The Mortal Instrumentsis the first series in Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunter Chronicles, and there are harsh realities of reading these books 10 years after City of Heavenly Fire debuted. Clare has come a long way since City of Bones, the first installment in The Mortal Instruments, hit shelves — and her Shadowhunters universe has expanded significantly as well. Although The Mortal Instruments was initially meant to be a trilogy, it went on for three more books. It also spun out into other series, including The Infernal Devices, The Dark Artifices, and The Last Hours. 6a3z4d

In 2007, author Cassandra Clare released the very first book in her The Mortal Instrumentsbook series, and since then, the sequels in the YA romantasy series have had readers arguing how they rank against each other. In total, there are six books in The Mortal Instruments series. These include City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, and City of Heavenly Fire. The series received a 2013 The Mortal Instruments movie adaptation and a 2016 TV series. Clare went on to write three more series, taking place in the same magical world over several generations.

The Shadowhunter Chronicles aren't touted as particularly brutal fantasy books, but The Mortal Instrumentsdeserves more credit for being bold enough to kill one character in City of Glass. Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunter books feature plenty of humor and hopeful themes, but they aren't devoid of darker moments — and they excel when it comes to character deaths. With Clare focusing so heavily on the characters and relationships in her Shadowhunter stories, it's no surprise that such losses have a massive emotional impact.

From the publishing of the first installment of The Mortal Instruments books, City of Bones, in 2007, the novels and their best quotes have remained a cornerstone of young adult fantasy. The series is referred to as The Shadowhunter Chronicles, as the story revolves around Clary, a young woman who discovers she's a Shadowhunter in the first book, which propels her into the Shadowhunter world to fight the forces of evil. Her primary romantic interest, Jace, is a Shadowhunter as well, and their relationship fuels many emotional moments across the series.

Given the popularity of Cassandra Clare's best-selling Shadowhunters books, 2013's The Mortal Instruments: City of Bonesshould have seen enough success to spawn a series, but certain missteps sealed the movie's fate as a box office flop. The Mortal Instruments movie follows Clary Fray (Lily Collins) as she discovers she's from a line of demon-hunting, magic-wielding beings called Shadowhunters. After Clary's mother is kidnapped, she's thrust into a world previously erased from her memories. She embarks on a quest to save her mom from the former Shadowhunter Valentine, falling into a local band of Shadowhunters in the process.

The Mortal Instruments was heralded as the next big YA movie franchise, but will the sequel to The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, titled City Of Ashes, ever happen? Writer Cassandra Clare began publishing her urban fantasy series The Mortal Instruments in 2007 and ended the saga with its sixth book City Of Heavenly Fire in 2014, though other novellas and anthologies set in the same world have been released since. The original books in Clare’s Mortal Instruments series spent a combined total of 102 weeks on the New York Times Best-Seller List, which made it a property ripe for a big-screen adaptation.

Matthew Daddario, who starred as Alec Lightwood in Shadowhunters, reveals whether or not he'd return to the franchise. Based off of The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunters was a TV series that premiered on Freeform, and ran for three seasons. The show was a reboot of the 2013 film adaptation The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, which had received mixed responses from critics and Mortal Instruments fans alike. Despite similarly mixed reviews, Shadowhunters would go on to win six Teen Choice Awards, and five People's Choice Awards.

[This is a review of Shadowhunters season 1, episode 13. There will be SPOILERS.]

This Week in TV:

This Week: