Title: City of Glass

Author: Cassandra Clare

Series: The Mortal Instruments #3

Genre: Urban Fantasy Romance (YA)

Pages: 576 Pages (Paperback)

Original Publication Date: March 24, 2009

Overall Rating:
Buy on Amazon · Add to Shelfari · Add to Goodreads

Summary 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

As with City of Bones and City of Ashes, City of Glass has made a place on my Favorites shelf.  I bet you’re wondering if the series ended up usurping the Twilight Saga’s or Harry Potter’s place in my heart.  The answer is: it’s kind of complicated. I’ll explain in a moment.

City of Glass was more intense than the first two books.  I had to take several breaks to let my heightened nerves relax.  I’ve been trying to figure out a way to explain the intensity of this series to people who ask me what the books are about and this is what I’ve come up with.  Imagine the frustration with the love triangle situation in Eclipse and add in the suspense and edge-of-your-seat feeling from the last three Harry Potter books, or even The Hunger Games.  Unlike the Twilight Saga or Harry Potter, the books don’t deal with just one of those situations at a time; they deal with both intense situations throughout the entire series and it just escalates with each one! 8O I was literally captivated by the story within the first chapter.

City of Glass is probably the best ending to a series I’ve ever read.  I know I haven’t read a lot of series, but I still feel that way.  The story or ending didn’t feel contrived.  It didn’t feel like it was forced to go a particular way to meet the author’s expectations.  The characters grew and they still acted like you expected them too. Most of the conflict was resolved, but some of it was left open for future possibilities.  The ending wasn’t too fluffy or over-the-top, yet it left you satisfied.  I’m very pleased with how things turned out and I can’t wait to read the stories again in the future.

With that being said, did the Mortal Instruments overtake the Twilight Saga and Harry Potter in the epic battle of vying for my affection?  Yes, the trilogy did overtake Harry Potter because I’m a sucker for romance.  The last few Harry Potter books had a little bit of romance, but not enough to satisfy me.  However, the funny thing is that the Harry Potter series will remain in the small bookcase in my bedroom with the Twilight Saga. Whereas, the Mortal Instruments have found a home in one of the bookcases with the other books in my home.  I just can’t seem to part with my Harry Potter books because they were such a huge part of my life for such a long time.

What about the Twilight Saga? In some ways, the Mortal Instruments did and in other ways, the trilogy didn’t.  Cassandra Clare’s a better author, in my opinion, but Stephenie’s growing; you can see that with The Host. Both Cassandra Clare and Stephenie Meyer make you feel as if you’re a part of the story.  The characters jump out and become real.  Clare didn’t write the ending of City of Glass, so it was too fluffy. Whereas, let’s face it, Breaking Dawn was written that way–one big, novel-size epilogue.  But, I like over-the-top, fluffy endings (as long as it’s not a your-life-can-be-better-if-you-apply-the-moral-of-my-unrealistic-book-to-your-own-life kind of story, like Jack Weyland’s books).  Whenever I watch movies or read books, they always end when the main characters get what they want or finally get together.  Most of the time, I want to read or know what happens to the characters after that.  Meyer gave me that, which I loved.  I do agree that there’s something magical about leaving some things to the imagination and I liked the way Clare did that.  However, because the Twilight Saga catapulted me head first into the world of reading and because I can still get excited about the Twilight Saga as if I were reading it for the first time, the Mortal Instruments won’t usurp its place in my heart.