City of Glass Review
So I’ve just finished the third installment of ‘The Mortal Instrument’ series by Cassandra Clare, ‘City of Glass’ and WOW was it a great one. I swear this series keeps getting better and better and is quickly becoming one of the best book series I’ve ever read. So let’s get straight into talking about this book. Obviously, with this being the third novel in the series there is not much I can say without getting into spoilers so make sure you go and read ‘City of Bones’, ‘City of Ashes’ and ‘City of Glass’ before finishing this review.
Did you know I also have reviews for those two books? Make sure you check them out if you haven’t already:
City of Bones: https://thisismereviews.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/lost-in-translation-mortal-instruments.html
City of Ashes: https://thisismereviews.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/the-mortal-instruments-city-of-ash.html
SPOILER WARNING!!!
‘City of Glass’ picks up a week after the events of ‘City of Ashes’. The woman who revealed herself to be Madeline at the end of the last novel has told Clary that if she wants to wake her mum up she will have to find a warlock named Ragnor Fell in the Shadowhunter capital of Idris. This is where the majority of the story is set which made a refreshing change from the New York setting of the past two books. I mentioned in my last review that I liked how realistic the New York setting was but this novel proved that Clare can write a fictional setting just as well.
We are given our first description of the Shadowhunter City of Alicante early on in the novel. It is like an old European city taken straight out of a fairy tale. It is protected by four demon towers. Which can we just point out how obvious it was that these were going to fail? It was like the Shadowhunters were tempting the demons with something to destroy and it did not surprise me at all when they failed later in the novel. As well as the city we are also given descriptions of other places outside of Alicante itself such as Lake Lyn, which I talk about in more detail later, and Penhallow, the place where Shadowhunters are buried.
What struck me about the first part of the book was how fast paced it was. Within the first thirty pages, Jace and the others have already made it to Alicante as they were attacked by a group of Forsaken when Magnus was opening the portal. Madeline died almost immediately at the start of the book which threw my theory that she was Jace’s mother straight out of the window. I was expecting a lot more out of her in this book but we were given other new characters to compensate when everyone arrives in Idris.
Jace, however, does not want Clary to go to Idris. For much of the first part of the book he, and to some extent, Simon as well, treats Clary as a possession. When Simon is talking to Jace about him wanting her to stay, Simon says ‘I don’t see how Clary is something we have in common.’ He even calls her ‘something’ instead of ‘someone’. This really made me dislike Jace for the greater part of this book; however, this does not make this book terrible. This is exactly what Clare wanted so that we would like our newest character, Sebastian a lot more.
When we are introduced to ‘Sebastian’ and his ‘sister’ Aline I immediately thought here is our third love interest. In my review for ‘City of Ashes,’ I theorized that Clary was not going to end out in a relationship with either Jace or Simon, but a third person is going to come along much like Rowan did in ‘Throne of Glass’. Clary describes feeling, ‘a sort of pull as if something drew her towards this boy.’ Could I have been any more wrong? Sebastian turned out to be one of the evilest and manipulative villains I have ever read in a book. Clare did a great job at setting up a fake back-story for Jace which we are told when he takes Clary to the ruins of her old house. I have written in my notes that this scene reminds me of Romeo and Juliet which shows how wrong I was.
At the beginning of Part two, however, Seb’s true nature is revealed, when he attacks Isabelle, nearly killing her and murdering the youngest Lightwood brother, Max. By this point, I had guessed that he had demon blood inside him as we were later told as he manages to battle multiple Shadowhunters and win. This death was really upsetting for me, although he wasn’t a major character he was the youngest and I can’t imagine the kind of long lasting effect it will have on Alec and Isabelle. There was one part in particular which really made me hate him and that’s when he calls Alec out on his sexuality. He says ‘I think we all know what’s wrong with you. They shouldn’t let your kind into the clave. You’re disgusting.’ This sums up Seb’s character really well, an evil traditionalist.
Isabelle’s reaction after Max’s death, however, confused me. At first, she seems extremely depressed, not even leaving her room, which is understandable. As soon as Isabelle talks to Simon, however, she sleeps with him as a ‘distraction’. Isabelle just seemed manipulative, using Simon when she needed him and then moving it. Maybe it is because I prefer the Simon and Maia ship more I don’t think it sends a good message displaying a relationship like this.
Eventually, Clary makes it to Idris using the vision she had in the first book. I was surprised about how childish Clary acted in this book. This is why I dislike Clary compared to other YA heroines as she is just reckless. She knowingly ignores the advice of people who are from Idris all the way through the book, like when she goes through the portal despite knowing about Idris’s wards, which just seems to get her into more trouble. This opens up an interesting character arc and the story almost became a kind of coming of age tale as Clary learns how to work well with others.
Once arriving, however, Clary swallows water from Lake Lyn causing her to hallucinate. This was by far my favorite moment in the novel as it was well delivered and seemingly came out of nowhere. One particular moment stands out above the rest when Clary sees her own grave stone. She sees that the date she dies is in the same year as the present for her and I can’t help but wonder if this is foreshadowing an end to the series. We know Clary has had visions that have come true in the past so why would this not be a vision as well. Combine this with the fact that Lake Lyn is one of the three mortal instruments which means the waters could have amplified her angelic powers.
That being said, Jace is not much better for the greater part of this book. In fact, I might go as far as saying that for the first half of 'City of Glass' I did not like either of our main characters. Firstly he treats Clary like a possession, as previously mentioned. Then he (almost) sleeps with Aline to hurt the both of them and goes out of his way to hurt Alec because he knows he has feelings for him. Once again though this was intentional as Jace undergoes as much character development as Clary does by the time the book ends and I did feel sad for him when he deliberately hurts himself on the glass. For most of the novel, he believes he has demon blood in him and that makes him evil. One of the books major themes is the nature of evil and whether or not someone is born inherently bad or not. I think the fact that Jace hurts himself the most shows that he is not evil. We really get a sense of his self-worth when he goes to rescue Simon from his cell. He tells him to protect Alec and Isabelle if he can but not him because he ‘doesn’t deserve it.’ This meant that I could relate to Jace a little more than Clary. We see Clary and Simons take on the nature of evil towards the end of the novel. After calling someone evil, Simon explains to Clary that ‘people aren’t born good or bad,’ which is ultimately the message the book tries to reinforce.
Once everyone has arrived in Alicante we are introduced to a variety of new characters who I want to take the time to talk about. I have already mentioned Sebastian as one of them but another is Amatis. Amatis is Luke’s sister and was Stephan Herondale’s wife. At first, it seemed as if she came out of nowhere as she has never been mentioned in any of the previous books. This is because she acts as a symbol of everything wrong with Valentines regime. She lost all of her family because of Valentine's prejudice towards Downworlders. She also acts as a kind of mother figure for Clary for much of the book until Jocelyn finally returns by the end of part two. I do not think this is the last we will see of her, however, given the bigger mystery’s unfolding around Stephen Herondale’s past
We are also introduced to more high ranking members of The Clave through Consul Malachi and Inquisitor Aldertree. The Consul serves no real purpose, other than being another servant of Valentine hidden inside the Clave at dies at the end of the book anyway. Similarly, The Inquisitor was also a villain, although he wasn’t working for Valentine. When we first meet him I thought he made a nice change from Inquisitor Herondale, who died at the end of City of Ashes. No sooner as I thought this, however, did he reveal himself to be the same, if not worse than Imogen. That being said I could understand what Aldertree wanted more than I could from Imogen. He was only trying to resolve a viable threat of vampires walking around in the daytime even if he did hurt Simon in trying to achieve his goals. Of course, by the end of the book, he does die so I can only hope for a second time that the next Inquisitor will be on Clary’s side.
Once Simon has locked away we meet, or rather hear, another character who calls himself Samuel Blackburn. At first, I was imagining a kind of Jack Sparrow type figure who was locked away for disobeying the Clave’s law, but Samuel later turned out to be Hodge. The old head of the New York Institute in book one. This reveals again caught me off guard as I had forgotten that Hodge had managed to escape from the others. I did not expect him to reappear in a prison cell but rather by Valentine's side. Hodge is very much like the Lucious Malfoy of ‘The Mortal Instruments’ series. He is someone who chose the wrong side and is being punished by both sides for it. I felt sad when Seb killed him at the end as he was trying to help Jace and the others.
As well as all of these new characters we do also see the return of some older ones, Namely Raphael and my favorite character Maia. They reappear about half way through the book just as I was starting to think we weren’t going to see them. That being said Maia has a fairly small part in this book, I think because of the number of characters in it but she does save Clary and Jace.
Raphael has a bigger part in this story compared to the other two novels. To defeat Valentine’s demonic army the Shadowhunters must ally themselves with Downworlders. The demons, however, refuse to help unless the Shadowhunters give them Simon.Simon does eventually go, however, not before Clary gives him the Mark of Cain, which we finally got an explanation for what it does. The MArk gives protection but at the cost of a normal life. This was never really explained but I'm guessing it's going to turn Simon into some kind of Bad Luck Charm that is going to force him to have to move from place to place regularly or risk other people's lives.
One part of this book that did confuse me was Alec’s relationship with Jace. In my mind, I thought we had already established that Alec wanted to be with Magnus and that Jace does not like men. This is why I got confused when Simon threatened to tell Jace how Alec felt. This kind of felt like Clare was forcing Alec some story as other than his relationship with Jace and Magnus, Alec has a surprisingly small role in this book. It was great to see that Alec and Magnus finally got together in this book though and confess that they love each other.
In this book, we finally learn the truth about how Jace, Clary, and Seb got their powers and finally got our first description of an angel. Clary eventually makes her way to see Ragnor Fell only to discover him dead and Magnus at his house. Magnus says he will help Clary’s mother in return for ‘the white book’, a powerful spell book. Clary of course agrees and makes her way to her Valentines old home with Jace. I loved the way the angels are described in this. They kind of reminded me of the Grimm from RWBY with their glowing eyes that leave a trail. The first angel we ever see is Ithuriel, who is chained to the wall in Valentine's basement. It was so obvious at this point that Jace has angel blood inside him as when describing his appearance Clare describes, ‘curling golden hair like Jace’s’. We then get this Harry Potter style Pensieve moment where we are told about Valentine's rise to power. I’m adamant to say we got the full story as there are three more books in this series but we were definitely given a lot of information at once.
By the end of part two, it is, in fact, revealed that Lake Lyn is the third mortal instrument, a twist I did not see coming. Valentine plans on using the mirror, plus the two other mortal instruments he acquired in the two previous books, to summon the angel Raziel who will grant him one wish. This kind of reminded me of the Triforce from Zelda in that these three powerful items grant the wielder what they desire most. I guessed that in the end this was going to go to either Clary or Jace but I couldn’t decide which one. When Jace was stabbed at the end I thought he might have deliberately done it so he got the wish but it ended up that Clary got it instead which of course she used to bring him back to life. This wasn’t really a surprise as this seems to always happen in YA books but I can’t hold that decision against her, I’d have probably done the same thing. By the end of the novel, Valentine does die which is a shame because he was such a good villain. Hopefully, he isn’t brought back for the final three books and we get a new antagonist. I have a feeling Seb is going to return seen as they couldn’t find his body but I also think maybe one of the angels is going to be a villain.
I found the ending a little strange, in particular, the scene with the Seelie Queen. I have a feeling Clary’s decision at the end of this book is going to have consequences when she wants help later in the series but we’ll have to wait and see. Also that last line, ‘like angels falling from the sky,’ has me so excited for the next book in the series but as I said I am reading them in publication order which means ‘Clockwork Angel’ is next.
Some final points to add are that I am glad we got an explanation as to why Shadowhunters use guns. This is always a problem in works of fiction that are set in the modern world such as Harry Potter. We now know that the wards can stop gunpowder from igniting which just goes to show how much attention Clare puts into her world building.
Ultimately this book conveyed a great message of unity and morals on the nature of good and evil effectively that it was impossible not to love. I would highly recommend this series to anyone who has ever enjoyed a YA book. Make sure you let me know what you thought of ‘City of Glass’ down in the comments below and be sure to share this post on social media. If you hit the subscribe button at the top of the page you will be notified every time I post something new so you will be the first to see it. Thanks for reading and I will see you next time.
Did you know I also have reviews for those two books? Make sure you check them out if you haven’t already:
City of Bones: https://thisismereviews.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/lost-in-translation-mortal-instruments.html
City of Ashes: https://thisismereviews.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/the-mortal-instruments-city-of-ash.html
SPOILER WARNING!!!
‘City of Glass’ picks up a week after the events of ‘City of Ashes’. The woman who revealed herself to be Madeline at the end of the last novel has told Clary that if she wants to wake her mum up she will have to find a warlock named Ragnor Fell in the Shadowhunter capital of Idris. This is where the majority of the story is set which made a refreshing change from the New York setting of the past two books. I mentioned in my last review that I liked how realistic the New York setting was but this novel proved that Clare can write a fictional setting just as well.
We are given our first description of the Shadowhunter City of Alicante early on in the novel. It is like an old European city taken straight out of a fairy tale. It is protected by four demon towers. Which can we just point out how obvious it was that these were going to fail? It was like the Shadowhunters were tempting the demons with something to destroy and it did not surprise me at all when they failed later in the novel. As well as the city we are also given descriptions of other places outside of Alicante itself such as Lake Lyn, which I talk about in more detail later, and Penhallow, the place where Shadowhunters are buried.
What struck me about the first part of the book was how fast paced it was. Within the first thirty pages, Jace and the others have already made it to Alicante as they were attacked by a group of Forsaken when Magnus was opening the portal. Madeline died almost immediately at the start of the book which threw my theory that she was Jace’s mother straight out of the window. I was expecting a lot more out of her in this book but we were given other new characters to compensate when everyone arrives in Idris.
Jace, however, does not want Clary to go to Idris. For much of the first part of the book he, and to some extent, Simon as well, treats Clary as a possession. When Simon is talking to Jace about him wanting her to stay, Simon says ‘I don’t see how Clary is something we have in common.’ He even calls her ‘something’ instead of ‘someone’. This really made me dislike Jace for the greater part of this book; however, this does not make this book terrible. This is exactly what Clare wanted so that we would like our newest character, Sebastian a lot more.
When we are introduced to ‘Sebastian’ and his ‘sister’ Aline I immediately thought here is our third love interest. In my review for ‘City of Ashes,’ I theorized that Clary was not going to end out in a relationship with either Jace or Simon, but a third person is going to come along much like Rowan did in ‘Throne of Glass’. Clary describes feeling, ‘a sort of pull as if something drew her towards this boy.’ Could I have been any more wrong? Sebastian turned out to be one of the evilest and manipulative villains I have ever read in a book. Clare did a great job at setting up a fake back-story for Jace which we are told when he takes Clary to the ruins of her old house. I have written in my notes that this scene reminds me of Romeo and Juliet which shows how wrong I was.
At the beginning of Part two, however, Seb’s true nature is revealed, when he attacks Isabelle, nearly killing her and murdering the youngest Lightwood brother, Max. By this point, I had guessed that he had demon blood inside him as we were later told as he manages to battle multiple Shadowhunters and win. This death was really upsetting for me, although he wasn’t a major character he was the youngest and I can’t imagine the kind of long lasting effect it will have on Alec and Isabelle. There was one part in particular which really made me hate him and that’s when he calls Alec out on his sexuality. He says ‘I think we all know what’s wrong with you. They shouldn’t let your kind into the clave. You’re disgusting.’ This sums up Seb’s character really well, an evil traditionalist.
Isabelle’s reaction after Max’s death, however, confused me. At first, she seems extremely depressed, not even leaving her room, which is understandable. As soon as Isabelle talks to Simon, however, she sleeps with him as a ‘distraction’. Isabelle just seemed manipulative, using Simon when she needed him and then moving it. Maybe it is because I prefer the Simon and Maia ship more I don’t think it sends a good message displaying a relationship like this.
Eventually, Clary makes it to Idris using the vision she had in the first book. I was surprised about how childish Clary acted in this book. This is why I dislike Clary compared to other YA heroines as she is just reckless. She knowingly ignores the advice of people who are from Idris all the way through the book, like when she goes through the portal despite knowing about Idris’s wards, which just seems to get her into more trouble. This opens up an interesting character arc and the story almost became a kind of coming of age tale as Clary learns how to work well with others.
Once arriving, however, Clary swallows water from Lake Lyn causing her to hallucinate. This was by far my favorite moment in the novel as it was well delivered and seemingly came out of nowhere. One particular moment stands out above the rest when Clary sees her own grave stone. She sees that the date she dies is in the same year as the present for her and I can’t help but wonder if this is foreshadowing an end to the series. We know Clary has had visions that have come true in the past so why would this not be a vision as well. Combine this with the fact that Lake Lyn is one of the three mortal instruments which means the waters could have amplified her angelic powers.
That being said, Jace is not much better for the greater part of this book. In fact, I might go as far as saying that for the first half of 'City of Glass' I did not like either of our main characters. Firstly he treats Clary like a possession, as previously mentioned. Then he (almost) sleeps with Aline to hurt the both of them and goes out of his way to hurt Alec because he knows he has feelings for him. Once again though this was intentional as Jace undergoes as much character development as Clary does by the time the book ends and I did feel sad for him when he deliberately hurts himself on the glass. For most of the novel, he believes he has demon blood in him and that makes him evil. One of the books major themes is the nature of evil and whether or not someone is born inherently bad or not. I think the fact that Jace hurts himself the most shows that he is not evil. We really get a sense of his self-worth when he goes to rescue Simon from his cell. He tells him to protect Alec and Isabelle if he can but not him because he ‘doesn’t deserve it.’ This meant that I could relate to Jace a little more than Clary. We see Clary and Simons take on the nature of evil towards the end of the novel. After calling someone evil, Simon explains to Clary that ‘people aren’t born good or bad,’ which is ultimately the message the book tries to reinforce.
Once everyone has arrived in Alicante we are introduced to a variety of new characters who I want to take the time to talk about. I have already mentioned Sebastian as one of them but another is Amatis. Amatis is Luke’s sister and was Stephan Herondale’s wife. At first, it seemed as if she came out of nowhere as she has never been mentioned in any of the previous books. This is because she acts as a symbol of everything wrong with Valentines regime. She lost all of her family because of Valentine's prejudice towards Downworlders. She also acts as a kind of mother figure for Clary for much of the book until Jocelyn finally returns by the end of part two. I do not think this is the last we will see of her, however, given the bigger mystery’s unfolding around Stephen Herondale’s past
We are also introduced to more high ranking members of The Clave through Consul Malachi and Inquisitor Aldertree. The Consul serves no real purpose, other than being another servant of Valentine hidden inside the Clave at dies at the end of the book anyway. Similarly, The Inquisitor was also a villain, although he wasn’t working for Valentine. When we first meet him I thought he made a nice change from Inquisitor Herondale, who died at the end of City of Ashes. No sooner as I thought this, however, did he reveal himself to be the same, if not worse than Imogen. That being said I could understand what Aldertree wanted more than I could from Imogen. He was only trying to resolve a viable threat of vampires walking around in the daytime even if he did hurt Simon in trying to achieve his goals. Of course, by the end of the book, he does die so I can only hope for a second time that the next Inquisitor will be on Clary’s side.
Once Simon has locked away we meet, or rather hear, another character who calls himself Samuel Blackburn. At first, I was imagining a kind of Jack Sparrow type figure who was locked away for disobeying the Clave’s law, but Samuel later turned out to be Hodge. The old head of the New York Institute in book one. This reveals again caught me off guard as I had forgotten that Hodge had managed to escape from the others. I did not expect him to reappear in a prison cell but rather by Valentine's side. Hodge is very much like the Lucious Malfoy of ‘The Mortal Instruments’ series. He is someone who chose the wrong side and is being punished by both sides for it. I felt sad when Seb killed him at the end as he was trying to help Jace and the others.
As well as all of these new characters we do also see the return of some older ones, Namely Raphael and my favorite character Maia. They reappear about half way through the book just as I was starting to think we weren’t going to see them. That being said Maia has a fairly small part in this book, I think because of the number of characters in it but she does save Clary and Jace.
Raphael has a bigger part in this story compared to the other two novels. To defeat Valentine’s demonic army the Shadowhunters must ally themselves with Downworlders. The demons, however, refuse to help unless the Shadowhunters give them Simon.Simon does eventually go, however, not before Clary gives him the Mark of Cain, which we finally got an explanation for what it does. The MArk gives protection but at the cost of a normal life. This was never really explained but I'm guessing it's going to turn Simon into some kind of Bad Luck Charm that is going to force him to have to move from place to place regularly or risk other people's lives.
One part of this book that did confuse me was Alec’s relationship with Jace. In my mind, I thought we had already established that Alec wanted to be with Magnus and that Jace does not like men. This is why I got confused when Simon threatened to tell Jace how Alec felt. This kind of felt like Clare was forcing Alec some story as other than his relationship with Jace and Magnus, Alec has a surprisingly small role in this book. It was great to see that Alec and Magnus finally got together in this book though and confess that they love each other.
In this book, we finally learn the truth about how Jace, Clary, and Seb got their powers and finally got our first description of an angel. Clary eventually makes her way to see Ragnor Fell only to discover him dead and Magnus at his house. Magnus says he will help Clary’s mother in return for ‘the white book’, a powerful spell book. Clary of course agrees and makes her way to her Valentines old home with Jace. I loved the way the angels are described in this. They kind of reminded me of the Grimm from RWBY with their glowing eyes that leave a trail. The first angel we ever see is Ithuriel, who is chained to the wall in Valentine's basement. It was so obvious at this point that Jace has angel blood inside him as when describing his appearance Clare describes, ‘curling golden hair like Jace’s’. We then get this Harry Potter style Pensieve moment where we are told about Valentine's rise to power. I’m adamant to say we got the full story as there are three more books in this series but we were definitely given a lot of information at once.
By the end of part two, it is, in fact, revealed that Lake Lyn is the third mortal instrument, a twist I did not see coming. Valentine plans on using the mirror, plus the two other mortal instruments he acquired in the two previous books, to summon the angel Raziel who will grant him one wish. This kind of reminded me of the Triforce from Zelda in that these three powerful items grant the wielder what they desire most. I guessed that in the end this was going to go to either Clary or Jace but I couldn’t decide which one. When Jace was stabbed at the end I thought he might have deliberately done it so he got the wish but it ended up that Clary got it instead which of course she used to bring him back to life. This wasn’t really a surprise as this seems to always happen in YA books but I can’t hold that decision against her, I’d have probably done the same thing. By the end of the novel, Valentine does die which is a shame because he was such a good villain. Hopefully, he isn’t brought back for the final three books and we get a new antagonist. I have a feeling Seb is going to return seen as they couldn’t find his body but I also think maybe one of the angels is going to be a villain.
I found the ending a little strange, in particular, the scene with the Seelie Queen. I have a feeling Clary’s decision at the end of this book is going to have consequences when she wants help later in the series but we’ll have to wait and see. Also that last line, ‘like angels falling from the sky,’ has me so excited for the next book in the series but as I said I am reading them in publication order which means ‘Clockwork Angel’ is next.
Some final points to add are that I am glad we got an explanation as to why Shadowhunters use guns. This is always a problem in works of fiction that are set in the modern world such as Harry Potter. We now know that the wards can stop gunpowder from igniting which just goes to show how much attention Clare puts into her world building.
Ultimately this book conveyed a great message of unity and morals on the nature of good and evil effectively that it was impossible not to love. I would highly recommend this series to anyone who has ever enjoyed a YA book. Make sure you let me know what you thought of ‘City of Glass’ down in the comments below and be sure to share this post on social media. If you hit the subscribe button at the top of the page you will be notified every time I post something new so you will be the first to see it. Thanks for reading and I will see you next time.
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