City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4) by Cassandra Clare Series: The Mortal Instruments #4
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books on April 5th 2011
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 424
Source: My copy
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The Mortal War is over, and sixteen-year-old Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her. She’s training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power. Her mother is getting married to the love of her life. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last. And—most importantly of all—she can finally call Jace her boyfriend.
But nothing comes without a price.
Someone is murdering Shadowhunters, provoking tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters that could lead to a second, bloody war. Clary’s best friend, Simon, can’t help her—his mother just found out that he’s a vampire, and now he’s homeless. When Jace begins to pull away from her without explaining why, Clary is forced to delve into the heart of a mystery whose solution reveals her worst nightmare: she herself has set in motion a terrible chain of events that could lead to her losing everything she loves. Even Jace.
The stakes are higher than ever in the #1 New York Times bestselling fourth installment of the Mortal Instruments series.
City of Fallen Angels is the start in a new trilogy featuring the Shadowhunters and Downworlders (such as Vampires, Warlocks, Werewolves etc) who live in the New York City area.
I was so excited to get back into the story with Clary and the gang after enjoying the first few episodes of the Shadowhunters TV series on Netflix. I’m liking the way they’re presenting the series a lot more than the City of Bones film (shudder), even with major changes to the story. By the way, Walker Books Australia have re-released the whole series with gorgeous new covers (see below for full glory) and I have serious cover lust.
I said in my original review of the first three Mortal Instruments books that I didn’t really like Jace – I found him whiny, brooding and occasionally inexplicably romantic. Now that he actually has a good reason to be dark and brooding (mostly PTSD from the events of City of Glass), plus the fact that the whole brother/sister awkwardness is out of the way, I liked Jace a whole lot better in this one. He shows so much more depth to his character and oh my god, that ending. Get me the next book immediately!
Clary, unfortunately, takes a back seat in this book. Barely anything actually happens to her, except for her getting upset with Jace for distancing himself for no clear reason. But once again, the lion’s share of the character development goes to Simon. He’s definitely my favourite character in this series, just bumbling his way through everything and ending up being totally badass without really meaning to, and completely adorable while he’s at it.
Malec shippers rejoice – there’s plenty of development from our favourite duo, although for some reason Alec appears to have forgotten how long Magnus has been around for. Still, when not whining about existentialism they are a damn cute couple <3
In fact, there’s so much character development that at times, the actual story feels a bit slow, and moves off in random directions. I really wasn’t sure what to expect next! Okay so there’s a new baddy. Who could be worse than Valentine, you may ask? How about Lilith, the mother of all demons? Yep. It’s all going downhill from here, because she seems pretty mad.
For a lot of this book, it wasn’t clear where the story was heading, but after that epic finale and unbearable cliffhanger, I can’t wait to see where the story goes next.
The Mortal Instruments with new pretty covers
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Calvin Green
I’ve watched the movie version of this series. Is the book series better?
Calvin Green recently posted…rocketlanguages.com – Rocket Korean Premium: 2012 Edition Launch
Angelya
Yes, oh yes. The City of Bones movie was dreadful xD The first book is sort of okay but the series does seem to be getting better and better, and I’m quite attached to the characters now!