Review Detail

Previously published on my blog: http://fictionfervor.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/review-city-of-ashes-by-cassandra-clare/

Without a doubt, the second novel in Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series is just as nerve-wracking as its prequel. With the return of some of my favorite Shadowhunters, I couldn’t help smiling as characters fell in love, pondering as new discoveries were made, and gasping at every turn.

I’ve always loved the world Cassie Clare had created. A world of nephilim, vampires, werewolves, faeries, and warlocks–each species being a combination of either angel, demon, or human–fascinates me. And the plot in this book! I was engrossed in this one even more than I was in City of Bones (I think I have a thing with murders in books; they just grab at my attention).

Cassie’s characters also majorly improved. With this installment in the series, Clary became less of a Mary Sue in my mind. Her newly discovered talent with runes still didn’t qualify her as kick-butt, but my opinion of her rose rapidly. And Jace–Jace became even more complex, even more of a character whose emotions dominated him.

The romantic tension between Clary and Jace grew even more in this novel–which of course made me pleased. (Totally Team Jace here.) Even though they still had that pesky little hurdle of (spoiler if you haven’t read City of Bones) incest, they couldn’t help falling in love with each other, no matter how hard they tried to push their feelings away.

I adored this book. With even more plot twists and major improvements in character development, this book left me flipping its pages ’til the very end. Readers are going to want to get their hands on City of Glass the very minute–no, the very second–they read the last word in this novel.

Source: copy borrowed from library