Review: City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

City of Fallen Angels 

Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Mortal Instruments, Book Four
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Format: Hardcover, 432 pages
Release Date: April 5, 2011
Source: Mid-Columbia Libraries
 

Synopsis: 
 
The war is finally over and everything is finally beginning to go back to normal. Clary has begun Shadowhunter training and is excited to learn more about her new power. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace and her relationship with Jace has finally become normal.

Of course, things can’t stay quiet for long. Someone is murdering former Circle members in an attempt to create tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters. Simon has finally revealed to his mother that he is a vampire which resulted in him fleeing from his own home with nowhere to go. It seems like everybody in this strange new world wants him on their side and are willing to go to great lengths to win him over. Dealing with all of that is hard enough, but he is also juggling two different girls who think that they are seeing him exclusively.

Then, when Jace begins to pull away from Clary unexpectedly, and with no explanation, Clary has no choice, but to try and solve the mystery herself. But the answers will be hard for her to swallow especially when she realizes that she herself started a horrifying chain of events that could cause her to lose everyone she loves.

My Review: 
 
Can I take a moment to scream and vent in frustration? ……………… Okay, thanks. This book was so infuriating. When I finished it, I wanted to punch a wall. Not that it wasn’t good, it was amazing, as were the first three. However, I just wanted everything to work out and just when it seems like it is Cassandra Clare throws in another horrible twist that has me ripping out my own hair. I have completely given myself over to these books and am literally feeling emotionally drained having just finished City of Fallen Angels. It’s not a bad thing. In fact, it is a testament to the talent that Clare has. A book series has never sucked me in more than this one. I feel as though I know the characters personally and feel the pain, love, and all other emotions that they feel.

We start this book off in relative peace. The Mortal War has just ended and life seems to finally be getting back to normal, well, as normal as the life of a Shadowhunter can be. Obviously, I knew it wasn’t going to stay that way, but one can hope, right?  Simon becomes a major character in this book. I mean he has been in the first three, but in this one, the plot centers around him for the majority of the book. Everybody wants him on their side and he is being approached by all kinds of fun creatures. Camilla is a new character introduced. She doesn’t provide much to the plot, but she is one of the oldest vampires alive to date and wants Simon on her team. Then we have Lilith who also wants Simon on her side. I don’t want to say too much about her except that she is bad news. While everyone is fighting over him, he is trying to hold onto his last shreds of humanity, continuing to not fully accept what he is. Then he meets Kyle, a new member of the band who lets him crash at his place and seems like he is going to be a great friend. He begins to help Simon through this really hard time in his life by giving him advice on the simple things, like the fact that Simon has two girlfriends, Isabelle and Maia, and he has no idea what to do about it. My vote is for Isabelle, but that is just my personal opinion.

Let’s talk about Jace. I wanted to kill him in this book. I wanted to jump into the pages and strangle him. He pulls away from Clary basically the entire book, but he won’t talk to her or tell her why. He has been moody in the first three books, but here, he takes it to a whole new level. It was starting to seriously annoy me, until we discover the true reason why he is pulling away. Even so, I wish he would have just told her and not been so aloof and childish about it, sulking in a corner somewhere.

I think that this book was the slowest of the series so far. It wasn’t bad, just not quite as action packed as the first three. It definitely picked up at the end though and then it was a whirlwind of events that, once again, I couldn’t read about fast enough. I think after reading this series, I’m going to have permanent frown lines in my forehead from all the faces of horror, sadness, and anger that I make while reading. I cannot wait to start reading the last book in the series City of Lost Souls to see how Clare is going to wrap all this madness up. One more small note, the further I get into this series, the more I worry about the movie. There is no possible way that it is going to be able to live up to the splendor that is the Mortal Instruments. I will definitely still be seeing the movie in August, but I am going to try my hardest not to get my hopes up, because they will surely be crushed. Happy reading all! 

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