WARNING!!: This review is for the sequel to The Devouring Gray (which I posted a review for back in January), so if you have not read The Devouring Gray yet and intend to read it, do not read further until you have finished reading it.
I just finished reading Chain of Iron, book two of The Last Hours, the latest trilogy in The Shadowhunter Chronicles by Cassandra Clare. I figure it is as good as time as any to write an all-encompassing review of the many Shadowhunter books that are out there, or at least the ones I have read. If you like YA fantasy, but have somehow not read a single Shadowhunter book (there are a lot of them), or you know a teenager looking for a new book series to binge, then you may be very interested in the interconnected fantastical world that Clare has created over the span of 14 novels (that I have read so far) and several short stories and novellas.
The Devouring Gray isn’t a standout young adult novel, which is probably why I hadn’t heard of it until I came across it while browsing books on Book Outlet. Or maybe Herman’s publishers just didn’t do a good job of advertising it. However, I did enjoy reading this novel and became invested in the characters and the story, so if you also enjoy reading YA novels, you should give this novel a read.
I almost didn’t buy Genuine Fraud because I am not a fan of another novel by E. Lockhart, We Were Liars, which got rave reviews because of it’s so-called shocking ending, but which I did not find shocking at all or even original. Yet I was tempted enough to buy Genuine Fraud because of the gimmick Lockhart uses in this novel: telling the story backwards. Again, not an original concept, but one that I will always be intrigued by mainly because I’m curious if the writer can pull it off and tell an interesting story that makes sense. Lockhart does pull it off in Genuine Fraud, but to mixed results.