Monday 30 April 2018

City of Glass Review (Contains Spoilers)| CarenzaOnBooks


Title- City of Glass
Author- Cassandra Clare
Series- The Mortal Instruments
Published- 2009
Page Count- 492 pages (UK Paperback)
Publishing House- Walker 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)

Plot


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 instalment of the New York Times bestselling series The Mortal Instruments.
(Taken from Goodreads)

Opinions



This reread for me was a bit of a slow start as it took me a while to get into it. Usually, I fly through City of Glass, but it took me a while to get into it. I think it's because I'm a very different reader from when I first picked up the series back in 2013.  

The deaths in this book are so sad. When I first read City of Glass, I cried when Max died. It's one of the most brutal deaths I have read about in YA. The deaths in this book really tug on the heartstrings. I also felt really sad when Hodge died, even though he had betrayed the Shadowhunters, he hadn't done anything that warranted death.  For me, the relationships in this book are really well developed. There's the contrast in Jace and Clary's relationship from the beginning to the end of the book. Some of the things Jace did to protect Clary in this book actually made things worse. I also felt like there was a change in Clary and Isabelle's relationship as they were starting to act more like friends in this book. Simon and Jace's relationship was another one I enjoyed reading about.

But, by far the best relationship in this book was Magnus and Alec. I love them as a couple so much and I love that there is a prominent gay character in this series. They are adorable and it makes me so happy every time I read Alec overcoming his fear of coming out to his parents.  

In all truthfulness, I don't feel as though I have as much to say about City of Glass. Maybe it's because it's been a while since I read it, but I feel as though City of Glass is a make or break book for me, and this time round, my reread was somewhere in the middle. Carenza x