Monday, June 16, 2014

Jenn's Review: City of Fallen Angels


Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Mortal Instruments #4
Publication Date: April 5, 2011
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's
Pages: 424
Obtained: purchased
Genre:  YA Paranormal
Rating: 4
Bottom Line: The beginning of the end?
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab!
 Blurb:  The Mortal War is over, and sixteen-year-old Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her. She’s training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power. Her mother is getting married to the love of her life. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last. And—most importantly of all—she can finally call Jace her boyfriend.

But nothing comes without a price.

Someone is murdering Shadowhunters, provoking tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters that could lead to a second, bloody war. Clary’s best friend, Simon, can’t help her—his mother just found out that he’s a vampire, and now he’s homeless. When Jace begins to pull away from her without explaining why, Clary is forced to delve into the heart of a mystery whose solution reveals her worst nightmare: she herself has set in motion a terrible chain of events that could lead to her losing everything she loves. Even Jace.


Review: I have been saving the last two books of The Mortal Instruments until the final book came out.  Now that it has, I realize that I'm in no hurry to finish this series.   I liked where things left off at the end of City of Glass, and though I knew things couldn't stay that way I wasn't ready to destroy the little bit of stability that was established.

In City of Fallen Angels, things start unraveling pretty quickly as everyone gets consumed in their own issues.  At least as the reader we can glimpse what is going on with everyone.  This novel is mostly plot exposition, but it doesn't feel that way because there is so much character development.  Seeds of distrust, discontent, and dysfunction have been sown.  It's hard to watch everything fall apart for characters you have grown to love.  I kept hoping things would magically right themselves.  The one uplifting part was the emergence of the Infernal Devices threads. 

The end is a twist I didn't anticipate, though I probably should have given the fact that I knew where the story was headed.  However I was so wrapped up in all the personal stories that I missed the boat completely. A reprieve comes, albeit a short one, before the devastating cliffhanger.  It was impossible to put down City of Fallen Angels without immediately jumping into City of Lost Souls, as I knew it would be.  

If you've never read Cassandra Clare's Shadow Hunters, you really should.  It's one of my favorite series of all times.  It's epic.

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