Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare

Summary:
Simon Lewis has been a human and a vampire, and now he is becoming a Shadowhunter. But the events of City of Heavenly Fire left him stripped of his memories, and Simon isn’t sure who he is anymore. So, when the Shadowhunter Academy reopens, Simon throws himself into this new world of demon-hunting, determined to find himself again. Whoever this new Simon might be.
Join Simon on his journey to become a Shadowhunter, and learn about the Academy’s illustrious history along the way, through guest lecturers such as Jace Herondale, Tessa Gray, and Magnus Bane. These ten moving and hilarious short stories, each with an accompanying illustration, give a satisfying epilogue to the Mortal Instruments series and provide tantalizing glimpses into the Dark Artifices.
Review:
I absolutely adored these novellas. I think they are so well done and add so much to the overall Shadowhunter world. I don’t understand how people can skip reading these novella bind ups because there are so many HUGE details they will be missing out on. I prefer Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy over The Bane Chronicles but only because Simon is my all-time favorite character in this universe. He’s overcome so much as at first just a regular mundane and then dealt with becoming a vampire, then the daylighter, saving the world, and losing his memories. Simon really doesn’t get the appreciation he deserves until this book. I loved every page. I laughed. I cried. I was surprised. I had my ice-cold heart warmed. We really got new insight into Simon. Seeing the challenges he faced at Shadowhunter Academy was great, but even more, we see his personal challenges while dealing with his memory loss and trying to figure out who he is after everything. There were so many familiar faces we got to see that I was happy about. Clary and Isabelle obviously, but we also got to see Caterina in more depth and I enjoyed her parts. We also saw more of Tessa which I liked. The characters that came to visit shared stories we didn’t know about characters we knew in the past. I thought these stories were just as interesting as Simon’s experiences. I loved the story about the Lightwood’s dad (I can’t remember his name) and him sharing about his time in the circle. Then there were the secrets we learned. I think it was so interesting and creatively done that the events in TMI were connected to too various things in TDA. I think this was exactly as the synopsis says, “A satisfying epilogue to the Mortal Instruments and a tantalizing glimpse into the Dark Artifices.” But there are also connections made to the Infernal Devices and it somehow warmed and broke my heart at the same time.

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.