Series: The Mortal Instruments (Book 4)
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books on April 5th, 2011
Pages: 424
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased Book
Avg Rating: 4.16/5
Author's Other Work: The Infernal Devices, etc.
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Summary 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 who used to be in Valentine's Circle, 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. Everywhere he turns, someone wants him on their side - along with the power of the curse that's wrecking his life. And they're willing to do anything to get what they want. At the same time he's dating two beautiful, dangerous girls - neither of whom knows about the other one.
When Jace begins to pull away from Clary without explaining why, she 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.
The Review: (CONTAINS SPOILERS)
*Side Note: This will not make sense unless you've read City of Bones, City of Ashes, and City of Glass by Cassandra Clare.*
Alright guys, just give me a minute please. I just need a minute or two to compose myself. I just finished City of Fallen Angels so I'm not exactly stable.
Alright, breathe.
Okay, here we go.
Well, as you just read in the little synopsis this book focuses around the Mortal Instruments Gang again. Duh, it's the Fourth book. The book at the beginning is really cool, and I say that because of the feel of it. It was a nice transition between the intensity and ethnicity of Shadowhunteryness in book 3 and the regular feel of life in this book. The beginning shows it's been a few months since the Mortal War and things are kind of better. There is still obviously grief and trauma but everything's on the road to getting better.
Haha, no. Cassandra Clare couldn't give them a few years of happiness, she just threw more at them.
I felt like in the beginning of CoFA (City of Fallen Angels), the story was very much like City of Bones. It was the start to a new series, a second trilogy. This series doesn't seem like it's very focused on The Mortal Instruments and therefore I personally consider it a sequel series but whatever. Cassie Clare's writing just about a billion other series on Shadowhunters so what's one more gonna hurt?
Basically everybody's in New York and a few things are happening. Clary is training to become a well-skilled Shadowhunter, Simon is two-timing Maia and Isabelle while dealing with the curse of having The Mark and being a Daylighter. Alec and Magnus are having fun on vacation around the world. Meanwhile, Jocelyn and Luke are planning their marriage.
So everything is nice, training, dating, vacations, marriage, etc.
Yeah...not really.
The story picks up once Simon is summoned. Everybody wants him as an ally and a powerful vampire named Camille would like him on her side. Also, all over the city Shadowhunters (Specifically Ex-Circle Members) are dropping dead. Hence, City of Fallen Angels. After that we start to see a change in Jace, Jace is distant. Jace departs from others and we notice that he's having horrific nightmares.
Eventually at the end of the book we see that everything is tied together, and the answer to all of the questions is one thing. Or rather, one name:
Lilith. Mother of Warlocks. The First Demon.
(Spoilers:)
By the end we come to understand that the first demon ever, Lilith, has some devious plans. Lilith has been experimenting on human babies, injecting them with both shadowhunter and demon blood, attempting to replicate the creature that is Sebastian. Lilith wants a new breed, a breed of special warriors that are dark rather than light. Lilith also has other intentions. Lilith has been controlling Camille, forcing her to kill Shadowhunters in order to use their blood on the babies. Lilith has also been controlling Jace, forcing him to try and want to hurt Clary in order to lure him to her. We find out that Lilith has Sebastian in her possession. While his humanity has died he still remains in a coma-like state. Since the mixing of blood with babies didn't work, Lilith sees the only way to create these dark Shadowhunters is by using Sebastian. Lilith saved Sebastian as he was dying and now preserves him, hoping to use Clary as bait to force Simon to bring Sebastian back to life. The reason Sebastian is needed for this is because he is a Daylighter and has The Mark (I think). Eventually they fight Lilith, destroy her, and Sebastian remains...not alive.
Or so we think.
The Clave comes, people resolve issues, and then Jace feels a sudden urge. He unintentionally completes the ritual (Which confused me, I thought only Simon could), and bring Sebastian back to life.
The End.
Cassandra Clare, you b*tch.
THAT CLIFFHANGER THOUGH.
Wow wow wow. So, here's what I have to say:
I'm going to break the review into Characters, Plot, Explanations, and Writing Style.
Characters:
Okay so the Characters were eh in this book. Here's a list of them. Jace, Clary, Alec, Magnus, Isabelle, Simon, Camille, Lilith, Jordan, and those are the most important. Jace was annoying as hell, I couldn't deal with him. He moped the entire book, didn't develop, acted like a baby, and took any chance he could to complicate his relationship. He treats Clary like shit and genuinely doesn't deserve her. I love Jace, don't get me wrong, but honestly Clary deserves better. Clary was annoying and clingy though, trying to solve all Jace's issues and being a sad little girl about it. Alec and Magnus were gone for most of it but then they came back and annoyed me, Magnus did nothing wrong and Alec got all damn defensive. Isabelle and Simon were badass and awesome, I loved them. Simon developed SOOOOO much and I loved his character in this book. Camille and Lilith were SO interesting, I wanted to learn more and more about them and was fascinated. Then there's Jordan and Maia. Maia I never really liked, but Jordan was okay. Jordan was mostly interesting and I just liked his personality, he seems like a good guy.
Plot:
The plot was DAMN awesome. I freaking loved the plot. It was fast paced and intense where it needed to be and slow where it needed to be. The end was a tiny bit tedious, could've been reduced a little, but it was still great. I loved all of the subplots, the events, and how they all tied in.
Explanations:
The explanations were overall well done. There was a lot to explain and I give Clare credit for explaining it the best she could. The only things that didn't make sense were that she brought in new information that was previously unexplained. She used the term parabatai which hadn't been used before. She never delves too far into The Silent Brother's and their abilities. Also, I didn't really understand how Jace could have completed the ritual, the whole thing with using Simon's blood and awakening him, making him a vampire or just bringing him back, if he was dead or alive, I don't know, it just didn't make sense. If Jace could complete the ritual, why didn't she just use Jace. It all was really confusing and she really should have simplified and explained the ritual better for awakening Sebastian. Whatever...
Writing Style:
The writing style was the exact same as it's always been. A tad plagiaristic, mostly very fun and interesting, nothing too astounding.
Overall...
The book was very good. The characters like Simon, Isabelle, Camille, and Lilith made the book for me. Also, the plot twists and intensity made it really interesting. If I had to put them in order from best to least: City of Glass, City of Ashes, City of Fallen Angels, City of Bones. Wait...actually I feel like City of Ashes and City of Fallen Angels were definitely tied. Anyways, the book was great, the plot twists and some characters really brought it back up for me when it wasn't doing great due to the poor explanations and Cassandra Clare's almost misunderstanding of her own world. She just seemed to throw terms around to confuse the reader into just saying "Whatever, I'll go with it." It just wasn't effective really and quite bothersome since the ritual seemed interesting had there not been so many unexplained complications. However, I'm rambling. I'd definitely give this book a...
Some information for this review was collected from Goodreads. Goodreads is a free website where readers can join to discuss, connect, and shelve books that they've read, are reading, or are planning on reading. The City of Fallen Angels goodreads page is here.
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