City of Ashes

City of Ashes
Cassandra Clare

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.

Another series I'm finally getting around to catching up on. It's been a long time. I hear so many good things about this book. I was eager when I read the first one back in 2010... actually almost exactly three years ago. After the ending of it I wasn't sure if wanted to keep going. Everything between Jace and Clary was turned creepy and the vibe kept going throughout this one. I kept going with reading it, though. I like the world and the dynamics are interesting.

I'll start with what I didn't care for. Clare's writing style is easy to follow but it isn't anything special. Some authors have grammatical errors while Clare was lazy. She would keep using the same metaphors over and over again. The most prominent is that something either tasted or smelled like metal/salt/blood. I realize that happens, but it gets boring. And she would describe voice sounding like "shattering glass." What does that mean exactly? Was the voice loud? Was the voice painful to hear? I don't know and neither does the reader. I also didn't like that she had to say the emotion behind every sentence. Bitter was her favorite description. The reader should be able to infer this without help.

Now for the stuff that I like. It's funny that I say that Clare's writing is lazy because I did like how she described the different locations. I enjoyed reading those descriptions. I wasn't distracted by things being too repetitive. (Am I sounding repetitive?)

I also liked the characters in the book. Some of them I hated. Valentine and the Inquisitor are the obvious ones. The predjudice of the Inquistor was the most infuritating things I've read this past week. Then again that's a reason I don't like Valentine and culture of the Shadowhunters. They think everything is black and white when there's gray. Which is hilarious because they're Nephilim. They're half angel, for Pete's sake. I want to like Jace but I'm still not sure. He's a jerk but he's had a lot on his plate. He's utterly confused and damaged. I like Clary and Simon. Clary is the normal girl that is thrown into an extraordinary world. She isn't trained and so just seems like a nuisance but has her own gifts. Simon. Poor Simon. He sure is thrown for a loop and I know it's only going to get worse in the next book. But I like him. He's a total geek at heart.

I know that I had issues with this book, but I like the world. It's interesting and exciting. I'm not even sure why I'm giving it 5 stars, but I think it's because I believe in the story. I think it's a fun read. I did finish it in two days. That's gotta say something.