City of Ashes, by Cassandra Clare - Review

Just a quick note, I wrote this review on December 1st, because that's when I finished the book. But because I wanted to wait to post this until after my post about my plans for reviewing the books I read, I scheduled it for later.

Let me preface this review by talking a little bit about my history with The Mortal Instruments. I read the first one, City of Bones, years ago. I think I was twenty. I had picked it up at the bookstore because it looked like something I could get into. I like these kinds of books, about hidden supernatural worlds with monster and monster slayers and things like that. So I read it.

City of Bones was okay. I had read worse, and I managed to finish it, which was a good sign. But I HATED the ending. So much so that I refused to read the books that came after it. It left a bitter taste in my mouth. So, I donated the book to a thrift store, forgot about it and moved on with my life.

Cut ahead to early 2013. My best friend and I were at the movies and we saw the preview for the City of Bones movie. I commented on how I hadn't like the book, and my best friend got really mad at me for not finishing the rest of the books. She said the horrible ending I had read fixed itself in later books, I just had to get there. So, because my best friend insisted, and because the movie preview looked really good, I picked up the book again and started reading it for the second time, so I could remember what happened before reading the next book.

And this time around I couldn't get past the first hundred pages. Maybe it was because I was older and more mature and had gotten into this 'I hate teenagers' funk, but the dialogue grated on my nerves and I couldn't stand how the main guy treated everyone. So I stopped reading, resigned to never reading the books again.

Of course, then the movie came out and while I missed seeing it in theaters, when it came to iTunes I bought it in a fit of boredom and watched it. And I loved it. The movie took all the best parts of the book and made all the bad parts better, and the actors took all the bad dialogue and made it believable. I liked the movie so much that as soon as it was over I started watching it again.

So, with the movie fresh in my mind, I hesitantly started reading City of Bones again, and this time I was able to get through the book easier. I could see in my head the actors and hear their voices, and it made the book a little better. I still hated the ending, but since the movie kind of spoiled the twist, I knew it wasn't real and could get past it.

So then I started reading the next book, City of Ashes. This is where the review starts.

I'm not going to talk a whole lot about it, because I'm not the greatest at reviewing things. I did like the book, to some extent, though there were a few things that I didn't like. It was a fairly quick and easy read, especially after my sudden bout of reading recently, and with all the point of view changes, it was cool to see through the eyes of all the characters, to see what made them tick. The plot line is really interesting, and it flows pretty well. As I have heard other people say, Cassandra Clare really does have good grasp of how to handle action scenes well. I never felt lost, and it seemed logical.

Now, here are the things I had problems with. I still don't like Jace, the main guy. In my opinion -- and I know I'm going to get hate for this -- he is a jerk and overly demanding and only thinks of himself. He has a mouth that always gets him in trouble and he has no idea how to control it, which always made me yell at the book every time his lack of brain/mouth filter got him in trouble.

I dislike the way the romance is handled in City of Ashes, as well as in City of Bones. And this is a problem I have with a lot of Young Adult books. The romance doesn't feel real to me. It feels too much like either puppy love or lust, not real love, and a lot of the times there isn't a natural development of the relationship. It's more like insta-romance. And then on top of that how the teenagers feel about the romance is always blown way out of proportion. I can't live without him. I would die if she died. He is the only reason I can go on. My whole life revolves around you. Now I'm not saying that isn't a normal thing. I think a lot of teenagers feel like that when they are in their first relationships. I just don't like it because I have a bit of a cynical view on relationships and romance.

The last thing I didn't like was the way Cassandra Clare handled Alec Lightwood and Magnus Bane. Now, I am not against homosexual people. I realize that people make choices, and I'm not going to say anything about those choices. That's not what this is about. I am going to say that, at least to me, Alec and Magnus felt less like a legitimate thing that developed in a normal way, and more like the author giving Alec someone to get his mind off of his unrequited love for Jace. Yes, they are side characters, but I expect even side characters to be like real people, not like cardboard cut outs just thrown in here to cover all the bases.

Overall, the book was good. I finished it, which says a lot considering my finished/didn't finish record with a lot of books, and it will probably stay on my shelf alongside City of Bones.

I have made the decision not to rate books, at least not in the traditional sense. Mostly because I don't feel qualified to do that to books that are published, when I have nothing to my name. So instead, I'm just going to put all the books I review into three different categories; Re-readable, Keeper and Pass-Along. Re-readable is self-explanatory.  For Keepers, it will stay on my shelf, at least until I run out of room and have to weed things out. And for Pass-Along, I will donate it to the library for other people to enjoy it. Hopefully this will be a better way of 'rating' the books I read, and will make it easier for you to make a decision about whether you want to read it or not.

Rating: Keeper

Have you read City of Ashes? If you have, tell me what you thought about it in the comments!

Thanks for reading!