City of Heavenly Fire (Mortal Instruments, #6)

by Cassandra Clare

[Leah]

What a wild ride. I've read all six Mortal Instruments books, all three Infernal Devices books and The Bane Chronicles since February 14th. I'm exhausted. I'm kinda mad at myself for reading them in such a short space of time because once I was halfway through, I kinda got fatigued but I wanted to carry on because I wanted the series over with, to see how it ended, but I definitely would have preferred to just read these books as they were published, with a nice year-long gap in between. Because they're massive. I have read about 5,000 pages give or take of the same freaking series since February. It's all I've read and it's incredibly overwhelming.

Mind you, I am so glad I read the series. It was incredible. How Cassandra Clare wrote so many books in such a short space of time that are so freaking long is heroic. I bow down. *BOWS* To then interweave the Infernal Devices with the Mortal Instruments is even more insane. (And she plans to do it again with The Dark Artifices and The Lost Hours or The Eldest Curses IDK!) There are four trilogies to go, before Cassandra is done with the Shadowhunters completely and it's insane to think it's spanned so many books! But it works, because I was never bored of the stories, merely fatigued at how intense it all was.

City of Heavenly Fire wraps up the Mortal Instruments perfectly. It's not exactly Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (I don't think a finale book will ever be as good as Deathly Hallows, but it wrapped up a lot of stuff (and killed a few people). RIP Raphael and I do not see that as a spoiler because literally everyone has already read this series.

I just... I'm overwhelmed. The way the story connected to TID, the fighting, the battles, meeting Emma and Julian (from Lady Midnight), my head feels like it could explode to keep up with so many characters. But it was worth it as well, because you really feel like you've been on a journey (and a half) with Clary and the Shadowhunters. Probably the only thing I didn't like was what happened to Simon. Was there any need? REALLY? Why ruin one of the greatest friendships ever written and one of the greatest love stories that was just getting started (I am a HARDCORE Simon/Izzy shipper) but in all endings sacrifices had to be made, and I don't know how otherwise it would have occurred. Bloody Simon and his selflessness. IT JUST MAKES HIM EVEN GREATER. If Cassandra had one extra trilogy in her, after the four we have coming, I'd want it to be about Simon. I could literally read about him forever. It may not have meant to be his story, but he bloody well took over and he was by far my favourite.