Book Title: City of Ashes
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Mortal Instruments #2
Date Started: April 14th 2013
Date Completed: April 18th 2013
Genres: Romance, Fantasy, Mystery, Action, Thriller
Rating: Five stars
Review:
In the first instalment of the Mortal Instruments, I was quite disappointed by the ending and the inconsistency of the action, especially when the climax was approaching. Don't get me wrong, I loved City of Bones. But this book blew it out of the water.
Set pretty much straight after the first book in the series, this novel focus' on the group as they are being threatened by Valentine's (evil guy) return. They've lost once before, so now the pressure is even higher, but the Clave (organisation of Nephilium (Shadowhunters (no, I'm not going to give you more definitions, this is ridiculous)) are pressing down on the suspicion that has aroused from Jace's actions. When he's thrown out of the Institute and investigated for allegiances to Valentine, things start to get serious and the threats raise.
First of all, like I said, I loved the first book. (See my review of City of Bones by Cassandra Clare if you want to have a look) The writing style was right up my street and I immediately fell in love with the characters. The great thing about this is that Clare was really able to get into the story now that her readers knew what was going on and how everyone felt about each other.
Another thing that was brilliant was the fact that we focused on all the characters, rather than just Clary. I love Clary. I really do. But I think we lost out on so much detail that we could have benefited from in the first book. I really loved seeing everything happen through other people's eyes as well this time. It also made the story more interesting and you could really piece apart the different conflicting layers of emotions and the past.
Like I've said before, I like some romance. I wouldn't be reading this series if I didn't. But I don't like too much. Since the relationship stuff kind of went through the roof in City of Bones (for reasons I can't mention because of spoilers) there isn't any hardcore romance this time. But there's the occasional cute moment, and a lot of confusing emotion, feeling stuff. Which I liked. Also, there's a surprise couple that - to be perfectly honest you've probably been spoilt on, whether you read the books or not - are just my OTP. (I very rarely use words like that. You must understand how much these two are meant for each other.)
And finally, the actual plot. Like I said at the top, the ending battle scene or whatever at the end of City of Bones kind of disappointed me since there had been so much action throughout the whole thing. But the end of this one, oh my god it was brilliant. I think this is where the different perspectives really came in handy, since we were able to see several parts of the fight all going on at the same time.
But also just the overall plot. The first book was obviously focused around introducing Clary to this new, strange world. But Clare was able to really get into the story in this book. I loved the twists and turns, and whilst adding to the novel's story, I also really saw Clary and Simon and Jace's characters grow. (Oh yeah - Simon's plottwist was pure genius. Thank you for actually being able to write fantasy romance and not make it terrible.)
So yeah. I loved it. More than the first book, but only because of the improved writing to be honest. Can't wait to read the next one and I really hope they don't mess the film up.
I'd recommend it to anyone who loves romance, fantasy or action, as always. Definitely read the first book first, or you'll spoil everything. I'm not usually that bothered in the order of books because I often do the opposite - but I think this series really depends on the gradual growth of the plot and characters.
Image Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1582996.City_of_Ashes?from_search=true
In the first instalment of the Mortal Instruments, I was quite disappointed by the ending and the inconsistency of the action, especially when the climax was approaching. Don't get me wrong, I loved City of Bones. But this book blew it out of the water.
Set pretty much straight after the first book in the series, this novel focus' on the group as they are being threatened by Valentine's (evil guy) return. They've lost once before, so now the pressure is even higher, but the Clave (organisation of Nephilium (Shadowhunters (no, I'm not going to give you more definitions, this is ridiculous)) are pressing down on the suspicion that has aroused from Jace's actions. When he's thrown out of the Institute and investigated for allegiances to Valentine, things start to get serious and the threats raise.
First of all, like I said, I loved the first book. (See my review of City of Bones by Cassandra Clare if you want to have a look) The writing style was right up my street and I immediately fell in love with the characters. The great thing about this is that Clare was really able to get into the story now that her readers knew what was going on and how everyone felt about each other.
Another thing that was brilliant was the fact that we focused on all the characters, rather than just Clary. I love Clary. I really do. But I think we lost out on so much detail that we could have benefited from in the first book. I really loved seeing everything happen through other people's eyes as well this time. It also made the story more interesting and you could really piece apart the different conflicting layers of emotions and the past.
Like I've said before, I like some romance. I wouldn't be reading this series if I didn't. But I don't like too much. Since the relationship stuff kind of went through the roof in City of Bones (for reasons I can't mention because of spoilers) there isn't any hardcore romance this time. But there's the occasional cute moment, and a lot of confusing emotion, feeling stuff. Which I liked. Also, there's a surprise couple that - to be perfectly honest you've probably been spoilt on, whether you read the books or not - are just my OTP. (I very rarely use words like that. You must understand how much these two are meant for each other.)
And finally, the actual plot. Like I said at the top, the ending battle scene or whatever at the end of City of Bones kind of disappointed me since there had been so much action throughout the whole thing. But the end of this one, oh my god it was brilliant. I think this is where the different perspectives really came in handy, since we were able to see several parts of the fight all going on at the same time.
But also just the overall plot. The first book was obviously focused around introducing Clary to this new, strange world. But Clare was able to really get into the story in this book. I loved the twists and turns, and whilst adding to the novel's story, I also really saw Clary and Simon and Jace's characters grow. (Oh yeah - Simon's plottwist was pure genius. Thank you for actually being able to write fantasy romance and not make it terrible.)
So yeah. I loved it. More than the first book, but only because of the improved writing to be honest. Can't wait to read the next one and I really hope they don't mess the film up.
I'd recommend it to anyone who loves romance, fantasy or action, as always. Definitely read the first book first, or you'll spoil everything. I'm not usually that bothered in the order of books because I often do the opposite - but I think this series really depends on the gradual growth of the plot and characters.
Image Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1582996.City_of_Ashes?from_search=true
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