The Mortal Instruments: Books or show?

[slj3988]

The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, starting with City of Bones, is an acclaimed coming-of-age fantasy series that has been around for a while now. Six books initially were supplemented with a prequel trilogy, two spin-offs, and more recently, a sequel trilogy and a few standalone titles.

As someone who saw the movie years ago, I wasn't a fan. It was too much information to condense into a film and it didn't sell the story for me. Then the Shadowhunters TV show came to Netflix and I thought, "Huh. Why not?"
I went in expecting mediocrity but was pleasantly surprised. Anyone who's into fantasy or romance should check it out if you haven't given it a go yet.

They surpassed the movie in every way. I fell in love with the characters and plot so much that I ordered most of the books and plan to finish the collection. Right now, I've wrapped up season 2 and finally managed to get around to the books.

This post is for fans to chat about it or compare the books with the show. What changes rustled your feathers? What you thought was better? Etc.

[Barbie_sidhu]

Definitely the books.

[JustineSophia2]

I may be the only one, but I saw the movie (which was terrible) then the show Shadowhunters, which I enjoyed and only read the books afterwards. The movie was awful, the plot felt forced even though it was based on the book, the characters Jace and Clary had no chemisty and Jace was sullen, I did not think the actor fit the character. I enjoyed the show the sarcastic personality of Jace in the show seemed more accurate.

[yapashley]

The Mortal Instruments was such a serious letdown. The movie was horrible. If they followed through the story, it would have gotten so much interesting. I tried watching the first few episodes of the series but even then I was still disappointed.

[Dartemis]

I honestly didn't have that much of a problem with the movie but I'm a very easy person to please when it comes to movies. The TV show I think it had its own set of issues but I can understand why it has such a huge fanbase. The books are just in a league of their own. I love them to pieces.

[Pamela Bianca Mas]

The book! I have seen movie adaptations that are ‘okay’ but the book is always better.

[underthe_cloudyskies]

I love the books to the end of the world and they're really amazing with a wholehearted combination of humor, romance and action. When I saw the movie I was severely disappointed by Jace, you know the way Cassandra Claire describes Jace as beautiful and sarcastic and everything a character you fall in love with would include and that's the same with show Jace. He's definitely better but the way instead of having a sarcastically fun relationship with Clary all they have is sweet crying stuff, I have to end up with the books instead.

[Mhanlon2]

I loved the books from beginning to end. Starting with the Mortal Instrument and the realizing there are prequel and sequel series, I've read them all. I watched the movie but it didn't hit right and I couldn't get into it. Theres so much detail and main points that were missed in the movie and show. Also taking a look at the characters in the movie and show versus the books, there was so much more depth to the characters of the books.

[Georgephilips]

The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, starting with City of Bones, is an acclaimed coming-of-age fantasy series that has been around for a while now. Six books initially were supplemented with a prequel trilogy, two spin-offs, and more recently, a sequel trilogy and a few standalone titles.

As someone who saw the movie years ago, I wasn't a fan. It was too much information to condense into a film and it didn't sell the story for me. Then the Shadowhunters TV show came to Netflix and I thought, "Huh. Why not?"
I went in expecting mediocrity but was pleasantly surprised. Anyone who's into fantasy or romance should check it out if you haven't given it a go yet.

They surpassed the movie in every way. I fell in love with the characters and plot so much that I ordered most of the books and plan to finish the collection. Right now, I've wrapped up season 2 and finally managed to get around to the books.

This post is for fans to chat about it or compare the books with the show. What changes rustled your feathers? What you thought was better? Etc.

Maybe the movie. Haven't read any of the book

[Kaitlin Licato]

The books are awesome. I actually prefer "The Infernal Devices" series that takes place before it though. Awesome books.

The movie was awful. Didn't work at all.

I did love Shadowhunters though. Magnus was awesome. That's all I have to say. I love me some Magnus.

[gelsomino sarah]

The Mortal Instruments Series of books is way better than the show and movie! I've read the book series before the show, and the plot of both the show and movie seemed scrambled and random. If people didn't read the books, then watching the movie would be confusing. I recommend the book series! It is an amazing, thrilling, dangerously, love story!

[Rachael S 1]

Books. 100%. The movie adaptation was not that great, but I wish it had been explored more. In regards to the tv series, it started out dark, and then the writers realized it was attracting more of a younger audience and they changed it up a bit. Was not a fan after that.

[kirthana_shivakumar]

I think that despite the show being quite different, I enjoyed it. A show has to include perspectives of all the characters, so they had to build situations for Isabelle and Simon and the other characters whose POV's are not shown in the first book. I think they did this quite well.

[Ihara_xox]

The shadow hunter series was the best series I have read in my whole life. But the movie was terrible

[Afrah Erfan]

Honestly, I saw the movie first and felt like there must be something more to this. That's when I planned to read the books. And it was like a whole different level.
The Netflix series if I say did 80 percent justice to the Books. But the movie would be a big NO from me.