Tags
Cassandra Clare, City of Ashes, Clary, Jace, List of The Mortal Instruments characters, mortal instruments, Simon
City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
First of all, I thought this book was supposed to get BETTER after City of Bones (Book #1) and Book 1 wasn’t really that great IMO. I thought there were would be more character development in City of Ashes so that I could have a better understanding of each of the mains, but really, I still don’t know much more about any of them than I did reading the first book.
Let’s start with Clary. She’s still self-centered, still a brat, still annoying, and still crying after Mommy while also thinking everyone should be helping her/holding her hand, or putting up with her sarcasm, attitude, and PMS. So your mom is in a magically-induced coma, she hid a secret from you which ultimately affects your past, present and future, and now you’re all alone and crying BOO-HOO “where’s my bottle and pacifier?”. Honestly, grow the hell up. I know, I know, she’s only 16 or whatever, but after around 400 pages of …
“What’s a Shadowhunter?” and “OMG I want to be one/I am a Shadowhunter too”
which led to …
“Let’s go looking for bad guys! (even though I have no idea how to fight/defend myself”
I can safely conclude that Clary is a moron. I’m surprised she wasn’t created as a Blonde. I mean really, not only does she fit the type-cast as a moody, selfish teenager living in the 21st century, now you can add in she’s one of the Idiotic teenagers too. So if we were to label her, she’d be the Innocently Pretty Idiot with the Creative Mind. Oh, boy.
What about her leading man in City of Ashes? Jace.
Jace is still mysterious as ever. You learn snippets of his past which aren’t really all that insightful… He has an obscure past involving parents whom he no longer has and he’s fallen in love with a girl he barely knows, who could also be his half-sister? That’s messed up. Now to add to this wonderful logic, Jace is a complete jerk. He’s arrogant, obnoxious, cocky-as-hell and doesn’t care for anyone but himself. No wonder he and Clary are a perfect match. It all makes sense now.
Now you have Simon.
The best friend who mopes and chases after Clary, even though she’s led you on and rejected you multiple times. WHY DO YOU KEEP TORTURING YOURSELF? Ugh. Simon is a wimp. It’s only after he has his transformation that he started to show up on my radar as a potential plot material. Most of the time I was sure he was going to be killed off in so pathetic fashion. Unfortunately, Ms. Clare decided to keep him around for the love triangle..as if making Jace a potential half-brother wasn’t enough.
Seriously though, Simon’s useless. He should’ve been killed off early on. Even when Clary decided to give it a try, she still ends up back with Jace!
All the other characters are equally as boring/pathetically dramatic/unnecessary.
Alec = angsty, gay (crush on Jace but likes Magnus) + daddy issues
Isabella = flirt, busy-body,
Magnus = gay (likes Alec) pedofile (he’s 100+ yrs old), warlock
Maia = werewolf, hates good-looking guys, had traumatic rape/werewolf-turning experience
Overall, this book should have revved me to keep going on with the series but it actually did the opposite. I’ve found myself stuck and reluctant to continue reading because of how annoying all the characters are. Clary is entirely too needy and utterly useless as a protagonist and Jace isn’t very likeable as her partner on their quests. The side characters don’t add much plot interest if only just to add more unnecessary dialogue and drama to what’s already quickly becoming a huge teenage soap opera in literary form.
If anything, the fact that the Shadowhunter realm and Runes were further explained (if only slightly) was the only redeeming aspect of Book #2. So, I gave it 2/5 stars.