Review: #554
Title: City of Ashes
Series: The Mortal Instruments - 2nd book
Author: Cassandra Clare
Read Before: no
Comments: City of Ashes immediately ramps up the relationship talk, thoughts and events. Right from the very beginning, and being a huge focus throughout the plot, are Clary's relationships with Simon and Jace. It can be overwhelming and distracting from the main plot. It's also hard to understand Clary's feelings because she doesn't understand herself, and it ends up being quite confusing. Apart from that, City of Ashes has a solid story although noticeably there wasn't much tension building and the climax was quite flat. The battle at the climax seemed just like your every other battle and at that point, you don't really know what the plot was trying to do. The plot ends up being vague and without direction, there is no clear aim that causes you to step and think "that makes sense". The world is interesting, with the fantasy monsters but it feels as if all of this has been done before and nothing new is put forward. That said, the writing was engaging and the characters are likeable. City of Ashes has a decent story that's worth reading.
Rating: 6.5/10