City of Glass

Published Information

Author:	Cassandra Clare
Series:	The Mortal Instruments #3
Published:	March 2009
Genre:	Urban Fantasy
Pages:	560

Ratings

Violence:	PG-13 (Graphic fantasy violence, death, killing)
Sexual Content:	PG-13 (Assumed incest, kiss between two guys)
Language:	PG-13 (B-word used, along with other words of that class)
Reading Age:	High school
Buy Recommend:	Borrow (I wouldn't recommend, unless I knew people liked the first couple)
Overall Rating:	4 out of 10 (Mostly low from personal feelings, see below)

Plot Summary

Valentine now has the first two mortal instruments (the cup and the sword) and is looking for the third, the mirror. Jace and Clary want to do everything they can to stop that from happening. Of course, no one seems to know where are what the mirror is. Jace and Clary want to go to the City of Glass to figure out anything more that they can, but Jace doesn't want her to go. It is just too dangerous because the leadership of the shadow hunters cant be trusted. Jace is able to trick Clary into missing the portal, but gets ambushed by some forsaken. Several of the shadow hunters are injured with one being killed, but they are able to teleport to the city. In order to save him, they also take Simon with them, but since he is a vampire, he is not suppose to be there and is in a different kind of danger. Simon is healed, but is imprisoned to be studied. He is the only vampire alive that can walk in the sun. Through the book, Simon realizes that is because Jace allowed him to drink of his blood to save him in book 2. Jace has told Simon that his blood is special (giving him additional speed and strength, just like Clary can create new runes), but they are not completely sure why. The people studying him want to figure out the secret, but Simon continues to tell them he doesn't know anything.

Clary partly wanted to talk to the council to help them figure out what is going on with Valentine, but she also wants to visit a warlock in the city that can help her revive her mother, so Clary is furious that Jace would leave without her, and in her anger, creates a portal herself (which she isn't supposed to be able to do) and steps through, with Luke grabbing her and tagging along. Unknown to her, though, the city is protected from portaling and Clary and Luke end up in Lake Lyn which is poisonous for shadow hunters. In a desperate attempt to save Clary, Luke takes her to his sister's, who is not on good terms with him.

Now all the main characters are in the city and are meeting new friends and reuniting. While they know danger is approaching, they feel fairly secure in the city, since it is protected from demons. However, Valentine has told them he knows a way around protection. The council ignores the warning, and soon, the wards are brought down and demons invade and destroy much of the city and its population. Now, they know Valentine can destroy them by summoning more demons and it is just a matter of time before they are overwhelmed. Valentine offers them an option: surrender and agree to him being king, or he will kill everyone. Finally, it is up to Jace and Clary to figure out how to protect the city and stop Valentine.

On top of the main plot, there are various subplots regarding relationships. For example, Jace and Clary are still very attracted to each other, but know that they can't possibly have a relationship since they are siblings. Simon is still in love with Clary, but knows she doesn't return the sentiment. Not to mention Alec, who is gay, has not come out of the closet, in particular, about his attraction to one of the warlocks. These are all resolved in the book.

Comments

The book was quick moving and I had a hard time putting it down, but it was still a bit of an uncomfortable read for me. Partly from the relationships, and partly from the religious undertones of the book. With the relationships, Jace and Clary have an incestuous relationship going, or so we think throughout the book. Turns out this is not the case, but we don't know that until the end. The assumption in the book is that attraction knows something about siblings, and even through Jace and Clary thought they were siblings, the attraction they felt knew better. We see the opposite as well where Clary meets her real brother (she is ignorant of the relationship) who is handsome, etc, but when he tries to kiss her, she is revolted because he seems to close to her in some way she can't describe. Also, Alec's relationship is dealt with, in the end, by having him kiss the warlock in front of a large crowd of shadow hunters, including his parents. Being that this is a teen action/adventure/romance, both of these are fairly major themes in terms of the plot.

With religion, there were several references to biblical events. I don't mind when religion is brought up in a fantasy book, but I start having problems when Christianity is brought in. For example, the mark of Cain is used to save someone, and angels are summoned and captured by men. I don't think I would have minded if angels were generic creatures fighting for good, like the demons fight for evil, but when specific angels from the bible are summoned, captured, forced to fulfill wishes, and killed, I have a more difficult time with it.