Author: Cassandra Clare
Published: March 2008
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Series: The Mortal Instruments #2
453 pages (paperback)
Summary In this second installment of the Mortal Instruments series, the Shadowhunter world is in a frenzy after discovering that Valentine has stolen the first of the mortal instruments, The Mortal Cup, and that Jace Wayland is actually his son. The Clave (the Shadowhunter government of some sort) is suspicious of Jace and believes he’s Valentine’s spy, and they end up imprisoning him. In the meantime, Valentine is recruiting demons to become a part of his army and is attempting to steal the second mortal instrument, a sword. The downside is that in order for him to use it, he needs the blood of a fairy, a werewolf, a warlock and a vampire to reverse the holiness of the sword. And somehow, these murders of werewolves, fairies, etc. are being pinned onto Jace. Clary, in the meantime, is trying to protect her best friend Simon from Valentine and trying to rescue Jace from prison.
My Thoughts I was at first a bit hesitant to pick up this second book of the series, because the first book, while good, still left me a bit iffy. However, I’m very glad I did because this second book is, in my opinion, better than the first. Again, I was daunted by the thickness of the spine, but once I started reading, I could hardly put it down. It wasn’t so much the plot that interested me, but rather, I was desperate to know how the relationships between all the characters were going to pan out. I definitely think the characters’ relationships were a strong part of this second book. With that being said, I found Clary and Simon’s sudden jump into boyfriend-girlfriend status very surprising. It was established that they were childhood best friends and suddenly they started kissing and talking about sex with one another, it was just very odd.
Speaking of Clary, I still don’t care much for her (unfortunately?) and I still feel her story is overshadowed by Jace’s story. In many ways, Jace feels like the real main character of this story, and his side of the story kept me page-flipping. It works out in my favor though, since I’m a Jace fan and not a Clary fan. I also don’t care much about the new character Maia; I have an inkling that with Maia’s backstory, the reader is supposed to feel sorry for her or something, but it didn’t work on me. I also feel Valentine is becoming more and more of a stock villain. He doesn’t really inspire any fear, but I think his pet demon does! The Inquisitor character was also sort of a stock villain too, but she was written in such a way that she frustrates the reader — which is good! She was a character who can create emotions in the reader, I was genuinely angry at the Inquisitor!
Overall, I enjoyed this book a LOT more than I did the first one, I found the plot very interesting and the characters, on a whole, more relate-able than last installment. Simon has really come forward as one of the better defined characters and I think he positively shines in this second story (forgive the irony, hahaha). I can’t wait to grab a copy of the third book, City of Glass, and find out what happens next, thanks to the cliff hanger at the end!
My Rating: 3/5
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