A review by toastyghosty13
City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I enjoyed the 1st book of this series a lot more than this installment. I found Clary to be incredibly annoying and her antics made it difficult to get through. She was constantly rushing into danger without thinking despite having more experience as a shadow hunter since the 1st book, and was constantly putting others in danger because she would rush into situations without a second thought. 

I also found the dynamic between her and
Jace to be absolutely horrific. Why this type of relationship (where they are in love with each other and then find out they are long lost siblings) was included as a major plot point of Clary’s romantic interests is a complete mystery to me. It offers no value other than to make Jace a forbidden love in the ABSOLUTE WORST WAY POSSIBLE. It’s gross, especially when they have to kiss in front of the Seelie Queen and the rest of the gang just brushes it off as if it is no big deal, except for Simon who had the only normal reaction of walking away angry.


The spoiler above plus how annoying I find Clary are making it super difficult for me to want to move on to the next book, despite the fact that I am invested and interested in uncovering Valentine’s ultimate goal. I also found this book to be pretty boring for the majority of it, other than the last ~3-4 chapters where all of the action takes place. I will probably get on to the 3rd book at some point in the future since I do at least know that
it is revealed in the 3rd book that Clary and Jace are not actually related
and I want to see more of what Valentine does, plus how everyone plans on stopping him. This book also ended with a pretty good cliff hanger that I want to see resolved. 

Although I will be making my way through the next book eventually, I still want to emphasize that the only thing keeping this from a 1 star rating are the lovely secondary characters of Alec, Isabelle, and Magnus Bane. Magnus Bane is a mood and vibe, and I love that for
Alec since he needs any semblance of normal social interactions away from Clary/Jace/only his family
.
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