City Of Glass

This post originally published January 2, 2010.

Author: Cassandra Clare
Published: March 2009
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Series: The Mortal Instruments #3
560 pages (hardcover)
 
Summary: After learning that the only person who can wake her mother up from a magically induced coma is in the Shadowhunter city of Alicante, Clary makes up her mind that that is where she will go. Unfortunately, Jace does not want her to go because he knows the Clave is highly interested in Clary’s newfound powers and Jace does not feel the Clave can be trusted, so he attempts to pull a few strings to get Clary to stay in New York. Clary finds her way to the City of Glass anyway, where she learns that Valentine is raising an incredible demon army to wipe out the entire Shadowhunter race in order to cleanse the world, and the only chance that they may have to stop him is if Shadowhunters and Downworlders can work together. But after centuries of resentment, can the two sides put aside their differences to fight a common enemy?

My Thoughts: This is the final book of the Mortal Instruments trilogy (though there is a fourth, companion book being released soon titled City of Angels) and I was quite excited to dive into the ending of the series, despite having rated the previous books somewhat averagely. For what its worth, I really do enjoy the world and story Clare has created, which is why I looked forward to reading this third and final book. And I liked it. It’s not exactly addictive, but it does keep you interested.
It seems that with each book, the story becomes more interesting. I think that this is actually the best book of the trio. Perhaps because of the fact that this story takes place in the Shadowhunters’ native country of Idris, the world of angels and demons are so much more defined and clear. The first two books took place in New York, where everything regarding this secret world was hush hush, so you only got to experience what was necessary for the story to continue, but in Idris, everything about the Shadowhunter culture and lifestyle, about angels and demons, is openly described. I definitely understood the world this story takes place in better, it’s a shame kind of a shame you have to wait until this last book to have the full experience.

‘The plot thickens’ is very appropriate in regards to this book. While I had a hunch about Jace’s true origins, Sebastian’s motives and how the many romantic relationships are going to pan out — I am usually pretty good at predicting such things in YA novels — I was still really surprised with some of the other family secrets Clary’s family had. And they weren’t totally random, out-of-the-blue shocking secrets that made you think, “Where the hell did this come from?“; they made sense. I still feel the same way I do about all the characters (which I wrote about in my posts about the previous books); Clary is still blah to me, Jace is still tormented and sexy doing so, Simon is still a favourite of mine … and so on and so forth. Nothing’s really changed in that aspect, to me. The general plot of this third book was much more fun than the first two books, though I still tire of the scenes where characters spend pages explaining the past to Clary (or someone else), or you know, the villain decides to reveal his entire diabolical plan before killing so-and-so. Still wishing that the book found a more interesting way of revealing the past, not to mention a less cliche one.

I have mixed feelings about the ending, I can’t quite decide if I like it or dislike it. For sure, there was lot of action packed scenes and inspirational monologues by a number of characters that amped the intensity of the situation the world was in. I guess what seriously irked me was that Valentine’s ending felt seriously anti-climatic to me. I remember thinking, “That’s it?! WTF?” And a lot of loose ends were tied up in the end … a little too neatly for my liking. I don’t want to spoil, so I guess I’ll say I’m indifferent about the ending for now.

So in summary, I felt this final book was the best of the three, plot-wise. It had a great, adventurous plot and an acceptable ending (I guess … haha) for not only the novel but the entire series. If you want to read something for some fun, some laughs (there is some really good humor sprinkled throughout this series, believe it or not), a good ol’ saving-the-world kind of story, The Mortal Instruments series is for you.

My Rating: 3.5/5