Tuesday 12 May 2015

Mini-Reviews: Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy 1-3

Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy, Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan

Pages: 96
Publisher: Walker
Release Date: 17th February 2015
Series: Tales of Shadowhunter Academy #1

Synopsis
After living as a Mundane and a Vampire, Simon never thought he would become a Shadowhunter, but today he begins his training at Shadowhunter Academy.

Review
After Simon’s heartbreaking fate at the end of City of Heavenly Fire, it was a horrible thought that we wouldn’t get to see him acclimatising to life without his memories so this series was a very exciting announcement!

Within only a day of arriving at the crumbling, mouldy, almost ruins of the Shadowhunter Academy, Simon is a hero. He is fawned over in a way that’d make Jace proud for his part in the war, a time he doesn’t even remember, and it’s a little overwhelming. Through in the shocking prejudices between Shadowhunters and the Downworlders and mundanes and the intense physical training of the academy and Simon is a little out of his depth.

This is such a different side to the Shadowhunter world than we’ve seen before and I love it.

The Lost Herondale, Cassandra Clare and Robin Wasserman

Pages: 96
Publisher: Walker
Release Date: 17th March 2015
Series: Tales of Shadowhunter Academy #2

Synopsis
In the early nineteenth century, Tobias Herondale abandoned his fellow Shadowhunters in the heat of battle and left them to die. His life was forfeit, but Tobias never returned, and the Clave claimed his wife’s life in exchange for Tobias’s. Simon and his fellow students are shocked to learn of this brutality, especially when it is revealed the woman was pregnant. But what if the child survived…could there be a lost Herondale line out in the world today?

Review

As Simon starts to settle into life at the Academy, he starts to learn some rather disturbing truths about the Clave and the infamous severity of the law – “The law is hard, but it is the law”. The horrific story of Tobias Herondale and the Clave’s refusal to see any other side of the story is disturbing and really throws Simon. He’s a mundane and he’s been a Downworlder; can he ever truly be a Shadowhunter?

But one of the things I really love about Clare builds her world is by taking events in our the mundane world and involving the Shadowhunters. This time, a time of uncivilised chaos in Downworlder history is said to be familiar to mundanes as the stories of the Brothers Grimm – very, very cool.

The Whitechapel Fiend, Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson

Pages: 96
Publisher: Walker
Release Date: 21st April 2015
Series: Tales of Shadowhunter Academy #3

Synopsis
Simon learns the truth behind the Jack the Ripper murders – “Jack” was stopped by Will Herondale and his Institute of Victoria Shadowhunters!

Review

Then Clare upped it again. It turns out that the murderer plaguing 1880s London was defeated by Will, Tessa, Gabriel and Cecily! So not only did Simon get a lesson is jumping from trees from Jace, he also got the pleasure of a history lesson from Tessa Gray. It was so good to see her again! She took us back to 1888 and the last three murders of Jack the Ripper. As well as the investigations they undertook into the crimes, we also got a glimpse of life for Tessa and Will running the London Institute with Gabriel and Cecily and a few visits from Brother Zachariah/Jem. Fyi, they’re all still perfect.

I really loved the spin that Clare and Johnson put on the solving of the murders and the identity of Jack. To be quite honest, it explains everything perfectly and I don’t know why that hasn’t been considered before! By far my favourite so far – it’s also hilarious because there’s a lovely dose of Jace in The Whitechapel Fiend!

Bring on instalment number four!


Sophie 

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