City of Ashes and City of Glass- Cassandra Clare

Finished up the Mortal Instruments original trilogy by Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes and City of Glass)! These are the sequels to City of Bones, and they are so good! People, read these books, like, say, ummmm…….right now.  

Words (and people) you should know.

Downworlders- Those who are part human and part demon (vampires, werewolves, warlocks, and fairies).

Demons- Creatures from other universes that come to Earth, strictly to suck the world dry of its resources.  

Shadowhunters- Demon hunters.

The Accords- An agreement between Shadowhunters and Downworlders to leave each other alone (in a nutshell).

The Clave- Kind of like the congress of the shadowhunter world. They make and enforce the laws.

Valentine- The evil guy who is trying to take control of the Clave, in the worst way possible.

Background alert.

In these next two books, you start to understand a lot more about the Shadowhunter world and why they exist. A man named Jonathon Shadowhunter went to a lake and summoned the Angel Raziel, he then asked said angel to grant him the powers to hunt down demons and return them to their respective universes.

He was granted this wish and the race was born with a cup, a sword, and a mirror. The cup (stolen by the villain, Valentine, in the first book) is how Shadowhunters were originally created, drink from the cup and you were granted powers to fight demons. The sword (which is what gets stolen by Valentine in the second book) has the power of the angel and has many useful purposes to the Shadowhunters. The mirror (which is found in the final book of the trilogy) is the final tool needed to summon the Angel Raziel if his services are needed again.   

Ok, so here’s a little synopsis (of both the books).

I hinted in my review of City of Bones that there is a bit of an awkward romance situation…….it continues to be awkward for these next two books, so just prepare yourself. Anyway, at the end of City of Bones, Clary finds her mother, but she is in a coma-like state. City of Ashes starts off pretty depressingly with no change in her mother and an awkward forbidden love…….um, thing with Jace (the super sexy Shadowhunter). Valentine (the evil dude) steals the second Mortal Instrument, the sword, and is planning on reversing its power from angelic to demonic.

Keep up with me…

Valentine hates Downworlders. He wants to end the Accords and have free reign to hunt demons and Downworlders alike. Confusing part……..he wants to make his point by summoning demons to destroy the Shadowhunters?? Hmmmmmm……….. it does make sense, I promise. Basically, he thinks the Clave is corrupt and needs to be set straight by physically seeing the error of their ways. His point- by allowing Downworlders free reign, where do you draw the line? Pretty soon, you’ll lose sight of what you were put on this earth to do and demons will overtake the world. A very extremist view….and not unlike some views held by some of our political parties…….both sides people- don’t get your panties up in a bunch.  

Even though these stories are religiously based (Nephilim, Angel Raziel, demons), Cassandra doesn’t get too deep into the religiousness of it, believe it or not. Not until the third installment, where our Jewish friend, Simon (Clary’s besty) starts to have a little trouble with his faith……oh cliffhangers, how I love you.  

Anyway, I commented on the wittiness of the dialogue in the first book and it just gets better with time. It literally had me laughing out loud at some points! Cassandra writes beautifully and she makes it easy to get lost in her world, forgetting that you have midterms, papers, and huge projects due the next day.

Check out Cassandra Clare’s website here.

Read more about the Mortal Instruments right over…….here.

And last but not least, follow Cassandra by clicking, oh I don’t know, how about here.

Happy reading,

B