So, apparently at some point in my life I knew that there was going to be another book in the Mortal Instruments series but I must have forgotten because when I found out today that the fourth book comes out in just over a month (April 5 to be exact) I was pretty surprised and excited!
I really have no idea where the next book, City of Fallen Angels, will go and I can’t wait to get my hands on this one!
I really enjoyed the first three books in the series and you can read my reviews here: City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with this series you can find out more here.
City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
Read for: RIP IV Challenge
This is the third (and I believe final) book in The Mortal Instruments series. (The first two book are called City of Bones and City of Ashes.)
I can’t say I enjoyed this one as much as the first two. Clary is still trying to revive her mother and Valentine is still on the loose. The group plans to head to Idris to find a warlock who has the key to saving Clary’s mom and to chat with the Clave about what needs to be done to stop Valentine. The foreshadowing about Jace and Clary not actually being siblings gets stronger and stronger and eventually the truth is out. I won’t give away anything more than that but more readers will have realized long ago that they weren’t actually related. And of course, through much trial and tribulation, Valentine is defeated as well and everybody lives happily ever after. We all knew it had to end that way right? The interesting part is how it all gets resolved.
It definitely took me a lot longer to get involved in the story this time. I found certain parts of the beginning of the novel infuriating. Jace and Clary both are quite annoying with all their angsty selfishness. But then the plot gets rolling and you can almost forget about their more irritating qualities. Somehow, parts of this book seemed more rushed too (even though it’s the longest of the three at almost 600 pages) and some of the plot lines were slightly less believable (even though it’s about vampires and werewolves and such) than the previous two books. I just sort of felt like maybe the deadline was approaching and Clare didn’t get as much time as she needed to polish some of the storylines as much as was required.
That being said though, I still found it to be entertaining and well written and definitely a good gothic type read if that kind of thing interests you.
City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
Can I just say that I love this series?! It’s everything I was hoping Twilight would be, but wasn’t. I know I always bash Twilight, but I have to say that I liked the story. I just hated the writing and the characters were so one-dimensional and sometimes everything was just a little over the top, ya know? It definitely had potential and I actually liked the movie a whole lot more than the book!
Anyway, back to the review at hand! Also, a warning, if you haven’t read the first book yet, there’s no way I can summarize this one without spoilers from the first one.
So, anyway, Clary has rescued her mother, but she’s still in a coma in the hospital. So Clary is living with Luke and is avoiding Jace because he’s her brother (but he’s not really, I can so see this coming, I was so sure it would be in this book, but so far so proof) and she’s in love with him. (So not “ew” as it sounds, somehow.) Anyway, Valentine (the bad guy) is slowly gaining more power and working toward his final evil plan and the governing body of this other world is totally blind to the whole plot because they are more worried about getting Jace to confess that he was in on the whole “your father is really the evil bad guy” thing, even though he wasn’t. So this crazy “inquisitor” (who BTW is uncannily Umbrage-like) comes to take Jace into custody and ends up wrecking all kinds of havoc on Jace, Clary and everyone else’s efforts to try and stop Valentine. Of course there are lots of demons to fight and Jace and Clary both discover that they have special abilities to help them as Shadowhunters.
This book was equally as well written as the first and just as action-packed too. There isn’t a whole lot of boring/cheesy dialogue (like Twilight - another complaint). Every page in this book counts. As I mentioned in my review of the first book, City of Bones, I know this genre isn’t for everyone. But, if you like this genre, this book is definitely a must read. I can’t wait to get the third one (there are 56 people ahead of me on the hold list) and read it too. And I just read online that Clare is planning a fourth to go with these three and she’s also planning a prequel series with an entirely new cast of characters. I would rate this book a 9/10.
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (Book One of The Mortal Instruments Series)
Read for: What’s in a Name Challenge, Book with a body part in the title
Clary is 15 when she sees a shadowhunter for the first time. Shortly thereafter, her mother disappears and she finds herself immersed in world of demons, vampires and the shadowhunters. I can’t say more without giving away too much of the plot.
This novel just jumped right into the action and then never stopped. There were several plot twists (some of which were fairly predictable and others that were completely unexpected). I want to compare this book to Twilight, but there really is no comparison. The books fall into the same young adult genre that deals with otherworldly beings but that is where the similarity ends. Clary, the teenage protagonist, is so much more likable and believable than Bella who I always found to be insipid and annoying. In fact all of the characters were more real. They had depth and dimensions. And the writing – well it can’t even be compared. Clare can actually write! I found this book to be very witty. The characters quite often had fun, clever comebacks and the prose was clever as well.
Once I got into this story (and it didn’t take long) I couldn’t put it down. I just had to keep reading to find out what happened next (my husband was getting pretty annoyed with me, when I kept bringing the book to the dinner table!). It was definitely an easy, fun read which didn’t require a lot of extra thought (I read a bunch last night while watching the Miss Universe pageant and I didn’t miss much of either). I’m sure this isn’t destined to become a classic but I can definitely agree that it deserves to be a bestseller. I can’t wait to read the next one.
I don’t want to sound like I’m gushing over this book, because I can see that there is probably a lot of people who wouldn’t enjoy this novel. If you are into this genre, it’s definitely worth a read, or even if you are looking for some mindless summer reading (even though summer’s almost over). I don’t generally read this type of book so I’m having a hard time coming up with a rating. I think I’d give it a 9/10, keeping in mind that this type of novel isn’t for everyone…
