Book Review: City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

Book:  City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments #3) by Cassandra Clare, Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2009, 541 pages.

Source:  purchased.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
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 Shadow-hunter Sebastian. With Valentine mustering the full force of his power to destroy all Shadow-hunters 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 new found powers to help save the Glass City -- whatever the cost?

Love is a mortal sin and the secrets of the past prove deadly as Clary and Jace face down Valentine in the final installment of the New York Times bestselling trilogy The Mortal Instruments.

My Thoughts: 
I really enjoyed reading this installment and found it much better than City of Ashes.  There was lots of tension, action, twists and turns.  Again, I found myself impressed with Cassandra Clare's writing and ability to create an interesting fantasy world within the real world.  The world changes in this book as the characters travel to Idris, the City of Glass, which is outside the normal world - it was nice to have a change of setting and focus.  


I enjoyed the characters more in this book and am glad that the Clary/Jace story line took a turn as I didn't like their brother/sister storyline.  Clary starts to grow into herself more in this book as she has had some time now to get used to being a Shadowhunter and her strengths are being more revealed and she acts more purposefully and less by accident.  It is also nice to see Jace act like less of a jerk.  

Again, I found some of the more minor characters to be some of the most interesting, such as Alec, Magnus, Isabelle, and Simon.  In fact, some of the best scenes for breaking the tension and adding humour were between Simon and Jace.  


This was supposed to be the final installment of the series, and it does tie up all of the loose ends, but Cassandra Clare has written more, with the City of Fallen Angels already out and more books planned - it will be interesting to see where things go from here.