The Iron Trial

Magisterium: The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, 2014 Scholastic Press

     In the ice beside his mother's dead body are the words "Kill the child". Callum Hunt's father ignores his dead wife's last words to raise Call in a small North Carolina town. Alistair Hunt spends Call's childhood teaching him to hate and fear magic and mages.
     When the time comes for Call to be tested for entry into the Magisterium, a sort of academy where talented children are taught to control and use their magic. Call does his best to fail the test but Master Rufus (the most prestigious Master at the Iron Trial) sees beyond Call's desire to fail and avoid the terrible fate he believes is waiting. Master Rufus accepts Call as one of his apprentices.
     Call joins Aaron and Tamaka as Rufus's apprentices. At the Magisterium the trio share an apartment and attend lessons together. Call discovers a place for himself and friends, a new experience for the kid with a limp which prevents easy movement. The friends learn about the mage wars and Makaris who can control Chaos magic. The Enemy poses the greatest threat to the Magisterium, as a Makar only another Makar can stop him and when Aaron shows himself one of the Makaris the Magisterium has been waiting for, Call and Tamaka are proud for their friend. But on the heels of their pride comes worry for Aaron's well-being. When he goes missing after taking their pet chaos wolf-pup for his daily constitutional, Tamaka and Call know something more dangerous than mere minions has come along.
     Callum faces the Enemy's closest advisor and companion who suggest the impossible. With more to consider than simply his lessons Call returns to the academy for his final portion of the Iron Trial and his first year.
     Call Hunt grows over his first year as he discovers a joy in the work his father has always despised. Call feels guilt at enjoying this place which his father has always warned against. But at the Magisterium Call finds new friends and a place to belong. Aimed at Middle and younger teen readers Iron Year is a fantasy similar to the Percy Jackson and Harry Potter series.

Clockwork Princess

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare, 2013 Walker Books

     Jem and Tessa are planning their wedding, Will is distraught at the idea of losing Tessa and the arrival of his younger sister Cecily, and Charlotte--along with the rest of the Institute--are reeling from the last battle with Mortmain, the Magister, when Gabriel Lightwood arrives with news of his father's demise. The inhabitants of the London Institute rush to help dispatch the Lightwood patriarch turned demon and protect the world from another monster.
     When the Lightwood brothers return to the Institute the Consul, intent on removing the independent Charlotte Branwell from her position, uses their father's state and Gabriel's guilt in being part of his demise to blackmail the boys. The young men use the opportunity to feed false information to the Consul attempting to thwart his plans.
     Mortmain maneuvers to monopolize the drug that keeps Jem alive in an effort to coerce the Shadowhunters into handing Tessa over, or have her surrender herself for her fiancee. Jem refuses to allow the sacrifice insisting he would rather die than give Mortmain the satisfaction of defeating the people who could protect the world from his plans.
     When an attack on the London Institute brings Tessa into the Mortmain's grasp and nearly kills Jem, the Consul refuses to acknowledge another attack is imminent. Rather than going after Mortmain and attacking he cautions waiting and preparing for the inevitable attack on London. His cautions are nearly the undoing of Shadowhunters when Mortmain's Infernal Devices attack the Council meeting.
     Tessa's origins are revealed and her new family of Shadowhunters surrounds her when the well-ordered plan of their lives falls apart. Friendships are tested, loyalties strengthened, and power struggles balanced in this final chapter of the Infernal Devices Trilogy. Young adult readers will enjoy the brightly woven characters and relish the twists and turns of Tessa's epilogue.

City of Ashes

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare, 2008 McElderberry

     After discovering she is a Shadowhunter and that her mother had lied to her for the greater part of her life, Clarissa Fray is avoiding her new-found brother and the world he represents. Clary stays with Luke, her werewolf godfather, in his home while her mother is in the hospital in a coma. Simon, Clary's best friend, has professed his feelings, and the two try out a relationship of something more than friendship; somewhat unsettling for Clary as she still has feelings for Jace (her long lost brother).
     Clary's silence is unsettling for Jace--he is torn between how he should care for his younger sister and how he does care for her. He begins to hunt demons to take the edge off, rather than because it is his job, and the Lightwood children begin to worry. Things escalate when Isabelle and Alec's mother Maryse Lightwood returns and banishes him from the institute.
     Leaving the Institute, Jace goes to a downworlder bar where he picks a fight with Luke's werewolf pack. When one of the Lycanthrope children is attacked by a mysterious figure, the pack calls on Jace to help. When Jace refuses, wallowing in self-pity for being kicked out of his only home and Clary's silence, Luke intervenes and stops the pack from murdering him. Luke convinces Clary to talk to Jace and the two convince him to return to the Institute and speak to Maryse.
     The Shadowhunter's Inquisitor comes to investigate Jace's involvement with Valentine at the end of City of Bones. She is a cold woman and shows an extreme dislike for Jace from the get-go, when Jace's arrogance angers her, the Inquisitor locks him in cells in the underground Silent City of the Silent Brothers. While he is there, Valentine steals the Soul-Sword of Raziel the Angel using a fear demon to kill the Silent Brothers. Coupled with the murder and draining of several downworlder children, Jace, Clary, Simon, Isabelle, and Alec piece together Valentine's plan to turn the Sword against the Nephilim and give it power over demons.
     In their quest to rally aid, the group enters the faery realm. Jace and Clary discover their father had done something to give his unborn children special capabilities, though the two deny anything special. When she is tricked into eating some of the fairy food, Clary is nearly trapped, but the queen offers her freedom at the "kiss she most desires." Simon thinks the kiss is from him, but it is when Jace kissed Clary that she is freed. The turn of events causes a rift between Simon and Clary, who had been becoming closer and closer.
     Simon storms away when they return to the human realm, only to be brought to the Institute by Raphael, the leader one one of New York's vampire clans. Simon had ingested some vampire blood during his time as a rat, and when he broke into the vampire nest, Raphael's clan attacked him and began the process of turning him. They bury Simon and watch the transformation of his vampire re-birth. Clary and Simon begin rebuilding their relationship and Clary gives up her contact with Jace as penance for her part in Simon's new status. While they're trying to figure out how to tell his mother, Maia (one of Luke's pack) is attacked on Luke's front lawn. Clary calls the Shadowhunters and Magnus Bane to heal her, but Luke is injured when the demons sent after Maia catch him and Magnus must help him as well. Jace and Clary hurry to Luke's rescue and fight his assailants, who flee when they catch a glimpse of the Mark Clary recieved from her mother in a dream.
     When the two return to the house talk turns to Clary's use of the runes: the opening rune she used in the Silent City was much too strong to be a simple opening rune, yet it was. She puts forth the idea that her special ability was the ability to put more power into the runes than they possessed on their own, and to create new runes. Clary creates a "fearless" rune and the group tests it on Alec, who declares to the world that he is dating someone, but Magnus silences him when he begins to say who. Alec wakes and is defensive, claiming not to remember anything--a sign the rune worked.
     They decide to turn in for the night while Maia and Luke heal, but Jace sneaks away on Raphael's demonic motorcycle to meet with Valentine on a ship in the middle of the river. He promises Jace not to kill his loved ones if Jace will return to him, but Jace refuses. When he returns to the other Shadowhunters, the Inquisitor accuses him of siding with Valentine and threatens to kill him if Valentine doesn't return the Mortal Cup and Soul Sword. Jace tells her his father won't make the trade, but the Inquisitor insists a father's love will trump his desire for power--she hopes to take revenge for the death of her child.
     Maia leaves Luke's home, but on her way to visit Simon, the fear demon attacks her and brings her to Valentine. Meanwhile, Valentine comes for Simon. Clary, Luke, Jace, and Magnus go after Maia and Simon and manage to rescue Maia. But when Jace finds Simon, he has already been drained of blood. Jace allows Simon to drink from him and restore his life, then joins the fray on the ship's deck. The Inquisitor and New York's Shadowhunters join the battle against Valentine's demon army. The Inquisitor stops Jace in the middle of the battle, and is surprised when she sees a star-shaped scar on his shoulder. She nearly immediately gives her life for him causing him to question her change of heart.
     When Clary is kidnapped by one of Valentine's demons, Jace follows. Valentine declares he knows Jace joined the fight against him because of his not-quite-brotherly feelings for Clary, revealing that he knows the fear demon took her form at their first encounter. In return Jace tells Valentine that their second encounter ended with the demon's death in the form of Valentine himself. Jace gets Clary's stele to her, allowing her to blow the ship apart at the seams and end the battle.
     Clary falls into the river, to be plucked out by nixies sent by the Faery queen. They return to shore where dawn is quickly coming. Simon discovers that Jace's blood allows him to survive the daylight, unlike his fellow vampires, and life returns to some semblance of normal. Luke and Clary discuss his feelings for her mother, and Clary convinces Luke that it's beyond time to reveal those feelings to Jocelyn, despite her comatose state. She follows a similar path with Jace, but before she can tell him, Jace says he will only love her like a brother, breaking her heart. Befoer she can process the hurt, however, one of Clary's mother's companions from Idris says she knows how to wake Jocelyn.
     Throughout the battles and tangled love connections, Clary Fray learns to deal with her new-found family, especially the strange feelings she has for her brother. Her story is one of self-discovery and learning to take control of her own life, she fights for what she believes in and uses what power she has discovered to care for those who she loves. Clary is a role model for any young woman to take as an example; though her relationship with Jace is questionable, there are hints of life not being quite as it seems. Clare's City of Ashes is a vivid read and plays into the supernatural genre well. An ideal audience are high school aged readers, like the main characters, however any lover of supernatural fiction will find something enjoyable in the telling.

Clockwork Prince

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare, 2011 Simon & Schuster

     The sequel to Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince follows Tessa and her Shadowhunter friends as they continue searching for the Magister. Tessa continues to wonder who she is and what the Magister meant when he claimed he "created her" and that she "belongs" to him. Tessa re-encounters her brother, revealing a spy at the Institute and encouraging the Enclave to examine itself closely for the corruption.
     Along the way Tessa makes shocking discoveries about her past which ripple into shocking opportunities for her future. Will faces the internal demons that have created his rude, sarcastic, and hateful behavior and discovers that his curse was the clever trickery of a demon his father had kept captive. Jem confronts his addiction and the limitations he felt it put on his life to make a life-changing decision.
     While some of the content may be directed at older students (the author's website states it is meant for 14+ or at least 9th grade) there are several themes secondary elementary students may find useful; Jem's illness progresses from the first novel, quite frankly, he is dying. Yet no one has given up hope that he will survive and that a cure will be found. This is a case of the person not becoming their illness. Meanwhile, the romantic entanglements between Jem & Tessa and Will & Tessa take on a more mature nature. Tessa's reasoning is presented as she is charged with an impossible decision. While it seems like she's being selfish, she shows compassion in the face of Jem's weakness.

Clockwork Angel

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare, 2010 Walker Books

     When Theresa Gray arrives in London after the death of her Aunt Harriet she expects to be met by her brother, Nathaniel. Instead she runs into the Dark Sisters, two warlock sisters who plunge Tessa into a world of demons, wizards, vampires, warlocks, and Shadowhunters.
     After six weeks of captivity, being forced to discover and learn how to control an unknown power at the hands of the Dark Sisters, Tessa is rescued by William Herondale and James Carstairs. She joins them at the Institute where she meets other Shadowhunters and discovers their mission as Nephilim: angels who keep the world of Downlanders separate from the human realm. No one knows who, or what, Tessa is but they do learn she is a Downlander.
     The Shadowhunters begin their search for Nathaniel, and Tessa begins her training with Will, Jem, and Jessie (another young Shadowhunter) in order to defend herself against the Magister, a criminal mastermind trying to harness her strange powers in the hope of controlling the world. Her feelings for Will grow and this strange young man who drives everyone away becomes a fascination.
     The group encounters strange clockwork devices that function as if they were human, and are to an extent--wrapped in human flesh. The leaders of the Institute, Charlotte and Henry come across a lead: the vampire de Quincey is the Magister and holds Nathaniel prisoner. When the Nephilim go undercover to check out the lead, de Quincey and his fellows drain a human, leading to the discovery of Nathaniel and a battle between the Shadowhunters and vampires.
     Will swallows vampire blood during the fight and, while he drinks holy water to cleanse himself, he and Tessa share their first kiss. Afterward, life goes on much as it has, however Will distances himself even further from Tessa. When she and Jem go on patrol, they run into an army of the clockwork devices and though they make it back to the Institute, Jem is injured. During his recovery, Jem reveals to Tessa his addiction to a demon drug that while it keeps him alive, only slows his death.
     After some trickery, Jessie and Tessa are left at the Institute with Nathaniel while the Magister marches his Clockwork Army on the building. The ensuing battle ends in many losses, both in people, assets, and innocent notions. When the Shadowhunters regroup at the Institute, the betrayal slices through the group, but they live to fight another day. Charlotte and Henry ask Tessa to stay, and despite misgivings she stays.
     Tessa's story includes romance, self discovery, and betrayal. Although she is only sixteen, Tessa must grow up quickly to survive the chaos that surrounds her life in London. Her friendships with Will and Jem help her through the changes, but there are still elements that Tessa must figure out for herself. It was written for an older group: fifteen or older, with some mature segments and themes.

City of Bones

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, 2007 Margaret K. McElderry

     Clary Fray witnesses three mysterious teens killing a boy who turns into a pile of dust in an exclusive New York City nightclub, Pandemonium. When Jace, one of the three, appears again right before Clary's mom vanishes she clings to the mysterious boy and his friends. Clary discovers that the three are Shadowhunters: demon hunting half-angels fighting in the age-old inter-dimensional battle for humanity's survival. She joins the trio in their fight, and receiving their assistance in the search for her mother.
     Along the way, Clary discovers that her mother isn't the artist she'd always thought: Jocelyn Fray is a Shadowhunter too! Dealing with this revelation is a battle for Clary, but the revelation that her mother had taken her to a warlock to hide her memories behind a glamour throws her into the realization that her world has never been as she remembered it, and pushes her even faster along the road to join the Shadowhunters herself.
     After an encounter with a Ravener demon, Clary is taken to the Shadowhunters' Institute to recover. She spends three days in a coma, and wakes up to find her mother kidnapped by the sinister Valentine, a Shadowhunter who lead a damaging uprising and was thought to have vanished fifteen years before. He has reappeared and taken Jocelyn with the hope that she will deliver the Mortal Cup (the cup the angel Raziel used to create Shadowhunters, and gave to them to replenish the ranks). Valentine's plan to use the Cup to create a Shadowhunter army and wipe out the Downworlder population, making Earth "pure" again, and in the process killing thousands of people.
     Clary and her new friends team up with her childhood friend Simon to find the Mortal Cup before Valentine can, and keep him from getting his hands on it. They succeed, but when they are betrayed by Hodge, a member of Valentine's Circle and the children's tutor, Valentine takes both Jace and the Cup from the Institute. Clary cannot just sit and let Valentine take them, she enlists the aid of Luke--a former Shadowhunter turned Werewolf--and his pack to find Valentine and bring Jace back.
     At the culmination of the battle between Valentine's Forsworn and Luke's Werewolves Clary and Jace learn some startling truths about their lives and their family. Valentine manages to escape with the Mortal Cup, but Jace returns to the Institute and Jocelyn is rescued, leaving the battle to continue another day.
     Fifteen-year-old Clarissa Fray learns her world has never been what it seems, nor has her life been what she understood, but rather than falling into self-pity and allowing it to bring her down, Clary fights for her family and new friends. She grabs hold of the changing world around her and finds her place in it. The story is aimed toward middle school and high schoolers, but is still enjoyable for an older readership.