#the vibe I'm going for is: help I'm in the grips of a mediocre franchise and I cannot get out

[plantdad-dante]

Book #137 - The Red Scrolls Of Magic by Cassandra Clare And Wesley Chu

(oh I just love piecing together sudden relationship growth plus a nonsensical break-up years after the fact. I love backfill like this. (no wait, that's mean. I don't mean to be mean. but hell, I'm still mad.) also, hey, while I spend this post mostly bitching, please believe that I do it with love. loving irritation, but love nonetheless.)

I don't think it was a good idea of this book to remind me of just how much I hate City Of Lost Souls. Like, it really, really wasn't.

Funny thing I've realized is, reading the Shadowhunter novels from, like, City Of Heavenly Fire onwards, is really funny, because I will read and read and be mostly annoyed and then I will get to the end of the book and I'll be like "... goddammit, Cassandra!" because I will leave the book more or less still satisfied. What is your magic, lady??

These books are my genre of popcorn. I will not elaborate.

To tell the truth, most of this book has already left my brain again? But I know that the ending intrigued me. I want to know how the fuck Ragnor is still alive, and how he goes from living in a cage in this book to living in a cave in Queen Of Air And Darkness. But I am reading by release date, and so the answers to my questions are still some torturous miles away.

Also, Alec and Magnus are, yes, very sweet. Apart from those moments when Alec suddenly gets switched into douchebag mode by the narration, for like, a paragraph or two, and it causes weird friction between them. Or when Magnus decides to people-please (which at least makes more sense characterwise) instead of be honest and vulnerable, and it causes weird friction between them...

See, to me, Malec is great when they're cute and in tune with each other, and absolutely unbearable when they're out of tune. I hate their fights, especially the little, unspoken ones, and I hate the break-up storyline so much. Not because of shipping reasons, but just because the whole thing is so unnecessary and uncompelling and cringe and stupid. And I hate it.

(But, hey, in a round-about way, this lead to the (later) break-ups from the show, and I adore those, so like. Probably shouldn't complain too much. (They had build-up! They made sense! Apart from the first one, they weren't cringy, discordant bullshit! I once met a person who said they honest-to-god preferred the City Of Bones movie to the show and I still cannot fathom what they were on about, because like... have we watched the same trash fire?? The show was gold! Golden trash, but gold nonetheless.)

Wait, I was talking about a specific book, wasn't I? Ah, whatever.)