City of Glass Review

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
Series: The Mortal Instruments #3
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books on March 24, 2009
Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult
Goodreads

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 final installment of the New York Times bestselling trilogy The Mortal Instruments. 

 

Note: Obviously this is not the "final installment" since there are already 2 more books and the 6th is scheduled to release in 2014.

Our book club has decided to read the entire Mortal Instruments series, one each month, leading up to the movie coming out in August. We started reading this series in March 2013. Feel free to read along with us! We’d love to hear your thoughts on this series.

 

     Rose’s Review        

This book had a lot, I mean,  a lot of stuff going on in it.  Sort of like the first book, I found the third book of the Mortal Instruments series a little difficult to follow.  I am a person who tends to read several books at once.  I have discovered that I cannot read this series at my normal pace of just a few (20 to 30) pages a day because I am constantly forgetting the plot or the order in which things have happened and I find that I have to review the previously read pages before continuing.  I think I am more successful reading the books in this series in a hurry, so the information (which there is a TON of) stays fresh in my mind.  Again, this is probably a difficulty that only I have.  I am not real familiar with this sort of fantasy fiction and therefore, I tend to have trouble keeping key plot points straight in my head. That being said, the book was interesting and I certainly was not bored.  I continued to like Jace, but was getting a little annoyed at his self loathing, although it was understandable.  Much is revealed in this book, particularly from Clary’s mother.  I do not want to spoil it for anyone who has perhaps not read this series yet (some of us live under a rock), but I was happy with the outcome of City of Glass.  Was I surprised? Well, yeah, there were several things that I didn’t see coming and a few things that I did.  All in all, it was a fast paced and entertaining read.  I could picture this as a movie in my head while I was reading it and am getting excited to see the City of Bones movie in August. This book reads like the final installment of a trilogy in my opinion. (Which apparently, this was originally the end of the series, so I guess that explains it).  I am glad the series continues because I am anxious to see how the HEA pans out.  I suppose if the series would have ended here, I would have felt somewhat cheated as I got my HEA, but didn’t get to really experience the character’s happiness in the ever after.

 

    Julie’s Review        

City of Glass is even more action-packed and full of plot twists than the previous books. While I saw some of it coming, it didn’t detract from the way the story flowed and unfolded. There is definitely a whole lot going on in this story, and the world building is fantastic! I like how the author assumes you already know the basics and doesn’t slow walk you through a description of each type of being. She jumps right in to the action.  The guy on the cover is Sebastian, and while we are given hints about him, we don’t find out who he really is until much later in the book. In the meantime, we find out some really awesome secrets about what Valentine did to his kids and think something specific for some time about Jace (no spoilers here). This reminded me that in the previous book, the Seelie Queen told Jace to ask Valentine about his blood. I guess we weren’t meant to know at the time what that means but we definitely find out in this book. But it would be too easy if what we think at first is how it really is, so we’re thrown some curve balls (some I expected, like I said, but not all).  This book definitely was not a quick read. I tried to read it quickly but there was just so much information! I almost didn’t finish in time for the book club. City of Glass was absolutely enjoyable and the packed and fast-moving plot sucked me in. My heart broke for Jace when he thought something so awful about himself, and continued to break during his battle with Sebastian and his final confrontation with Valentine. The ending was just perfect – it was described so beautifully that I could picture the Angel rising up holding the Mortal Instruments so vividly. The ending scenes between Jace and Clary were sweet and cute and satisfying. I sort of wish this truly was the final book in the series, like it was originally supposed to be. I really like how everything ended and I’m not sure I like the write ups for the remaining books.  Here are some fun quotes:

“I am a man, and men do not drink pink drinks. Now, be gone, woman, and fetch me something brown.” Jace said.

“You could have had anything else in the world, and you asked for me.” She smiled up at him. Filthy as he was, covered in blood and dirt, he was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. “But I don’t want anything else in the world.”

You can follow the Mortal Instruments album on Instagram for images from City of Bones movie. Here’s an international trailer for the City of Bones movie that will come out in August. It has a few extra scenes that the earlier US trailer does not have.

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