City of Glass - Cassandra Clare (2009)

This book also came in the in the box set that I bought of this series. I really enjoyed this book, just as much as the previous books in the series.

This book was just as well written as the previous books but this book had a lot more fighting and wars. My favourite character in this book was Magnus, he was pretty hilarious in this book and he helped out Clary when she needed it. I also thought that when Alec came out to his parents, Magnus' reaction was very entertaining.


This book starts with the Lightwoods going to Idris without Clary because Jace lied to her as he didn't want her to go. Clary then draws a portal rune to take her to Idris and Luke follows her to protect her. Because of wards on the city, Clary lands in Lake Lyn, the lake that Raziel came out of to give Jonathon Shadowhunter the mortal instruments, however the water drives people insane and Luke takes her to his sister's house where she heals her. Clary then goes to see Jace where he yells at her for coming, while there she also meets Sebastian and Aline, who are cousins and are who the Lightwoods are staying with. Sebastian takes Clary to Ragnor Fell who will help her mother, however he has been killed and Magnus is there in his place and tells Clary she must retrieve the Book of White from Jace's childhood home. Clary and Jace get the book, however when they return to Alicante a massive war is going on because Valentine has destroyed the wards around the city and demons are running wild. Jace, Clary and Alec go to free Simon from the prison he was put in as the building is on fire. While there they also free Hodge, whho tells them that the Mortal Glass is Lake Lyn however he is then killed by Sebastian who runs off. Max was also killed by Sebastian that night and the Lightwoods are devastated. Jace goes to find Valentine through tracking Sebastian, however we learn from Jocelyn, who Magnus revived, that Sebastian is Clary's brother and Jace was Stephen Herondale's child. Clary makes a rune that binds downworlders and shadowhunters together so they can share each others abilities in battle, then Clary goes to Lake Lyn to stop Valentine. Valentine binds her up and then Jace comes to save her after killing Sebastian, however Valentine kills him first. Clary then draws a rune over the summoning runes that Valentine drew so when Raziel is summoned he kills Valentine and lets Clary have one wish. She wishes for Jace. The books ends with all the characters, friends again, and watching the celebratory fireworks together.

City of Ashes - Cassandra Clare (2008)

This book came in the same boxset as the first one and I enjoyed it more than the previous one. Which means a lot.

This book was written from many different perspectives which was really interesting. I also liked how the author started including more about all the different "downworlders". I thought the development of Clary and Jace's romance was kind of gross, but well written, and I loved the development of their special abilities. I think my favourite character in this book would have to be a tie between Alec and Luke. I saw a lot more of Luke's love towards Clary and his whole pack, and Alec's character development and romance with Magnus Bane was very entertaining to read.

Clary and Simon are now dating and Jace is kicked out of the institute by Maryse. The faerie queen wants a conference with Jace to see what he knows and to discuss things, however faeries are very tricky and make Clary have the "kiss she desires" before she can leave. Simon kisses her, however Jace is the one who must, which upsets Simon and he runs off to the vampires to see if he was turning into one of them. He wasn't, but by going into their lair they attacked him and turned him into a vampire. Valentine needs the blood of a werewolf child and a vampire child, so he takes Simon and Maia as revenge on Luke. Luke, Clary, Jace and Magnus go to rescue them from Valentine's ship, however he has thousands of demons at the ready and a massive battle ensues, Jace is about to be killed when the rest of the shadowhunters come to help him fight. Simon is almost dead and needs blood to survive so Jace lets him drink some of his blood then they go to find Clary who was taken by Valentine. Jace gives her her stele and with her newfound abilities she draws an "open" rune on the ship which tears it apart. The book ends with Simon realising he can now go in the sun, Jace moving back to the Institute, and a shadowhunter telling Clary she knows how to heal her mother.

City of Bones - Cassandra Clare (2007)

I read this book because Mac said that she thought I would like it after she read it. I saw a box set of the first three for thirty dollars at kmart so I decided to get them.

I quite enjoyed this book, it is very different to the other books in the young adult paranormal genre as it has many different types of creatures. I thought it was well-written and included many rare words which I had to look up in a dictionary which is always good. My favourite character, although it might seem a little cliche, was Jace, I found him hilarious and his personality was really intriguing until the end when he was all weird. I definitely enjoyed this book and will probably have to buy the fourth, fifth and sixth books later.


Clary is a normal girl who can see people that no one else can see. She soon learns that they are shadowhunters, and that she must be one of them as she can see them. Her mother is kidnapped, and Clary learns that she was also a shadowhunter and was married to another shadowhunter called Valentine who turned bad and started a massive war and has now returned. Clary then works with the shadowhunters Jace, Alec and Isabelle to find the mortal cup before Valentine does. They get the cup and Jace and Clary fall in love. Jace and the cup then get stolen by Valentine, and Clary goes to rescue them and she learns that Jace is her brother, who her mother thought was dead.

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card (1985)

I had to read this book for english and I found it surprisingly good. We got to choose between four different texts and I'm glad that I chose to read this one.

Although this book is written from a child's perspective, you hardly realize that at all as Ender thinks and acts way beyond his years. The plot of this book was interesting and well written, however I found that there was a little too much political jargon to find that part of the story at all interesting. Although this book is from a child's perspective, it deals with some very gruesome themes and there is a lot of psychological warfare and torment going on, which I found very full on and a little scary at times. My favourite character was Colonel Graff, you only get snippets of his life and his experiences however I really got the sense that he was a lovely person who truly cared about Ender.


This book is set in the future where an alien invasion of "buggers" fifty years ago has the world training children to be the commanders and soldiers in the next battle. Ender Wiggin is six years old and human kind's only hope of survival as he is a child genius. He quickly passes through battle school and moves to flight command where Mazer Rackham, the only person to have defeated the buggers previously, becomes his teacher. He soon goes through many computer simulations and on his final test he must go through a simulation in which there is a planet in the middle of battle. He defeats the simulation by exploding the planet, however then he learns that all the simulations were real and he had just killed all the remaining buggers. He and his sister Valentine then go in the "first colony" to live on the bugger planet and Ender discovers a fertilized bugger egg, ready to be hatched whenever. He takes it with him as he and Valentine go to explore the galaxy.

Room - Emma Donoghue (2010)

Mac lent this book to me saying it was the best book she read all year, and I have to admit I was disappointed. It's a book that made me really paranoid about being kidnapped off the street and really made me think about the world differently, so if you enjoy books that make you think, I strongly recommend this book.

I think the writing style of this book was really interesting as it is from the perspective of a five year old boy, so he capitalizes inanimate objects as he thinks they are real living things. The plot was a really good idea as well, I actually found it quite disturbing, especially the idea of a five year old with waist long hair breastfeeding, that is an image you will find hard to get rid of. This book had good writing and a good plot, it just didn't grab my attention that much.

For plot summary, see Mac's previous blog.

You Against Me - Jenny Downham (2010)

This book was lent to me by Mac and I can believe that she gave Before I Die (also by Jenny Downham) 4 stars, and this book only 3. I liked this book so much more than Before I Die and found the storyline a lot more intriguing.

This book was an easy read and was very hard to put down once I got into it. I found the storyline interesting and the decision that Ellie had to face very thought-provoking. The best character, in my opinion, was Ellie, she had such a conflicting decision to make and I found it easy to like her personality. To top off the thought-provoking storyline and likeable characters it had a happy ending, which always earns points in my book.

For plot summary, see Mac's previous blog.

Divergent - Veronica Roth (2011)

This book was lent to me by Mac soon after she read it and the only reason that has been keeping me from reading this for so long is that she needed it back for her assignment. I hate her for keeping it from me for so long. The movie rights were optioned before the book was even released and I really hope they do the story justice.

I loved this book, I found the world interesting and the story refreshingly different from most dystopian novels I've read. I really loved the character Four, he was very gentle, humble and kind, yet brave and courageous at the same time, I really want him to be real just so I could marry him myself. I also found it fun to imagine which faction I would choose if I was in this situation and it was surprisingly hard to choose.

Tris lives in a world where the population is split into five factions each of which honour a different value and strive to achieve it. There is: Candor, which values honesty, Amity, which values peace, Erudite, which values knowledge, Abnegation, which values selflessness, and Dauntless, which values bravery. When Tris takes her aptitude test to see which faction she would do best in, she learns that she is a divergent someone that belongs in many factions, not just one. Tris then betrays her family, who are Abnegation, and moves to Dauntless, in which she makes many new friends and falls in love with Four, a training leader who also moved into Dauntless from Abnegation, a rare occurence. The night after initiation all the Dauntless members, who had been injected with a serum that can control their behaviour, form an army to destroy Abnegation as they are being controlled by an Erudite leader who wants to be in power. However, as Tris is a divergent, she is not controlled by the serum, neither is Four as he is also a Divergent, so Jeanine, the Erudite leader gives Four a serum she was developing that will work on Divergents. Tris' mum and dad then sacrifice themselves for her to get to the control room to stop the serum affecting people, however first she must pass Four, who was guarding the control room. She manages to do this without killing him and together they stop the serum and take the data that contained the serum's control code.

The Power of Six - Pittacus Lore (2011)

I was so excited for this book because I read I Am Number Four like six months before it was a movie and could not wait for this book. It was absolutely worth the wait.

I think I liked this book even more than the first book in the Lorien Legacies series and if they keep getting better I cannot wait for the next book, which hasn't even been confirmed yet. My favourite part in this book was learning more about Six and her seeing her character develop into more than just a warrior.


This book switches between the perspectives of John, who is with Six and Sam, and Marina, number seven. Marina has been living in a convent with her cepan, Adelina since they first arrived on earth because Adelina has started to believe in the nun's ways, this has left Marina to develop her legacies and look for the other Garde by herself. John, Sam and Six have a bit of a love triangle going as they are on the run, however when they learn that Sam's dad was a human that helped the Garde escape and was a Lorien ally that left a tracker to find their ship in his lair, they have to stop running and return to Paradise. They get the tracker, however John's chest gets stolen in the process and then he goes to see Sarah, who has been working with the police and has turned him in. Six breaks him and Sam out of jail and then they split up, with Six going to Spain to save Marina who is being attacked by Mogadorians, and Sam and John going to the mogadorians headquarters to get the chest. Six helps defeat the mogadorians with Marina and Ella, the tenth Garde who was sent on the second ship from Lorien and who has been with Marina for a while. John and Sam save the chests and find Nine captured in the cells, Sam then gets trapped in the cells while looking through them to find his father and John and Nine are blocked out of the headquarters by a forcefield as Setrakus Ra, the mogadorian leader, returns to join the fight.