Book review 5: The Shadowhunters' Codex by Cassandra Clare and Joshua Lewis

 The Shadowunters' Codex (The Mortal Instruments & The Infernal Devices) by Cassandra Clare and Joshua Lewis

English Version

German Version

Things to know:

• I read the (translated) German Version
• It was published February 2014
• It has 320 pages
• I read this on 9th January 2015

You can read this book with no fear of spoilers after you read book 4 of "The Mortal Instruments".

This book is a Guide to the Shadowhunter world. It is supposed to explain the way of a Shadowhunter to a person who is in training to become one. It gives you information about weapons, martial arts, demons, downworlders, angels, geography, etc. At the same time Clary, Simon and Jace put some notes into it to actualise it, Clary asked Luke for help on some info about Werewolf and even Magnus Bane added 2 really sarcastic pages to this Codex.




When I read about this book, I was hoping for something different then I actually got. Yes, I was hoping for a Codex written for Shadowhunters, but I thought that Clary and the others would write more into it. There are pages without any notes from one of them or others with just some sarcastic notes next to it. The improved comments of Clary and co were there, but I wished there would have been more input.
Also this seems to address a child. Yes, the series is supposed to be for (young) teenagers, but honestly, the Codex is supposed to be for Shadowhunters, people who train to kill - mostly demons. I don't think it's really realistic to make it sound as if the readers are children if they are training to be soldiers...

The sketches inside are awesome, many different artists worked on this. Some of the discussions Clary, Jace and Simon have in this book are just absolutely funny. I had moments were I couldn't stop laughing. 
But the information of the Codex itself was very dry, and I have to admit, I skipped some bits of it...
Some more sketches for the demons and angels would have been great. Or maybe Luke, Magnus, Alec and Izzy actually writing into it as well would have been fun too


Is this a must to read?
Definitely not!
But if you are a fan and want to get some extra info, go on and read it :)
Though, most information shouldn't be new to the reader as long as the actual series carefully.

On goodreads, I only gave 2 out of 5 stars, because of the reasons named above. If not for the awesome artworks, I would probably only have given it one.

Lisa~