City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2)

I'd heard a lot of positive things about this series in general, and yet reading it was so, so weird. Baron Hotschaft Von Hugenstein, the falcon, Clare's obsessive descriptors of eyebrows and how people smell - all these things are intimately familiar to me without having read a shred of her published work before.

This is, of course, because of the copious amount of Harry Potter fanfiction I consumed as a teen, where her Draco trilogy figured prominently. I wasn't new to the author and sadly because of that the work was, to me, drab and a little too predictable for comfort, even factoring in the intended audience. Jace is so Draco that it's painful: not Rowling's Draco, of course - but the Draco Clare molded and made such a memorable and bright character all her own, and it was very hard to see around that when I knew that the jokes and the sarcasm had been honed, polished and already made me laugh half a decade ago in a different work.

Still, yes, I liked the book. The story, as a young adult adventure, was exciting enough to keep me reading, if not overly new. The end was a huge letdown insofar as finishing up the actual plot of the novel was concerned, though add a few points for character development.

If I hadn't read any Clare at all before I might think about picking up book 2 right now. As it is, I think another few hundred reads are in order before I return to the Shadowhunters and I hope the Dracoism decreases later in the series.