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10.11.2010

City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments #3) by Cassandra Clare

City of Glass
  
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City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments #3) by Cassandra Clare

Before reading this review, please note that because this is a review of the third book, there will be spoilers. Major spoilers that will hinder your enjoyment of the first two books. Only read this review if you have read the first two books.
PJVs QUICKIE POV: The final installment of The Mortal Instruments series was nothing to sneeze at. Where I had been basically bored with the second book, the third also had me yawning at the beginning, but once I got about 100 pages in...it was rocking and rolling. The tragedy of this whole series I think is that the whole time while reading this series I was waiting for just one thing to happen - and anything in between was just fodder. Hence, the reason why I was completely impatient with the second book.

REVIEW: The conclusion of the Mortal Instruments series ends with a bang. On a mission to find a mage that holds the key to her mother’s coma. Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the home of the Shadowhunters. Problem is Jace is dead set on not letting Clary come to the city. Stubborn and hard-headed Clary won’t let Jace stop her from saving her mother, or the council, or lakes that just a drop of their water will cause madness and death...

While Clary is sneaking into the City of Glass, Jace is making new friends, Simon is inadvertently being imprisoned...Valentine is still plotting and systematically enacting the extermination of his own people. Through all this Clary has one goal to save her mother and Jace one goal - patricide.

The book I have to say was a wonderful conclusion of the series. Questions were answered, problems resolved, etc. It was interesting seeing more of the Shadowhunter world, even though I think the background description should have been expanded much more - it was very 2D compared to Clare’s description of New York and the Institute. Bothersome attributes of the book included the back and forth of unknown emotions between Jace and Clary, I really understand they are conflicted, but cut the lying out and the whining. They both were rather whiny in the book and they did some stupid things in between the lying and whining. Great things about the book, the political intrigue was good, the fast paced action series and the finale was excellent.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Of course if you read and enjoyed the first two books I don’t think I need to tell you to read this one. There is violence and a few sketchy topics but nothing I wouldn’t pass on to a teen.

Spoiler area..........

RUMINATIONS:  Just my general opinion of the whole series. After reading the first book and the discovery that Jace is in fact Clary’s brother didn’t settle well in my stomach. From reading so much YA I believed this was a plot twist meant to titillate and cause drama for the series. The problem was though, that your entire want/need when reading this books focuses on Jace and Clary’s position as brother and sister and the hope that at some point it will not be true. Am I wrong? This is how I felt. I knew deep down it wouldn’t be true, at some point there must be a discovery that they are not siblings, right? This plot twist I can only compare to New Moon and Edward’s abandoning of Bella. Throughout all of New Moon  there was one goal you are focused on the end and the hopeful return of the stubborn vampire. Which leads me back to TMI series. You find out brother at the end of book 1 - and then you have a whole book to read where Clary is floundering over Jace, trying to date other people and badly succeeding. I just couldn’t take it. Then the third book to get through - where my main goal again is to find out if Clare has been my personal demon this whole time and invented this whole tale just to torment me and think of creative ways that a brother and sister could hook up. They did it in Flowers in the Attic - and it wasn’t that gross right? LOL. So, to sum it up, that is my whole thing with this series. The plot twist, while excellent, fueling debates, topics and building intensity, was quite obvious of intention. Now on completion of the series I’m feeling rather, well depleted. That this whole thing was a trick to get me to read three books...not out of enjoyment of the storyline or to bask in the love of the two main characters...just to find out if these two could be together. Maybe knowing the conclusion at some point I will go back and read and take in the story for the sake of the story. But, now I’m just feeling - relieved, but I also feel I’ve been a sucker for a good marketing ploy. ;)

























































6 comments:

Jenny said...

I really enjoy this series, it frustrated me, pissed me off, and sucked me in till the very end:) I'm interested to see where she goes with the next 3 since things were fairly wrapped up at the end of this one.

Dazzling Mage said...

I totally understand your point on the MAJOR plot twist, and it was one of the reasons why I kept reading the whole series. But I was also impressed by how Clare built up the Shadowhunter world. Maybe it's because I don't read a lot of urban fantasy books, but it was one of the reasons I got hooked from book 1. Unfortunately, as you said, everything else in the middle is just mush.

I love reading your reviews! =)

Carissa said...

Totally agree. I think they were hoping to have another Stephenie Meyer on their hands which is why they did three. Honestly, it felt like they could have cut most of the second book and still had a decent story.

Ginger @ GReads! said...

This series is one of my favs. I can totally understand your angst towards the storyline though -- it is centered around Clary & Jace and finding out if they are bro & sis. Besides all that mess, I loved the characters themselves. I felt CC did a wonderful job of making each character their own. Between Jace's wit, and Simon's constant come backs.. I was laughing from page to page.

Are you planning to read the 4th book, City of Fallen Angels?

ParaJunkee said...

@Jenny - I was wondering the same thing myself. I guess Shadowhunter training...or something.

@Dazzling - Thank you BTW. I mean I really liked the series, that was just my little end rant. LOL, seems to have gotten a lot of attention.

@Pre - that is exactly what I'm thinking. Everyone is pushing for this trilogies. And now it is a six book series. What is that??

@Ginger - I feel like Jace and Simon really hit their apex in the final book though, it is as if CC finally found their voices and made them all that they could be so to speak. Look I like the series, really do. Once again...high rating, just had to rant at the end. LOL.

Karen said...

I really enjoyed the series but it wasn't one of my favorites for some of the reasons you mentioned. The Jace/Clary thing dragged out in an unnatural way to me. They were so angsty by the last book.
I'm also a little bummed that she's revisiting it with 3 more books. It had a great ending - now what is she going to do to try to keep them apart for 3 more years??
Maybe if it focused on Simon instead,who like you said - really hit his stride.

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