Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Review: City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare (Spooktacular Paranormal Reading Challenge!)

Released: March 25, 2008
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Series: The Mortal Instruments, #2
Star Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Source: Bookstore
Edition: Paperback
Page Amount: 453
Age Group: Young Adult

This is a review of the second book in the Mortal Instruments series. If you have not read the first book, City of Bones, I do not suggest reading any further. Although I try my best not to spoil the previous book(s) in the series, sometimes the synopsis gives away the plot from the previous novel.


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.

Soon after finishing City of Bones, I picked up this one. I rarely ever do that with series. Usually it is a minimum of a month before I pick up the next instalment. Not with this series. I needed to find out right away what was going to happen to Clary and Jace and the rest of the characters. I had become too attached and I needed to read this book right away.

Although I didn't quite enjoy this novel as much as City of Bones, it was still very good. I honestly couldn't tell you what I liked better about City of Bones but I found that I read that one a lot quicker than City of Ashes with less time asking myself 'when this going to be over so I can know what happens already'. I also think that I didn't enjoy that something from the first book wasn't resolved, which I'm not going to go into for the people who have not read City of Bones.

The beginning of this book was definitely a little slow. That is one reason why I could not give it a full 5 stars. The first quarter of the book took me longer to read than the last three quarters.

Although I remain team Jace, I found myself rooting for Simon more in this novel than I did in the first. I still view him as the quirky best friend, though. I still love him, though!

I am definitely going to continue on with this series. I cannot wait to see what happens in the next books. I can only imagine the chaos and adventures that are to come.

About the Author


Cassandra Clare was born overseas and spent her early years traveling around the world with her family and several trunks of fantasy books. Cassandra worked for several years as an entertainment journalist for the Hollywood Reporter before turning her attention to fiction. She is the author of City of Bones, the first book in the Mortal Instruments trilogy and a New York Times bestseller. Cassandra lives with her fiance and their two cats in Massachusetts.

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