Review: The Lost Book of the White

The Lost Book of the White by Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cassie Clare AND Wesley Chu collaborating?



About this guy?



And it's a trilogy?





(I think the above pre-review was written when this title was supposed to be for the first book and not swapped with The Red Scrolls of Magic, but the sentiment still stands.) 

The second book of Alec and Magnus's spinoff series was, sadly, spoiled for many when some damn fool leaked the entire manuscript somewhere. A demon pox on all their house for trying to tank Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu so shamelessly...but given that the book debuted at #1 on the NYT Bestseller List anyway, I'd like to say they failed and Clare and Chu succeeded. And boy, did they succeed. 

This book is, to my mind, the best Clare has put her name to in almost two years, since Queen of Air and Darkness for sure. While the first book of The Eldest Curses was fun but somewhat lacking in stakes, relatively speaking, especially given that it took place roughly parallel to City of Fallen Angels and so we knew the events had already happened. But even with this book covering a gap in the timeline - between Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy and Lady Midnight, it's pretty clear that Clare and Chu have figured out how to really keep us readers even more on our toes than ever. Not only does this stem from the increasing injury done to poor Magnus by a particularly pernicious miscreation of nature, but also from the fact that we're finally getting to see a relatively unexplored part of Clare's story world - Shanghai, which seems particularly underutilized throughout her previous books considering it's where Jem Carstairs came from. But it's not just Shanghai we get to see - it's also Diyu, the Chinese version of Hell, with a lot of involvement from local demons and faeries and even an unexpected Prince of Darkness. 

It takes a hell of a lot for Magnus and Alec - and their best friends and family, Clary and Simon and Izzy and Jace - to fight back against the new demonic threat that's ready to subsume the world. And while we know that chronologically, it's the Cohort and Unseelies that pose the next great threat, this book feels like it's also helping foreshadow The Wicked Powers with at least one Prince of Darkness promised to come back big time on this book's cliffhanger ending. That the third and final book of this trilogy is supposed to bridge the gap between TDA and TWP only underlines that point - Clare's really putting all the world together in some really unique and inspiring ways, and I can't wait to see what comes next! 

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