The Lost Book of the White by Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu

Summary from Goodreads:

Life is good for Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood. They’re living together in a fabulous loft, their warlock son, Max, has started learning to walk, and the streets of New York are peaceful and quiet—as peaceful and quiet as they ever are, anyway.

Until the night that two old acquaintances break into Magnus’s apartment and steal the powerful Book of the White. Now Magnus and Alec will have to drop everything to get it back. They need to follow the thieves to Shanghai, they need to call some backup to accompany them, and they need a babysitter.

Also, someone has stabbed Magnus with a strange magical weapon and the wound is glowing, so they have that to worry about too.

Fortunately, their backup consists of Clary, Jace, Isabelle, and newly minted Shadowhunter Simon. In Shanghai, they learn that a much darker threat awaits them. Magnus’s magic is growing unstable, and if they can’t stop the demons flooding into the city, they might have to follow them all the way back to the source—to the very realm of the dead. Can they stop the threat to the world? Will they make it back home before their kid completely wears out Alec’s mom?

Review:

I really enjoyed the first book in this spin-off series (The Eldest Curses). Magnus Bane is one of the greatest characters in YA literature. So, books that focus on him? Yes, double yes, with a side of more yes! But, for some reason, I just couldn’t get into this one as much as I did the first one.

This book had so many good things going for it too. Jace, Clary, Simon, and Isabelle were all in this one. Most of this book took place in Shanghai or in a reverse Shanghai/death dimension…which was also super cool. There were shadow markets, insane book stores, lots of action, plenty of magic, and even some finally revealed Magnus history, yet…I kept putting this down. Am I finally growing tired of the shadow hunters? I don’t know.

I think the parts I enjoyed the most were all the banter and back and forth between Magnus and his magical friends. There’s so much history between him and his friends and frenemies. I also love his and Alec’s relationship. I’m not a huge fan of the young parent plot device. I guess that was a big turn-away for me in this book. However, the kid was barely in the plot. Max was just in the beginning and end, though Magnus and Alec were always (and I mean always) thinking about him. I know this is probably realistic. But, it was a little much for me. And if it’s a little much for me (an adult who works with children), will it be too much for actual teens reading this? Probably. I guess I wanted a little more swoony romance and a little less worrying about the babysitter.

A lot of the action felt recycled. There was nothing too new about it. I never really felt that afraid for Magnus or worried about anything. I also called all of the twists. I know some of this is the weird timeline of it all. But, also, I was just a little under-whelmed plot wise. And again, I just kept putting this down. I also found myself skimming a lot of the action sequences, wanting to get back to the banter.

All in all, I’m not that inclined to read book 3, but I probably will. I hate not completing a series. And I love Magnus to pieces. The “dramatic” ending didn’t fill me with need for the next one. But, I guess I’m here for the banter. It was nice traveling across the world too. I give this a 6.5/10.