The Mortal Instruments: City of Glass

  #3 City of Glass is the third and final part of Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments trilogy…….Well it used to be the final book of an initially intended triology which has now become a series and the fourth book is about to release in April. So no question asked……………. before you pick up this book to read you better read its two predecessors - #1 City of Bones & #2 City of Ashes, if you want to make a head or tail of the book.

(before you proceed further i’d like to inform you readers that this review might contain a lot of spoilers……..so proceed at your own risk)

Where the first book has Jace on the cover, the second one with Clary, now this one has a new character on the cover, Sebastian (who may well have his own secrets that are dangerous for the everyone…..).

The Mortal Instruments series has followed the story of Clary, an average New York teenage girl, whose mother suddenly disappears at the same time that she starts being able to see things, such as demons, that most normal people can’t. Clary’s mother had been hiding her from her demon hunting heritage in an attempt to protect Clary from the machinations of Valentine, the evil father Clary had never known. The previous books in the trilogy have followed Clary on her journey from mundane (non-supernatural) teenager to rune-wielding Shadowhunter, introducing the reader to a magical world, populated with werewolves, vampires, faeries and mages along the way.

Losing no momentum from the ending of City of Ashes, City of Glass opens up full throttle and gets faster and more thrilling with the passing of each chapter. With Valentine now in possession of two of the mortal instruments necessary to call down the angel Raziel and request that the power of all his fellow Shadowhunters (at least, the ones who don’t fall in line behind him) be revoked, and that Valentine be allowed to shape a new race that will not only answer the original charter to hunt and kill demons, but also be allowed to do away with Downworlders — vampires, werewolves, and fairy creatures — with whom the current Shadowhunter Clave has developed a fragile truce.

In the opening pages of City of Glass readers leave the mundane world of New York completely behind. Previous books have changed, or revealed, all of the story’s main characters to be to be either Downworlder or Shadowhunter so with no mundanes left in their group they travel to Idris, the homeland of the Shadowhunters. The rest of the story is set there and with its magical protections, towers, forests and horse-based transport the Idris setting has more in common with classic epic fantasy than with the urban fantasy landscapes of a magical New York that were a striking feature of the previous Mortal Instruments books.

Now with Jace and the Lightwood family making their way to the hidden country of Idris, to share with the Clave what they’ve discovered, Clary is left behind in New York, fuming at Jace’s attempts to shut her out. But Clary isn’t without her own resources — she’s just discovered that, like other Shadowhunters, she can create runes of power, etchings done with a device called a stele that function like magic. Unlike other Shadowhunters, however, Clary has also exhibited the ability to create new runes, something absolutely unheard of in Shadowhunter culture, and which the Clave would be very interested in seeing.

Her determination to be a part of the fight, and to achieve the magical cure for her mother’s otherworldly coma, leads her to make her own way to Idris, which nearly costs her her life. Upon arrival, she finds that her best friend Simon (the vampire who inexplicably can walk in the daylight, unlike his other kin) is imprisoned and tortured, and that Jace is apparently entering into a relationship with a new Shadowhunter girl, leaving Clary open toward falling into the arms of the suave and charming Sebastian, the only one who rivals Jace when it comes to abnormal strength and fighting skill.

Of course their is also the one question of exactly what type of experiments did Valentine perform upon his progeny, that made them so special, and that’s certainly explored. But more thrilling is the introduction of a newer, deadlier player to the game. Valentine is a monster, but unlike other villains of fiction, Clare presents him as a man who truly believes he is trying to do the right thing for the right reasons. This newer villain has far darker motives, and the means to carry them out, and soon the capital city of Alicante is left defenseless to an invasion force of demonic strength, bringing a heart-rending tragedy to the Lightwood family.

“The Forbidden Fruit tastes the sweetest” 

The most pressing part of the story though is the tortured relationship between Jace and Clary. Originally this pair of would-be young lovers looked set follow the time-honoured tradition of sniping at each other until they realised how attracted they were to each other before falling into each others arms. Unfortunately by the time they got to realize their attraction to each other it was also revealed that they were actually brother and sister, secretly separated since birth. The whole forbidden love plotline is enough to keep reader engrossed and drives the story forward even without the threat of war and imminent death.

City of Glass has more twists and turns in it than pretty much any other book I have read. I would think one thing, just to have the opposite proved to me. I’m ending it here because well i don’t think that there is anything left for me to mention and those who think this is the final book and well want more of Jace and Clary do not worry as The Mortal Instruments triology is now a series of 6 book with the 4th book City of Fallen Angels releasing on 5th April this year. Eagerly awaiting that book.

Genre :      Fiction, Young Adult, Urban Fantasy


Publisher:  Margaret K. McElderry


Rate:              5/5 (It was amazing, I recommend it)