Kids/Teens Book Club discussion

Beware of Spoilers!
Here we can talk about CITY OF BONES, CITY OF ASHES, and CITY OF GLASS, as well as all the characters and the upcoming book!.

I had to stop reading this series in class because I kept almost bursting out laughing. I <3 Jace (and Simon and Alec and Magnus and Isabelle and Luke...they all rock).

me too! what was his description again? something about a "gay sonic the hedgehog who dresses like the childcatcher from CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG"

Magnus? Yeah, something like that. :D

i really like the cover designs too

I'm not fond of this series or most of the characters, but I have to say, I do like Magnus. His relationship with Alec is different and interesting.

why not, pandy?
i waver back and forth, actually, and sometimes i dont like it, either :P

I just don't like Cassandra Clare's writing. I know she used to be one of the most popular Harry Potter fanfic authors until there were plagiarism issues with her Draco trilogy, and though I never read her fanfic, the writing in the Mortal Instruments books still sounds too much like fanfiction or a movie script for my taste. The plot is not too original and also rather predictable. I'm not saying this is always bad - the books aren't dull. I had fun reading the first two books, but I got bored by the third. I just see the books as escapism. They aren't books I'd ever want to reread. Some of the characters just seemed like they came from super-exaggerated fanfic (the most obvious being Jace/Draco, but also Clary/Ginny and Simon/Harry). I really could never care about Clary, who just never struck me as someone interesting.

That's what I thought too, Pandy. When I read the first book, I thought the "twists" were too obvious and I noticed many similarities with HP. And Cassandra Clare apparently reused some sentences from the Draco trilogy for the Mortal Instruments series. I didn't like that.

But I thought the third book was a lot better than the previous ones. The writing improved, and imo the series developed and had less resemblances to other stories.

gahhhh i hated CLARY! and i sorta flip-flopped about jace. true, he is listed on my "interests" on my profile, but he's close to last. i just thought all those "i've loved you since the moment i saw you!!" stuff was kinda lame, especially since he was such a jerkwad to the girl he's supposedly in love with. but everybody says he's "sexy" so idk. i like my guys to be nice (oh and something else--the word rhymes with schmirgin, hahha)

idk i wrote good reviews, and i liked them, but cassandra got on my nerves a lot. she seems so unpolished, and really i dont know why she wrote at all. i mean, what message exactly was she trying to send? what theme was she trying to project? i think the best authors can answer those questions with their writing, and she seemed kind of superficial. her books were entertaining, but didnt really seem to have a lot of depth. idk.

I don't really have any opinions on Clary. I just don't notice her when I'm reading the books, which is odd since she's the main character.

Jace is on my "I crush on him as a fictional character but would probably hate him in real life and would definitely not crush on him" list.

thats a good way to say it, rachel! :D

For me, the first book was painful to read, and the rest were better. But yeah, the series as a whole isn't meaningful; they're just fun pleasure reads. Like the Maximum Ride series. Anyone read those books?

Clary is a little... dimwitted. And I hated how she is the described as "the beautiful girl who doesn't know she is beautiful." That is so hackneyed!

hahha yeah. my characters will either be
1) ugly--and know they're ugly
2) beautiful--and know they're beautiful




btw, i believe if people realize that they were all #2, we'd all be a lot happier in life :D

OH MY GODS SIMON!
THAT... TWILIGHTER!
GRRRRRRR.
Sorry had to vent about that.
Why is he so stupid, though?
Yeah so I'm gonna go now before I see any spoilers...

why is he a TWILIGHTER? is it because he's in the way like jacob was? lol.

NO! He's a VAMPIRE. Twilighter!
But that, too.

Well, I finished the third book last night, and I really liked it, although it wasn't as funny as the other two. :(

The end with Jace bugged me a bit.

This is the part where I leave. Again.

How did it bug you?

you dont have to leave, shelby!

shelby?

message 19: her name is shelby

♫♪Kristenn҉ wrote: "How did it bug you?"

i just sent her a PM asking the same question, lol :P

Yeah, you don't have to leave! I'll just write *spoiler warning* and put a bunch of spaces. :D

*Spoiler Warning!*
































I hate it when dead people come back to life. People who are dead should just stay dead already.

I'd usually agree with you, but here... I don't know.

yeah i would usually agree too, but i like the way it was handled in this book.
and btw, rachel---EXCELLENT job with the spoiler flag--that was a perfect amount of spacing. you get a gold star :D

you know, we're allowed to put up spoiler flags when we're writing a review, but i wish we could do it for group comments, too. someone should petition goodreads!

Oh yay! *hangs gold star on refrigerator*

It's just a pet peeve of mine.

I guess they think we'd stay out of the discussion or something. Until we've read them, I mean. Cause when you have a book topic, you can usually expect to have spoilers, so when you click on it, you're basically letting yourself see them.

Does this make sense?

I like how it was handled too, but I think I might have preferred it if Simon stayed dead in the third book.

I like how, on some forums, you can put up spoiler blockers so that a black box appears where the spoiler is, and if you want to read it, you can move your clicker over it, and if you don't want to, then you don't see it. It's rather ingenious.

Also, the spoiler flags aren't carried over in the summary emails that goodreads sends out, so even if a review usually is hidden due spoilers, it is shown completely in the email. I had The Book Thief spoiled for me because of that.

♫♪Kristenn҉ wrote: "I guess they think we'd stay out of the discussion or something. Until we've read them, I mean. Cause when you have a book topic, you can usually expect to have spoilers, so when you click on it, y..."

thats true. it gets hard with series books, though, if you've read the first few but arent finished yet... ive been lucky because the last series books ive read dont have groups, lol.

♫♪Kristenn҉ wrote: Something about something that happens to Simon.

*gasp* I like Simon!

*rolls eyes, clicks tongue*
when that "thing" happens to him in COA (you know what im talking about :P) i was like "yeah good riddance!" but in COG, i actually started liking him a little; he was less annoying. and i transferred all my annoyance onto isabelle--i absolutely cant stand her. shes so annoying!

What's wrong with Isabelle? Or is she just annoying?

I rather like Izzy. Clary, on the other hand, annoys the heck out of me.

i think she's just annoying. she's not a main character, and yet she's in so many scenes and she launches into these paragraph-long speeches, especially in City of Glass. she just seemed really whiny and superficial. idk, like a watered-down version of rosalie from the TWILIGHT series.

I cried when that "thing" happened to him.

Isabelle annoys me, but in a likable way. (Kind of like how I hate Bellatrix so much, but love her character at the same time...she's so nutsy coo-koo, but she's still a fun character) I did get a bit mad at Isabelle in COG when she locks herself in her room, and then Simon tries to talk to her... She seriously bugged me there.

yeah. i didnt like that stupid speech she gave to clary about jace and her being jealous or whatever... i was just like BLAH BLAH BLAH! YOURE NOT THE MAIN CHARACTER AND I DONT CARE ABOUT YOU!!!!!!

I almost always like the minor characters more than the major characters, so I really like it when they get a bigger part.

ohh im the opposite. there are some books where i like minor characters, like PJ or HP, but i usually like minor characters to stay in their place :P

i havent read the series yet. but apparently they are really good. i intend on reading them really soon.

read PJ first :DDD

.....lol. im guessing our a PJ fan?

its my second-favorite series, after LOTR, and tied with the PRYDAIN series...have you heard of those? they're really good, too :D

My favorite character is usually not the main one.

magnus is pretty much the only character that i liked 100% of the time--every scene he was in i liked, every thing he said, i liked... i like jace and think he's entertaining, but there were times that he seriously got on my nerves... i liked luke, too.

I was in the bookshop today, and i saw CITY OF BONES. Knowing of its great reputation, i picked it up and read the blurb, and i was hooked! I read the first few pages, before someone asked me to move so they could get a book.
THEn i saw CATCHING FIRE, and i read the first few pages of that.
I decided i was going to get one. CATCHING FIRE? so im up-to-date with the series, and read the sequel to a great book, or start a new, brilliant sounding series?
I did not get any.
Which one should i buy next?

well, i dont want to discount MI too much (as this is the MI topic, haha) but it was "okay". i mean, it was enjoyable, but if i had a choice of which book series to chunk at you, i'd chunk PERCY JACKSON. read that one first!!!! and from what i hear, HUNGER GAMES is pretty good.
MI's story is good, but cassandra clare's writing isnt that spectacular and a bit aggravating. it's not as original, i'd say, as HUNGER GAMES or PJ.

I love this series

I like this book series, apparantly there might be a movie.