A review by alli_thebookgiraffe
City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

4.0

I feel like City of Fallen Angels was written by a different author than the previous three books. Maybe this is due to growth of Cassandra Clare’s writing style. The first thing I noticed was the dialogue is much less and descriptions are much more detailed. I have always disliked her lack of descriptions. She drew better pictures for me in this book than previously. I also love that this book was more focused on Simon as a character because I honestly like him more and I don’t really care for Clary. I also think the characters were more developed than previously. I did like the mention of Clary drawing again. She seems to be the victim of meeting a new boy and then losing all personality and only being driven by emotions. It is just nice to see her a little bit more logical in this one and doing her hobby again. Simon is probably my favorite character; however I do wish there was more demon hunting and killing. I do like that the major antagonist was, in fact, a demon. Another positive for me was Clary’s mom getting married to Luke. I wish Jocelyn was a more prominent character because I really do like her. Mostly our perception of her is through her teenage daughter’s eyes. Like most teens, Clary fights with her mom or has an attitude with her. I don’t like that Isabelle made Simon change the way he dressed, and Simon let her do this. If you don’t like someone the way that they are you don’t deserve them. Secondly Alec was extra annoying in this book. I wish he was completely left out. Jace’s self-pity is also annoying and very self-involved. The added love triangle was also a con for me. I am also really tired of bringing in an antagonist and talking about how awesome they are and then they die easily with mostly no fight. Cassandra Clare could have thought up a more interesting downfall of Lilith especially with an entire book about demon hunters. Lastly, I feel like the last chapter could have been 30 pages shorter. It was mostly filler, in my opinion. I genuinely did like this one more than all the previous combined. The writing changing the way it has makes a large difference for me. I do love to see how an author grows as they write more books.