How the Other Half Read: The Mortal Instruments books - read them; read them now!

The Mortal Instruments series can roughly be divided into two trilogies (book 6: Heavenly Fire is due next spring; hurry up, hurry up!) is fantastic. Thematically, it's sort of a cross between Buffy and Harry Potter, with a bunch of angelic influence thrown into the mix. The Shadow-Hunters are a race descended from a human who drank the (willingly-given) blood of the angel Raziel in order to give him and his descendants the strength to fight demons. There also exist warlocks, vampires, werewolves and fairies (known as Down-Worlders) who are descended from demons but keep an uneasy peace with the Shadow-Hunters. Since the film of the first book (City of Bones) is out this month, I don't want to say much more about the plot, because spoilers, Sweetie :) The film, incidentally, contains such acting gods as Lena Headey and Aidan Turner, and I am really looking forward to see it.

My favourite character is definitely Isabelle, not just because she's tall and has an amazing dress sense, but more because she is clearly the most sorted character of the lot - and that includes the adults; as everyone else blunders about trying not to tell their best friend/sibling that they're in love with them, trying to come out ("I'm gay!"; "I'm a vampire!") to their parents and generally wreaking bloody havoc in an exciting and violent manner, Izzy is calm, kick-ass and shod in the best heeled-boots an author can imagine.

Another fist-punching-the-air thing about this series is that there is diversity in the characters (Not like at Hogwarts where there are a pair of Patels, one Irish guy, one black guy, everyone has (or had) a pair of parents and everyone is straight; correct me if I'm wrong - it's been some time since I read it!). TMI has plenty of people of different ethnicities, a guy who loves glitter, mixed-race relationships (even including living/undead, mortal/immortal and many other combinations), single mums, girls who don't want relationships, gay guys, gay girls...basically it's not a cis-white-straight party, and that makes things more believable. This isn't to say there isn't any prejudice against a bunch of the stuff I've mentioned, but the experience of dealing with this makes the characters even more interesting.

The Classicist in me loved the occasional Latin and Greek (Shadow-Hunters are well-versed in these and well-read in their ancient authors) and I'd be curious to hear how the suspense in these sections worked for those who had to wait for a translation. The fifth book finishes with a one word cliff-hanger which is, I truly believe, the most exciting cliff-hanger I've ever read/seen. (OMG, OMG, OMG! Can't wait till next March! Thankfully, there are various other connected series of prequels to keep me going until then.)

The character-development, relationships and twists in the plot are brilliantly done and I honestly cannot conceive how one person has an imagination big enough to create five such incredible books' worth of story. Countless times I ended up kicking myself because I was so excited to find out who so-and-so was or what was about to happen that my eyes skipped down the page and spoiled the surprise (delayed gratification is difficult when the thing is right there in front of you!).

Seriously, go and read the first three books. Then KEEP READING!

Georgia's list as it stands:

Stabat Mater, Tiziano Scarpa (2011)
Facing Violence, Rory Miller (2011)
Un Lun Dun, China Mieville (2007)
Open Secrets, Alice Munro (1994)
The Dragon Queen, Alice Borchardt (2001)
Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Walters (1998)
The lost books of the Odyssey, Zachary Mason (2007)
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien, (1937)
The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes, Neil Gaiman, (1991)
The Hypnotist, Lars Kepler, (2012)
The Strain (2009), The Fall (2010), The Night Eternal (2011), Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, Philip Pullman (2010)
Angry White Pyjamas, Robert Twigger (1997)
50 shades of Feminism, ed Lisa Appignanesi et al (2013)
Further Voices in Vergil's Aeneid, R O A M Lyne (1987)
The Journal of Dora Damage, Belinda Starling (2007)
Hideous Kinky, Esther Freud (1992)
Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse, Rick Riordan (2007)
Disgrace, Jussi Adler Olsen (2012)
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (1883)
Romanitas, Sophia McDougall (2005)
Selected Poems, Sophie Hannah (2013)
The Long Earth, Terry Pratchett and Steven Baxter (2012)
A very short introduction to the Roman Republic, David M Gywnn (2012)
The Gift of Rain, Tan Twan Eng (2007)
The Mortal Instruments 1: City of Bones, Cassandra Clare (2007)
The Mortal Instruments 2: City of Ashes, Cassandra Clare (2008)
The Mortal Instruments 3: City of Glass, Cassandra Clare (2009)
The Mortal Instruments 4: City of Fallen Angels, Cassandra Clare (2011)
The Mortal Instruments 5: City of Lost Souls, Cassandra Clare (2012)
The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury (1952)