“ | You just need time. Just time. You'll learn. You'll fall in love. We're together now. And we'll rule. You and me. We will rule my kingdom. Now that I'm queen. | ” |
–Maureen to Simon, City of Heavenly Fire |
Maureen Brown was a groupie of Simon's band who was Turned into a vampire and briefly became affiliated with the New York vampire clan.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Maureen was best friends with Vicki,[1] who was the younger cousin of musician Eric Hillchurch. At one point, Maureen became a huge fan of the band Eric was in, particularly their bassist, Simon Lewis. She admired him from afar and harbored a crush on him, her attraction bordering on obsession. She went to most of the band's gigs mainly to see him. Maureen even took stolen pictures with Simon and told others that he was her boyfriend.[2] When she was fourteen, she often claimed to be sixteen.
Encounter with a vampire[]
During the band's gig on October 16, 2007 at the Alto Bar, Maureen went backstage to see Simon, who retreated from the stage in the middle of a song. She took a photo with the lightheaded Simon. Unbeknownst to her, Simon was in fact a new vampire with little control over his urges. When Maureen came close to the hungry Simon, she was bitten and would have been drained of blood, and killed, if not for Jordan's intrusion.
At that point, Maureen had already fallen unconscious. Jordan put her on a cab home, at which time she had woken up with no recollection of what transpired with Simon, aside from losing consciousness and thinking she fainted in front of Simon, much to her embarrassment.
Under Lilith's influence, Camille Belcourt kidnapped Maureen, whom they believed to have been close to Simon and even thought she was his girlfriend—a lie she had spread herself. Her captors sent Simon a letter with instructions to go to an address or else they will cut his girlfriend's throat. Simon assumed that they meant one of his actual ex-girlfriends, Isabelle, Maia, or Clary. when he confirmed their safety, Simon believed that the letter was a prank and did not go to the address.[2]
Because Simon ignored their warning, Maureen was tortured,[3] given vampire blood, and finally killed by slitting her throat. Her body was stuffed into a trash can and was discovered the next day, with the news and her photo making it into the newspaper.
However, the vampire blood in her system Turned her, and she soon came back to life. When she awoke and rose after being buried, Maureen clawed her way free of her coffin and had to fend for herself and tend to her thirst without guidance. Being Turned at such a young age, and after what she went through, drove her to madness,[3] further aggravating her obsession with Simon.
When she shows herself to Simon, it is revealed that Maureen was changed to a vampire by Camille Belcourt. She leads Simon to the place where Lilith wanted to use him in order to resurrect her blood-son, Sebastian Morgenstern.[2]
Queen Maureen of the dead[]
After Lilith's defeat, Maureen left and started to kill conspicuously. This resulted in Praetor Lupus sending one of their agents, Nick, to stop her, but he was killed, presumably by Maureen. At the end, Maureen is seen at the old subway where Camille used to meet Alec Lightwood, telling him that she killed Camille and is now the head of the New York vampire clan.[4]
Maureen, as leader of the clan, allowed the members to kill conspicuously while sending for some of them to capture Simon, who later escaped to Idris with Raphael. Eventually Lily, one of the second-in-commands of the clan, conspired with Maia Roberts, the new leader of the New York werewolf pack, to kill Maureen to stop her reckless actions; while most of the members were happy with her, some saw the error of her ways as a problem to their kind. Maia agreed to join Maureen's cause against the Shadowhunters in order to make her drink her blood and seal the deal. Her blood, however, was spiked with holy water and Maureen turned to dust, but not before being able to mutter her last word, "Mama". Lily then took leadership of the clan, saying she was the one who came up with the idea and therefore had the right.[3] Maureen has since been remembered as a vicious vampire queen.[5]
In December 2009, Simon, under the influence of water from Lake Lyn, hallucinated and saw people he used to know as he passed through a "Tunnel of Love" aboard a rowboat. This included Maureen, whom he recalled with feelings of guilt despite not fully remembering her. While on the hallucinative journey, the dreamt-up Maureen jumped into the water, making Simon choose between saving her—to make up for apparently being partly responsible for her death—or Clary. Simon noticed Clary floating in the river and jumped in, choosing to save her as it registered in his mind that the scenario around him wasn't real, and that Maureen was dead.[6]
Personality and traits[]
Maureen was once a bubbly girl who crushed on and stalked Simon. After Turning, though, Maureen has become rogue and unrestrained, killing mundanes to relieve her thirst for human blood. She has also gone somewhat insane as was seen in her viewing the New York Vampire Clan as a kingdom with her as its Queen, and even having her fellow vampires kidnap Simon Lewis in order to dress him up in clothing in an attempt to make him her prince.
Physical description[]
Simon described Maureen as little, with big eyes, birdlike bones and very pale blond hair, which cascaded down her shoulders. When she was first noticed as a vampire by him, she is said to have a face that was dead white with circles of rouge painted on her cheekbones. She colored her mouth a dark pink which seem as if it had been drawn on with a marker pen. She is said to have looked younger than she really was.
Skills and abilities[]
- Encanto: Maureen had the ability to almost hypnotically convince humans to believe or do practically anything she told them to; though the effects were temporary.
- Heightened senses: She had enhanced sight—even having been able to see in complete darkness,—hearing, and smell.
- Superhuman strength: Due to her vampirism, she was stronger than most human beings.
- Superhuman speed: She was able to run at speeds comparable to Shadowhunters. Her reflexes were similarly heightened.
- Shape-shifting: She could shape-shift into a rat, bat, dust, etc.
- Immortality: As a vampire, Maureen was immortal. She was also able to heal most wounds and injuries almost immediately.
Appearances[]
- City of Fallen Angels (first appearance)
- City of Lost Souls
- The Voicemail of Magnus Bane (mentioned only)
- City of Heavenly Fire
- Bitter of Tongue (alluded to)
- The Fiery Trial (illusion)
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Maureen was interested in photography and videography, as well as becoming a documentary filmmaker, mostly about bands and music.[7] She also knitted, played soccer and the piano, and was a Girl Scout but was too shy to make much out of cookie sales.[5]
- For a time, Maureen stalked Simon and his friends. She often took photos and videos of them and posted them on her Tumblr page (presumably handled by Cassandra Clare or affiliated people).[8][9]
- Maureen is named after author Maureen Johnson, who is friends with Cassandra Clare and is also very fond of Simon. According to Cassie, "Maureen wanted to be in [the] books as a character who loved Simon, and [I] wanted to mess really seriously with Maureen Johnson," and "the pathos in her story came later."[10][11]
References[]
- ↑ PrettyWhenYouBlog on Tumblr
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 City of Fallen Angels
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 City of Heavenly Fire
- ↑ City of Lost Souls
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 An Illustrated History of Notable Shadowhunters & Denizens of Downworld
- ↑ The Fiery Trial
- ↑ PrettyWhenYouBlog intro post
- ↑ "[One] of the characters from COFA does." Cassandra Clare on Twitter
- ↑ "A sneaky post" — Maureen Johnson's blog post (archive)
- ↑ Tumblr Q&A with Cassandra Clare
- ↑ "She wanted to be a Simon fan in the books so I wrote her in." Cassandra Clare on Twitter