Cup” was… not very good. There was too much confusion, even for me, someone who read the books it was based on. We open on the Pandemonium scene and knowing that Clary’s not meant to see Jace and then we jump back to earlier then we (at a really awkward placement) jump back 10 years then we jump back to now then we go to the Pandemonium scene again. And all this happens within 20 minutes. The fight in Pandemonium was a hot mess. I could see an entire foot of space between the Shadowhunters hands and legs and the demons they were hitting. The editing in the fight was all over the place, Clary was awkwardly sliding on the ground, she inexplicably picked up a Seraph Blade, her reactions to everything were odd. Then some of the dialogue is kinda… bad. Clary calling her life “mundane,” Clary saying she’s not going on an epic journey, the random “all the legends are true” that doesn’t explain a damn thing even though Jace said it would explain things simply??

- There are a few jumps and things that aren’t explained. I’ve rewatched the episodes to see if I missed anything or if there were explanations and there weren’t. If I’m two episodes in and already seeing glaring holes, that’s not a good thing. For example, I’m assuming Dot died when Valentine stabbed her in episode 2 but she was thrown, by a Shadowhunter, through a window, hit her face on a metal gate, and then smacked into the ground and she lived. But a stab kills her? And when Clary mentions that the guy had a Circle rune? She didn’t even know what the Circle rune was? Neither did the audience? We hadn’t even met Hodge yet? Even if we saw other Circle members’ runes, Clary didn’t???? How did Jace find her house?

- It’s been two episodes of Shadowhunter this and Shadowhunter that but I don’t get why they’d explain that warlocks are half demon, half human, but not say how Shadowhunters, who the show is actually about, are half human, half angel. They’re just glossing over that right now and I feel like that should really be explained, sooner rather than later.

- It’s not really a bad thing but it’s not a good thing either. One of the things I liked about the City of Bones book was that Valentine didn’t show up until the ending and he was just talked about until that point. Sometimes having a villain appear at the beginning can be good and I guess we’ll see if that’s the case here. But when you build up a character being dangerous for multiple episodes, it makes the villain that much scarier. Like on The Vampire Diaries, season 2 took between 8-10 episodes to build up Klaus’s character so when he actually showed up on the show, it was automatically frightening. Even Jessica Jones took a couple of episodes to show us Kilgrave for the first time, though by the time we actually met his character, he was built up so much and so disturbing from just what we’d heard about him that he was 10x as nasty and gross as he would’ve been if we’d met him in the beginning. I just feel like with a character as crazy and evil as Valentine, they could’ve waited until at least episode 4 or 5 to meet him, let it stay a bit of a mystery where he was holding Jocelyn.

- I still can’t stop laughing at “demonic murders”. Like, I’m not sure if it’s meant to be funny or not. What major police force is going to label a bunch of murders as “demonic”? “Hello, ma’am, I’d like to ask you a few questions. I’m investigating the demonic murders.” I didn’t think we could get a police force more campy than the Beacon Hills police. I was wrong.

The good:

- I like the idea of Shadowhunters having the younger generation not know everything about the Circle. It’s like a mysterious thing for the characters to figure out throughout the season. The show is dumping a lot of information and twists on the audience rather early on so some of the things that weren’t a big deal in the books (the characters always knew everything about the Circle in the books) can be expanded on and switched up. And I thought it was cool how they show the physical effects of Hodge’s curse by having him be hurt whenever he speaks about the Circle or Valentine. This is going to make ~something~ with Hodge that happens in the books make you feel more sympathetic towards him because one, he was being tortured, and two, you’ll wonder if he tried to prevent what he does in the end of City of Bones and tried to get some help from the other characters but he literally, physically couldn’t do it.

- In the books, I thought it was ridiculous that everyone knew Clary’s birth date and that Jocelyn would’ve had to have been married to Valentine at the point when she got pregnant and nobody thought “hey wait, this girl could be Valentine’s daughter” and in the show, I was not looking forward to a dragged out, obvious twist. But then they revealed that he was her dad in the second episode and I was so happy. This is followed up by Alec being suspicious that she’s a spy because she’s related to Valentine (not going to spoil the books but this mirrors something that happens in book 2) and Clary being like “well I just found out my dad is some psycho who’s gonna kill everybody” and I feel like everyone has a logical reaction to this.

- While reading the books (or even watching the movie *shudder*) I really couldn’t stand Alec or Jocelyn. They were just completely unlikable for me. I didn’t like Alec because he had no personality that went beyond “I hate Clary, I like Jace” and Jocelyn was just lying so much that I was like ??? Get your shit together?? In the show, Alec is an ass but he’s an ass to everyone and we can see that he’s such a rule follower and he doesn’t like deviating from plans and he always focuses on the job at hand. And he’s like this when he’s around anyone, to the point where Isabelle says he’s always so rigid so his entire characterization isn’t centered around him being jealous of Clary, much like it was in the first few books. Jocelyn tries more than once to tell Clary the truth and she feels remorse for what she did. The fact that she tried to right her wrongs actually makes you care for her and want Clary to find her.

- Episode two, “The Descent Into Hell Isn't Easy” was a lot better done than episode one. The acting was much less over the top, the dialogue wasn’t cringy and super foreshadow-y, the characters seemed more emotive, there were more intentionally funny moments. It was just better.

- If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I was really “uhhhh” about Kat McNamara as Clary. I just wasn’t a fan of her acting and the clips and peeks we got either had her being really good or reaaaally bad. And then “The Mortal Cup” was going and I kept cringing at her line delivery and I was thinking “dear God, please just let this be because the entire episode is messy because I can’t take a whole season of this” and then I got to “The Descent Into Hell Isn't Easy” and she was noticeably better. Of course, there’s still room for improvement but she’s much better than she was in “The Mortal Cup”.

The fuck?:

- I don’t get why Valentine isn’t in Idris? Or really just why, of all places he could hide, he went to Chernobyl? Who the fuck thinks to have a secret hideout in Chernobyl?? Take your ass to Hawaii. Nobody would look for you there.

- I’m not a fan of Luke’s werewolf eyes being green because he looks like an alien and it’s just weird.

- Is there something up with the Captain? She seems much too concerned with Clary. It could be she’s just a good family friend but I don’t know, she’s fishy.

- I don’t know why they’re having Jocelyn use the strength rune to turn invisible or to burn Clary's bedroom down?

- Who put out the fire in Clary's room? Shouldn’t the entire building have done down?

- If Jocelyn burned Clary's room, why were the Tarot cards still in perfect condition?

- I still don’t know if this show is called “Shadowhunters” or “Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments”.

Overall opinion:


- “The Mortal Cup” was alright, for all its messy glory, but “The Descent Into Hell Isn't Easy” fixed a lot of the issues I had with the pilot. I still have a lot of questions and I still see holes and things that need to be explained in future episodes. I rate “The Mortal Cup” a 4.5/10 and “The Descent Into Hell Isn't Easy” an 8/10.

You can watch Shadowhunters (or whatever it’s actually called) on Freeform or Netflix.

"Get Even" Book Review

Title: Get Even

Author: Gretchen McNeil

Genre: Mystery, Contemporary

Rating: 4/10

What It's About: Four girls (they're names don't matter, they're pretty interchangeable), formed a revenge group called "Don't Get Mad" (they actually thought that was a good name... wow) and they pull some pranks on these assholes at their school but then this student gets murdered (um, rude) and DGM is framed for it. Now the girls have to find out who really killed this kid before someone else tells everyone that the girls are in DGM and they go to prison.

Recommended For: Fans of Pretty Little Liars




Review: *spoilers ahead*

Get Even isn't a bad book, but it has quite a few flaws. The characters are flat and one dimensional and it is hard to remember who a chapter is about. The characters start to run together, there are characters that are over the top evil and might as well be working at Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc.

Some things make no sense about this story. How was it that the coach is able to publicly threaten multiple students, during the investigation of another student's murder, and no one does anything about it? Why does it take 100 pages to get to the actual plot of the book? Why isn't Bree's DNA all over Ronnie's (I think that was his name) room, if that was the crime scene? Why doesn't the computer geek (is it Margot or is Kitty? I don't even think the book knows which one is which) just get into the school's security cameras and see who has been taking pages from the yearbook? She's literally supposed to have top-notch technology and she can't access a school camera? Why are these characters given ridiculous names? Peanut? Kitty? Rex? You're naming human characters, not their pets!



The dialogue is laughable. I can't count how many times I literally cringed while reading this book. The only thing that saved this book from a one star rating was the mystery. While a lot of it is predictable, and it does come off as very "Pretty Little Liars-ish", it's more like the first four books of the PLL series AKA when that series was still good. There's the "A" figure, the creepy notes from "A", the dead classmate, the cute boys/potential serial killers, four annoyingly bratty girls who have to band together through all of this. But Get Even lacks the charm that the PLL series had. The Liars were all interesting characters but the girls in Get Even are bland and boring. I wish that Get Even had dialed WAY BACK in the cattiness and replaced it with actual character development beyond "the suicidal one, the tough one, the popular one, and the Asian kid." This series has a lot of potential. It just needs to get a clear idea of what it wants to be: a thriller/mystery, or the red-headed stepchild of Pretty Little Liars.

Links:

Goodreads

Book Depository

Confess book review

Title: Confess
Author: Colleen Hoover
Genre: Contemporary
Rating: 10 dirty little secrets out of 10
What It's About: Auburn is new to Dallas (ugh, Dallas) and one day she meets an artist named Owen, who sells paintings inspired by the anonymous confessions that people leave for him. They, of course, start falling in love, but they both have big, MEGA-secrets that they're afraid to confess to one another (see what I did there?)
Recommended For: I don't really know. I can't think of another book/movie that centers around confessing things.

Review: So yesterday morning, I finished Ugly Love and I wanted to jump into another Colleen Hoover book, so I started Confess last night at about 11pm and I finished it at 4am. It's finals week, and I chose reading this book over studying. That's how un-put-down-able this book was. It gripped me right from the hella depressing beginning and I just didn't want to stop reading. What kept me going for the first half was the mystery of what Auburn and Owen were hiding from each other. But then once I found out what was going on, I couldn't stop reading, because I had to see how all of the drama was going to wrap up by the end of the story. I don't want to say too much about this book, because there are mystery elements that I don't want to spoil for you. Basically, this isn't really a romance. I mean, yeah there are cute shippy scenes, but this is more of a drama than a romance (I'd divide it 10% luck, 20% skill, 30% romance and 70% nail-biting drama). The romance was well-done, even though there was some insta-love. I liked the addition of art and putting the art into the book. I hate when books spend two paragraphs describing how a piece of art looks, when the message of the art would be way easier to understand if the reader could see the actual art. I do like this book more than Ugly Love, just because Ugly Love was really hard on my emotions at some times, but I can't rate this higher than Ugly Love because I gave Ugly Love 10/10 #ReaderProbz. Anyway, Confess is a very interesting, gripping book and I'd HIGHLY recommend picking it up.
Links:
Book Depository
Amazon
Goodreads

Ugly Love Book Review

Title: Ugly Love
Author: Colleen Hoover
Genre: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Rating: 10 orange juice jugs out of 10
What It's About: Tate moves in next door to Miles and the two decide to start a "no strings attached" sexual relationship, but then they start to fall in love with each other, but Miles' tragic back story is preventing them from actually being together.
Recommended For: Fans of J. Lynn's "Wait For You" series

Review: This isn't the first Colleen Hoover book I've read, but it is the first contemporary NA book of hers that I've read and I'm starting to see what all the hype is about with her. Normally in contemporary romance, the tragic back story for whichever character is suffering from the "I want to love you but my past is getting in the way" trope, is very cliche. "My daddy didn't love me," "I've had my heart broken before," "I'm just not good for you." They're all so played out. But with Ugly Love, there was a really, REALLY tragic story behind why Miles couldn't let himself pursue a romantic relationship with Tate, and it was the first time I'd read about the complicated love interest being complicated for this certain reason (which I'm not going to spoil). I think that this back story worked even better because of the way that the book is written. There are chapters in the present from Tate's point of view, where she talks about how frustrating it is that Miles won't tell her anything about his past, but those chapters are alternated with Miles' flashbacks to six years ago. The flashbacks lead to a climax where we finally find out what happened to Miles, and it's much sadder than you think it's going to be when you start the book. Another thing I really liked about this book was that even though Tate is the main character, this is Miles' story. He's the character that grows the most and goes through all the development, Tate is just a catalyst for that to happen. Normally, I'd be like "why is the girl only here so the man can get his shit together?" but the moral of this story is the most important part, and the moral comes from Miles' character arc. The lesson he learns is what's supposed to stick with the reader, and it's a good thing that the romance was a little sidelined so that the reader could focus on what Miles was going through. It's not often that we see New Adult books that go beyond "hot 20-somethings have sex and there are mild inconveniences thrown in." There's an actual story to be told with Ugly Love. And it's a pretty great story.

Links:
Amazon
Book Depository
Goodreads

Rebel Belle Book Review

Title: Rebel Belle
Series: Rebel Belle (book 1)
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Genre: Fantasy, Contemporary
Rating: 9 Salmon Fantasy lip gloss tubes out of 10
What it's about: A popular southern belle (Harper) becomes the Paladin (guardian) of a boy (David) she hates, because he's got the power to fuck up everything in the world, and people want to use him to do evil things.
Recommended for: Vampire Academy and That's So Raven fans (that's something I never thought I'd say)

Review: Starting with the characters, they were so fun. Harper is a really cool heroine, and it makes sense for her to feel wary about being David's Paladin, and to be fair, she shouldn't have to give her life for him. And like what any teenager would do after finding out they have super strength, she goes home and googles about superheroes and then waits for the wise man to come into her life and tell her what the hell is going on. David is kind of an asshole for a while, but you start to warm up to him around the middle of the book, which is the entire point. The characters in the supporting cast were distinct and felt fleshed out, even when they were just minor roles. I think that the sort-of love triangle was very well done, since it was obvious that Harper and David are meant to be the central love story. The mythology/fantasy elements were pretty new, and I didn't feel like I'd seen several books where a person had to protect someone else with mystical powers (the only thing that comes close is Vampire Academy). I like that it's a present-day contemporary style, but it's got magic put into the story, but it doesn't take place in a big city or a suburban town that "every girl" can relate to. I think making this one of those old-timey, southern settings was a good choice because it made the story even funnier. The characters and setting were very good, but I feel that the pacing was a bit off. Everything's going steady and then nearly halfway through the book, we stop for a HUGE information dump. The action picks up soon after, but that exposition was too much at once. I think a bit could have been sprinkled through the last half of the book. But despite that, Rebel Belle was fun, charming, and very different from other YA fantasy books. I really enjoyed reading (well listening - it was an audiobook) to this!

Links:
Book Depository
Amazon
Thriftbooks
Goodreads

May TBR List

So April... not exactly what I would call a good reading month. But this May, I will be picking up lots of new books at the RT Booklovers Convention, and college will be ending and I'll have way more time to get some reading done at the end of the month. This is a list of four things that I plan on reading this month.

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas - This has been on my TBR list for several months and this book cannot get here fast enough. This is the first book in a new series, and it is not related to Maas' Throne of Glass series. It is a high fantasy about fae and centers around a young woman who has to go live with this dude who really sucks IMO because she killed some other dude (murder has consequences, kids) but then she starts to fall for him and sexy times ensue. This is a New Adult spin on Beauty and the Beast and I need to get my tiny fingers on it ASAP. 
2. Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins - I'm currently listening to the audiobook and I'm loving the book so far. It's got a contemporary tone but with fantasy elements, but not in a magic realism way. It's about a girl who is one of the "southern belle" types and on Homecoming night, a janitor gives her superpowers and now she has to protect this kid she hates from the people that want to kill him. 
3. The Lost Herondale by Cassandra Clare - This is the second ebook in the Tales From the Shadowhunter Academy series and I really just want to read it because it's a Shadowhunter book, not because it's about a Herondale (seriously, enough with the Herondales already). I don't know too much about what this one is about. There's, of course, the missing Herondale, which makes me think that this will just be about the legend of that Herondale, rather than the actual person. 
4. Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen - This is a book set in the 1920's and it centers around two best friends who move to New York City and get caught up with the wrong crowd as one of the girls searches for her father, who is probably a notorious alcohol smuggler. I love the 20's style, The Great Gatsby is my favorite classic, and I find stories about Prohibition to be interesting. Hopefully this book will live up to my expectations. 

That's the very small list of what I'm going to attempt to read this month! Bye now *flies off into the dark land known as Studying For Finals*

"Shadowhunters": Beyond the Pilot

With all the (FAKE) scripts of the pilot for Shadowhunters floating around the internet, some TMI fans are wary of the series because it seems like the first episode may be a hot mess. Though we should all remember that the scripts that have been seen by fans are FAKE.

What I want to point out to fans is that even if the first episode is complete horse shit, the series can get much better. Never judge a series by its pilot! Many shows, especially those about the supernatural, need about 4-6 episodes to really get going. Teen Wolf, Once Upon a Time, The Vampire Diaries, even older shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, took a little bit to gain their footing. If you compare the first few episodes of Teen Wolf (cheesy, over-dramatic, cringe-worthy) to how the show ended after season 3B* (Emmy-worthy performances, intense and shocking plots, action packed and interesting) it just shows that a rocky start does not mean a series is doomed. The Vampire Diaries started off with a mysterious bad boy having things to signal his presence... such as fog and a fucking bird. And the diary reading. Never forget the dairy reading. But in the 3 season run the show had**, it grew into a glorious thing, filled with twists and turns and of course, The Original Family.

This does go for any show, really, but given that Shadowhunters is such a special project (facing skepticism from people that hated the movie, people that hate the books, the critics who bashed the movie and are not going to be reasonable to the TV series because they hated the movie, and even some fans of the books), the show will need as many viewers as it can get. Book fans will likely be where most of the views for earlier episodes come from, and it's important for us to stick with the show, even if the first few episodes aren't very good. If you want to give up on it after around episode 7 because you're just not liking it, then I'd say that's a reasonable time to do so. But try to get at least halfway through season 1 before quitting.

That's all I wanted to talk about today and I know that I'm getting ahead of myself. As I write this, we only have one cast member attached, with the next two being announced in a handful of hours. But I think that the earlier that fans hear/talk about ratings and sticking with the show, the easier it'll be to get through to the fans.
For more information on Shadowhunters, follow me here, on my tumblrs (silverforthedemontowers and itsleightaylor) and/or instagram (silverforthedemontowers)
*Seasons 4 and 5 never happened. As far as I'm concerned, the series ended after season 3B.
** Yet another series that ended after its 3rd season. How tragic.

Fallen Too Far Book Review

Title: Fallen Too Far
Series: Rosemary Beach (Book #1)
Author: Abbi Glines
Genre: Romance, Contemporary, New Adult
Rating: Nothing. Zero. Nada. No stars at all.
What It's About: This girl named Blaire goes to her dad's new house where he lives with some woman he just married, but her dad and new stepmother aren't there and this huge house is only inhabited by Blaire's hot stepbrother - Rush. Blaire moves into the house and I am having so much trouble summarizing this book. Just go to the review section.
Recommended For: PLEASE DON'T READ THIS BOOK

Review: I normally finish books before I review them. I like to give them a chance to turn themselves around by the ending and I want to have the whole story before I pick the book apart. But I could not finish this book. It felt like I was being tortured while reading this. I got about 4/5 of the way through, and even though I only had a little bit left, I just couldn't do it. About a year ago, I read a book called Sweet Evil and I've since said it is the worst book I've ever read. This is still true, but Fallen Too Far is the second worst. You'd think that my biggest problem would be the almost-incest but no. There's much worse happening in this book. Blaire is just a bitch. This girl gets mad when Rush chooses his biological sister over her, and she stands there and watches Rush have sex with other girls. Even though Rush is okay with this (why?) the girls he's having sex probably do not want some creeper watching them. It's supposed to be "hot" that Blaire is watching them but if she's doing so without the girls knowing, that's not "steamy" or "sexy." That's being a fucking pervert. I feel like bugs are crawling on my skin just thinking about it.
And there's Rush. He's just your typical hunky, charity working, golf course owning, mansion dwelling, bad boy with a troubled past, member of rockstar royalty. His feelings for Blaire come out of nowhere. There's no development or even seeing why they like each other besides physical attraction. This is one of the worst cases of insta-love that I've ever seen. Rush invites Blaire to a party and then gets mad at her when she shows up??????? That literally makes no sense at all. He gets this intense jealously whenever Blaire so much as blinks at another guy and he's so cliche and laughable that I can't take him seriously as a character. Another character - whose name I can't be bothered to find - is an employee at the golf course where Blaire works. And this girl can't stop having sex with the guests at the course. But then it's SO overdone and corny. She's standing near one of the guys who she likes to do the hanky panky with and she's one word away from taking off all of her clothes right there in front of everyone. Blaire gets put "in charge" of this girl and I'm like"???????" This girl is in her twenties and she can't control herself while on the job and you want to make someone else babysit her rather than just firing her? There's Nan, Rush's actual sister, and we get hints that something happened between Nan and Rush and by the time I finished the book, we hadn't found out what it was, but this plot line was almost interesting. But that all got fucked up because Nan acts like she's in middle school. She bullies Blaire and "ruins her work uniform" because she's salty about Blaire and Rush. This is so juvenile. Who would write this shit? Who would publish this shit?
There is no plot beyond Rush and Blaire with a side order of Nan and the Me So Horny Girl who all want to bang someone else in the book. I get that this is a romance, and it should center around romance, but not one that doesn't make any sense and isn't compelling in any way. There are other things going on that would be much better side plots than Nan and the Me So Horny Girl, such as the death of Blaire's twin, her father being a jerk, her mother's death. But no. Instead we get all this boring crap about these terrible characters, mixed with cringe-worthy dialogue ("all females need a phone") and bad writing.
Goodreads, I hate you. You made me think this book would be good (why does this have a 4.26 rating?) There are much better New Adult books out there. Don't waste your time on this one.
Links:
Goodreads
Book Depository (if you just really want to laugh at all this book has to offer)

"Shadowhunters" Casting: Jace Wayland

The Shadowhunter Chronicles is my favorite series, with my favorite of the series within them being The Mortal Instruments. You all know the story by now: the first movie flopped, the second movie got the ax, and just when all hope seemed to be gone, the Shadowhunters were back in black with a TV series. One of the biggest problems I had with the upcoming TV series was the casting. I LOVE adaptations, even if the plot lines get a little wonky, because what matters to me is the characters. If an adaptation has actors that are fantastic at being their characters, then I have no complaints. But with the City of Bones movie, sadly, I wasn't impressed with a few of the actors, including Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace. I love me some Jamie, I remember how fun and entertaining he was during the press tour for the movie, and how he had that lion-esque look to him. I was really feeling him as Jace... then I saw the movie. I thought that a lot of his lines were very stiff and awkward and didn't truly capture the essence of who Jace is. He sounded bored by everything and was deadpan, but Jace is an energetic character. He's got this Stiles Stilinski sense of humor with a Vampire Spike attitude. And I wasn't feeling that at all from Jamie.

So then last week when we were told that we were getting the casting of the great Jace Wayland (and I'm using that name to avoid spoilers) I was obviously wary. There was no actor who would do a television series, who wasn't busy with other projects, and who had the talent to pull off Jace's character. I told myself I'd accept whoever they cast, and that I still had other cast members to look forward to if I didn't like the choice for Jace. But that all went away when in walked our lord and savior: Dominic Sherwood.
I don't know if you guys saw that awful Vampire Academy movie (though judging by the box office numbers, you probably didn't see it) but DOMINIC FREAKING SHERWOOD. He was the only good part about that movie. I went in thinking "Yes! Time for some Rose Hathaway ass kicking" and I left the movie screaming "I WILL FIRE MAGIC YOU INTO ASH!" Christian Ozera (played by Mr. Sherwood) in his small amount of screen time, completely stole the show. He was funny and sarcastic and even though he was dark and broody at times, there was still a commanding presence from him so that my attention automatically gravitated toward him.
And I think that's a really good thing for our new Jace to have because in the books, Jace is the scene-stealer. His presence on the page reels you in from the moment that he appears. And that's what Jace needs to be like in the TV series. With the movie, I felt like Jace/Jamie was kind of in the background and secondary to Clary/Lily and Simon/Robert, who had to carry most of the movie on their tiny shoulders. But with a TV series, Jace needs to be as compelling as Clary. We're automatically Team Clary because we're going through this journey as her companion. With Jace, we need to see why Clary is so fascinated by him and what makes him so special as a character. These stoic male heroes are so played out. We need an actor who can make Jace as interesting and fun as Jace should be. I know that sometimes the script can play a part in how a character turns out, but while I watched the movie, there were lines that could have had more pep in them, but didn't. I just used the word "pep" in a sentence describing the fiercest warrior in the entire Shadow World. Okay then. Moving along.
I know that it's too early to make big judgments on how Dominic will do as Jace, but as of now, I am extremely optimistic. The Shadowhunters TV series could be very well done if they get the actors and characterization right. Next, we are supposed to get our Clary (I have heard rumors of it being this upcoming week, before May first) and then in the couple of weeks after, we'll be getting other cast members as well and starting shooting! I'm excited for how this is all coming together so far.

If you'd like to see our new Jace in action, you can go watch Vampire Academy on Netflix (check here if it's not available on the Netflix your country has)
I will be making weekly to bi-weekly posts about Shadowhunters news and my feels and kitten gifs so stick around here for more of my thoughts and opinions!
For more updates as they're released, follow me on Tumblr at Silverforthedemontowers and Instagram at Silverforthedemontowers

"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:
Amazon
Goodreads

Top Ten Tuesday #2

Hello everybody! It's Tuesday (but yesterday was Tuesday, too) so I'm doing Top Ten Tuesday. Today's topic is: "Ten Books You Recently Added To Your To-Be-Read List"

10) Atlanta Burns by Chuck Wendig. This is a graphic novel about a tough young woman who is investigating a crime ring. It's a dark and gritty story and I really want to get into it. Goodreads Amazon Book Depository

9) Song of Blood and Stone by L. Penelope. First, look at this cover:

WOW! This book is a New Adult fantasy set in an alternate 1920's. It follows a couple during a magical war between good and evil. So it's got a mix of historical, fantasy, and romance. And again: THAT COVER.

Goodreads Amazon Book Depository

8) The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black. The humans and the fae have coexisted for years and there's a boy in a glass coffin who has been there for a long ass time and he suddenly wakes up. Completely normal stuff. Goodreads Amazon Book Depository


7) The Alchemyst by Michael Scott. Nicholas Flamel is an immortal alchemist and when his wife/girlfriend/bff gets kidnapped, he enlists the help of two teenagers to help him get her back and stop the bad guy from doing bad guy things. Goodreads Amazon Book Depository


6) The Rose Society by Marie Lu. This is the sequel to The Young Elites and it doesn't come out until October and I need to know what happens because that cliffhanger (hanging from a cliff) was not nice and I don't like waiting. Goodreads Amazon Book Depository


5) Volition by Lily Paradis. The synopsis tells you basically nothing but when it ends with "my soul is blacker than my heart," the book is probably worth picking up. Goodreads Amazon Book Depository


4) Hit by Delilah S. Dawson. Okay so this sounds kind of insane. The US debt was paid off by a bank who now wants their money back so our protagonist is turned into an assassin and given a hit list in exchange for her family's debt being paid. She then has to go around either collecting money, recruiting bounty hunters, or killing the people on the list. I love YA books about criminals and this sounds like it's going to be very fun but also really dark. Goodreads Amazon Book Depository


3) An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. I bet you haven't heard anything about this book yet. This book is basically like a mash up of ancient Rome with high fantasy. And I want it. Goodreads Amazon Book Depository


2) The Dead Room by Stephanie Erickson. The synopsis for this is very, very vague. But I feel like it goes beyond the typical "teen girl takes down the man". I think there's more of an intense sci-fi plot going on and I like being able to jump into a book like this without really knowing what's going on. Goodreads Amazon Book Depository


1) Legend: the Graphic Novel by Marie Lu. This is a graphic novel of my favorite dystopia! I really want to read this because I'm just starting to get into graphic novels and I feel like reading stories that I've already read before will help me ease into the genre better. Goodreads Amazon Book Depository

The Young Elites Book Review

Title: The Young Elites
Series: The Young Elites (Book #1)
Author: Marie Lu
Genre: High Fantasy
Rating: 10 instances of me crying out "Marie, Why Do You Like To Hurt My Ships???" out of 10

What It's About: Years ago, a plague swept through and killed a bunch of people but the infected children who survived gained superpowers are called 'malfettos', and they have been hunted down by the government ever since. Adelina is a malfetto and was supposed to be executed but she was saved by the Young Elites (hella rad super-duper malfettos), and they're going to help her gain control of her powers while she helps them assassinate the King and Queen of their country so everyone can be happy and alive and have access to an endless supply of Doritos.

Recommended For: Fans of Game of Thrones and The Darkest Minds

Review: What is it with Marie Lu? She wrote a dystopian trilogy that didn't have a sucky ending (which is surprising for the dystopia genre), her characters are all interesting and fleshed out, even when she only has less than 400 pages to do so. Her action scenes are so cinematic and she makes you ship something within a five minute interaction. Guys, I'm starting to think that Marie Lu may actually be Beyonce in disguise because she can do no wrong. This book was perfection. Adelina is an anti-heroine who fucks up a lot but I still want her to win at life because she's so great. I like that we get to see how her weird-ass powers are taking a toll on her mental health because it always bothers me when characters don't have any type of reaction to traumatic events. And it's cool that we've got a heroine that actually thirsts for power and wants to be above other people and has ambition. Goody two shoes heroines are getting boring. Give me more Adelinas.
Both of the love interests are awesome and I ship Adelina with both of them (though I'm more of an Enzlina shipper). The setting has the Middle Ages feel to it but it's also very urban so it's got this weird but effective mash up of past and future qualities. The ending broke my *dun dun* heart, though I probably should've expected that since this is a Marie Lu book. The characters all had distinct motivations and goals for wanting to either overthrow the King and Queen or kill all the malfettos, and I even found myself liking the villains. JUST GO READ THIS BOOK!
Sigh. I want The Rose Society and I want it now. Why can't books be published like two weeks apart. That would make my life easier. *dances off into the night to go start my own squad of ass-kicking rebels*

Links:
Book Depository
Amazon
Goodreads

The Clockwork Scarab Book Review

Title: The Clockwork Scarab
Series: Stoker and Holmes (Book #1)
Author: Colleen Gleason
Genre: Historical, fantasy
Rating: 7 ~Oh Hey, A Young Adult Book That Passes The Bechdel Test With Flying Colors~ out of 10
What's It's About: Mina is the niece of Sherlock Holmes and Evaline is the sister of Bram Stoker. The girls are trying to solve a case of missing (and a few dead) society girls, which seems to be tied up with Egyptian mythology.
Recommended For: Fans of steampunk (I swear the word "steam" is used like 50 times in this book), and the original Sherlock stories
Review: I'm going to start with the things that I didn't like. Evaline was very annoyed for the entire book. She was bratty and whiny and she complained about EVERYTHING. She reminded me of Caroline from The Vampire Diaries (that's not a good thing). I found myself wanting to skip her chapters and get to the chapters of Mina, who was far superior. I didn't like the inclusion of time travel. I feel like it made an already full story way too cramped. I think that the story would have worked just fine without it. I also was not a big fan of the writing at times. It felt like this was written very fast and it makes it come off as something written by a young or inexperienced writer. I normally don't pick apart someone's writing craft because I like to focus on the plot and characters, but there were a lot of times where the writing didn't flow right for me. But I did like the mystery plot. Trying to figure out what was going on with the missing girls, who was the head of the conspiracy, was a lot of fun. I like that even though the girls have romantic interests, their main focus remains solving the case and keeping each other alive. I like that the relationship between Mina and Evaline evolves from being completely annoyed by each other to becoming almost friends. The girls each had their own voice and I never forgot who I was reading about, which is a problem that a lot of authors have trouble doing properly. Whenever I see a book has multiple first person points-of-view, I'm a little wary because the book can either go the Legend route and be done well or it can be Allegiant, which is... not very good. But The Clockwork Scarab did it perfectly. The sequel, The Spiritglass Charade, is already out and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on it!
Links:
Book Depository
Amazon
Goodreads

Top Ten Tuesday #1

Hello everybody! I’ve decided to start doing Top Ten Tuesdays (credit to the creators of this weekly tag: brokeandbookish.com)

Today’s topic is the Top Ten Books On My Spring TBR List

One thing you should know about me is that I’m not good at sticking to TBR lists (I have commitment issues, okay?) so this list is probably going to go 75% unaccomplished. But I still want to do the tag.

10) Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods by Rick Riordan - This is the first book of a series (or maybe just a duology) where Mr. Jackson tells you all about the Greek Gods from his perspective. I've already started it but I would like to finish it soon. Amazon Book Depository

9) Opposition by Jennifer L. Armentrout - I love Jennifer’s books, but I've had a lot of trouble finishing up her Lux series. I’ve been about a third of the way through the book since AUGUST and I really need to go ahead and finish it. Amazon Book Depository

8) World After by Susan Ee - I read Angelfall a year ago, and I really want to finish the sequel so that I can get my hands on End of Days (book 3) as soon as it comes out. Amazon Book Depository

7) Welcome to the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare - I’m hoping that the Tales For the Shadowhunter Academy ebook series will go better than Clare’s previous attempt at an ebook series, The Bane Chronicles. With TBC, I felt like it was detached from what was currently happening in the Shadowhunter Chronicles, but with the Shadowhunter Academy, it takes place right smack in between The Mortal Instruments and The Dark Artifices and helps set up for not only The Dark Artifices but also The Last Hours (I feel like people that don’t read the Shadowhunter books are really confused by this entry) Amazon

6) Lips Touch Three Times by Laini Taylor - This book is a collection of three short stories that revolve around kissing. I’ve finished the first two, but I’ve been putting off the last story for way too long. Amazon Book Depository

5) An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir - This book is an upcoming release and it seems a bit complicated from the synopsis. Basically, it’s like a mash up of your typical “take down the man” dystopian, but mixed with high fantasy elements. As I, and a lot of other YA readers, transition from reading dystopians to reading high fantasy, I think this will be a good way to bridge that gap. Amazon Book Depository

4) Liars, Inc by Paula Stokes - This has not been released yet but it sounds so intriguing. It’s about a boy named Max who lies all the time and one day, his friend Preston is found murdered, with Max as the prime suspect. Not only do we have a moral story here (always tell the truth) but there’s going to be some Gone Girl-ish shenanigans because there’s an unreliable narrator. Amazon Book Depository

3) The Young Elites by Marie Lu - I LOVED her Legend series and I’m so excited to finally start The Young Elites. It’s the first installment of a fantasy series and I want to get through it before the sequel, The Rose Society, is released. Amazon Book Depository

2) The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon - This book is huge and I’ve had it on my shelf since last fall because I let myself be intimidated by its size. Amazon Book Depository

1) A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas -This is a new series by Maas and I know that I’m going to be reading it the day it is released. It is a fantasy, new adult series about fey, and the first book is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Fey + new adult + Beauty and the Beast + being written by Sarah J. Maas is a recipe for greatness. Amazon Book Depository

Reading Update #1 (March 7th - March 14th)

Books I’ve finished:

- yeah, nothing. I haven’t finished a book since the beginning of February because I’ve been in a massive slump

Books I’m currently reading:

- The Bone Season (Book Depository, Thriftbooks, Amazon)

- The Clockwork Scarab (Book Depository, Amazon)

- And I’m currently listening to the World After audiobook (Book Depository, Amazon)

Books I have acquired this past week

- None, technically, but on the 6th, I bought a few books, and you can see my haul here

Where I hope to be by next Saturday night (the 21st)

- I want to finish The Clockwork Scarab. I’m about halfway through right now, with only 150 pages left. It’s a quick book, so with my free time for spring break, I think I’ll be able to finish it

- I also want to finish listening to World After. I read the first book almost a year ago, and I want to be caught up before End of Days is released. 

- I know that I won’t finish The Bone Season because that book is way too big for me to finish in a week!!