City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3)
HOO BOY.
So, I finished this book over two months ago, and that means that this review is not going to be as, er, detailed as I had originally planned. It's also going to be much, much shorter, so either boo or cheer as appropriate (personally, I do enjoy a good long review, especially when the book in questions is contentious). And, oh boy, is City of Glass contentious.
City of Glass picks up where City of Ashes left off, with Clary and Jace in the throes of misery due to not being allowed to bone one another otherwise INCEST. All the men in her life also insist on trying to 'protect' her with their 'masculinity.' Everybody ends up in the Shadowhunter city Alicante (in the magical, mythical country of Idris), even poor vampire Simon. Forgive me for my incomplete summary, but I do not remember why everybody was going to that stupid city. I'm sure there was a reason, but it's not important. What is important is that nobody wants Clary to go, so of course the first thing Clary does is break laws and rules, and go to the city. Anyway, once everybody finally makes it to the city, Valentine breaks the city's wards (which should be impossible!) and warns all the Shadowhunters even though he doesn't want to kill them and waste their pure blood, he totally will if he has to, and it's totally not at all exactly like Voldemort and the Battle of Hogwarts. Nope, not at all. Then this guy named Sebastian shows up and a bunch of shit starts happening, and Clary and Jace are even mopier and lovestruck than usual, and they make out in her bed and also on a hill, even though they think they're brother and sister at the time, which is . . . I can't even . . . GAG. Then more stuff happens, and Sebastian is really Clary's brother! And Jace isn't! And Valentine dies! And Clary can do special things other Shadowhunters can't! And other stuff!
Damn. Lost opportunity here. I really should have written this review two months ago. My snark would have been epic and cleansing to my soul.
Before I start on what I didn't like about this book, I do have to give Clare credit for the few bright spots. The mid-book angel-in-basement thing was surprising and really interesting, mythology wise, and Simon's storyline continues to be the most interesting of everything. This one also had a much faster moving plot, with even the Clary/Jace moping scenes having the extra benefit of being wackjob certified crazy (seriously, making out all the time), and things actually happen! The main villain (aside from Valentine, who remains underdeveloped and not frightening) is actually really creepy and effective. Idris was pretty cool as well, but either because it's YA, or because she chose to focus on other stuff, it wasn't as developed as it could have been.
Actually, that's one of my main issues with this book. Clare and I differ vastly on what's interesting in her story. All the things I found really interesting (Simon, etc.) were underdeveloped and in some cases ignored almost completely in favor of other, more melodramatic and rather stupid developments (so. much. melodramatic.moping). Clary is still nothing but a cipher, with Jace continuing be neutered by his love for her, and Clare's incest obsession borders on the perverse. Her prose is still middling to bad, but is disguised by the presence of an actual plot. She also telegraphs her 'plot twists' a mile away. Anyone who didn't know after page fifty or so that Jace was not actually Clary's brother, and Sebastian was, is basically an idiot. Sorry if I just called you an idiot. The only truly surprising thing that happens in this story is the stuff with the Angel, and it's not a coincidence that's the only bit I really *liked*.
And yes, she still steals things from other stories like mad. From front to back, this trilogy has been an exercise in pastiche writing, but in the worst way possible. I've seen everything that's in these books before, and I've seen it better. If you're going to do pastiche and steal people's stories and ideas, at least do your own take on the stuff. (Clare didn't.)
And of course, I have a nagging suspicion that she has a tendency to steal her best lines from other people:
Aline was the first one to break the silence. Fixing her pretty, dark gaze on Simon, she said, "So - what's it's like, being a vampire?"
"Aline!" Isabelle looked appalled. "You can't just go around asking people what's it's like to be a vampire."
I'm not going to lie. This sentence gave me a rage blackout and I woke up to find I'd hurled the book across the room and maybe screamed too, I think, because my throat hurt afterwards.
Look, you can tell me all you like that this is an "allusion" or "homage" but what it actually looks like to me is an author who can't come up with clever things to say on her own using a quote from one of the most clever movies in the past decade, and changing the words just enough so that people who aren't as intimately familiar with Mean Girls as I am think it's something she came up with on her own. And that is not okay. Not to mention, her use of the construction completely misses the sly greatness of the original. This is probably something I would be annoyed about with anyone else, but it makes me genuinely angry with Clare because of the entire context surrounding her writing, which I've already written about ad nauseaum. She has already used up all her free passes with me. And who knows what other things she's paid 'homage' to in this book? I could have read many a lifted line and not even known it. And that pisses me off.
Overall, I don't think I will be be going on with this series for its cash grab ending 'second trilogy' (when this one ended just fine), or its five million prequel and sequel series yet to come. So, goodbye Cassandra Clare. Goodbye Jace and Magnus. Goodbye Lupin Luke. Goodbye Clary, you incestuous fucko. I shall not miss you.
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