by Cassandra Clare is the first in a companion series to the best selling Mortal Instruments. 
If you have not been reading these books, get started now. Like, right now. After her first novel debuted, Stephenie Meyer and Stephen King both raved about how wonderful the paranormal world that she created is. Seriously, Stephen King singing her praises? Awesome.I have already done a fantasy cast for The Mortal Instruments story (which is currently 3 novels with 3 more in the works), but this novel has a whole new set of characters, seeing as it's set more than 125 years ago.
The first character we meet is Tessa Gray. She is a young woman from America, coming to London to live with her brother. She is described as being fairly plain, and while she is as brave as almost any teenaged girl of that era can be, she does have all the limitations of her sex in 1878. She's constantly wearing a dress, has no illusions of being as strong as a man, and while she wants to fight the forces of evil around her, she has absolutely no training and no experience of any kind. She also is extremely powerful, and is discovering the strength of her Downworld abilities. I think Kat Dennings would look absolutely beautiful in Victorian London, and can be either good or evil, as the character may evolve.
Next up is Will Herondale. He's an ancestor of one of the characters in The Mortal Instruments series. He's a witty and charming Shadowhunter with some crazy family secrets. He was born and raised in and around the London Institute (yay for witty British characters!!!). And I know you are going to hate me for this, but I absolutely stand by it: Robert Pattinson. Yes. I know. Twilight movies have not shown him to the best of his abilities, but remember, this boy is handsome. And he can act. Just not as a vampire, apparently.
Jem is a young Shadowhunter brought up in Shanghai. He's half British, half Chinese, but he is described as being decidedly Caucasian. He is tall, broad shouldered, blond with light eyes and a narrow face. He's afflicted with... something. I won't spoil that story for you, but he's sick as often as he is strong. He's musically inclined, soft spoken and intelligent. I really want to see Tom Felton branch out and be something other than a snot-nosed wizarding brat.
Henry is one of my favorite characters in this book. He is a "ginger" and is pretty absent minded. He's fairly young and fairly brilliant- he invents a lot of the tools that we see functioning 125 years later in Clary's story arc. But, since he's a little scatterbrained, I think he's going to be played for laughs. I like Alan Tudyk. He would need to put on the accent, but I think he could do it.
Charlotte is Henry's wife. She is extremely young for the position of power that she holds. She is capable, strong and intelligent. She is also, however, a female, and thus many of the other Shadowhunters do not take her seriously. I pictured Emily Blunt, and I think she can do it. She has that elusive balance of femininity, power and intelligence.
Jessamine is a young Shadowhunter/ heiress. She despises everything about being a Shadowhunter, and looks forward to the day when she can leave the Institute and seek out a mundane, totally human husband to take her away from her demon-hunting duties. She is wealthy, spoiled, beautiful and selfish. I would like to see Emma Watson do something a little different; and she can obviously handle the action scenes, and she can be a jerk, we just want to see a new kind of jerk :)
The Dark Sisters: Mrs. Black and Mrs. Dark are the first people Tessa meets in England, and they take her under their wing, so to speak, to teach her how to use her powers. Without giving away too much, they are also Downworlders and are hiding some dark secrets of their own. I like Imelda Staunton and Anna Chancellor.
Nate is Tessa's brother. I will not go into a lot of his character, because he's not around for a lot of the story, and we don't really know what he's been up to. I don't want to spoil anything, but he's handsome and charismatic, in his mid 20s. Somebody like Cory Monteith.
De Quincy is the leader of the vampire clan in London, he's been doing some very, very naughty things lately. I think he should look, well, like a vampire. You know, suave and little bit evil. I pictured one man, and one man only. Mark Strong.
We get to know two more Downworlders pretty well, one is our old friend Magnus Bane, and another is the vampiress, Lady Camille Belcourt. She is, of course, beautiful, voluptuous and conniving. She's a double agent of sorts; feeding information to the Clave about Downworlder activities. How about Catherine Zeta-Jones? She's gorgeous. And something tells me she could be an informant.
When I asked my husband if she was believable as a double-agent-bourgeois-vampire, he actually said he couldn't believe she had never played one before. I think she totally works; seductive, beautiful, powerful, intelligent. Perfect.
Agree? Disagree? Post your thoughts in the comments?
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