City of Ashes book review

Just finished the second book in the Cassandra Clare The Mortal Instruments series City of Ashes and I look forward to the next.

The following write up on the book is on the website:

City of Ashes

Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who's becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn't ready to let her go — especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil — and also her father.

To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings — and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

In this breathtaking sequel to City of Bones, Cassandra Clare lures her readers back into the dark grip of New York City's Downworld, where love is never safe and power becomes the deadliest temptation.


I love the world the Cassandra Clare has created where our world is populated with werewolves, demons, Shadowhunters, vampires and other supernatural creatures that Clary can now see.  The idea that 'mundanes' cannot see them for the glamour is excellent and Clary is a strong female protagonist.  Jace is also very strong, an atypical bad-boy, but the other characters like Simon, Clary's best friend turned werewolf, Alec and Isabelle, fellow Shadowhunters and Jace's adoptive brother and sister fill the world too and help to bring it to life.  I particularly love Magnus Bane, the 300 year old Warlock in love with Alec and I hope he continues to help in the fight against Valentine, Clary and Jace's evil father.

For me, I enjoyed this book more than the first as there were more battles, more reveals and more Magnus.  There are hints and threads that I am following and I hope that they come to fruition in later books in the series.  This is an enjoyable YA read that I can highly recommend, it is just a pity that the film from the first movie was not so well received (I think I will be checking this out, to review in a later post).

A wonderful supernatural world to lose yourself in.                                                                   9/10

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