Cassandra Clare

About Cassandra Clare

Cassandra Clare is the pen name of Judith Rumelt, born on July 27, 1973, in Tehran, Iran, to American parents—her father was working there at the time. She spent her childhood traveling widely, living in Switzerland, England, and various parts of the United States, and credits this nomadic upbringing for the world-building imagination evident in her fiction. Before her debut novel, she was known in early-internet fandom communities for her Harry Potter–based fan fiction, "The Draco Trilogy," which achieved significant popularity and notoriety in the early 2000s.

Her debut novel, City of Bones, the first book in The Mortal Instruments series, was published by Margaret K. McElderry Books in 2007 and introduced readers to the Shadowhunter universe—a secret world of demon hunters, vampires, werewolves, faeries, and warlocks existing alongside ordinary humans in New York City. The series became a publishing phenomenon; by the 2010s Clare had expanded the Shadowhunter Chronicles into multiple interconnected trilogies and series, including The Infernal Devices, The Dark Artifices, The Last Hours, and The Eldest Curses. She has sold over 50 million books worldwide.

Her Most Challenged Works

Books in the Shadowhunter Chronicles have been challenged in school libraries and classrooms for sexual content—including LGBTQ+ relationships featured prominently beginning with City of Fallen Angels and throughout The Dark Artifices—as well as for depictions of violence and occult themes. The character Magnus Bane, a bisexual warlock who has a long-term relationship with the male Shadowhunter Alec Lightwood, has been a specific point of contention for those seeking to remove the books. Supporters note that Magnus and Alec's relationship is treated with depth and respect and represents meaningful LGBTQ+ representation in a genre that has historically lacked it.

Adaptations

The Mortal Instruments was adapted as the 2013 film City of Bones and later as the television series Shadowhunters, which ran for three seasons on Freeform from 2016 to 2019 and developed a devoted cult following. A new animated series based on the Shadowhunter Chronicles was announced in subsequent years.