City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare (Mortal Instruments, #2)

"To draw something is to try to capture it forever," Jocelyn had said, sitting on the floor with a paintbrush dripping cadmium blue onto her jeans. "If you really love something, you never try to keep it the way it is forever. You have to let it be free to change."

[Click here to read my review of book 1: City of Bones]

I ordered City of Ashes almost immediately after finishing its predecessor. I really enjoyed the first book and was eager to find out what would happen in the sophomore addition to the series.

Since Clary and Jace found out that they are actually siblings, things have been tense between the two of them. Both are doing their best to deny their feelings for each other and that means they're doing their best to shy away from even the smallest contact.

Simon, on the other hand, is becoming both more bold and more withdrawn. Venturing into Clary's world means finding himself in a place where he is virtually powerless and, more often than not, a liability. But Clary's his best friend, and if he wants a part in her new life he has to find a way to fit himself inside of that, even if that means throwing himself headfirst into danger.

As things heat up between these three, as well as the rest of the Shadowhunter world, Valentine returns to New York City in order to pick up where he left off with his two children. He's not done with them and he'll do anything to draw them to his side of the battle, even that means showing them why he's not the kind of person they want as their enemy.

I really wanted to like City of Ashes. I tried to defend it against the people who had already read it and told me to stop while I was ahead. I tried to defend it against myself, saying this was just a little step back--the next chapter will be better. I just couldn't do it.

As much as the action and Cassandra Clare's lovely writing style had me hooked, I just could not bring myself to really enjoy this book. A lot of that can be attributed to Jace and Clary's I-can't-love-you-because-you're-my-sibling angst. I just cannot sympathize and the longer it goes on, the more uncomfortable it makes me feel.

Beyond that, it seems like this book really just brings the romance aspect of the Jace-Clary-Simon love triangle into focus and pushes the Shadowhunter war to the back burner, which I do not like at all. I'm all for a little romance, don't get me wrong, but making their awkward angst a priority instead of the battle is just frustrating. I want to hear more about what Valentine is planning, not listen to Jace moan about Clary avoiding him.

Even in that, I am interested in finding out what the third book has in store. There are some hints in this book that make me think there may be some resolution to a few of the problems I had, but I'm still on the fence about whether or not that means I'll read it. After all, I've been trying to teach myself not to read books I don't like just because I feel like I have to. There are too many good books I need to read.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

"Look," Luke went on. "In all the years I've known him, there's always been exactly one place Simon wanted to be, and he's always fought like hell to make sure he got there and stayed there." 
"Where's that?"
"Wherever you were," said Luke.

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1) by Cassandra Clare

"Every teenager in the world feels like that, feels broken or out of place, different somehow, royalty mistakenly born into a family of peasants. The difference in your case is that it's true. You are different. Maybe not better - but different."

I've been meaning to read this book for ages. I heard about it quite a long time ago and kept reminding myself that I needed to get my hands on it, only to have it pushed back on my reading list once again. Finally, the movie adaptation came into theaters and I figured it was about time I buckled down and read it. I don't intend to see the movie until it comes out on DVD and I've read the second book (because movie adaptations are notorious for using bits from later books to cushion the first and I don't want any spoilers), but I figured it was about time I got started.

City of Bones is told from the perspective of Clary Fray, a teenage girl who witnesses a murder in the back room of a New York City club she visits frequently with her best friend, Simon. Only, this isn't a normal murder. How could it be? After all, she is the only one who can see the murderers. And the boy who died? He disappeared seconds after he took his last breath.

Only a few days later, Clary comes home to a demon that seems to have killed or taken her mother and threatens to end her as well. She barely manages to kill it before it kills her, but not without collateral damage. It has managed to wound her pretty badly and who should come to her aid but one of the murderers from the club.

As it turns out, the boy whom she saw killed was actually a demon in disguise. Jace, the one who comes to her aid after her own brush with a demon, explains that he and his friends are Shadowhunters, descendants of the Nephilim and sworn to protect humanity from the demons who threaten to overrun it. By inking special runes on their skin, they can make themselves invisible to mundanes (humans) or demons, stronger, or a number of other things. The thing that neither of them can figure out, though, is how a mundane like Clary could possibly have seen them or the demon in their home.

The more she sees the more she wonders what connects her to this world of strange mythical creatures and seeming humans with inhuman power. And why has she never seen them before now? Clary soon realizes that her mother has kept far more from her than she could have ever dreamed and the only way to get answers is to find the person who kept the questions from her in the first place.

I had really hoped I would like this novel, which made me more than happy to find myself with my nose in this book at every given opportunity. I simply could not put it down!

I love the entire paranormal mythos that is presented in this book. There are fairies and pixies, vampires and werewolves, even demons and intensely creepy monks. Though these themes are common in fantasy as of late, it is in no way campy or unoriginal. Clare puts her own spin on the creatures we've heard about since childhood and weaves it all into a deeply enthralling tale that will keep you wanting more.

There is so much I could praise about this book: its original take on well-known tales, its characters' vast differences and similarities that make them each profoundly human and realistic, the gray areas that remind the reader that there isn't always a black and white answer. I could go on, but I won't. If you're not convinced this is a worthwhile read already, then I'm not sure what else I can say.

The point is that this book was immensely satisfying and definitely worth giving a read. It won't disappoint.

Rating: ★★★★★

"Instead his father took the bird, now tame and trusting, in his hands and broke its neck. 'I told you to make it obedient,' his father said, and dropped the falcon's lifeless body to the ground. 'Instead, you taught it to love you. Falcons are not meant to be loving pets: They are fierce and wild, savage and cruel. This bird was not tamed; it was broken.'
"Later, when his father left him, the boy cried over his pet, until eventually his father sent a servant to take the body of the bird away and bury it. The boy never cried again, and he never forgot what he'd learned: that to love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be the one destroyed."