Book Review: City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

Title: City of Glass
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Mortal Instruments
Pages: 492
Date of UK Publication: 24th March 2009
Source: Bought
Synopsis from Goodreads: 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 Shadow-hunter Sebastian. With Valentine mustering the full force of his power to destroy all Shadow-hunters 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 new found powers to help save the Glass City -- whatever the cost?


My Thoughts: I had been putting this book off for ages, since July last year. I have no idea why, I raced through the first two and absolutely loved them, and talked about them for days, but when I got City of Glass, I just didn't want to read it. It was weird. I don't know why, and I wish I hadn't, because it was awesome.

City of Glass picks up just where City of Ashes left off. Clary's mum is still in her magical coma, and Clary is the only one who knows how to save her. Her problem? The answer is in Idris, the Shadowhunter capital of the world. So, off she goes to Idris.

In the previous books, we hear a lot about Idris, though we've never really seen it properly. In City of Glass, apart from the first few chapters, the whole story is set in Idris, in Alicante to be exact. The city is wonderful, and Cassandra Clare's writing describes it with lots of detail and interesting-ness, without the reader feeling as if there's been an information overload. I enjoyed the story being set in New York, but I loved it being set in Idris, because it's so magical and cool, I can really imagine all of the Shadowhunters living in that unknown place. It really reminded me of Clockwork Angel, set in Victorian London.

The characters are still their usual awesomeness. (Does that even make sense? Probably not :L) Anyway, Clary is still her stubborn, determined, completely-in-love-with-Jace-even-though-he's-her-brother self, and Jace is still extremely frustrating and annoying self. Frustrating and annoying because everybody knows that he's still completely in love with Clary even though he says he just wants to be her brother, yet he won't tell her. Which I can understand because it's incest, but still... He became less annoying and frustrating in the end though. I think you can guess why, if you think why he was frustrating and annoying. ;) There were so many declarations of love, in amongst all the death and destruction, it was awesome.

There was some really sad things in this book, some really horrible deaths, that almost had me crying. (Because I was in the car, and that would be weird.) I won't tell you who, because that would spoil it, but one was so unexpected and sad, I didn't even see it coming. :'(

City of Glass is an amazing addition to The Mortal Instruments series, and I cannot wait until City of Fallen Angels releases in May, or whenever it is. I will definitely be buying it as soon as I can, and I definitely will not keep putting off reading it. I will read it as soon as I can, and I'm sure it's going to be great.


My Rating:

I give it 5 feet!

Challenges:
2011 Paranormal YA Reading Challenge #9
2011 100+ Reading Challenge #12