Book Review: City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare (spoiler filled review; major spoilers for City of Glass)

Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today I'm going to be doing a book review. This review is for City of Ashes, the sequel to City of Bones. I read this last September, right after reading the first book.

Because this is a sequel, there will be major spoilers for this book and the previous one, as well as parts of City of Glass (as counterintuitive as it seems, it will make sense). If you haven't read these books and wish to, I wouldn't recommend reading this post.

Let's get into the review!

I enjoyed City of Bones. I really did. Then City of Ashes came along and it was bad. I thought nothing could beat my dislike/hatred of New Moon, but it turns out that I just hadn't been introduced to City of Ashes at the time. I liked this book about as much as I liked New Moon (meaning largely didn't). 

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I was spoiled for this series by the internet, regarding the plot twist at the end of City of Bones where it is revealed that Jace and Clary are siblings. I will say that had I not been spoiled for the original trilogy, I would've DNF'd it immediately, which is saying something because I rarely ever want to DNF a book. The spoiler was that at the end of City of Glass they find out that they aren't siblings. They do not share blood. 

That was the spoiler. Didn't make this book any less problematic or awkward. 

I absolutely hated the forbidden romance aspect that was included in the first half of this trilogy. Of all the possibilities for forbidden romance Mrs. Clare could've chosen, I think incest was the worst possible idea, especially considering the insta-love aspect. There is no way that two teenagers could 'fall in love' in the span of 1-2 weeks then find out they're siblings and then want to still pursue a romantic relationship within the next month. 

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Cassandra Clare has gotten asked about the incest in her books since she first began her professional writing career. Readers will ask why she used it. In 2014, she wrote a blog post on her Tumblr where she kind of dove into this. She begins this post with a reader asking about the use of incest, and why it pops up frequently in The Mortal Instruments. 

The blog post in of itself is fairly long, and some of the points, topics, and themes mentioned aren't fully relevant. The main thing to take away from this is this quote from the post itself.

Incest is fictional/literary shorthand for concepts that often can't be conveyed another way because in writing about it, you carry forward the weight of the literally thousands of years of writing on this topic in folklore, myth, and fiction. So, why incest in TMI? Well, in the case of the Jace and Clary plotline, though they aren't actually related, it falls into the framework of didn't-know-they-were-related Turin/Nienor type stories. These are stories of inadvertent sin. They are stories about perfectly good people who are doing something they think is good--falling in love--which then, because of a revelation they are powerless to control or predict, find out they have done something terrible instead.

The Turin/Nienor thing is referring to the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien, an unintentional incestuous relationship Clare mentioned as an example.

Now, this statement is true in City of Bones in the sense that Jace meets Clary and the two then begin to have feelings for each other, and even kiss midway through the first book. It isn't until the very last chapter (not including the epilogue) where they are told that they are brother and sister. 

HOWEVER, in my opinion, this statement is a moot point once City of Ashes comes into the picture. If the argument is that Jace and Clary's 'incestuous' relationship is one of unconscious sin, then this point only applies to City of Bones. Why is that?

Because after this, the two of them realize they have done something horrible, but then in the same novel, they continue to have feelings for each other, and even kiss twice, one time completely willingly. Now, feelings themselves are largely uncontrollable, however acting upon their feelings is a choice. Throughout the novel, Jace and Clary do this back and forth tug of war about their feelings for each other. Jace wonders whether he's a bad person because of how he feels for his little sister, which, in my opinion, is valid and worth discussing. 

However, it doesn't seem like Jace ever matures about this and decides, "No, this isn't what I want. I can't desire my baby sister. I don't want to be evil." Instead, he just complains all the way through the novel about how much he wants to kiss his sister and be with her and love her in ways he shouldn't. I think Clary handled this situation better than Jace, however she isn't off the hook either, as she desires his kiss, leading to one of their two kisses in the novel.

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For another, pretty much all the characters are angsty teenagers. 

As an example this is a quote from our main love interest.

"I don't want to be a man," said Jace. "I want to be an angst-ridden teenager who can't confront his own inner demons and takes it out verbally on other people instead."

I'm confused. Is that supposed to be attractive and humorous? It just sounds really immature, dramatic, and off-putting. I like looking at the quotes for books I've read on Goodreads. To be honest, I can probably find more quotes I like from the Twilight Saga than I can for City of Ashes. The quotes are not memorable to me. I can't think of a single quote I liked from these books.  

I'm just going to straight-up say it: I'm not a fan of Clace (ship name for Clary and Jace).

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This series is also accused of being a rip-off/plagiarized version of Harry Potter. I can definitely see the similarities. Even if Cassandra Clare didn't intentionally do this, it's still hard to not see the similarities when you read about two werewolves in a restaurant debating who would win in a fight between Dumbledore and the warlock Magnus Bane.

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Overall, this book wasn't good. I liked a few of these characters, but none of these characters could redeem the horrible romance plot between Jace and Clary in this book. Even though I was spoiled for this series regarding the fact that Clary and Jace aren't actually siblings, it still felt disgusting and caused me to cringe many times.

I gave it 2 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. I would've rated it a 1, but there were a few parts I enjoyed. They just weren't able to salvage my enjoyment of the novel.

That's it for this review! I hope you enjoyed it! 

See you Thursday, 

Lexi K🖌

Further information: 

Cassandra Clare's Tumblr Post (opens in new window)