Belle's Bookshelf: malese how

Thursday, 8 September 2011

Review: City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

I don't quite get the hype with this series.

Given all the love it gets, I was expecting to be blown away, but the first book left me mad while the second left me "meh". I was hoping City of Glass would make me see what was so ah-mazing. Picking up where City of Ashes left off, it sees the Shadowhunters heading "home" to Idris, where the fate of their world is being decided as they try to figure out how to deal with ~~Voldemort~~ Valentine and his demon army. As the final chapter in a trilogy (though more books were added later - which kinda annoys me in itself, but that's another story), City if Glass is naturally more epic, action-packed and conclusive than its predecessor - which is why I was all the more surprised that it, too, left me feeling..."meh".

Don't get me wrong, it's a page-turner alright, and enjoyable enough. But, y'know, I've had better. The language is fine, but it can get repetitive, and while I think the characters are great in theory, they did a bunch of things in this book that had me doing this:

Jace in particular was driving me batty; the boy's got issues, and I sympathise, but one of his most attractive qualities is his strength and a few of his actions in this - though they were probably supposed to show his selflessness and bravery - ultimately came across to me as weak and wallowing. And once again the WTF plotline persisted and put me off when I should have been turned on. Overall, I was satisfied with this as the ending to the series, but unfortunately I just don't love it as a whole - no matter how much I really, really want to.

Rating: 3.5/5

Spoilery Talking Points

I know I've complained about it before but I still can't get over the incest thing - especially that it was dragged out over TWO WHOLE BOOKS. It's not that I object to incest in general (in book form, that is - in actual general, I definitely object); it's the way it was used as the sole source of tension in Jace and Clary's relationship, to add a level of forbiddenness that otherwise wouldn't be there - only to have a "lol, jokes, you can totally make out" sprung on them at the last minute... It just felt manipulative and cheap.
The whole two Jonathans thing also felt kind of contrived. But I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of Sebastian...
I don't see why this series needs to be extended beyond this book - though there were a few unfinished threads in the end, there was ultimately a strong sense of closure. Still, I was interested to read City of Fallen Angels and see how Jace and Clary played out after finding out they aren't related - until I read the blurb about how Jace is all distant coz he dreams of killing her or something and... I just can't. I can't do it. Not now, at least.

Eye Candy
The same as City of Bones and City of Ashes, plus...