The Mortal Instruments trilogy by Cassandra Clare

Summary: Teen girl discovers that "all the stories are true" - werewolves, vampires, fairies, etc. actually live among us. She falls in with a group of Shadowhunters, who hunt and kill demons who came to earth from other dimensions. She gets caught in a love triangle (of sorts, although you know who she would end up with, really) and becomes involved with the fight against a pretty Hitler-like villain.

My impression: This reads a bit like a cross between L.J. Smith's The Secret Circle trilogy and L.J. Smith's Night World series, with more otherworldly creatures and funny dialogues thrown in.

The bad: The minor characters are basically more interesting than the heroine. There's this problem with descriptions of characters being one thing in one paragraph and something else in the next one. The heroine does get annoying at times. Oh, and it's not that original, I suppose. (But then again, truly original books are very rare!)

The good: FUNNNNY. These books had me lol-ing in the train on the way to work, and late at night when I was supposed to be sleeping. The minor characters are very interesting, especially Magnus Bane, who reminds me a bit of Diana Wynne Jones' Howl. It's funny. Holly Black's characters cameo in one of the books. It's funny. Cassandra Clare knows her myth and folklore. The writing is enjoyable and all three books are very well-paced. It's funny. Jace reminds me a lot of Ash Redfern from L.J. Smith's Night World books, which is a good thing because I adore Ash. And it's funny.

Conclusion: Love the trilogy. I would definitely be getting the prequel trilogy when they come out, and I'd recommend this to my friends who like YA or urban fantasy.