City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
Last night, I finished reading City of Glass by Cassandra Clare. It’s the final book in the Mortal Instruments trilogy.
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 dealing 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! 
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. Cassandra 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, coughJackWeylandcough). 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. Stephenie Meyer gave me that, which I loved. I do agree, though, there’s something magical about leaving some things to the imagination and I liked the way Cassandra 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.
Looks like a fun series. I’ll have to add it to my list of books to read.
I LOVED this series! It was so great. I never expected the ending.
It was Perfect! Beau, Stupefiant, et un de mes preferes!