It’s been over a month since I’ve finished these books and so forgive me for writing such a short review for all three books.

Two words to describe my thoughts on this series: Mixed feelings.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (#1/3)

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare (#2/3)

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare (#3/3)

I got these babies on the Kindle. I actually bought #2 and #3 while on a weekend vacation with the FTH. Yep, book #1 got me to walk to the hotel lobby where there was wifi available, and buy/download the next two books!

The summary I literally copied and pasted from Amazon: (Talk about spoilers, Amazon, sheesh. I’ve whited out the summaries of the second and third books because they give too much away. Highlight if you want to read them.)

In City of Bones, fifteen-year-old Clary Fray is introduced to the world of the Shadowhunters, a secret cadre of warriors dedicated to driving demons out of our world. And she’s introduced with a vengeance, when Clary’s mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a grotesque monster sent by the evil and powerful Shadowhunter, Valentine. How could a mere human survive such an attack.

In the second novel, City of Ashes, Clary just wants her life to go back to normal–but that turns out to be impossible. For one thing, her mother is still in the hospital, in a mysterious coma. For another, she and her newfound brother Jace have fallen under a cloud of suspicion now that the Shadowhunter world knows that Valentine is still alive–and that Jace and Clary are his son and daughter. Then Clary’s best friend Simon is turned into a vampire and kidnapped by Valentine, who intends to sacrifice him as part of a bloody ritual that will make the Mortal Instruments Valentine’s forever.

In book three, City of Glass, Clary has to use all her ingenuity and newfound magical skills to get herself to the Glass City in Idris, the secretive Shadowhunters’ home country, where she is forbidden to go–for it is only there that she can find the cure to the enchanted sleeping sickness to which her mother has succumbed. When Valentine attacks the city and destroys the demon towers, Clary and her allies are all that stand between him and the total annihilation of all Shadowhunters. Love is a mortal sin and the past tangles inextricably with the present as Clary and Jace face down their father in the final installment of the Mortal Instruments series.

First off, I was sucked in reading the first book. I really liked the world that the author created and the characters she’s created. Who wouldn’t want to be a Shadowhunter? However I felt the first book (and subsequently the other two books) was too long. It needed editing. I felt Clare wrote plot twists for twists’ sake. I thought there were scenes that either needed to be deleted or cut down or dialogue that didn’t have to be said. I know there are a million ways to say something but you don’t need to write it all in all three books.

It’s got a little romance, a lot of adventure and discovery of new powers, and some great characters. There are also deaths you didn’t think she’d write in, which is AWESOME and crappy since you don’t really want some people to go away.

By the third book, I was impatient to finish the series.* It just took too long to get to “the final battle.”

SPOILER: The whole thing about Clary and Jace being brother and sister was dumb. It took way too long to resolve itself. I was annoyed at a possible incest story.

Now that I’ve had some distance to mull over the series… I almost want to skim through it again to remind me why I had such mixed feelings for it.

Grade: B+ for the entire series

Buy or Borrow: For a young adult, I’d BUY. For an adult, I’d borrow.

* … and it’s not a trilogy, oh no. There will be 3 more books! I’ll probably put them on my cue but I won’t buy them.

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