City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments #3)
By Cassandra Clare
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Recommended Ages: 18+

To save her mother’s life, Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters – never mind that entering the city without permission is against the Law, and breaking the Law could mean death. To make things worse, she learns that Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by the Shadowhunters, who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight.

As Clary uncovers more about her family’s past, she finds an ally in mysterious Shadowhunter Sebastian. With Valentine mustering the full force of his power to destroy all Shadowhunters forever, their only chance to defeat him is to fight alongside their eternal enemies. But can Downworlders and Shadowhunters put aside their hatred to work together? While Jace realizes exactly how much he’s willing to risk for Clary, can she harness her newfound powers to help save the Glass City – whatever the cost?

The Gist

I’m getting so sick of parts of this series and this book only made it worse. The parts that made me cringe in book 2 only made me cringe more in book 3. For the life of me I can’t make myself care about the characters and what happens to them (besides Magnus, he’s the best). For myself, the main characters became annoying, the plot felt dull, and I wasn’t excited for the next book. I know I’m in the minority with my opinion on this series, but I just don’t find it that enthralling.

What I Liked:

Some of the supporting characters I like. Obviously I’m a huge Magnus fan. I also adore Isabel and was happy to see more of her. There’s a pretty major revelation about three fourths of the way through that I was very relieved to have made. So I appreciated that.

I was glad to get more insight into Valentine. I think he’s an intriguing villain and made even more so in this book by learning a little bit more about what motivated him.

What I Didn’t Like:

I get that main characters have to go through struggles and internal crises and what not, but it seems like these characters never learn anything from it. Or the internal crisis is blown out of proportion, especially compared to how they were first introduced. Jace is a good example. Based on the character I met in the first book, I would expect him to do everything in his power to prove he’s not like his father. Yet it seems like he just immediately accepts that he’s destined to be evil. It just doesn’t seem like Jace. Character incongruity I guess you could call it.

And I’m really not a big fan of the all consuming, I can’t live without you love stories (think Twilight). It’s beyond unrealistic and annoying to me. I get that a lot of people enjoy those kinds of stories, so please know this is just my opinion. I prefer seeing people together who know they can live without each other, yet choose not to. It makes for a more compelling story in my opinion.

It was too long. It took too long to get to the stuff that mattered at the end. And I don’t find Cassandra’s writing style much more engaging that her previous books.

LunasLuckyRating: 2/5 Lunas