Review: The Bane Chronicles

The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Cassandra Clare knew what she was doing when she wrote an entire book about her most popular character.

Now, I say book lightly, because this is much like a Disney sequel: it's a series of loosely inter-ralated short stories all revolving around Magnus Bane. Some of them are very corny--as in, I know he's a powerful Warlock, but you really didn't need to make him save Marie Antoinette--while some of them actually fill in gaps of plot, like how Magnus knows Raphael Santiago or how Jocelyn approached him about Clary.

Of course, given Mangus Bane, there was a lot of comedy too. Some of it was that cheap brand of comedy you see in cartoons nowadays that only appeals to 12-year-olds, but many were actually laugh-out-loud funny. My favorite story by far was "What to Buy a Shadowhunter Who Has Everything (And Who You're Not Officially Dating Anyway)." Aside from my love of Magnus and Alec, the Elyaas demon was hilarious! To quote the caption of the chapter:

"Magnus stared. He was not ready for anyone to say 'lover' to him with an oozing note of slime beneath the word. He felt he would never be ready."

There were also some serious and action-packed chapters, like the ones involving the Hotel. Some of my personal favorites (given that Tessa and Will are some of my favorite characters of the universe) were The Midnight Heir and The Last Stand of the New York Institute.

Some chapters were boring or just unnecessary, but as a whole, as gimmicky as this book is, I give it 3/5 stars.

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