herseriallife
Written on May 4, 2021
Third in Cassandra Clare’s internationally bestselling Mortal Instruments series about the Shadowhunters.
Discover more secrets about the Shadowhunters as they fight to protect the world from demons in the third book in the internationally bestselling series. Amid the chaos of war, the Shadowhunters must decide to fight with the vampires, werewolves and other Downworlders – or against them. Meanwhile, Jace and Clary have their own decision to make: should they pursue the love they know is a mortal sin? This edition contains a map and a new foreword by Cassandra Clare. Read all the sensational books in The Shadowhunter Chronicles: The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, The Bane Chronicles, The Dark Artifices, The Last Hours and The Shadowhunter’s Codex.
- ISBN10 1406307645
- ISBN13 9781406307641
- Publish Date 22 June 2009 (first published 24 March 2009)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Walker Books Ltd
- Format Paperback
- Pages 512
- Language English
Reviews
Mad Soul Child
Written on Dec 18, 2020
roundtableknight
Written on Jan 27, 2019
ammaarah
Written on Nov 19, 2018
"Knowing is better than not knowing. Every time."
★ Clary is still extremely uninteresting and forgettable, but she has awesome rune creating powers.
★ Jace grew on me in City of Glass, but he still does a lot of problematic things. He makes decisions for Clary because he wants to protect her. He says awful things to Clary, his family and his friends. He breaks a window in someone else's house.
★ Simon seems more sure of himself in City of Glass. He's also more mature and seems to be above all the teenage angst.
★ Isabelle is freaking awesome. I love her so much!
★ Alec actually has a little bit of a personality in City of Glass.
★ Magnus Bane is one of the best characters Cassandra Clare has ever written. He makes Alec likable.
★ I'm on board the MALEC ship.
★ Luke deserves all the happiness in the world.
★ From the moment Amatis was introduced in City of Glass, I couldn't help but love her.
★ Sebastian. Enough said.
★ City of Glass takes place in Idris, the Shadowhunter country, and I liked the change of scenery.
★ I've read City of Glass before so I knew all the major plot points and how the events were going to play out, but I was still invested in the characters and couldn't turn the pages fast enough to see what would happen next.
★ My biggest problem with The Mortal Instruments series is the incest. I couldn't get behind Jace and Clary as a couple because of the whole sibling thing. I know that they aren't really siblings, but they don't know that and they keep on pursuing a romantic relationship with each other and confessing their love for each other. Clary also ends up kissing her real brother. Like why even?!?!? I am however eager to see how Jace and Clary's relationship progresses when I reread City of Fallen Angels now that they know that they aren't siblings.
The Mortal Instruments series seems to get better with every book. I was more attached to the characters, the plot progression and pacing is much better and it's nice to see Idris. I really liked City of Glass.
"What a night, Clary thought. A night of so much pain for everyone."
Artemis
Written on Feb 18, 2016
jesstheaudiobookworm
Written on Dec 22, 2015
2.5 stars
This was very nearly a DNF (did not finish) for me. I cannot tell you the number of times I stopped listening out of pure agony and frustration, only to pick it up again later out of a compulsory need to finish something I had begun. This book was so far below my maturity level that I actually felt insulted while reading it. As a 27-year-old, I do realize that I am most likely not in the target audience for the majority of YA books. However, skilled authors often have a way of making books appeal to a wider audience than those to which it is marketed (Harry Potter, for example). This series is so annoyingly juvenile that, try as I might, I simply could not stand it. I would guess the target reading age is 11-14. I wish I had known that beforehand. I am so upset with myself for wasting such a large amount of time to get through this. For me, this entire series and author are insanely overhyped. The plot is incredibly predictable, the writing is bland (at best), the protagonist is whiny and immature, and the romance is all kinds of problematic (and icky). But the worst thing is that underneath all of that, the basic premise of the story actually had promise. There were a handful of times that I thought I saw a glimmer of hope, only for it to be extinguished by another disgustingly mushy Clary/Jace moment. I really feel like this series would have been so much better without those two characters. They are so poorly written and I can't help but feel as if the author could not decide what to do with them. With that type of incesty storyline, the author has to really commit to it 100% (a la Game of Thrones). The way this author does it seems totally amateurish and underdeveloped. Basically, I persevered through the first two books based on the hype that this series receives and hoped that it would improve. Unfortunately, it did not and I think I would have to be truly desperate for something to read to ever give the rest of the series any of my time.
As for the audiobook, this narrator's voice had very little inflection or emotion. She sounded about as bored with the book as me. ~The Audiobookworm
pamela
Written on Jun 30, 2015
What a great conclusion to this story arc. I'm actually a bit nervous about carrying on reading the series since this was actually a pretty decent resolution. I'm not sure how much more of 'they're together!' and 'they're not together anymore!' I can actually take. It was just enough to span a trilogy, but let's face it, without a bit more love, heartbreak and despair from Clary and Jace this series isn't really going to be the same, so I expect a lot more heartbreak and not a lot of functioning relationship in this series' future.
Still, if the next three books are half as fun to read as the first three Cassandra Clare will have no complaints from me.
Kim Deister
Written on Jan 4, 2015
There are some new characters in this book, some of which have turned the story line of the series on end. Bad guys, good guys... from page to page, there are times when you just don't know about some of these characters. Even those we known and love have their moments. Nothing is black and white in this book, but a million shades in between.
There is a ton of emotion in this book, a ton of mystery and intrigue, a ton of battles and action. I love the ongoing story of the series and the way it constantly changes! Engrossing!!
My Recommendation
This is a must read for fans of the series, my favorite yet!
Katie King
Written on Jul 14, 2014
As I wind my way through the Mortal Instrument series, I’m left with an overall feeling of reading the exact same book over and over again. They start out with some sort of conflict, then resolution, repeat four or five times, insert some plot twists near the end, then finish it off with a big battle. Some of the same things have been repeated throughout all three books, such as Clary being annoying as shit. There’s lots of talk of saving Clary’s mother but two feet out the door and she’s immediately forgotten. The plot is almost always centered around Clary and Jace, and in fact almost all other characters show up only to serve some function and then disappear again. The POV randomly changes within the same page with no indication of that. And finally, here is Cassandra Clare with clues:
Yep. I can say with almost absolute certainty that the next book will follow these exact same patterns. As a result, I've limited myself to comment merely on the characters and their development or lack thereof.
Summary
At one point, Isabelle says Clary has known Jace a month. So they're in love after a month. That's all I need to say.
Nessa Luna
Written on Dec 20, 2013
Okay, so I tried my best, but in the end I couldn't do it anymore. I stopped reading where Part Two ended, and I am not planning on ever finishing this book. Or the rest of the series. I am honestly asking myself why the hell I got myself to read these three books, why I wasted so many precious reading hours to this series. I have considered not writing a review about this book (or at least not posting about it on my blog), but I am going to do it anyway, because I just want you all to know why I don't like this series. I will probably add spoilers, so beware.
The Action - Well, there was some action in this book, almost right at the beginning. I did like the action scenes, but there was one particular scene that I would have loved to read more about, but no, of course the one thing I like in this book is not being continued. Right when it gets to the action, Clare switches to a different character in the story and we don't read ANYTHING from that thrilling moment again until after it's happened. Why? Just, why?!
The Characters - Don't talk to me about these characters, oh my god. Clary, seriously. I think they should have called this series: "Things Clary Does That She Shouldn't Be Doing'. Wow, really almost every character in this book was like 'Clary, don't do the thing!' and then Clary was like: "Going to do the thing, because yolo'. No. Please. Also, she's staying at Amatis' house (Luke's sister), and she just completely does whatever she wants. She wears Amatis' clothes, she eats her food, she leaves when she wants even after being told to stay inside the house. And then she breaks a couple of Amatis' plates, just because she's angry with Jace? I hope you bought her some new plates Clary, god.
I am not going to talk about any of the other characters, because I could probably write a fifty-page essay about how much I don't like any of them, and I don't want to do that to y'all. I just like Luke and Simon, but that's because of the movie (and the actors). The only person I kinda liked was Sebastian, because he told the 'gang' that they were really annoying and stupid, and I might have cheered at that point.
Then there are the deaths. Three completely unnecessary deaths (well more than three actually, quite a lot, but still these were the 'important ones' or w/e). Madeline (who was going to take Clary to Ragnor Fell), Ragnor Fell (who was apparently the only one who could wake up Clary's mum (until there was a magical solution of some White book that Magnus wanted)) and Max (Alec and Isabelle's nine-year-old brother) (SERIOUSLY WHY?!)
You know, sometimes deaths happen for a reason, to teach us (the readers) or the characters a lesson, but these deaths were just weird and I didn't learn anything from them at all.
Also there was someone called Nashreen Chaudhury, and that's also a character in Doctor Who (or well her last name is spelled differently). (That episode aired after this book was released, so I'm not implying anything but it was just funny). Also, every time Sebastian was mentioned, I pictured Radagast's hedgehog, just a side note.
The Romance - Ugh don't get me started on this. Clary thinks she's not pretty, or 'not as pretty as Isabelle' which is actually really stupid (why compare yourself to another girl, why do girls do that?). But yet she has not one, not two but THREE love interests. And one of them is her brother (gross). Also the whole thing between Isabelle and Simon, why?
The Plot - It reminded me a lot of Deathly Hallows. Except for the fact that Valentine was looking for all three of the Mortal Instruments, and not just one (like Voldemort, who was only after the Elder Wand). There was Idris being protected by the ward or w/e (like Hogwarts being protected etc), then there was the part where demons were suddenly inside Idris, and a huge fight. Valentine calling back his troops and wanting to take over the clave or something like that. Then he gave them until midnight the next day to decide or else he would enter Idris again and kill every last man *gasp*, woman *gasp* and child *no*.
And then the next chapter is called 'In the Dark Forest', which is exactly the place Voldemort is hiding himself, and exactly the place Harry is going to get killed. Like Jace is doing, wowowowowowowoww.
I didn't really pay attention to the rest of the plot, because I actually thought it was a tiny bit boring (it was basically them wanting to wake up Clary's mum).
The Writing - I just don't know what to say about this. If there is one thing I don't like, it's characters talking in different languages (especially those that I don't speak), and it not being translated into English (at the bottom of the page or something, you know?!). And no, I don't feel like Google-translating every bloody sentence every time. there was literally one word I understood, and that was 'Vale', and that was because of Doctor Who (Vale Decem... *sobs*)
I was also really annoyed by the change in POV's the entire time. I would have accepted it better when it was a POV a chapter, but the POV just changes randomly after a tiny cliffhanger bit which weren't really all that shocking in my opinion. This is one of the main reasons I stopped reading.
So, in the end, I am just going to say 'vale' (see what I did there) to this book series, and I hope I never have to see you again!