Review: City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
How I got it: I own a copy.

Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what’s normal when you’re a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who’s becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn’t ready to let her go—especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary’s only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil—and also her father.
To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings—and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?
In this breathtaking sequel to City of Bones, Cassandra Clare lures her readers back into the dark grip of New York City’s Downworld, where love is never safe and power becomes the deadliest temptation.

Note: The following review is assuming that you’ve already read the first book in The Mortal Instrument series.

Cassandra Clare brings back her wonderfully witty characters in the second book of her much loved series, The Mortal Instruments. I can’t tell you how excited I was when I sat down to start this book, as those of you who read the first book are well aware how amazing the series started out.

Let’s grab a short recap if it’s been a while since you’ve read the series. Clary, our main character, was pulled into the rude of Shadowhunters and blatantly shown that mythical creatures no longer belong on the pages of children’s books. She learns she’s not human, or a Mundane as Shadowhunters call them, but rather the daughter of the murderous Valentine, who seeks to gain control over everything his dark mind can reach with the help of his home grown demon army. By the end of the first book, not only does Valentine have the Mortal Cup, the first Mortal Instrument, but we also find that Clary and Jace, the handsome, rogue Shadowhunter she developed strong feelings for, are brother and sister.

City of Ashes comes as the much anticipated next book in the series. Readers not only want to delve back into the plot, but they want to see the continuation of their favorite characters.

It becomes known that Jace is Valentine’s father and from there the trust is lost in him. His adoptive mother finds his presence painful. People who have known him for years question if he is truly ignorant of having been Valentine’s father all this time. The Inquisitor, a woman on edge with a personal vendetta, accuses Jace of fraternizing with the enemy and locks him up in the City of Bones for trial.

But Valentine, up to his tricks, won’t have that happen. The man is looking forward to having his son by his side when he begins his war. His involvement in Jace’s life only strengthens the beliefs of people like the Inquisitor that the young man is not on their side.

Clary feels torn between the people she loves most in this book. Simon, her childhood friend, expresses deep feelings with her while battling with the fear that he is getting pulled into her world a little deeper than he had wanted. Jace seems to have his own opinion on the matter that Clary is his sister. Her mother is still in a coma that doesn’t seem to be breaking, she has no affection for her father, a man she would have preferred staying lost, and she clings to Luke, the man who is like her father and he only link to her past when she wasn’t fighting demons to keep her life.

I’m not going to tell you how amazing this book is, because if you thought that way about the first book, the second will just confirm your suspicions that this series wreaks of awesome. You will laugh, scream, scowl, and smile while reading this book, and Clare will not for any reason give you a time to rest in between. Many, many questions arise by the end of this book, and then the book ends, with a shock, and leave you sitting their whilst waving and laughing.

It is such a tease.



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