Title- City of Ashes
Author- Cassandra Clare
Series- The Mortal Instruments
Published- March 2008
Page Count- 453 (UK paperback)
Publishing House- Magaret K McElderry Books
Rating- 5/5 stars
About the Author
Cassandra Clare was born to American parents in Teheran, Iran and spent much of her childhood travelling the world with her family, including one trek through the Himalayas as a toddler where she spent a month living in her father’s backpack. She lived in France, England and Switzerland before she was ten years old.
Since her family moved around so much she found familiarity in books and went everywhere with a book under her arm. She spent her high school years in Los Angeles where she used to write stories to amuse her classmates, including an epic novel called “The Beautiful Cassandra” based on a Jane Austen short story of the same name (and which later inspired her current pen name).
After college, Cassie lived in Los Angeles and New York where she worked at various entertainment magazines and even some rather suspect tabloids where she reported on Brad and Angelina’s world travels and Britney Spears’ wardrobe malfunctions. She started working on her YA novel, City of Bones, in 2004, inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan, her favourite city. She turned to writing fantasy fiction full time in 2006 and hopes never to have to write about Paris Hilton again.
Cassie’s first professional writing sale was a short story called “The Girl’s Guide to Defeating the Dark Lord” in a Baen anthology of humour fantasy. Cassie hates working at home alone because she always gets distracted by reality TV shows and the antics of her two cats, so she usually sets out to write in local coffee shops and restaurants. She likes to work in the company of her friends, who see that she sticks to her deadlines.
(Taken from Cassandra's Website)
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? Clary would love to spend more time with her best friend, Simon. But the Shadowhunters won't 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. When the second of the Mortal Instruments is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor suspects Jace. Could Jace really be willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?
City of Ashes is usually one of my least favourite books in The Mortal Instruments, but this time around I loved it. I'm usually hit with the second book slump at this point, but for the first time since I started reading TMI, I really enjoyed City of Ashes. I think it's because I've changed as a reader and I didn't enjoy City of Bones as much this time around.
Plot
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? Clary would love to spend more time with her best friend, Simon. But the Shadowhunters won't 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. When the second of the Mortal Instruments is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor suspects Jace. Could Jace really be willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?
(Taken from Goodreads)
Opinions
City of Ashes is usually one of my least favourite books in The Mortal Instruments, but this time around I loved it. I'm usually hit with the second book slump at this point, but for the first time since I started reading TMI, I really enjoyed City of Ashes. I think it's because I've changed as a reader and I didn't enjoy City of Bones as much this time around.
Like City of Bones, I flew through it this time. I'm really enjoying flying through the books this reread. I haven't done a full read through in years, so I'm really enjoying it this time around. I'm finding details I don't remember from my original read.
To me, you can see the development between City of Bones and City of Ashes. I think that City of Ashes has a slightly more sophisticated tone to it, it's definitely darker than City of Bones. You can see it in particular in the character development. It just goes to show how Cassie is an adaptable writer and just keeps on getting better with each book she publishes.
I loved the new characters introduced in this book. Maia is a really great addition to the Shadowhunter gang, but it's only just struck me how much younger she is. I think she's about 14, whereas the others are 16-17. I really like how sassy she is. As much as I hate Imogen Herondale, I loved her character in this book as it was something we hadn't seen before in the series. I also really loved Max and the rest of the Lightwoods. You really get a sense of Alec and Izzy's upbringing before the books started.
My favourite character in City of Ashes has to be Simon. Poor Simon! He deserves so much better than he gets. I'm still unsure of how I feel about Simon and Clary dating. I'm glad that it makes them happy, but I'm just unsure of how I feel about it. He then gets turned into a vampire and his whole world gets turned upside down. I just love Simon and he deserves so much better than he gets in this book.
As with any of Cassie's books, they are very humorous. I found myself laughing to myself quite a few times. I do love Cassie's use of humour. I feel that she has the right balance between humour and seriousness.
So that concludes my review of City of Ashes, like I mentioned in my last post, I will be continuing with these reviews until I have reviewed all the books released to-date.
Carenza x
