The boy never cryed again, and he never forgot what he'd learned: that to love is to destroy, and to be loved is to be the one destroyed.

That quote is from my newest book-love, City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. Part of the Mortal Instruments trilogy, it is a fluffy read full of adventure and love. I called a lot of the 'big twists' WAY before they happened, but that made it more fun - like one of Pastor Jon's sermons where I fill in all the blanks two minutes in and then find out if I'm right. =D Each of the three books, cleverly titled City of Bones, City of Ashes, and City of Glass, is a quick read, taking maybe four or five hours at my slower pace. That would not be the pace reserved fro Harry Potter and Twilight books. I can't read everything that fast. I own the first book, and reccomend it to people - although the less you read of the rest of it, the more you may like it.
I know that all of the hype regarding Cassandra Claire and her plagiarism happened way back in 2001, when I was just entering the fandom. I was shocked by the news, hurt even, as were many others. Her Draco Trilogy was my first novel-length fic, and I had loved her leatherpants!Draco as much as one could love a fictional character. The plot drew me into Draco Sinister, and I continued into Draco Dormiens – not knowing the uproar until a fellow fanfic writer warned me. I stopped reading, partly because there was no more to read at the time, and partly because I was astonished that anyone would try to do something like that. (If you don’t know anything about the Cassandra Claire debacle, or Cassiegate, you can read about it here.)
A few years later, whenever she finished Draco Veritas, I read the fics again for closure. I had liked the characters and the plot and wanted to know how it ended. I figured that she had been through the scandal and that was that. Little did I know that it would all come back again. This year, I found my old PDFs of the stories (which are admittedly better at acknowledging the quotes than her originals were) and started to reread – mostly because I was bored out of my mind and they were nostalgic. Having now been exposed to Buffy and other works she drew from, I found myself reading through a swamp of familiar one-liners but was unperturbed as I knew about it beforehand.
I was in the middle of Draco Veritas when I stumbled upon her very own published book: City of Bones, part one of the Mortal Instruments trilogy. I was a little surprised – she’d been known for rather blatant plagiarism, but I suppose she could have changed her ways. Also, her name has lost it’s ‘i’ – she was now just Cassandra Clare. Out of pure curiosity, and a love for blond bad-boys in leather pants, I bought the book. Reading it, I discovered my very favorite fanfiction Draco, cleverly disguised as Jace – who also is remarkably like Spike.
I also discovered familiar one-liners and other things that I sort of brushed past as allusions and oh-its-just-part-of-her-style. I feverishly finished the book – her writing has always been somewhat addictive – and struck out for the last two. I finished the series with a feeling of, well, disappointment. I had always thought that Cassie was a decent writer, and that she just needed to stop relying on the one-liners to carry her through. Apparently, she has not been able to let go of this crutch.
What made me angry, however, is what angered many people during the original fiasco: there were people who looked at the quotes and thought that they were Cassie’s original work! Now, in fanfiction, this is the biggest grey area in the world, mostly because fanfiction itself is a grey area. However, in the world of published fiction, I would like to see credit where credit is clearly due. If Cassie Clare cannot give even that, I may have to actually boycott her books.