Title: City of Fallen Angels
Series: The Mortal Instruments #4
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publication: April 5th 2011, Margaret K. McElderry Books
Pages: 424 Pages, Paperback
Source: Thanks to Pan Macmillan for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: DNF
The Mortal War is over, and sixteen-year-old Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her. She’s training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power. Her mother is getting married to the love of her life. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last. And—most importantly of all—she can finally call Jace her boyfriend.But nothing comes without a price.Someone is murdering Shadowhunters, provoking tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters that could lead to a second, bloody war. Clary’s best friend, Simon, can’t help her—his mother just found out that he’s a vampire, and now he’s homeless. When Jace begins to pull away from her without explaining why, Clary is forced to delve into the heart of a mystery whose solution reveals her worst nightmare: she herself has set in motion a terrible chain of events that could lead to her losing everything she loves. Even Jace.
SPOILERS.
Spoilers everywhere.
I
absolutely love The Mortal Instruments. The first three books were
fantastic. The plot was full of twists and turns, the characters were
fantastic and I absolutely fell in love with the series. So when I
picked up the fourth instalment, City of Fallen Angels, I was
expecting to open the book, and soon be gasping in shock, laughing at
the characters' sarcasm and witty sayings, but unfortunately, City of
Fallen Angels fell completely flat with me, and I ended up abandoning
it the last 100 pages or so.
Never
once did I think I would DNF a Cassandra Clare book, as I absolutely
adore them. Her writing is fantastic, her characters are so extremely
real and in my eyes, the books are amazing, but City of
Fallen Angels was just not up to it's usual standard, in my opinion.
In
City of Fallen Angels, a couple of months have passed since the
Mortal War ended. Clary is training at the institute, Jace is her
boyfriend and Jocelyn and Luke are getting married shortly. Simon is
simultaneously dating both Maia and Isabelle, though neither know
about the other one and everything is pretty much perfect. But then,
all of a sudden Jace starts distancing himself from Clary, tormented
by vicious nightmares taunting him of him hurting her and being the cause of her death. Shadowhunters
are being murdered in Downworlder territory, someone is not happy
with the peaceful treaty between the two groups. Then Simon is being tracked
and trying to be killed by murderous things, though the Mark of Cain
protects him. Soon Clary finds out that she herself has set in motion
all these dreadful things that are happening, all due to her saving the
one person she loves most, yet because she saved him, he is now being claimed by something
worse than death.
It
could've been good. It sounded pretty good. But to me, it wasn't.
I'll
start off with the plot, not that there was much of one. It sounded
like a lot was going to happen but practically the whole book was
filled with nothingness, even now, thinking back on my reading
experience of City of Fallen Angels, I can't actually remember what
happened in the first half of the book. The story moved at such a
snail pace and nothing much happened at all.
In
the first three books there was a purpose for the story, they had to
defeat Valentine and regain power of the Mortal Instruments, in City
of Glass everything was pretty much rounded up and there didn't
technically need to be more books written, even though I do
absolutely adore the characters, the writing and the dialogue. I would've been sad if the series ended at the third book, but then Cassandra Clare should have had a proper idea and purpose for the next two books. This
book felt very dry to me, as if not much thought was put into it
while she was writing it. In City of Glass, Valentine died, Sebastian
was supposed to be dead. They'd defeated the
villain, regained the instruments, Clary and Jace were finally happy.
It wasn't a completely happy ending with the death of Max still being
felt by the readers and the characters, but it ended up pretty
much perfect. And then Cassandra Clare thinks, wait, no, let me bring
out a character that was supposed to be dead and
have him wreak havoc amongst the characters and split up Clary and
Jace once again and then there can be another three books with another evil villain that really, should be dead.
This book didn't need to be written or, she could've
focused it on another character or written about something else. The whole Jace linked to Sebastian thing shouldn't have been done as it was just so completely unnecessary. I do remember hearing that this book
was supposed to be from Simon's point of view, yet Jace and Clary
took centre stage once again.
I'm
just so extremely frustrated with her for CONSTANTLY having Jace and
Clary fight and having something wrecking their relationship in EVERY
SINGLE BOOK. Their relationship frustrated me to no end.
One minute they were all like, I love you so much, then they fought
because Jace started pulling away, and then they made out and started
acting promiscuous and then it just repeated again. THROUGHOUT
THE WHOLE NOVEL. *headdesk* I just wish Jace and
Clary could have one book where no one is trying to murder them or
possess them. Please. Then when I skimmed over the last few pages, I
read about Clary kissing Jace again. I don't know how she could still
kiss him, knowing what he had done...even though technically it
wasn't him and I hope that they do manage to save him from this
soul/mind sharing thing between him and Sebastian because it's Jace
who I adore and I seriously hope Cassandra Clare will let sleeping
dogs lie and (hopefully) once Jace is saved that she'll leave him and
Clary alone.
Magnus
and Alec were also constantly whining in this book. It started off
with them going on a sort of honeymoon even though they're not
married and it was sweet and all but then when Magnus mentioned he'd
dated Camille in the past, Alec starts going into a huge huff about
all the previous relationships Magnus has been in before. I could see
why Alec was upset but seriously, if you're hundreds of
years old of course you're going to have been in a
relationship before. City of Fallen Angels had so much unnecessary
angst in it at times, it was quite frustrating.
Then
there was Simon, Simon who I absolutely adore, I wanted to hear more
about Simon! And the story started off well, as it was focusing on
him. Some people said in City of Fallen Angels that Simon had changed
and wasn't the sweet, geeky Simon like in previous books but I
thought Simon was still the same in here. I wish he did break it off
with Maia and Isabelle as it was extremely rude of him to string them
a long, but I hope things will work out between him and Izzy, and I
hope Maia will find someone too...I'm not sure if I want her to go
back to Jordan, even though he was Changing when he struck and bit
her...I still wouldn't go back to him, but we'll see.
The
characters all seemed different in this book. Alec was incredibly
sensitive and quite unfair towards Magnus. Magnus also seemed to be
lacking his usual spark which sucked as I adore his character. Jace
was extremely emotionally unstable in this book, but I felt extremely
sorry for him as you could see the plaintive feeling of torture he
was going through completely engulfing him. Clary was very dependent in this
book although I was extremely proud of her when she was fighting that
demon, it's about time she starts defending herself. I absolutely
adore Isabelle she's got so much spunk and character and I completely
love her! It was interesting being introduced to Jordan in this book
and seeing the interaction between him and Maia, due to their
tumultuous past.
*Religious
rant below, you don't have to read if you don't want to :)*
Another
thing I was quite disappointed about in this book was the amount of
twisted things that seemed to take place. The other books contained
demons/magic but it wasn't as hectic as compared to all the stuff
happening in this book. There were quite a few scenes which left me
feeling quite sickened and this is also due to why I didn't finish
the book. As towards the end, more and more hectic stuff was
happening and I don't enjoy reading that kind of stuff. There were
demon babies, and demon-worshipping cults and then there was this
part where they said that Lilith, the mother of all demons, was
Adam's (in the Garden of Eden) first wife. I don't know what
mythological book Cassandra Clare got that from, or if she made
it up herself, but it is highly unbelievable. Lilith said she got
cast out as she didn't want to obey God or Adam and that's why God
made Adam a second wife, called Eve. In the Bible, Eve made us all
sinners by listening to the Serpent (the Devil) who tempted her to
eat from the tree of life and disobey God. So in the book, if Lilith
was his first wife, it would've been impossible for her to have
disobeyed and hated both of them as there wasn't sin before Eve came
along. Sorry for getting so technical but that's just my view point
on that little story Cassandra Clare threw in there.
*Mini
rant over*
I was
sure City of Fallen Angels was going to be a fantastic instalment in
the enchanting Mortal Instruments series, yet I couldn't quite bring
myself to finish it. There was little to no plot, nothing happened
the most part of the book and I ended up skimming the last 100 pages.
I think what Cassandra Clare did to the characters was completely
unnecessary and it was just another way for her to produce another
book that would draw the story out more. In my opinion she should've
finished up the series at City of Glass, or, focused on the other
characters and their stories more in the next three books instead of
writing something that focuses on Jace and Clary's constant shifting relationship. The first three books had Valentine as there
villain and the three after that has Sebastian as their villain,
who Cassandra Clare should've just left dead.
The
characters seemed different and I wasn't laughing as frequently in
the City of Fallen Angels as I had in the previous books. They all
seemed to be lacking their usual sparkle and humour. I'm not sure if
I want to read City of Lost Souls, I don't want to read more about
the dark, twisted things that happen in these books and I'm also
quite irritated about the constant drama in Jace and Clary's
relationship. I do like how this book shows that she loves Jace so
much she is willing to do anything to save him. That was a plus in
this novel, the extraordinary lengths someone will go to in order to
save the one they love.
City
of Fallen Angels was filled with angst, deceit, betrayal and
heartbreak, however, it was lacking it's usual charm.
I give it: 0 Cupcakes
UPDATE:
I ended up reading the last few pages and I gave it 2 cupcakes :)