City of Ashes (Mortal Instruments, #2)

by Cassandra Clare

[Katie King]

**2 stars**

My Thoughts:
Clary was a bit of a mixed bag in this book. She's still pretty annoying and still jumping to conclusions and telling everyone else what to do. She whines about Simon, she whines at the Seelie Court, she whines about Isabelle being attractive and a badass. When she's not whining, she's crying. I felt like every page mentioned something about hot tears splashing down her face. Go ahead and check, I've got time. A few times she's treated as though she just gets in the way, and I really enjoyed those parts because I feel the same way. She's like a sea of Legos keeping you from a chocolate cake - annoying and painful to deal with. Of course she doesn't let anyone tell her what to do and often involves herself where she isn't wanted. When as a result she messes things up, she usually just sits down to have a good cry. Please grow up.

On the OTHER hand, Clary is actually a lot better than she was in City of Bones. She doesn't stand around whining ALL the time anymore, just most of the time! She takes initiative when everyone goes to break out Jace. She offers up intelligent ideas and fights demons in the climax. It's so refreshing to see her so actively involved!

Jace is still pretty much the best character. He's still rough around the edges, and you see more of that as he struggles with his feelings for Clary. His reaction to Simon and Clary dating comes across a little too strong (he obviously hates Simon), which made me think about the timeline of the first book. Why are him and Clary so desperately in love - hasn't it only been like 2 weeks since she found out she was a Shadowhunter? That got me thinking about how the author doesn't really lay out her timelines very well. I still don't know exactly how far out we are from day 1. Maybe we're supposed to think it's the brotherly affections kicking in. He is pretty protective and possessive of Clary. He often tells her what she can and cannot do, and where she must be and cannot go. This combined with his arrogance painted a darker picture of him than we see in the first book. He's not quite as dreamboat-y as he was before but...still.

Simon & Clary's relationship was ridiculous. First of all, the relationships was so forced. They kiss and then he starts calling her his girlfriend in front of people and this makes her SUPER uncomfortable, but does she do anything? Nope, she just lets him keep chugging along the train tracks to heartbreak. Granted, Simon needed to pump the brakes (he got uber annoying) but nobody was telling him that. As far as he knew, Clary was super into it. Clary also treats Simon like dirt, but only when Jace is around, and you better believe that doesn't escape Simon's notice. Simon gets fed up and Clary is left wondering what she ever did to make him mad. If I were Simon I would drop her like a bag of hot potatoes. But I guess letting go of unrequited love finally realized is easier said than done. Simon needs to go out there and find him some badass nerdy vamp girl, because Clary's heart lies with another.

Plot-wise it wasn't much better than the first book. It added more necessary background information, but this plot moves slower than a turtle with arthritis. Clary's mom is still nonexistent, there's still random demon attacks that pop-up when the plot gets stale. There's the brief encounters with the other species of Downworlders - this time the werewolves and the faeries. I think the author will finally be satisfied once there's every species of Downworlder represented in a main character. Last but not least, there's still the Jace hates his dad -> meets up with his dad for a chat -> he joins him/is going to join him -> he realizes that's a bad move and rejoins the good side. I've read City of Glass (the next book) before and I know that's repeated in there as well. Yay.
 
Summary:
I have this overwhelming feeling of "been there, done that." This time around, I wasn't bored with Simon - I was annoyed with him, so that's a positive. Clary stops getting on everyone's nerves long enough to accomplish some things. Jace is in borderline abusive relationship territory. See you guys next for City of Glass.