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Where to start with The Shadowhunter Chronicles

The Shadowhunter Chronicles is a set of linked young adult fantasy series by Cassandra Clare, and readers disagree about the right order. This guide picks four books, one to open each of four of its series, rather than claim one order is correct.

Where to start

Most guides suggest City of Bones, the first book published, which opens The Mortal Instruments in present-day New York. Some readers prefer story order, which puts the Victorian London books that begin with Clockwork Angel first.

The series share one world and later books refer back to earlier ones, so some plot may be given away whichever way you go. The books are young adult fantasy with violence and romance.

Four places to start

These four books are starting points, listed by the year each series began, and not the whole run. The later books in each series and the shorter tie-in stories are left out.

  1. City of Bones

    Cassandra Clare

    A teenager in New York witnesses a killing that the people around her cannot see, and learns of a hidden world of demon hunters. It opens The Mortal Instruments.

    Starting point 1 of 4, published 2007.

  2. Clockwork Angel

    Cassandra Clare

    A girl from New York arrives in Victorian London to join her brother and is pulled into a hidden world of demon hunters. It opens The Infernal Devices.

    Starting point 2 of 4, published 2010.

  3. Lady Midnight

    Cassandra Clare

    A young Shadowhunter in Los Angeles is determined to find who killed her parents, as a new string of murders begins. It opens The Dark Artifices.

    Starting point 3 of 4, published 2016.

  4. Chain of Gold

    Cassandra Clare

    Young Shadowhunters in London in 1903 face a threat to the city, in a series set some years after The Infernal Devices. It opens The Last Hours.

    Starting point 4 of 4, published 2020.

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