The Lost Book of the White

By: Cassandra Clare, Wesley Chu

Narrated by: BD Wong

Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

From number-one New York Times best-selling authors Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu comes the second book in the Eldest Curses series and a thrilling 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 that is changing the very nature of his powers. 

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.

©2020 Cassandra Clare, LLC. All rights reserved. (P)2020 Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved.

Great Story, Terrible Narration

The story is wonderful, but the reading of this story is terrible. The accents are all wrong for the characters and do not fit their personalies. Also, names are mispronounced. It made it hard to get through and enjoy the story.

Does the narrator not know anything about Cassie’s other books?

the story is great, but I can’t with the narrator. He makes everyone but Magnus speak like a teenaged girl, even Alec and Jace. He makes Alec sound like a coy little girl and doesn't really capture the personalities of the characters we all know and love. On one part I had no idea who the characters were talking to because the narrator kept pronouncing Mayrse (MAY-RIS) like “Maurice” or Mahreece . Then on another part, he gave Mayrse and Khadir British accents (They're American), Jem is actually British but he gave him a broken english Chinese accent....I was so confused! I will have to just buy the kindle version and read the book myself.

Awful Narration

The story is ok. I can tell Cassie was not the only author because it had a different feel. I can't stand this narrator. He does not capture the arrogance of Jace we all know and love. He made Jace sound like a dumb surfer dude. I didn't like his choice of voice for any other character either. It makes me wonder if he did any research on these characters?!? He does a good Chinese accent though. On one part I had no idea who the characters were talking to because the narrator kept pronouncing Mayrse (MAY-RIS) like “Mah-reese” Thank goodness I have a hard copy.
Dear Mike Charzick. don't let this guy read again until you both do some background into these characters!

Excellent Story,.narration so so

I love Cassandra are and all her Mortal Instruments books and spin offs. I eagerly await each new book and series. This book didn't disappoint!! Another great story in this new spin off. I did get a little confused with them time line not matching that in Chain of Gold with the LA characters in the epilogue. However, the narrator was terrible. His voices for Simon & Clary were especially grading and hard to listen to

Great story...bad narration

The narrator did not know enough about the characters to properly portray them. He made all of the NY characters sound like bored teenagers and gave strong accents to characters who speak perfect accent-less English.

Narrator ruined it for me

I was not a fan of this narrator. I LOVE these books get so excited when a new one is ready to listen to, but this narrator was not great he didn’t pronounce names right and made all the characters sound tired and or high. I really hope this narrator does not work on other books otherwise I won’t listen I will go back to reading on my own.

This ruined the newest book in my favorite series.

I Love this series but this recording ruined the new book for me. He does Clary and Simon’s voice Ike they have a learning disability and struggle to speak. Also, he mispronounces does many names. Why did no one catch that??? His voices are AWFUL!!! Horrible ! Worst recording of a SHADOW HINTER book!

Can we be any more condescending.

So I was able to get through the 1st book in the series after starting it several times and almost puking from the narrator’s voices. So I downloaded the this one… I’m on chapter 2 and I just can’t handle it. The voices for every character except Alex and Magnus are so whiney and weird. Like jace sounds like he is whining?!? Have you ready any of these books?!? Jace… Isabelle… Simon??? I noticed it was bad in the first book when female characters were introduced… the cringe factor is so high I just can’t. I just can’t…. So far a content I am really hoping reading it will improve what sounds like really poor writing into something semi normal. I know this isn’t Cassandra and I’m trying to take that into consideration. I’m going to try to see if I can return this audiobook and try again. Can we PLEASE change the narrator for the next book?!?! PLEASE????

Great story.

I loved the story, and was really excited to listen to B.D Wongs narration, but I didn't care for his interpretation of the characters. He made Jace and Simon sound like Californian surfer dudes, Alex seem very whiney and dependent, and Jem grew up in Victorian England the Chinese accent seemed a little heavy handed. He did a decent job with Magnus and Ragnor. I think shadow market book does a better job with the voices.

Great Story, Terrible Narration

The narration of this book made it very hard for me to finish. Fortunately, Cassandra Claire writes a good story so I just powered through it. Everyone except Magnus sounded like stoned surfer dudes. How did Jem suddenly have a thick Chinese accent when he had a British accent in all other books? I don’t understand how the quality control people let this narration go through.