Jodi Picoult loves Cassandra Clare’s ‘Mortal Instruments’

From left: Wellesley Books’ Allison Pottern Hoch, and authors Cassandra Clare and Jodi Picoult in the library at the Wellesley Middle School before the “City of Heavenly Fire” event. Jim Davis/Globe Staff/Boston Globe

Fans lined up outside Wellesley Middle School.Jim Davis/Globe Staff

Best-selling author Jodi Picoult is a fangirl when it comes to Cassandra Clare ’s “Mortal Instruments” series. Picoult, the New Hampshire author known for novels such as “My Sister’s Keeper” and “The
Storyteller,” moderated the Wellesley Books event Tuesday night celebrating the release of the final book in Clare’s series, “City of Heavenly Fire.” She also dressed like Clare’s characters, wearing all black and marking her arms with runes to look like Jace and Clary, the stars of Clare’s mega-popular young adult fantasy novels. Picoult told the packed auditorium at Wellesley Middle School that she and her son, Kyle, started a book club together and wound up reading Clare’s “Mortal Instruments” series. After starting with “City of Bones” (which became a 2013 movie starring Lily Collins), they couldn’t stop. Picoult was giddy to meet Clare for the first time. “She’s lovely, she’s smart, she’s funny,” she said, beaming. Clare revealed to us after her talk that she is officially a local author. After living in New York, she and her husband bought a home in Amherst. Meanwhile, Picoult revealed that she and her daughter, Samantha van Leer, will soon publish a sequel to their 2012 young adult novel “Between the Lines.”