City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
City of Heavenly Fire
by Cassandra Clare
(Audio)
The final book in the Mortal Instruments series did not disappoint, though I was worried that it might. In this story, our favorite shadowhunters finally manage to track and hunt down Sebastian in order to stop him once and for all... they hope. The book starts out at the LA Shadowhunter Institute and gives way too much character backstory and detail than we need to explain the situation when Sebastian and his legion attack. The characters show up again throughout this book and, as soon as I finished, I looked and found out that, yes, there's going to be a spin-off series with them. I totally saw that coming. But I actually doing mind, because they're a really neat set of characters. I look forward to getting to know them even better. But, back to this book now. The whole supernatural world is in chaos because of Sebastian plans. Shadowhunters are being killed or turned into endarkened slaves. Downworlder allies are being given the choice of aligning with Sebastian or dying (many of them are dying; when the werewolves were attacked, it completely broke my heart). Then some of my favorite characters are kidnapped (i.e. the adults, to get them out of the picture and let the teens take over as they must, as it's their story). So Clary, Jace, Alec, Isabelle, and Simon venture through unfriendly lands to find and stop Sebastian as only the five of them can--using every trick and skill they posess. And though there were many, many times I thought all hope was lost, I was definitely satisfied at the end of this book. I got that happy ending I was longing for... and more. There was a Doctor Who moment that tore my heart out. I felt sure Magnus and Alec would never find each other again. And I totally called the heavenly fire ending. But there was still so much that caught me my surprise and kept me on the edge of my seat. I don't like this trilogy as much as Infernal Devices, but I am SO glad I read this book and finished the series. It was a wonderful read and great to find out what happens to the characters at the end (even if my heart did break).
I also absolutely loved the fact that Jem and Tessa made appearances in thsi book and had some very important roles. Now the ending of the Infernal Devices series makes a whole lot more sense to me. it was so thrilling to see more of the two of them, especially more of Jem in the role he played in thsi book. Some of his lines just melted my heart, especially the emotion and honor he showed toward a shadowhunter who was forced to kill his parabatai. That was powerful.
I have a love-hate relationship with the readers of the books in the series. I wish there would just be one reader and for it to be consistent across the whole series. But no one consulted me, so I shouldn't be surprised that there isn't. And though I couldn't stand the way these readers pronounced "parabatai" and though there were a few really terrible moments where their inflections/reading was all wrong, in the end, I came to like them just fine. It was still worth waiting for the audio version because that's how I read the first 5 in the series. Now it feels complete.
I was sad to see this series end, but I'm glad she's writing other shadow hunter adventures, including a short story series at the shadowhunter academy. That definitely makes me happy.