City of Ashes – Cassandra Clare

City of Ashes, the second book in the Mortal Instruments series, is yet another one of those books which I have been absolutely right to read. It’s the 8th book in the Shadowhunter Chronicles and that series alone was able to make my heart burn and freeze and shatter into a million sharp pieces, then knit back together in a breeze of blue magic.

It continues with the ever so amazing story of Clary Fray, who recently discovered the Shadowhunter world and everything in it, while also being worried about her mother being inserted into a magical coma, and terrified about her newly discovered father and brother, who are Valentine Morgenstern and Jonathan Morgenstern, respectively.

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The book starts off with Jace and Alec arguing about some dragon demon that Alec was highly unaware of, and as a result, he messes up in the mission. Meanwhile, when they arrive back, Maryse Lightwood, Alec and Isabelle’s mother, greets her own children warmly but regards Jace with a cold stare, and later asks him while Izzy and Alec are away to leave the Institute, as it might be a future danger. Jace never shows his sadness or disappointment easily, but I could tell by the way it was written that Jace felt alone again after Maryse had ‘let him go’. It wasn’t easy to do so, because Maryse had been his adoptive mother since he was 10. Later, Isabelle finds out that Jace ran away and she calls Clary, who’s at Simon’s house, kissing Simon unintentionally, and when they break off, Clary and Simon try to look in places that Jace might’ve been at.

This part was one of the more interesting ones, and the chase scene in the book is outstandingly written. Props to Cassie.

I think that apart from a few flowery, unnecessary sentences, the book was altogether amazing. I will say this again, like I did in the predecessor of this book [City of Bones], I love, love, LOVE the descriptions in this entire book. One particular description – In the dream, she looked down on shimmering water, spread out below her like an endless mirror that reflected the sky. And like a mirror, it was solid and hard, and she could walk on it.

I loved that description of Clary’s dream, and in those 2 lines alone, Cassandra Clare  literally described the perfect scene in my head of a red haired girl looking down to her feet and walking tentatively on a solid lake that reflected the sky above.

Apart from those, I felt that Cassie was a bit harsh on Simon, because in one Fair Folk Court scene, Simon became heartbroken at a choice that Clary had to pick between him and another person. Along with that, he was nearly killed by vampires, and Raphael had to break the news to Clary, who blindly wanted to do anything to save Simon, and she shut her ears to whatever Jace and Isabelle had to say along the way of when Simon was going to get resurrected into a vampire himself.

There are quite a few more kissing scenes in this book, along with some uncomfortably written ones, so good job Cassie for writing those out in a manner where I can’t look upon those pages without shuddering inwardly Along with that, Jace does talk about a few touchy, inappropriate subjects, like he usually does, and as a result, he gets carted off to the Silent City. Try not to repeat those terms in front of other people; keep them to yourself, but if you feel weird, discuss with someone who might have also read those books. Chances are that they might reconcile you into a calm, collected manner.

Again in this book, there are mentions of gay pride, and basically just the LTGBQ+ community, and if you don’t really understand the concept, or if you’re reading this book first in the series, I highly recommend you to read City of Bones first, because it’ll cover more of the content over there. I did like how Cassandra wanted a few of those characters installed into her story, because of the amount of differentiation that people feel when they have pride, but others don’t really like it. In this book, I think it’s safe to say that LTGBQ+ readers can have a chance to bond with the legendary and absolutely adorable “Malec” ship.

Thanks for reading my review <3