Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today I'm going to be doing a book review. This review is for City of Glass, the third book in The Mortal Instruments.
Because this is a sequel, there will be major spoilers for this book and the previous two. If you haven't read these books and wish to, I wouldn't recommend reading this post.
Let's get into the review!
In this book, we travel with Clary, Simon, and Luke to Alicante (also known as Glass City and City of Glass [hence the title]), the capital and only city of Idris (the Shadowhunter's home country). This is where the Council (the governing body of the Clave) and many Shadowhunter families reside.
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There were a few things in this book that felt unnecessary, but I will discuss those after I talk about the things I did like about this book. I like that it's finally revealed that Clary and Jace aren't siblings. While I already knew this, it was nice to finally read the reveal.
Honestly, there aren't many things I like about this series. It seems very.....generic. The elements included in these stories are pretty unique, but sometimes the writing dragged. A few of the characters felt 2-D, primarily Max and Sebastian/Jonathan. I'll discuss Max in a moment.
Firstly, Sebastian/Jonathan. He's barely there. It is clear that Sebastian/Jonathan is supposed to be an antagonist, but he doesn't do much except kill Max, attempt to kill Izzy, kill Hodge, and deactivate the wards so Valentine can infiltrate Alicante with his army.
It is revealed near the end of the novel that Sebastian/Jonathan is really Clary's brother, not Jace (thankfully as they've still had romantic feelings this entire time). While Clary's mother believed Jonathan to be dead, Valentine raised the boy. Another thing I haven't mentioned are the experiments Valentine did on his children, Clary and Jonathan, respectively.
While Jocelyn (Clary and Jonathan's mother) was pregnant with Jonathan, Valentine poisoned the fetus with demon blood, infusing Jonathan with it, hence why Clary's brother is evil. On the other hand, when Jocelyn was pregnant with Clary, Valentine infused her with angel blood.
Okay. Now back to the point. Valentine reveals that Jonathan survived and has been posing as Sebastian Verlac, a Shadowhunter he killed so he could take his identity. As Sebastian, he befriended Clary and the Lightwoods, even kissing Clary once (nope, the incest doesn't end with the fake incest between Clary and Jace).
If Sebastian had been introduced in City of Bones or even City of Ashes, I would've understood it more, but this book crowded a lot of things into it. This was Sebastian's/Jonathan's first appearance in the books, and within a few chapters, Isabelle has cut off his hand, creating an opening so Jace can stab him in the back, successfully breaking his spine and piercing his heart, causing him to fall into the river.
Almost as quickly as he's introduced, he's killed off in a matter of pages. It felt very rushed to me.
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Let's talk about the things I thought were unnecessary now. Why kill Max? What was the point? Was it supposed to demonstrate how cruel Sebastian/Jonathan was in the sense that he wouldn't even hesitate to kill children? Otherwise, it doesn't make sense, especially because I didn't fully care. I know that sounds very heartless, but bear with me.
For one, it came out of left field while also being incredibly predictable. Chances are that whenever a character promises something to another character, that character who was promised something will die.
Supposedly, Max was intended to die since his creation and was even originally meant to be killed off in City of Ashes. I hope this isn't true, but it seems to be. I have a problem with this. I write novels myself (not published yet), and this is problematic. Why?
Unless you are a really skilled author, creating a character solely to kill them off just does that character a disservice, especially when you have a child of Max's age (he was nine). When a character is created solely to be killed off it doesn't allow for as much emotional build-up, leaving the characters feeling flat and two-dimensional.
I never cared about Max. I cared about him in that he was a human being, but he wasn't even in the story much. Any of them, if I'm being completely honest. It also felt as if his death was just glossed over. I understand that all the Shadowhunters are still in the middle of a war, but still. It felt rushed, and I didn't like it. The child deserved better.
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I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. It was better than City of Ashes, but I think it was worse than City of Bones. Of this original trilogy, City of Bones was the best one. I like the days of pre-incest Clace. I hope the second trilogy that Cassandra Clare added after this first one concluded is better than this, though I'm not holding my breath.
Let's talk about the things I thought were unnecessary now. Why kill Max? What was the point? Was it supposed to demonstrate how cruel Sebastian/Jonathan was in the sense that he wouldn't even hesitate to kill children? Otherwise, it doesn't make sense, especially because I didn't fully care. I know that sounds very heartless, but bear with me.
For one, it came out of left field while also being incredibly predictable. Chances are that whenever a character promises something to another character, that character who was promised something will die.
Supposedly, Max was intended to die since his creation and was even originally meant to be killed off in City of Ashes. I hope this isn't true, but it seems to be. I have a problem with this. I write novels myself (not published yet), and this is problematic. Why?
Unless you are a really skilled author, creating a character solely to kill them off just does that character a disservice, especially when you have a child of Max's age (he was nine). When a character is created solely to be killed off it doesn't allow for as much emotional build-up, leaving the characters feeling flat and two-dimensional.
I never cared about Max. I cared about him in that he was a human being, but he wasn't even in the story much. Any of them, if I'm being completely honest. It also felt as if his death was just glossed over. I understand that all the Shadowhunters are still in the middle of a war, but still. It felt rushed, and I didn't like it. The child deserved better.
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I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. It was better than City of Ashes, but I think it was worse than City of Bones. Of this original trilogy, City of Bones was the best one. I like the days of pre-incest Clace. I hope the second trilogy that Cassandra Clare added after this first one concluded is better than this, though I'm not holding my breath.
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