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Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy

Cassandra Clare,

Sarah Rees Brennan

Start date: May 1, 2017

Finish date: May 31, 2017

Discussion: Series

Why we're reading this: Won the poll for the series BOTM
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What Members Thought

Sep 22, 2017 Vanessa Gayle ⚔️ Fangirl Faction rated it it was amazing

Shelves: be-still-my-beating-heart, favorite-heroes, found-family, young-adult, best-friendships, sigh-worthy, bromance, romance, favorite-couple, best-heroes

09/13/2022: Reread. (Audiobook!)
Review contains a minor spoiler from the Mortal Instruments series. Do not read further if you don't want to be spoiled.

Simon Lewis is my absolute favorite character from Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunter Chronicles. Each and every character takes up a little place in my heart but Simon takes up more real estate there than the rest. At first, I was drawn to him because he is such a nerd. Something that we have in common. We have the same sense of humor and love the s ...more

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Jan 05, 2017 Danielle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2017-read, 2017-jan-read

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I am not going into a very detailed review, but I will say I loved every freaking minute of this book. Every time I read another Shadowhunter book I am reminded why I am so in love with the series. The big reason why is the characters hands down, and just wanting more and more of their stories.

I loved how this story featured Simon becoming a Shadowhunter, but it was so much more than that. It was a story that enriched the whole Shadowhunter universe by bringing in stories from the past and prov I am not going into a very detailed review, but I will say I loved every freaking minute of this book. Every time I read another Shadowhunter book I am reminded why I am so in love with the series. The big reason why is the characters hands down, and just wanting more and more of their stories.

I loved how this story featured Simon becoming a Shadowhunter, but it was so much more than that. It was a story that enriched the whole Shadowhunter universe by bringing in stories from the past and providing missing puzzle pieces to the overall story of the Shadowhunter universe. It also provided great insight of what is coming in future installments in this world by introducing us to new characters that will be featured down the road. I also loved seeing fan favorites make appearance in the story. So many beloved characters and reminded me why I love them. It just sucked me in even more into the book.

I also loved seeing Simon's journey through the story. At first he was very unsure but by the end he was a sure and confident Shadowhunter that he was meant to be. I love Simon so much, and I just loved seeing his growth not only in his development but in his relationships as well. There were a quite a few moments that touched my heart. Moments with Clary and Isabelle were really, reallocate beautiful. I could have read those scenes all day. And I loved that it wasn't easy and did take some time before he found his footing within those relationships as well as in the world.

I loved this book so much. It was freaking awesome and just really good with all the different stories that were told leading to Simon becoming a Shadowhunter. Everything was perfect and fit really well together within the context of the book and provided information along the way. The stories were really neat and very interesting. I enjoyed them all. I could on all day about the book, the characters, and the series that I love so much. I want more, and I hope I never ends. I could see some possible storylines down the road that I want explored. Heck if it was even just a day in the life, mundane story I would love that as well. Give me more of these stories and characters Cassandra Clare. Bring it on. ...more

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May 11, 2017 Lauren⁷ 💜 rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy-science-fiction, library-has-a-copy, young-adult-teen-new-adult

I think we all remember where City of Heavenly Fire left things for Simon. At the end of the book, Simon, Clary, Izzy, Magnus, Alec and Jace were all trapped in Edom with seemingly no way out. Magnus summoned his father, Asmodeus, and asked him to get them out of there. Asmodeus agreed, but for a very high price. Magnus' immortality and therefore, his life. Magnus agreed. Simon, not wanting Magnus to do such a thing, bravely stepped up and offered himself as a sacrifice. Asmodeus agrees, so Simo I think we all remember where City of Heavenly Fire left things for Simon. At the end of the book, Simon, Clary, Izzy, Magnus, Alec and Jace were all trapped in Edom with seemingly no way out. Magnus summoned his father, Asmodeus, and asked him to get them out of there. Asmodeus agreed, but for a very high price. Magnus' immortality and therefore, his life. Magnus agreed. Simon, not wanting Magnus to do such a thing, bravely stepped up and offered himself as a sacrifice. Asmodeus agrees, so Simon bravely sacrifices both his immortality and memories to Asmodeus so that they all could get out of Edom. It's successful and they're all sent back to the mortal world alive, and with the exception of Simon, intact. Several months after the events of the war Simon still has bits and pieces of his memories and the poor guy thinks he's losing his mind. He's approached by Izzy, Clary and Magnus and told of the Shadow World and his connection to it. Magnus tries to restore Simon's memories, but is unsuccessful and tells Simon that if Ascends (becomes a Shadowhunter), he will get his memories back that way. Simon, wanting to remember his old life and his relationships, decides to Ascend. And that leads us into Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy. I was a big fan of The Bane Chronicles and I quite enjoyed those stories as Magnus is one of my favorite characters. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to feel about a bunch of stories focusing around Simon. I never disliked Simon by any means, but he also wasn't my favorite character. But I love the Shadowhunters universe and I'm always eager to read more books set in it. So, I went into these stories with an open mind. I ultimately ended up really enjoying most of them. Some were better than others with really only one being a total clunker. Welcome to the Shadowhunter Academy was all about laying the groundwork for the rest of the stories and introducing the new characters and I enjoyed it. I found The Lost Herondale to be very good and it provided an interesting glimpse into Catarina's character and nicely layed the groundwork for a major plot point in Lady Midnight. On the other hand, I found The Whitechapel Fiend to be a total letdown. (view spoiler) Pale Kings and Princes was very good and provided more insight into faeries. Nothing but Shadows is set mostly in 1899 and tells some of the story of young James Herondale, who was also a student at Shadowhunter Academy, it was a nice bit of exposition that I enjoyed and I felt that Clare nicely tied it in with Simon's story. The Evil We Love was very good and it provided a nice bit of insight into the early days of Valentine's Circle and how he recruited people into the Circle and it provided nice character development to Robert Lightwood, and, to a lesser extent, Valentine. I really loved the background it gave on the Circle and how it came to be. Bitter of Tongue was excellent. Here we find Simon kidnapped by the fae and dumped into the path of no less than Mark Blackthorn. As I stated in a previous review, I really enjoy how Clare writes the fae and this was no exception. I enjoyed learning even more about them and the further insight into Mark's character. The aptly named The Fiery Trial follows Simon's decision to make Clary his parabatai and what all goes into that. I enjoyed the look into the parabatai ceremony this story gave and I found it to be a nice addition to the Shadowhunters world at large. Born to Endless Night is largely Magnus and Alec's story and how they deal with an abandoned warlock infant left on the doorstep of the Academy. This was a bit different from the rest of the stories and I really liked it. It was sweet. Angels Twice Descending is the final story and revolves around Simon's Ascension, I thought this was a nice wrap up to the stories and I liked it a lot. As one would expect, there's loads and loads of character development on Simon's part and we get tons of insight into who he is and what drives him and I always love that sort of thing. I walked away from this book liking Simon all the more. He was a true man by the end. There's also, naturally, a ton of focus on Izzy and some nice character development on her part and a lot of focus on her relationship with Simon. These stories are as much Simon's as they are the many other characters that I mention and Clare used these stories as a way to provide insight into a lot of her characters and to expand the Shadowhunters world overall. Focusing on so many other characters was a bit of a risk, but I think it paid off well. And there's definitely a fair amount of groundwork laid for her upcoming books. There's many, many, many moments of humor that had me laughing quite heartily and that I very much enjoyed. In general, I found these to be a well written and well plotted series of novellas that provided more insight into the Shadowhunter universe and gamely kept my attention. I definitely recommend this to fans of the books. ...more

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Oct 14, 2017 Min rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 11, 2020 Kate H rated it liked it

Shelves: goodreads-yajuvenile

Cassandra Clare is an author whose books I do not exactly enjoy but who I cannot seem to stop reading. Everything about her stories, characters, and writing style should appeal to me and yet something about it just doesn't work. I have tried them as physical books, e-books, and audios and they don't really hold my interest but still I soldier on hoping I will enjoy them... ...more

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