i loove this book, but i think 90% of that love is purely nostalgic, and because i have thought about this series as my all time favourite fantasy series for the last 8 years. i have read countless fanfics, have watched the movie a bunch of times, have read the comic and everything, so i just have this incredibly strong bond to these characters that i have been cultivating since the first time i met them (at a quite impressionable age). so this rating is hugely influenced by that and not really a testament to the quality of the story, but oh well, ratings are subjective.

i love the story, love the universe, love the characters (except clary in the first maybe 2-3 books), and i really appreciate all the work and thought that cassy put into building and expanding it throughout the years. obviously the first series is quite tacky and the writing isn't the best, but it lays the foundation of every other book and branch of the story to come.

something that didn't quite click when i first read it tho is that they're all so young? maybe bc i was that young as well, so i didn't think much of it, but now it's quite hard to piece everything together. we know clary is 15, same age as simon. izzy must be about the same age as well, (tho it's not mentioned explicitly) bc she's at least 1-2 years younger than alec. alec was already a toddler when the lightwoods were exiled, and she wasn't born yet. alec could be anywhere from 16 to 19, and he's close in age to jace, who is over 17 for sure, because jocelyn mourned him for 17 years, and he was already a toddler when he 'died'. magnus we know is like 100s of years old, so it IS really weird that he starts flirting with alec when he's probably underage or just barely legal, but oh well, it was 2007 when we lived for problematic drama.