Sunday, March 25, 2012

Review: City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

Title: City of Fallen Angels
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publish date: April 5, 2011
Genre: YA, fantasy
Pages: 424
Series: The Mortal Instruments #4
1. City of Bones (review)
2. City of Ashes (review)
3. City of Glass (review)
4. City of Fallen Angels
5. City of Lost Souls (May 8, 2012)
6. City of Heavenly Fire (pub Sept 2014)

**WARNING: SPOILERS**
Synopsis:
The Mortal War is over, and 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 important of all—Clary can finally call Jace her boyfriend.

But nothing comes without a price.

Someone is murdering the 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 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 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.

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.

Love. Blood. Betrayal. Revenge. The stakes are higher than ever in City of Fallen Angels.


City of Fallen Angels definitely starts a new chapter in The Mortal Instruments series. Jace and Clary are together, Jocelyn and Luke are getting married, Valentine and Sebastian are dead and gone, and life seems to be getting back to normal. Whatever normal is for Shadowhunters, Vampires, Werewolves, and Warlocks.

The thing I really like about this book was how it focused a lot on Simon. Up until this book, I felt like he wasn’t too developed as a character, but half of this book is about Simon and his story, while the other half is mostly Jace and Clary. Simon has a whole slew of crap to deal with because he’s the only Daylighter and now with the Mark of Cain. I really grew to love him, and not in a “Team Simon” way, but as an individual character separate from Clary.

Clary and Jace’s relationship should be sailing smoothly now that they’re officially not siblings and are free to be together (despite Clary’s mother being slightly anti-Jace). But Jace has a few of his own problems to deal with; namely, nightmares about hurting Clary and fears of becoming more like Valentine. He is very sulky and brooding in this book, almost to the point of being annoying. I feel like I should have been annoyed with him, but let’s be honest: it’s Jace. I love him too much to be annoyed.

The plot was a little slow for me. I found myself wondering throughout most of the book what the conflict was going to be. It didn’t seem like we were building up to anything. But within the last 100 pages or so, there was a big climax that put characters in danger and made the ending exciting. Although the rest of the book clearly has elements that pertain to the ending, it wasn’t enough that I could put them together as a reader or even guess what might happen. It seemed a little disjunct to me.

Regardless of the pacing of the plot, the story was great! I also loved the new characters we met, as well as how some other characters aside from Clary and Jace were developed a bit more, especially Simon. The book ended on a cliff-hanger, and the next book seems like it’ll be pretty dark. I’m excited.

buy the book from The Book Depository, free delivery

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