the mortal instruments Archives

The Thrilling Third Book in The Mortal Insruments

Like the title state, I was thrilled about how well-written this book was!

The Book:

Title: City of Glass

Author: Cassandra Clare

Series: The Mortal Instruments #3

Published September 1st 2015 by Margaret K. McElderry Books (first published March 24th 2009)

Genre: YA, Fantasy

Pages: 543

“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 her best friend, 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?” -Goodreads

My Review:

So far, this is the best book in the series.

I was unable to put this book down. I finished it faster than the other two, even thought it is significantly larger.

I have so many things to rave about this book.

Fight and war scenes are done exceptionally. The writing is easy to follow. The motions are fast, but not too fast, where you lose who is fighting who.

The entire middle section of this book is a war in the city, spread out over different POVs. I have seen this in many books, but honestly this book takes the cake. I was never confused. It was perfectly paced. Each POV added something unique to the story, and did not just describe the same scene from multiple angles.

I loved that part of the book. I talked my boyfriend’s ear off about how nice the writing was.

Different scenes in this book were so thought out and so beautifully haunting. (Slight Spoilers) Meeting Ithuriel was so exqusitely beautiful but also had shivers racing up and down my back.

I loved the way I could guess or make predictions about what was going to happen next. I think some may call that predictable, but, for this book, I thought it was perfect.

I could see the formings of ideas and could see where the book was headed, but there were some twists and turns that I had not anticipated or saw through. Some authors are so transparent, but Clare’s was not. (I knew the big twist in the romance beforehand, but if I hadn’t I would have never guessed.)

The story was good. I never felt like it was dry or dragging on. The book excited me a lot.

The romance is still a bit off in this book. Even with how things ended, I do not think that I could ever be in love with someone who I thought was my brother. No thank you!

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 4

The City of Ashes

So besides the sister/brother romance, everything about this book is superb.

The Book:

Title: The City of Ashes

Author: Cassandra Clare

Series: The Mortal Instruments #2

Published September 1st 2015 by Margaret K. McElderry Books (first published March 25th 2008)

Genre: YA, Fantasy

Pages: 455

“Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what’s normal when you’re a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who’s becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn’t ready to let her go—especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary’s only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil—and also her father.

To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings—and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

In this breathtaking sequel to City of Bones, Cassandra Clare lures her readers back into the dark grip of New York City’s Downworld, where love is never safe and power becomes the deadliest temptation.” -Goodreads

My Review:

Cassandra Clare wrote horribly in the first book, City of Bones. She wrote writing that I could only describe as fanfiction writing. In this book though, she seems to have a grip on her fanfiction descriptions and reigns it into more professional and exquisite writing.

This is really shown off in the third book, but we are not talking about that yet.

Near the end of the book, the story sucked me in and I could not put it down. I finished the book in two days. I started to read the next one and devoured that as well.

The fighting scenes are so good. The little twists and turns are so good. The descriptions of the world are so vibrant. I can envision everything so well.

The humor in this series is the best. The witty comments are cheesy, but I appreciate them. They are actually funny, unlike other fantasy books.

The one thing I hate about this book is the romance. Ugh, I want to barf. If you don’t know, (spoilers for the rest of the paragraph) the main character and the main love interests are brother and sister for this book. It irks me because the romance could be so great, but now it is just tainted.

Other than that, this book is really good. I am enjoying The Mortal Instruments.

The next book is so much better than all the others. I cannot wait to finish it and put up my review.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 4

Have you read this book? Let me know down below!

Finally Reading the Mortal Instruments

Let me just say, the early 2000’s YA books were wild.

The Book

Title: The City of Bones

Author: Cassandra Clare

Series: The Mortal Instruments #1

Published September 1st 2015 by Margaret K. McElderry Books (first published May 27th 2007)

Genre: YA, Fantasy

Pages: 486

“When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It’s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know…” -Goodreads

My Review

The Mortal Instruments has been out for ages and was one of the original YA fantasy books. I am going back in time to read them because I never did as a kid.

I am shocked, disgusted, but also… happy?

You got Clary, who is a total “I am not like other girls” girl learning she has a crazy dark and mysterious history. She find this out because she met…you guessed it, a boy.

This book series is going to ruin me, and I mean this in a bad way.

The whole thing is gross. It has racist jokes, gay stereotypes, and politically incorrect words up the wazoo. Not to mention the (spoiler) incest plotline???

The negatives aside, the book was pretty good. If I had read this book back in 2010, I would definitely would have liked it.

By the end of the book, I found myself rooting for Clary. I hated her the whole book and now I am ready to read the second to see how it all plays out.

I think that is all I have to say for this book. I can’t compare it to anything recent because writing has evolved so much over the past ten or so years, which I am thankful for.

As always, thank for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 3.0 (It would have had four, but I dont stand for the bigotry scattered throughout this.)