Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - City of Ashes

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

5 reviews

toastyghosty13's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I enjoyed the 1st book of this series a lot more than this installment. I found Clary to be incredibly annoying and her antics made it difficult to get through. She was constantly rushing into danger without thinking despite having more experience as a shadow hunter since the 1st book, and was constantly putting others in danger because she would rush into situations without a second thought.

I also found the dynamic between her and

Jace to be absolutely horrific. Why this type of relationship (where they are in love with each other and then find out they are long lost siblings) was included as a major plot point of Clary’s romantic interests is a complete mystery to me. It offers no value other than to make Jace a forbidden love in the ABSOLUTE WORST WAY POSSIBLE. It’s gross, especially when they have to kiss in front of the Seelie Queen and the rest of the gang just brushes it off as if it is no big deal, except for Simon who had the only normal reaction of walking away angry.

The spoiler above plus how annoying I find Clary are making it super difficult for me to want to move on to the next book, despite the fact that I am invested and interested in uncovering Valentine’s ultimate goal. I also found this book to be pretty boring for the majority of it, other than the last ~3-4 chapters where all of the action takes place. I will probably get on to the 3rd book at some point in the future since I do at least know that

it is revealed in the 3rd book that Clary and Jace are not actually related

and I want to see more of what Valentine does, plus how everyone plans on stopping him. This book also ended with a pretty good cliff hanger that I want to see resolved.

Although I will be making my way through the next book eventually, I still want to emphasize that the only thing keeping this from a 1 star rating are the lovely secondary characters of Alec, Isabelle, and Magnus Bane. Magnus Bane is a mood and vibe, and I love that for

Alec since he needs any semblance of normal social interactions away from Clary/Jace/only his family

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psliz's review

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

nothing if not action-packed and drama oriented!

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readwithria's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.0

I'm pleasantly surprised at how well these books have held up, both to time in general and to me being older than the target age range. I really enjoyed the pace, the action, the characters, and the continued worldbuilding. The addition of new Downworlder characters added more depth to an already exciting world.

My one complaint, which made me consider dropping my rating from a 4 to a 3, was the relationship dynamic between Clary and Jace.

Okay, so at the end of the last book, we are told that these two love interests are siblings. We have no reason to believe that this isn't true. Before this information was revealed, they were love interests. Now in book two, they are still pining for each other even though THEY FULLY BELIEVE THEY'RE SIBLINGS. Neither of them is under the impression that Valentine lied to them, they're both fully on the same page about being siblings, but they also both have the hots for each other. SPOILER FOR BOOK THREE:

of course, anyone who has completed the third book knows that they aren't actually related at all, but another love interest of Clary's is actually related to her.

Why all the almost-incest, Cassie? Why?

Content Warnings

doggipet's review

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adventurous tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.25

Content Warnings

blakethebookeater's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Ok so this book was bad. Like baaaad. Basically it just consisted of Jace getting captured over and over and also the most insufferable incest angst for like 400 pages. The only reason this gets rounded up to a 3 star and not a 2 star from me is I thought the ending was pretty good and I can see the series getting a lot more interesting from here.

2.5/5 stars

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