Tales from the Shadowhunter AcademyBy Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, Robin Wassmerman
672 pages | Nov 15th 2016 | Margaret K. McElderry Books
Simon Lewis has been a human and a vampire, and now he is becoming a Shadowhunter. But the events of City of Heavenly Fire left him stripped of his memories, and Simon isn’t sure who he is anymore. He knows he was friends with Clary, and that he convinced the total goddess Isabelle Lightwood to go out with him…but he doesn’t know how. And when Clary and Isabelle look at him, expecting him to be a man he doesn’t remember…Simon can’t take it.
So when the Shadowhunter Academy reopens, Simon throws himself into this new world of demon-hunting, determined to find himself again. His new self. Whomever this new Simon might be.
But the Academy is a Shadowhunter institution, which means it has some problems. Like the fact that non-Shadowhunter students have to live in the basement. And that differences—like being a former vampire—are greatly looked down upon. At least Simon is trained in weaponry—even if it’s only from hours of playing D&D.
Join Simon on his journey to become a Shadowhunter, and learn about the Academy’s illustrious history along the way, through guest lecturers such as Jace Herondale, Tessa Gray, and Magnus Bane. These ten short stories give an epilogue to the Mortal Instruments series and provide glimpses of what’s in store in the Dark Artifices.
As a big fan of The Mortal Instruments series, it was no surprise that I found myself enjoying these stories. Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, brought so many characters to life that we never really had the opportunity to get to know previously. Also it was a really interesting way to intertwine TID and TMI series together.
Simon Lewis is ultimately my favorite character in the Shadowhunter world so getting more of him was a definitely bonus. Shadowhunters, while initially cool begin to grow to be annoying and overly strict. The Law is the Law, without any sort of mercy sort of makes them really dislikeable. Okay, more than sort of. I found that I ended up rooting for the downworlders and caring far more about their stories than those of the Shadowhunters.
I throughly enjoyed each story for individual reasons but I will say it was difficult to read some of them. There were certainly some that I enjoyed far more than others. These include, but are not limited to, Welcome to the Shadowhunter Academy and The Whitechapel Fiend.
While each of the authors are gifted in their own way, it does sometimes read almsot like fanfiction, someone else bringing an authors words to life. While I enjoyed the stories, there was definitely some disconnect with what you expected from the characters and what they sounded like.
