Book Review :: The Lost Book of the White by Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu

The Lost Book of the White by Cassandra Clare, Wesley Chu
ISBN: 1471162095
Series: The Eldest Curses #2
Also in this series: The Red Scrolls of Magic
Published by Simon & Schuster
on 2020-09-01
Genres: Paranormal, Supernatural, Young Adult
Pages: 400
Goodreads

From #1 New York Times bestselling authors Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu comes the second book in the Eldest Curses series and a thrilling new adventure for High Warlock Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood, for whom a death-defying mission into the heart of evil is not just a job, it’s also a romantic getaway. The Lost Book of the White is a Shadowhunters novel.

Life is good for Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood. They’re living together in a fabulous loft, their warlock son, Max, has started learning to walk, and the streets of New York are peaceful and quiet—as peaceful and quiet as they ever are, anyway.

Until the night that two old acquaintances break into Magnus’s apartment and steal the powerful Book of the White. Now Magnus and Alec will have to drop everything to get it back. They need to follow the thieves to Shanghai, they need to call some backup to accompany them, and they need a babysitter.

Also, someone has stabbed Magnus with a strange magical weapon and the wound is glowing, so they have that to worry about too.

Fortunately, their backup consists of Clary, Jace, Isabelle, and newly-minted Shadowhunter Simon. In Shanghai, they learn that a much darker threat awaits them. Magnus’s magic is growing unstable, and if they can’t stop the demons flooding into the city, they might have to follow them all the way back to the source—to the very realm of the dead. Can they stop the threat to the world? Will they make it back home before their kid completely wears out Alec’s mom?

Last updated on 23 January 2026

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My thoughts on The Lost Book of the White

The second book in The Eldest Curses series by Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu, The Lost of Book of White continue the tales of Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood, as they navigate their relationship with each other, with their friends, their son, and a bucket-load of demons.

Just the usual Cassandra Clare tale.

Despite it taking me nearly a month to read, it was due to lack of time, not lack of enjoyment. Much like the first in this series, The Red Scrolls of Magic, The Lost Book of the White was a fun, quite short, whirl-wind tale following Magnus and Alec as they work to try and release Magnus from a demonic thorn which has been thrust into his chest, and also retrieve the Book of the White back which was stolen from them.

“If I only jumped when I knew where I was going to land, I would never jump at all.”

The Mortal Instruments crew are heavily featured in this book, more so than the last, and Clary, Jace, Isabel and Simon join Magnus and Alec on their quest, which takes them to Shanghai.

The Lost Book of the White takes the usual Hadowhunter twists and turns, but it is always a joy to read about Magnus and Alec, as they are some of my favourite characters in the entire Shadowhunter world. Jem Carstairs also makes an appearance, which is always a winner for me because that’s my favourite series in Clare’s world – The Infernal Devices – and it also makes for an entertaining and fun read when there are cameos from other characters across the series.

If you’re a Cassandra Clare fan and you haven’t read this series with Wesley Chu yet, then it is a fun (so much shorter) series to dive into. While it took me ages to read it, but I am looking forward to reading the next one in the series, The Black Volume of the Dead, which is due for publication sometime in 2021.

Have you read The Lost Book of the White? What did you think?