Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Ciudad de cristal

La verdad que el libro me terminó gustando muchisimo más de lo que me gustaba. Amo la evolución de casi todos los personajes, más que nada la de Jace.
Saber que todavía me quedan el 4to y 5to por leer me dan ganas de llorar.

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

City of Glass is the third installment in Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series and also happens to be the one that made me a fan of hers. I found City of Bones an enjoyable enough read at the time, and City of Ashes was fine. They were easy reads and were exactly what I needed at the time, but I felt as though City of Glass brought it all together and almost went down a high fantasy route, which is always my jam. I had read that this one was due to be the last in the series but Clare ended up continuing with 3 more books, which makes a lot of sense as City of Glass feels like a natural end to this story.

You may have noticed that I skipped out on reviewing City of Ashes, which I read between this one and Raybearer. I enjoyed reading it but I really didn’t have a lot to say so decided not to bother. It was a book I’d started reading more than a year ago and picked back up over 100 pages in for an easy read to prevent slump from settling back in, and it did its job. In fact I enjoyed it enough to pick up City of Glass right after, which I almost regretted (apparently I can’t read a series in sequence right now) but ultimately, I had a great time reading, aside from a couple things which I’m not sure I want to talk about as they get into spoiler territory.

We have some dark moments in City of Glass, some actions that make me want to yell at the characters, and I did at some points (boy do Clary and Jace frustrate me), and some tropes, some of which I didn’t mind, while others grated on me a little. There are also plenty of twists and turns in this book, many I saw coming, but a few I actually did not, which was a really nice surprise. I also found the story took a while to pick up. The entire first part, actually, felt slow to me and contained situations that I wasn’t enjoying reading and was almost reading to put the book down and move on. I didn’t though, and I’m glad for it because once it picked up, I enjoyed myself a bunch.

What really stood out to me in this book were some of the side characters. I believe Magnus Bane is pretty widely beloved so it’s likely no shock that I loved his character. I felt like he was given more depth in City of Glass, more life, and he actually made me laugh out loud a few times which always helps. Plus I love me a magic user, that’s no lie. I also loved seeing Simon’s growth as a character, how mature he is about situations that in other YA romance books the guy would have flipped out and gone full angst, but Simon just doesn’t do that. He takes the punches and grows, and ends up being a great friend for Clary. We love a non-toxic relationship!

Then in the other column, we have the book’s villains. I despised Sebastian. I didn’t trust him, he was obviously evil, and hoo boy is he slimy. Then we have Valentine, who genuinely seems to believe his delusion that he is doing the right thing somehow, when what he’s really working towards is genocide and his own personal glory. He’s frustrating. And this is a good thing, in my eyes! Yes I love a lovable villain, but villains you can really hate and root against? They are well written villains, simple as.

Finally, I want to talk about the writing. Honestly, when I first started reading the series I wasn’t sure. The writing style was good enough to pull me in but with all of the clichés and stupid actions from the characters, I was concerned that the Mortal Instruments books were yet another example of teen paranormal romance pushed out to hit an audience rather than because they’re actually any good. I have read my fair share. Yet here I am praising book three, so to past me: you were wrong. Clare’s writing style is actually really interesting. It’s simple enough to immerse you and be enjoyable to follow, even if you’re struggling with focus and such like I do, and yet she has these moments in her prose where she paints a beautiful image with her words, very reminiscent of Clary and her mother’s artistry. It’s pretty clever, frankly.

The book also utilises multiple points-of-view which ordinarily I despise. I find most books do not gain anything from using a different character’s perspective, all it does is give me narrative whiplash and make me feel frustrated. Yet in Mortal Instruments, I enjoyed them. Each POV added something to the story without feeling needless. Moments that we would never have seen, making later moments in the story pack a much harder punch. And yes, a break from Clary’s stressing was honestly refreshing.

And the ending of the book. Wow. It does not rush itself, rather, it takes its time, making sure to wrap up each loose thread and build up such a rise in tension that when the story comes to the climax, it feels so satisfying. It actually feels epic.

So those are my thoughts on City of Glass by Cassandra Clare. In conclusion, I really enjoyed this book. It’s not perfect (what book could claim to be anyway?) and certainly not for everybody, but if you don’t mind a little teenage angst and some trash Nephilim just trying to do right in the world, you might enjoy it too. Now I’m going to give the series a small break so I don’t burn out but I do have books 4 and 6, so at some point I’ll absolutely get into those, and probably the other series in the same world as well.

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just_klaudia's review against another edition

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Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

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saramackenzi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is definitely my favorite of the original three mortal instruments book. I feel like there was so much going on and the story got really interesting at this point because the stakes seemed higher.

We finally got to see Idris in this book so I was super excited; however, I’m not sure I ever got a super clear idea of what it looked like. In my mind I’m picturing streets from 1700s England, perhaps Clare mentioned something to that effect but I don’t remember that. I’m also not completely sure how the layout of the area works. At one point when we are by a lake, it mentions certain events that Clary can see across the lake yet I thought these events took place in Idris which I thought took place miles away. I just feel like, with the amount of time we spent in Idris, we would have gotten a better picture of everything.

I was just complaining about the lack of detail about Idris but this isn’t true about the entire book. We did get a decent amount of detail about things that didn’t seem necessary. While the story did move at a decent pace, the unnecessary details made the story seem extra long and more pages than were required. This is really just me being nitpicky, it didn’t really affect my opinion overall.

I was also a bit disappointed when it came to a certain fight at the end. I thought we were going to get more pov from the side characters rather than Clary and Jace because of the chapter leading up to it. For instance, we got to see Simon getting ready yet we saw nothing that happened and don’t really know anything that he did. It just seemed like it was a lot of build-up but we got no descriptions of it.

I’ve mentioned in other books that I dislike when I can guess the plot twists and while I was able to do that for some portions of the book there were a couple of moments where I was surprised. I really liked some of the twists and feel like some of the twists are set-ups for future books.

So let’s talk about characters. I still love Magnus and was a bit sad he wasn’t included as much, don’t get me wrong, he’s there but just not as prevalent. Clary. . .while still annoying it didn’t bother me as much this book for some reason, possibly because she was a bit more worried about the bigger issue than her boy/brother problems (she’s still focused on those issues but with Simon out of the way it’s a bit better to manage this book). Next up Jace, I don’t know I just really like him and his sass but it drove me nuts how he was treating Clary for half the book. I really don’t have a lot of opinions on Isabelle or Alec, we don’t really see them a lot in this book. While they are there and take part in the plot it just wasn’t as much as the last books. Although I really liked the bits we saw of Alec and feel like we got some development, I feel like there could be more. Simon, our poor vampire friend. I think we saw character development with him? I say that with a question mark because I think he’s finally coming to terms that he’s a vampire but at the same time I don’t think he is. We did see some new characters, the main one being Sebastian. I think he’s pretty complex and interesting and I would have loved to learn more about him (I’m going to have a spoiler part at the very end where I’ll discuss this more).

I want to say a little something about the “incest” plotline. If you’ve read any type of review from this series I’m sure you’ve heard something about it. It never really bothered me that much because (spoiler but not really if you’ve read the first book) all it is is a kiss but then some complicated feeling but I know for some people they have big issues with. I actually saw a video of someone talking about it and I thought I should add a little paraphrase of what she said. This person was adopted and it was a closed adoption, she made the point that she would have no idea if someone was her brother or sister because of this so, while the possibility is small, it is possible that she could develop feelings for a family member without even knowing they were her sister. She made a point of saying how we shouldn’t trash the “incest” (if you can even call it that) plotline just because it’s not realistic because it actually is realistic. It really opened my eyes to her point of view and feel like it’s important for other people to think about that when judging the book.

In conclusion, I really liked this one. It’s definitely not flawless but I think it’s much better than the previous two. I’m kind of looking forward to the next three books and I have a couple of theories based on the couple details that were included and some plot holes left in. I know when this was originally published it was supposed to just be a trilogy and with the ending that we got, I have no clue how I would’ve been able to deal with the small cliffhangers.

That’s the end of my regular review. Now I’m going to talk about certain people and things that happened as well as theories I have for the next books. . .oh and I’ll definitely be giving some blunt opinions about all these. If you don’t want spoilers, stop reading and go enjoy your day!

Spoilers Ahead!

First order of business, Sebastian. I wasn’t shocked when I found out he was Clary’s actual brother, I had guessed halfway in. But I don’t think I picked up any clues that led to that, to be honest (well except when they kissed and she felt really weird about it), I just felt like that’s something Clare would do especially since it was obvious she wanted Jace and Clary to end up together. And now that I think about it, Sebastian knew that Clary was his sister so I would love to know why he decided to kiss her because I don’t think that was ever explained. I also think he’s 100% still alive. It was mentioned that his body was never found and that Jace wasn’t quite sure he believed his body just washed away. So I definitely won’t be surprised if he pops back up in the next books.

I also think there’s a lot we don’t know about Clary’s mom, Jocelyn. She was being really sus about everything and even Clary was starting to doubt what she was told towards the end. I think it’d be interesting if she’s actually evil or something but who knows. I feel like we are missing a lot of pieces from her past but one part I think we’re going to find out is that she’s been in contact with an angel. Clary mentioned a star-shaped birthmark on her wrist (I think) and we find out later that Jace and the men in his family also have a star-shaped birthmark on their collarbone. In the book, it says the birthmark is from the original male in the family (I can’t remember his name) who came into contact with an angel and was touched there. That’s how we know Jace is from that family because supposedly the man was the only person to come into contact with an angel. I’m really interested to see if this goes anywhere and what it could mean. Either way, I definitely think Jocelyn is shifty.

The last thing I think will pop up again is the faerie queen. Why the heck would Clary not agree to help. I think it’s definitely going to come back and bite her in the butt. I’m not quite sure what it is yet but I’m intrigued.

Let me know what you guys think and if you agree with any of my theories!

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