Publisher: Walker Books
Released: May 27th 2014
My Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Find it on Goodreads
Lives will be lost, love sacrificed, and the whole world changed in the sixth and last instalment of the internationally bestselling The Mortal Instruments series.
Erchomai, Sebastian had said. I am coming.
Darkness returns to the Shadowhunter world. As their society falls apart around them, Clary, Jace, Simon and their friends must band together to fight the greatest evil the Nephilim have ever faced: Clary's own brother. Nothing in this world can defeat him - must they journey to another world to find the chance? (find it on Goodreads)
SPOILER REVIEW: this
review WILL contains spoilers. Do not read unless you have already read City of
Heavenly Fire. Or unless you don't care about being spoiled. You have been
warned.
City of Heavenly Fire was a little bit of a disappointment
for me. After so much hype, and hints that some main characters might die, it
was kind of a cop-out. Most of the deaths were minor or super obvious and eh.
First off, was I REALLY supposed to care that people like
Jordan and Meliorn died? It was a bit sad Jordan died but we never really got
to know him that much and he was such an obvious candidate that I was really
prepared for it. Plus his death was just kind of brushed over. No-one really
cared that much. And Meliorn. I barely remembered who he was! Plus he was a
traitor, was he really supposed to be one of the "big" deaths? I
honestly didn't care about him at all. Sebastian's death though. What. I mean,
we all knew he had to die. And I wanted something really big and fitting, not
Clary using her rune powers AGAIN and them some weird
"oh-I'm-not-Sebastian-I'm-Jonathan" transformation, only for him to
die anyway. What was the point? To make me feel sorry for him? No. I mean, I
get that Sebastian thought Jocelyn was a terrible mother who didn't love him, I
get he was a product of experimentation and upbringing and that it wasn't
really his fault, it was Valentine and the demon blood blah blah, but I still
hated him as a character and I didn't need some weird "oh this is what he
would have been like" version to make me sympathise with him. It was
unnecessary and odd.
Half the story was also just too unbelievable. The Clave. I
mean, how could they be so stupid and inefficient? Did they never learn from their
bazillion past mistakes? How could they seriously not come up with a good
enough plan to defeat Sebastian and the Endarkened? WHY were people so
unwilling to listen! It was just ridiculous. People were dying left right and
centre and they were just like "we'll get 'em next time! The Endarkened
can be saved, we'll find a cure!" THERE WAS NO CURE. And the whole Robert
and Maryse Lightwood issue was never really resolved and was just left hanging.
The way Clary and Jace sorted out the heavenly fire problem was way too easy
(runes again. Really, they didn't think of that before), and the fact that
Magnus's dad, one of the most evil demons ever, was content to let everyone
leave the demon world with just one person's immortality and memories was way
too convenient. It was even MORE convenient that Simon magically managed to
retain some of the memories a super powerful greater demon took from him AND
got to stop being the vampire he always hated being. It was too much of a happy
ending and honestly, I preferred the ending of the original trilogy.
It wasn't all bad, however. I did really like Emma and
Julian, and I'm looking forward to reading The Dark Artifices series, with them
as the main characters. It'll be nice to focus on some different characters. I
was also really happy that Magnus and Alec got back together and that Magnus
started to open up more. I actually really loved Alec in this book too, which
was surprising for me because normally he's a meh character for me. But he was
really funny and I liked all the things he did, and was willing to do, to help
Magnus and his friends, and he just really grew on me. Izzy was of course as
wonderful as ever and the whole Lord Montgomery thing was hilarious and Alec
walking in on her with Simon...twice! I think I died.
*This paragraph contains Clockwork Princess spoilers*The references to The Infernal Devices series were really
nice, and I'm looking forward to Tessa and Jem interacting with Jace and Emma
more in TDA. The fact that Jessamine's ghost saved the London Institute was
also one of my favourite parts and it was nice to think that maybe Jessamine
had found some peace, especially after seeing her in the comic strip at the
back on the book (I think this was in the UK and AUS editions?). Speaking of
the comic strip though (and here there will be spoilers for Clockwork
Princess), I did like seeing Tessa and Jem's wedding but I also had some issues
with it. I was one of the few people who didn't like the ending of Clockwork
Princess; not because I hated Tessa for being with Jem or anything stupid like
that (Tessa is tied with Izzie for my favourite female character of Cassandra Clare's), but because the whole thing made little sense. In this comic strip, Tessa
saw Will's ghost at her wedding to Jem and said something like "someday,
we'll all be together" and I was just like, really. Really. Is that so. I am
ALL FOR being able to love more than one person and being brave enough to love
again when you are an immortal who knows your love will die, but that is going
to be one strange and awkward reunion. Maybe it'll be A Very Potter Senior Year
Lily Potter/Cedric Diggory kind of afterlife.
Some other comments: book felt too long and could have done
with being about 200 pages shorter, I will never feel sorry for Jocelyn no
matter how much I'm supposed to, Luke did literally nothing in this book,
seeing Will in the comic strip was awesome especially his comments about Jace,
the dreams everyone had in the demon world were really interesting , I loved
how Jace was responsible for Zachariah's change and the connection between the
Herondales and Carstairs, did Jace REALLY bring a condom to demon world hell place
Edom even when he was still full of heavenly fire or maybe he just always
carries one around but my my wasn't that convenient, Clary and Simon's
friendship was just really awesome and I liked how Clary bonded with Emma.
Overall, I didn't love this book, especially for a
conclusion to a series, but I didn't hate it, and I will be picking up The Dark
Artifices.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteCity of Heavenly Fire was the perfect ending to an epic story! And another confirmation of why Cassie Clare is in my opinion one of the best YA authors out there. I have read everything she has ever written and will continue to do so!
ReplyDeleteMarlene
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