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I actually, before coming across this book, thought about someone with this 'superpower' to take over a person's body whenever she wanted to, but she didn't really want the power, but sometimes she can't control it. So.. lol.

 

I liked the fluidity of A, although... I can't help but assign the author's gender to A, even though A is supposed to be genderless. I liked that the author tried to include all sorts of people in A's life (but I was disappointed in his treatment of the overweight boy; and Rhiannon's reaction, although realistic, was not really addressed but just glossed over).

 

I feel sad for A that he doesn't get to experience tomorrow, but I thought it was nice of him to leave Rhiannon with Alexander, even though it feels like a cop out. I think Rhiannon as a character could be more developed; it just feels like she is defined first by her love for Justin, and then by her love for A... yes, she has friends and a life, but I never knew her goals in life, her history - her conversations with A seems to be a platform for the author to introduce more days of A's life to the reader instead of delving deeper in Rhiannon's story. So I feel that's a missed opportunity there. But then I realize this story is about A, not her. I do like A's musings though, but I don't get how he could fall for Rhiannon so quickly and so deeply. But that's just me.

She is actually quietly sadistic... O.o

Well played, Roth. Well played.

Not the most riveting of love stories but interesting enough.

Not as riveting as A Series of Unfortunate Events but just as mysterious and funny. I love the sneaky descriptions of well known books. Although I don't know what's the one with the silverdmith with the burned hand...

This book gave me so many feels.

Simple and beautiful.

I really like this version.

Katie Deauxma is more realistic in this one. Different from the movie, but still really good. 2 stars off for misogynistic slurs (and use of the ultra homophobic f** word) throughout the entire book.

Finally. OmG. So painful. And please, Ms Clare, don't sully my beautiful language by including it in your books ever again. And if you could stop extending this series which was supposed to be just a trilogy, that would be great, thanks.

By the way, _I_ am wearing a tribal print sleeveless dress with an elastic waist and pockets and no shoes. Since you like clothes so much you have to describe them every freaking time.

This book is too short. And I mean that as a compliment.

So cute...

Sigh. One more book to go before I can put all this behind me. Honestly, the relationships in here are so annoying. The least annoying one might be the werewolves'.

I just realised why I find these books ok for entertainment, but on the whole, pretty lacking. There's barely any character development.

I mean, I have absolutely no sympathy for any of these characters - and that's saying a lot. Isabelle Lightwood is a good example...

Isabelle shows up intermittently in the series, like hi-and-bye kind of situations. She never gets, like, scenes to herself that reveals what kind of person she is beyond the blazingly obvious. She loves her family, she's cynical about love and relationships and she's a serial dater. Oh, and she's drop-dead gorgeous, which Ms Clare never fails to mention whenever she writes about Isabelle. Really? That's all there is to her? Jace gets to quote Dante and whatever Latin stuff, but Isabelle barely gets to show off the parts of her personality besides her awesome fashion sense and taste in men.

Jace whatever-last-name is another person who lacks self-development. All we see in the series is that he falls more and more in love with Clary, blah blah blah. Well, being in love and all protective and shit isn't really... well. Sigh. I don't even know how to say it. He doesn't really grow up in the series or change, does he? He's just less of a dick to Clary and Simon. And the other characters seem to 'realise' that he's like, deep and whatever underneath his snarky personality. Yeah, whatever. I don't see it. I don't see his kindness at all. Just stupid heroics/basic tortured soul stuff.

AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON HOW JOCELYN FRAY AND LUKE GARROWAY DO NOT HAVE COMPLETE BACKSTORIES OMIGOD. IT'S LIKE ONCE THEY WANTED TO GET MARRIED THEY WERE LESS IMPORTANT AND HEY LET'S FORGET ABOUT THEM AND THEIR MOTIVATIONS IN LIFE COMPLETELY. UGH.

Another thing is interaction between all the characters sometimes feel so forced I sometimes even wonder why they're all friends/connected. They never seem to do normal everyday stuff together, just stuff related to the plot. Well, you know, life is beyond whatever Big Bad is happening at the moment; why don't we get to hear about the Lightwoods' home life or even the mundane-ness of Simon's day-to-day vampire life?

Just... a lot of things bug me about the series, not least of all that Lilith seems to subscribe to gender essentialism (like what?) - I thought the mother of demons would be cooler than that. And just... how Euro-bloody-centric this whole Shadowhunter world is. Oh yeah, you have Shadowhunters from all over the world but who started it all? Some white cis guy with a convenient name like Jonathan Shadowhunter. Imagine if his name was Benedict Cumberbatch. Would the Nephilim be called Cumberbatches? Lol. That would be funny. But back to the point: Idris... Is in Western Europe. Like that's the center of magic everywhere, sure... it's not even the fucking birthplace of civilisation but let's put their headquarters somewhere white and have all the old prestigious families be white people with really white names. Yeah. Ok. I see what you did there. *rolls eyes*

My biggest takeaway from this book is that all white men are capable of murder, especially the harmless-looking ones.

This is one of those books that read really fast. I read it and it almost feels like my head how fast this narrator thinks/feels... If that makes sense. It's a good read although I guess I would have liked to learn more about some of the women. There's a lot of Spanish in here too which I'm too lazy to Google so I think maybe I missed a few key points.

I don't know why but I still haven't gotten to reading other books of Paulo Coelho. This is the only book I've read and I loved it. I love how it made me think about things in a new light. I kind of understand Veronika's desire to die young. It's a wonderful book.