Book Review
Title: The Whitechapel Fiend (Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy #3)
Author: Cassandra Clare & Maureen Johnson
Genre: YA/Fantasy/Paranormal/Romance
Rating: ****
Review: All I knew about the Whitechapel Fiend is that it is a story told in the City of Bones timeline where Simon learns the truth about Jack the Ripper who was stopped by our boy, Will Herondale. This story begins with Simon training at the Shadowhunter Academy alongside both Shadowhunter children and those mundanes wanting to become Shadowhunters. Simon has lost his memory in an attempt to save his friends and is trying to rebuild his life although he is struggling with his relationship with Isabelle and Jace is trying to be a friend but it isn’t really helping the situation. During their history lecture, the students are greeted to a guest lecture by Tessa Gray who is telling the true story behind Jack the Ripper at the time she was known as Tessa Herondale and if you remember the Mortal Instruments series, then we know that Jace and Will are related in some sense as they are both Herondales. We then jump back to 1888 where we join the cast of the Infernal Devices for the truth behind Jack the Ripper.
At this time Will and Tessa has two children, two year old James and a new born, Lucie in addition to Gabriel and Cecily’s three year old daughter Anna when the Ripper murders began. It is Gabriel that suspects that the murders might have some demonic activity behind them and the Shadowhunters act accordingly patrolling the East End, watching, and warning whether they can but there were no murders during this time which put them all on edge. During a break in the lecture, Simon suggests that Jace talks to Tessa as she will be able to shed more light on the Herondale family being married into it and he also mentions something about the Carstairs owing the Herondales specifically mentioning Emma Carstairs who I believe is from the Dark Artifices series which I haven’t read yet. Tessa returns to her tale where after the “final” Ripper murder the demon haunting the street of London follows Will and Tessa back to the Institute, taking and hiding the children and wanting to play with them. They assume that this demon is almost child-like in nature so the ghost of Jessamine offers to play with it as she still has her doll’s house in her old room. While she is doing that they manage to locate all of the children and return to Jessamine’s room to find a demon in the form of a child no older than 5 and acting that age. They trick it by offering to play hide and seek before killing it which put an end to the Ripper murders. It turns out that the demon child wanted a mother and was seeking one out which resonated with both Cecily and Tessa being mothers themselves.
Back in the present Will tells Simon he has spoken to Tessa and they are related and she has offered to show him and Clary around the Herondale home in Idris which he is going to take her up on. During all of this Simon has also been struggling with his memory loss although he is beginning to remember small things and decides to write Isabelle a letter explaining that he is trying his best and if she is willing to wait for him then he will try to become someone worthy of her which I found really heart-warming. Overall, I really enjoyed the Whitechapel Fiend as it provided some more context on what happened after the end of the Infernal Devices although there are some references to the event of the Dark Artifices which I haven’t read yet but it was a good story.
Buy it here:
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Also see: City of Bones
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