Shadowhunters and Downworlders

[Stephanie]

Let me start off by saying: I normally don’t read these kinds of books. Essays by other authors about another series, et cetera. But with the huge hype about the Mortal Instruments movie coming out, as well as having read all of Cassandra Clare’s work, I figured I’d give it a shot. And it’s an ARC, (Advanced Reading Copy) so...

When I started to read this book, I noticed a reoccurring trend in the essays (aside from the fact that the e-reader edition of this book is horrible proofread): There is a lot of ‘how’ [said subject is in Cassandra Clare’s series] but not a lot of ‘why’ [it is important for the series or as a reader]. I have written a lot of English papers in my college career, so the subject of an essay is to, in general, find a motif/theme in the material you are writing on and find out how it becomes bigger than what it is in the confines of the novel. Do I believe any of the authors really did that with their essays in this piece? Ehhh...

In order to keep this brief, I’ve cut down my list to the most notable of the essays in the collection (edited by Cassandra Clare, which in my humble opinion, wasn’t the greatest of ideas.)

The Best: Michelle Hodkin’s “Simon Lewis: Jewish, Vampire, Hero”
The amount of research Hodkin does for the essay is impressive and important. To understand Simon as a character, you must understand the culture and tradition of Jewish religion. Only then can you understand the ‘outsider’ feeling that Simon has, based on who he is as a person, not because he’s a vampire. Hodkin finds significance in his character through his beliefs, that honestly made me go “wow, I never thought of it like that before”. Hodkin’s essay was the only one that struck a chord for me, and worth a read for any fan of Clare’s novels. I really think this essay should be compiled as a supplement sold with every book, but that’s just me.

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