The Mortal Instruments series is one of my favorite Young Adult series of recent years--the snappy dialog, the gut-wrenching plot twists, the magical world, etc. Unfortunately, this book didn't hold up to the previous three books in the series. Not to say that it was bad or anything...it just lacked that spark which made the other books so great.
The kids are back in New York City after killing Valentine and thwarting his maniacal plans. Clary can finally be with Jace openly, but her happiness is short lived when Jace begins to draw away from her. In typical YA fashion, he has an explanation for his actions; but rather than talking to her about it so they can fix it, he avoids her and broods. This is so unbelievably out of character for Jace! Where is the arrogant and snarky hero that we've all grown to love?
An element of the story that I really liked was the development of Simon's plot. He's torn between wanting to live like a human or to follow his new vampire nature. The problems he has hiding his vampire nature from his mother come to a head with him moving out. He doesn't want to drink from humans, but the animal blood that he's making due with is not keeping him nourished. I love it that our little D&D playing nerd now has two hot girlfriends to juggle. If any other male character did this, readers would hate him, but somehow, since it is adorable Simon, he can do no wrong.
The ending was a little strange, but it ended on a cliffhanger, ensuring that I'll continue reading the series. I do hope though that the real Jace will come back to us soon.
Overall, I give City of Fallen Angels...
Plot - 4 bookmarks
Character Development - 3 1/2 bookmarks (points given for Simon and deducted for Jace)
World Building - 4 1/2 bookmarks
Love Story - 2 1/2 bookmarks (hoping that Jace & Clary will get more engaging in the next book)
Dream Cast (otherwise known as who I pictured while reading) - Rachel Hurd-Wood (Clary), Alex Pettyfer (Jace), Luke Pasqualino (Simon), Zac Efron (Alec), Christopher Backus (Magnus Bane), Christian Serratos (Isabelle)
This entire series is one of the best ever!! I mean, it has the perfect about of action, love, and comedy. At the end of this book, I was so shocked that I literally screamed, flipping around for more pages. But really, take the 14 and over rating seriously, there's some stuff that is probably inappropriate for the younger peoples. A really terrific thriller, definitely reccomended for anyone who enjoys books as we know them :)
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