I requested this book after being intrigued by its mixed reviews, as well as after reading the first book of the author's Harry Potter fanfiction trilogy (which, in all honesty, I only read because I heard about the plagiarism scandal and wanted to see what it was all about. The fanfiction wasn't my cup of tea, to say the least, but I was interested to see what her original work had to offer). 
 Okay, I'll admit it. I read this book in one day because it was fun. I thought it was a fun book. Was the story overly complicated, or the plot-twists unexpected? Not by any stretch of the imagination. Was there impeccable grammar and brilliant characterization? Not particularly. The world was interesting, however, and the one-liners were witty. I'll admit I enjoyed it a great deal. 
 I don't consider myself a book critic, so I won't be overly critical in my review, however there are a few things I found about this book to be slightly annoying. One was the grammar, as I noticed several grammatical mistakes throughout the novel. 
 Character wise, the book had an interesting group of teenagers, with Clary (the main protagonist) being, in my opinion, the least interesting. I didn't dislike her, I simply felt like she filled the quota for the typical 'strong female heroine' without that extra twist that makes her unique. And there was a love triangle, which I'm not particularly fond of, yet seems to weave it's way into a lot of my favorite series. Izzy and Alec were interesting, as was Magnus Bane, but they didn't get enough time to really develop. Jace was incredibly witty, but I felt like his personality fluctuated a bit between scenes. Simon was definitely my favorite character, however, and I found I sympathized with his plights a lot more than I did with Clary's. 
 I feel like this seems rather critical, and I'd like to state again that I really did enjoy this book. It doesn't require much thought or emotional investment, but I don't think it was supposed to. I considered it more along the lines of the book form of a summer blockbuster movie, and I'd recommend it to anyone who was interested in that sort of thing.