Friday, October 7, 2011

Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare: Series in Quotes

To honor Jace this week for winning the YA Crush Tournament, we've been having a week of Shadowhunters.  We've had features on BOTH Shadowhunting series, The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices.  Today, we are doing a little feature we love here on the YA Sisterhood blog.  Its called a book in quotes.  This time its going to be a series in quotes.  This will highlight Jace in all his crush-worthy glory!   All of these quotes are Cassandra Clare's and are from the first 3 books in The Mortal Instruments series.  

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***Be warned this has serious spoilers for all 3 books!***

"Clary tipped her head back to look at him but saw only the stars cartwheeling across the dark sky overhead.  Then the bottom dropped out of everything, and even Jace's arms around her were not enough to keep her from falling."  

"She's not a mundane." Jace said quietly.

"Don't stop there. I suppose there are also, what, vampires and werewolves and zombies?"
"Of course there are. Although you mostly find zombies farther south, where the voudun priests are."
"What about mummies? Do they only hang around Egypt?"
"Don't be ridiculous. No one believes in mummies.'" 

"I see violence in your future a great deal of blood shed by you and others.  You'll fall in love with the wrong person.  Also, you have an enemy." -Madam Dorothea

"I am one of the Clave. It's in my blood and bones. So tell me, if you're so sure this wasn't my fault, why is it that the first thought in my mind when I saw Abbadon wasn't for my fellow warriors but for you?" His other hand came up; he was holding her face, prisoned between his palms. "I know-I knew-Alec wasn't acting like himself. I knew something was wrong. But all I could think about was you..." 

"Valentine was insane," he said.  "Brilliant, but insane.  He cared about nothing but killing demons and Downworlders.  Nothing but making the world pure." -Hodge

"Jace kept her hand in his, sending tiny electrical shocks traveling up and down her veins from every point where he touched her: her fingers, her wrist, the palm of her hand."

"He's not your father!"
Jace looked as if she'd slapped him.  "Why are you so determined not to believe us?"
"Because she loves you," said Valentine.

"Jocelyn is your mother Jonathan.  And Clary--Clary is your sister." -Valentine

"That sounds terrific, thought Cary.  Just you, your comatose wife, your shell-shocked son, and your daughter who hates your guts. Not to mention that your two kids may be in love with each other. Yeah, that sounds like a perfect family reunion." 

"He made a sound like a choked laughed before he reached out and pulled her into her arms. She was aware of Luke watching them from the window, but she shut her eyes resolutely and buried her face against Jace's shoulder. He smelled of salt and blood, and only when his mouth came close to her ear did she understand what he was saying, and it was the simplest litany of all: her name, just her name." 

"I don't want to be a man," said Jace. "I want to be an angst-ridden teenager who can't confront his own inner demons and takes it out verbally on other people instead." 
"Well," said Luke, "you're doing a fantastic job." 

"For a moment Clary thought she might fall; she felt as if something essential had been torn away from her, an arm or a leg, and she stared at Jace in blank astonishment--what did he feel, did he feel nothing?  She didn't think she could bear it if he felt nothing."

"Something inside Clary cracked and broke, and words came pouring out. "What do you want me to tell you? The truth? The truth is that I love Simon like I should love you, and I wish he was my brother and you weren't, but I can't do anything about that and neither can you!" 

“Desire is not always lessened by disgust. Nor can it be bestowed, like a favor, to those most deserving of it. And as my words bind my magic, so you can know the truth. If she doesn’t desire his kiss, she won’t be free."

"When you love someone, you don't have a choice." 

"She told me," he went on, as if Clary hadn't spoken,  "that I had turned her first child into a monster.  She left me before I could do the same to her second.  You.  But she was too late."

"But it was Valentine who answered, not taking his eyes from the wall.  There was a look on his face--not at all the look Clary had expected, a looked that mixed triumph and horror, despair and delight."

"I'll just be your brother from now on." -Jace

“You’re my sister,” he said finally. “My sister, my blood, my family. I should want to protect you”—he laughed soundlessly and without any humor—“to protect you from the sort of boys who want to do with you exactly what I want to do.” 

"Tomorrow by midnight we'll be either at war or under Valentine's rule.  This could be the last night of our lives, certainly the last even barely ordinary one.  The last night we got to sleep and get up just as we always have.  And all I could think of was that I wanted to spend it with you."  "Jace..."  "I don't mean lke that.  I won't touch you, not if you don't want me to.  I know it's wrong.  God, it's all kinds of wrong, but I just want to lie down with you and wake up with you, just one, just one time ever in my life.  It's jus this one night.  In the grand scheme of things, how much can one night matter?"


"So Jace," Clary whispered.  "Jace is not my brother?"
She felt her mother squeeze her hand... "No, Clary.  He's not."


"But there was no way I was going to let you die thinking you you have demon blood, or with out telling you that there's nothing wrong with you...And you needed to know that Clary's not your sister," she said more gently.  "Because--because you just did." -Isabelle


"Jace's eyes flew wide.  A look of disbelieving confusion passed over his face; he glanced down at himself, where Maellartach stuck grotesquely out of his chest...Valentine drew his hand back then jerking the Sword out of Jace's chest."


"He [Jace] was a Shadowhunter; he had died in battle; he deserved the last benediction.  Ave atque vale.  Her lips shaped the words, though they fell from her mouth in silent puffs of air."


"Like a felled tree, Valentine crashed to the ground and lay still--his mouth open in a silent cry, his blind eyes fixed forever in a last look of incredulous betrayal.
That was the justice of heaven.  I trust that you are not dismayed."


"You can compel me to one action, Clarrissa Morgenstern.  What is it that you want?" -Raziel

"Clary hesitated--only for a moment, but the moment stretched out as long as any moment ever had.  She could ask for anything, she thought dizzily, anything--an end to pain or world hunger or disease, or for peace on earth.  But then again, perhaps these things weren't in the the power of angels to grant, or they would have already been granted.  And perhaps people are supposed to find these for themselves.
     It didn't matter, anyway.  There was only one thing she could ask for, in the end, only one real choice.
     "Jace" she said."

"And now I’m looking at you," he said, "and you’re asking me if I still want you, as if I could stop loving you. As if I would want to give up the thing that makes me stronger than anything else ever has. I never dared give much of myself to anyone before – bits of myself to the Lightwoods, to Isabelle and Alec, but it took years to do it – but, Clary, since the first time I saw you, I have belonged to you completely. I still do. If you want me."

"I told her I had everything I wanted." -Clary

"Every memory was valuable, even the bad ones."

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What are some of your favorite quotes from either series, The Mortal Instruments or The Infernal Devices?


***Please be sure to come back tomorrow, to see our interview with Jace as he responds to winning the Crush Tournament and for a very special giveaway!***