BOOK REVIEW 'The Mortal Instruments: City of Heavenly Fire'

The Mortal Instruments: City of Heavenly Fire

By: Cassandra Clare

Well hello again

Long time no see.

It has now been officially 32 weeks since my last review at the beginning of the school year, or to put it in more appropriate terms for our subject matter, a time when I have so much AP homework and things I signed up for after school that I’d be lucky if I finished three books from September through June.  But now that the school year has come to a close and I just finished a 725 page book in four days, let’s get back to work.

I previously talked about my guilty pleasure when it comes to reading: Those books which in the back of my head I know aren’t exactly quality reading material with really sappy and unrealistic high school love stories but that little voice kind of gets hushed up by all of the demons that push me to read it anyway.

Did someone say Mortal Instruments?

I think someone said Mortal Instruments.

I started this series last summer and my teenage girl mind found them to be really enjoyable. Cassandra Clare creates a whole new world of demon hunting warriors called Shadowhunters that you could easily dive right into and immerse yourself with and lets all be honest with ourselves, sometimes we all need that. I haven’t been reading the series since it began in 2009, but I did drive myself up to the bookstore on release day for the finale, City of Heavenly Fire. In the months leading up to May 27, the author kept dropping clues that a bunch of beloved characters were going to die and fans were going to cry and basically you were going to suffer but you were going to be happy about it. I was getting anxious about what was about to come and in order to achieve maximum emotional damage, made sure to read all 725 pages before any spoilers got out, which I’m not going to lie, caused a few of my finals not to get studied for. Oops. Fast forward 4 days and while I really enjoyed the book which was my favorite of the series, it didn’t quite live up to the despair filled hype for me.

There was only one character that I was really sad about when they died and the rest of them; well, I didn’t care about them much to begin with so their death was met with no tears from my eyes. The end was the exact happy ending I was expecting and there’s a part of me that kind of wishes it wasn’t.  There’s a certain kind of sick joy that comes from reading the words “Beloved Character #1 is dead” and having to shut the book for a minute to catch your breath and sob briefly because they were your favorite, and WHAT KIND OF A SICK PERSON KILLS THEM OFF.

Overall, I really did enjoy the book despite the previously talked about bittersweet disappointment. I felt like the plot was pretty sound and entertaining, while still giving these characters the proper sendoff they deserve after six books. I don’t want to dive too far into the details because for those of you who haven’t read the series that would be major spoiler territory and I don’t do spoilers.

Some things never change. 

Pages: 725

Read In: 4 days

Rating: 7/10

Ages: 13+ up

Four Categories: paranormal creatures, death, romance