Though I'll always have a soft spot for Tales From the Shadowhunter Academy, I honestly think this may be my favorite of all the short story collections in the Shadowhunter Chronicles. Maybe that's the bias towards the character of Jem/Brother Zachariah showing itself, but these stories are really fulfilling in a way I'm not used to these collections being. I love seeing the way all these wove into so many aspects of the greater world Cassie Clare built, how they tie together around a pretty significant plot point throughout all the books, and also the ways in which they very much are their own stories.

I'm not sure if I have a favorite among them, though there were a couple that did feel weaker than the rest. (Still far more solid than past short stories though, which I think speaks to the strength of how well Clare and her collaborative partners in these collections have come to write together and improve on their joint writing efforts.)

This is probably also going to have a lot of nostalgia and positive feelings for me in the future. It is the first book in all the Shadowhunter Chronicles that I read with my husband for the first time. We've been going through the series together, book by book in publication order, but prior to reading this one I had read every book before on my own. He had at least read The Mortal Instruments. But it was special, getting to go through this for the first time with him and make observations and discussions with one another as we did. (He says that his favorite short story is The Land I Lost; he has a major soft spot and a fierce love for Alec and Magnus and their journey to becoming partners and parents, and learning how they ended up with their second kid. Though he does say that The Lost World is a close second favorite among them.)