City of Ashes

Published Information

Author:	Cassandra Clare
Series:	The Immortal Instruments #2
Published:	March 2008
Genre:	Urban Fantasy
Pages:	464

Ratings

Violence:	PG-13 (Fantasy or stylized violence with detail)
Sexual Content:	PG-13 (Sexual innuendos and talk of sex)
Language:	PG-13 (B-word, Lord's name, derogatory )
Reading Age:	High School
Buy Recommend:	Borrow (Good, but the rest of my family won't be interested)
Overall Rating:	6 out of 10 (Enjoyed it, but soap opera-esque)

Plot Summary

Once again, Clary, Jace, Simon and the others are thrust into the battle between Valentine and the rest of the Shadowhunters. In this case, most of the other shadowhunters do not trust Jace, and from the start of the book, he is placed under arrest at different times and manners. Jace and Clary still don't know what to think about their relationship. They are attracted to each other, but since they discovered they are siblings, that is a little awkward for them. Simon is still trying to win over Clary, but she doesn't return the feelings.

On top of the drama, Simon is transformed into a vampire, Clary discovers she can create new runes of magic that no one knows (in one case, she does a rune for fearless on Alec which causes an almost embarrassing situation with his parents), and Jace is discovered to have strength beyond a normal shadowhunter, at one point jumping a magic wall 30 feet high.

With the last book, Valentine took possession of the first Mortal Instrument, the Mortal Cup. In this book, he is after the second, the Sword of Souls. He intent is to turn it from a sword with angelic power to a sword with demonic powers. To do so, he must use the blood of the four main types of underworlders: a werewolf, a vampire, a member of the fay, and a warlock. Valentine is able to get the fay and warlock before anyone realizes what he is up to. From there, our heroes know it is a race to find Valentine and the sword before he draws the rest of the blood he needs and completes the ceremony to turn the sword.

Comments

While I enjoyed the book, as it might seem from the plot, this book is much heavier into the relationships between the characters than I normally like. While I think a good book often has love, and relationships as a key element, there is a point where it becomes a romance or soap. This book comes pretty close to that for me, which I wouldn't normally choose to read.

This book drives fairly deeply into what familial relationships mean. What defines a family? Blood or just close relationships? In the end, blood means a whole lot less than the actual relationships that are built up over time. In particular, Jace's father is the villian and Jace is forced to choose between the Valentine, his blood father, and those that have raised him and been with him throughout his life.