Earlier this year (March 2021), I read the most recent Shadowhunter book, Chain of Iron from The Last Hours series by Cassandra Clare. I loved it! I thought it might be my favorite Shadowhunter series so far. But there were some details from other books that I just wasn’t remembering. I’ve been reading Shadowhunter books since 2010, and in that time a lot has happened, including having three children. I’ve pretty much just been reading each book as it comes out. Some of them were read when I had tiny babies and my brain was fuzzy.

Shadowhunter Books

So I decided to do a Chronological-ish reread. It’s not feasible to read all the shorts in chronological order, but my plan is to read the main books in chronological order, fit the Bane Chronicles shorts in where they go because for some reason those shorts work out of publishing order more than the others, and also read The Eldest Curses series for the first time, slotted in where they go chronologically. I don’t intend to do all the short story collections chronologically, but did The Bane Chronicles that way because it actually worked pretty well. I also didn’t reread Chain of Gold and Chain of Iron, because that’s what I had just read.

I started with The Infernal Devices trilogy, read the Bane Chronicles short stories up until The Mortal Instruments, then moved on to City of Bones, etc.

Here’s the order

  • What Really Happened in Peru (The Bane Chronicles)
  • The Runaway Queen (The Bane Chronicles)
  • Vampires, Scones, and Edmund Herondale (The Bane Chronicles)
  • Clockwork Angel
  • Clockwork Prince
  • Clockwork Princess
  • Chain of Gold
  • Chain of Iron
  • The Bane Chronicles Part 2ish(up until the time of The Mortal Instruments)
  • City of Bones
  • The Course of True Love (And First Dates) (The Bane Chronicles)
  • What to Buy the Shadowhunter Who has Everything (And Who You’re Not Officially Dating Anyway) (The Bane Chronicles)
  • City of Ashes
  • City of Glass
  • The Red Scrolls of Magic
  • City of Fallen Angels
  • City of Lost Souls
  • The Voicemail of Magnus Bane (The Bane Chronicles)
  • City of Heavenly Fire
  • Tales from the Shadow-hunter Academy
  • The Lost Book of the White
  • Ghosts of the Shadow Market
  • Lady Midnight
  • Lord of Shadows
  • Queen of Air and Darkness