YA Review: City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

Title: City of Glass
Author: Cassandra Clare
Ages: 14 & up
Ebook/Kindle
Personal Collection

Synopsis: In the third book of the Mortal Instruments series (which was originally billed a trilogy, but has now been upgraded to series) we find Clary in the Shadowhunter capital city of Alicante with all of her friends.  Valentine is raising an army of demons and plans to bring the Clave down, replacing it with himself as leader, naturally.  Simon is imprisoned by the Clave after accidentally ending up in Alicante, there is a new guy, Sebastian, who Clary feels funny about, and she is still pining for Jace in a very un-sisterly way. 


Review:  I wanted to like this book. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.  I have enjoyed the last two in the series very much and enjoy the characters.  I'll list my issues with it after I say some things I do like about it.  I love the descriptions, that is definitely one thing that Cassandra Clare is great at.  She took us to another country that doesn't exist, yet I'm pretty confident I could describe the layout to you precisely because she details things so well.  I also like that all of our loose ends were very neatly wrapped up in this book.  My questions were answered.  And I really do like the characters.  They are very three-dimensional.

And now my issues.  Being that I could easily see this as the end of the trilogy, with all ends neatly tied up, it concerns me that they have extended it into a series.  They leave two very uninteresting things hanging out there in what seems to be a weak attempt at add-ins to extend the series.  I almost don't feel the need to read the next book simply because I felt my questions are answered.  Good for the trilogy, bad for the series.  I'll be interested to see what they can create to make the next book feel like it belongs or is necessary.

Another issue I had was the clues again.  All the hints that were dropped in book 2 came true exactly as I figured in book 3, along with the new ones regarding Sebastian.  I felt it made the characters seem a little dumber than I believed they were, because I could see what she was planning a mile away and couldn't figure out just why they didn't catch on.  And despite the fact that I do think Cassandra Clare is a great writer, this book suffered a bit from great action and then long, drawn out, discussion/discovery sequences.  It seemed like everybody always needed to have a 'long talk' with someone else, which made the book a little more tedious than the previous two.

The action sequences were great, but I was a little disappointed in the battle.  I would've liked to see a little more of it.

The final thing that I had a small issue with was the multiple points of view.  This may not bother many people, and I woudn't say it was something I totally hated, but I felt the previous two books were a little more from Clary's perspective and I felt this was really from everyone's perspective.  It jumped around quite a bit.  For a movie, this will work out really well, I think, but I guess I just miss focusing on it more from Clary's POV.

And while there are issues, most of you will read this book, just as I did, because it is part of the series.  And like I said, I have enjoyed the series so far.  I'll just be curious to see how the next book plays out.  Happy reading!

I give City of Glass 3 Stars