Raphael and Simon arrive in Alicante while all the hoo-haa is still going on.  They decide to stand around going “huh, that’s odd” for a little while. Simon wondered how old he’d been when he’d been Turned. Fourteen? Fifteen? Only a little older than Maureen. Well now wait one goldurned minute.  How is it that…

A list of all the things that get described to us before we ever find out about any fighting, much less if there’s any fighting: FFS, writers, do not bog down your action with description.  It slows the pace and murders the tension of your scene. The portal closed right behind Jace and Clary for…

Fortunately, though the rest of the Penhallows’ house was quite elegant, the attic—where “the war orphans,” the collective term that had been applied to the Blackthorn children and Emma since they’d arrived in Idris, were now living—was extremely plain, functional and sturdy in its design. Holy shit, it’s like a nesting doll made out of…

We open with one of my least favorite quirks in writing.  Maia and Jordan, several hours later, are still looking for Simon.  But since the chapter opens on an action (Jordan coming into the apartment) and that action is a significant time jump away from the last action, we have to suffer through a page…

Clary goes to visit the rest of the teens over at the Lightwood’s new house (aka, the “official Inquisitor’s house” since Robert got that job).  After a couple of false starts and lots of descriptions, they tell Clary what happened at the meeting after she ran off.  Apparently not much since “it was clear Sebastian…