Format: Paperback
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
To save her mother's life, Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters - never mind that entering the city without permission is against the Law, and breaking the Law could mean death. To make things worse, she learns that Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by the Shadowhunters, who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight.
As Clary uncovers more about her family's past, she finds an ally in mysterious Shadowhunter Sebastian. With Valentine mustering the full force of his power to destroy all Shadowhunters forever, their only chance to defeat him is to fight alongside their eternal enemies. But can Downworlders and Shadowhunters put aside their hatred to work together? While Jace realizes exactly how much he's willing to risk for Clary, can she harness her newfound powers to help save the Glass City - whatever the cost?
Love is a mortal sin and the secrets of the past prove deadly as Clary and Jace face down Valentine in the third installment of the New York Times bestselling series The Mortal Instruments.
THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW. A LOT OF WHOPPING SPOILERS! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
This is the best book of the series so far! I've liked the last two but this one just delivered a whole lot more ass-kicking and character development (not all of it good) and I really liked this third installment. So let's start with the pros of the City of Glass.
As I said, there was a helluva lot more action in this book. The fight scenes were fast-paced, just the way I like them! I also liked the fact that when the fight scenes were going on, another story was happening at the same time with Jace and Clary going to find the Book of White for Magnus and the two scenes were entwined together to create one awesome section of the story.
I love, love, love YA books that are about fallen angels ever since I read Hush Hush and the cover of the book shows Sebastian with faint black wings. Me being me instantly thought 'FALLEN ANGELS YES'... There were no fallen angels. But there were angels, a lot of them actually. We got to meet Raziel, the angel being kept by Valentine whose name I cannot remember and we also find out that Jace is in fact carrying no demon blood but, like Clary, he has angel blood in him.
And that leads onto the next thing I LOVED about this third novel. All those loose ends were finally tied up. We got Jocelyn back, she and Luke got together, we found out that Jace was not Jonathan, Jonathan is Sebastian, Jace is the son of Stephen and Celine Herondale therefore the grandson of the deceased Inquisitor, when Celine killed herself after Stephen's death Hodge cut the baby out of her and handed him (Jace) over to Valentine (shudders), Jonathan and Jace were both raised by Valentine and Jonathan knew of Jace but Jace didn't know that Jonathan existed. Ummm, what else? Jace was experimented on in the same way as Clary; with angel blood whereas Jonathan is the one with demon blood in him which is why he is BAT-SHIT CRAZY. Alec came out as gay by making out with Magnus in the middle of a crowded hall of Shadowhunters which was pretty ballsy!
And finally, the part I've been waiting for. The part that was dragged out way past what it should have been; Clary and Jace are not brother and sister. Who could have guessed? All of us, that's who.
Sam who turned out to be Hodge died, Jace died for, like, 10 minutes, OH AND SOMEONE ELSE DIED TOO. Cassandra Clare I was not okay with this! Max. That poor little boy. Max, the youngest Lightwood was killed by Sebastian/Jonathan. Little bastard. My heart still hurts for the fictional little boy who read too many books and comics:(
I also really liked the idea Clary has about the rune that can give Shadowhunters Downworlder's unique powers and vice versa. It was a great twist and I liked how it was executed; how Clary made a rune to bring these two completely different sides together.
And now for my favourite part of the entire book... VALENTINE IS DEAD. *sighs in relief* I knew it was going to happen but I didn't think it was in this book. When he killed Jace just to summon the angel Raziel I wanted him dead on the spot and that pretty much happened.
Now for the cons of this book.
The storyline definitely dragged a little in some places. It kind of goes from a whole lot of action to a whole lot of nothing. I understand that the book can't be all action all the time but there needs to be a good filler.
The next thing I didn't like was that even though Jace and Clary thought they were brother and sister, they still made out and it made me uncomfortable to read. Even though I knew they weren't related, they thought they were and just the idea creeps me out. Yeah you're super in love and everything and you can't switch off feelings blah blah but come on, SIBLINGS. Ack. Also Clary then kisses Jonathon who is ACTUALLY her brother and I remember thinking... "Wow, she has a thing for her brothers huh?" And then choked when someone (I can't remember who) actually said it in the book! Come on, Clary.
Max dying is right at the top of the 'nope' list for me. Why oh why *ugly sobbing*
And finally, this wasn't something wrong with the book or the writing per se but; Sebastian (AKA Jonathan). Oh that asshole. He was basically the center of everyone's pain. He made the story good though in a way, I mean if there's no character to hate then there's no story, is there? But my oh my I have never hated a fictional character more.
Character development was pretty good in the third book, except not all of it was positive. Clary still whines like a little bitch sometimes but it thinned out towards the end of the story when Isabelle called her out on her bullshit. It was really starting to annoy me, like shut up and get on with it. Jace changed for the worse - he started acting out because he thought that's how he should act because he thought he was part demon. It just goes to show the power of belief. Isabelle and Alec were awesome as usual. I just love how Isabelle can be so brave and strong without a guy fighting for her and I love reading her speech and mannerisms. It's so nice to see her fighting for herself and her own kind. When Isabelle and Alec fight, shit's going down!! Simon stopped taking everyone's shit and kicked demon ass which I loved seeing too. We got to see a lot more of Simon and he slowly became my favourite towards the end of the novel. Luke tried to form a bond between Downworlders and Shadowhunters so they could unite against Valentine. Valentine is still a son of a bitch but NOW HE'S A DEAD SON OF A BITCH hahahahaha. Sebastian gave me the heebie-jeebies and I knew something was up when Clary got hair dye on her fingers from his hair but the whole truth of who he is and what he did was still a little bit of a surprise!
My favourite characters were Simon and Alec for the many reasons stated above and my favourite quote from the entire book is one from Simon towards the end;
"I mean that I would never date a girl who insisted that I cut you out of my life. It’s non-negotiable. You want a piece of all this fabulousness?” He gestured at himself. “Well, my best friend comes along with it. I wouldn’t cut you out of my life, Clary, any more than I would cut off my right hand and give it to someone as a Valentine’s Day gift."
It was Simon's weird way of assuring Clary that having a girlfriend wouldn't jeopardise their friendship. Aw.
Finally, my conclusion; These books are some of my favourites to read and I'm already onto book 4. You should definitely try them if you haven't already! If you have, tell me what you think of them in the comments. It's one of those series that some people love and some people hate, rarely is there an in between so I want to hear your opinion!
