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.

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.

The story was great, the narrator not so much..

I loved the story, but the narration is terrible. All the characters were read all wrong except for Magnus Bane. I almost couldn't finish the book. Next time I listen to this series I think I'll opt to read this particular book on my kindle.

Interesting Story - Terrible Narration

I really want to fully love this story because it's actually very interesting and a good addition to the series. However, the narration is terribly disappointing and makes it incredibly difficult to enjoy the story. The voices for each character are so grating. Jace, Simon, Clary, and Isabelle all sound like variations of bored/whiny teenagers - it was hard to endure their dialogue. Also, it seems like the narrator knows nothing of the previous books because many of the names were mispronounced. I'm not exactly sure what happened because this was the same narrator for the Red Scrolls of Magic and I enjoyed the presentation in that one much more.

Great book

Desperately needs a new narrator. Perhaps one that can get names and accents correct. You would think perhaps he would have listened to the books that came before... but, obviously not.