Publisher: Walker
Release: 27th May 2014
Genre: YA, Paranormal
Rating: 4/5 stars
Source: Bought
Summary:
"Darkness has descended on the Shadowhunter world. Chaos and destruction overwhelm the Nephilim as Clary, Jace, Simon, and their friends band together to fight the greatest evil they have ever faced: Clary's own brother. Nothing in this world can defeat Sebastian - but if they journey to the realm of demons, they just might have a chance. Lives will be lost, love sacrificed, and the whole world will change. Who will survive the explosive sixth and final installment of the Mortal Instruments series?"
WARNING
This is the sixth and final book in The Mortal Instruments series and WILL contain spoilers not only from the rest of the series but for City of Heavenly Fire itself. It’s starting to become a bit of a thing where I review the last book in a favourite series with spoilers so that I can freely share all of my thoughts and feelings and find out what you guys thought too.
Review/Discussion
The Main Story/ Characters:-
I have to start off on a not so positive note here and say that plot wise I don’t think this is the strongest of Cassie Clare’s books. I honestly felt that the main story was dragged out to fit in Emma and Jem’s stories. The Middle was quite slow for me and I could have done with a couple of hundred pages being edited out.
It felt like it took a long time to get to the crux of the story with The Clave messing around making dumb decisions and twiddling their thumbs at the beginning (seriously, why are they even in charge?) And then towards the middle it felt like we spent a lot of time traipsing through hell looking for Sebastian. I personally would have liked a tighter, snappier plot. It felt like in the end when it came to these characters and their story there wasn’t really much more to tell and we were covering old ground.
Emma and the Blackthorns:-
I really enjoyed getting to know Emma and the Blackthorn family. City of Heavenly Fire basically acts as a prequel to Cassie’s new series ‘The Dark Artifices’ and I really like where this series is heading. I really liked Emma and this book certainly set up a lot of drama for her with her parent’s murder, hints at a future war against faeries, and Emma planning on becoming parabatai with Julian.
Is it just me or is anybody else under the impression that Ty is Autistic? I have two family members who have Autism and he seemed to have a few of the traits. If this is the case I think it will be fantastic to have a Shadowhunter with Autism. We need more books featuring characters with disabilities without them being “issue books”.
Jem and Tessa:-
And so we come to my favourite part of this whole book. I am a HUGE The Infernal Devices fan so basically any mention of the Carstairs and Herondale relationship and I was a blubbing mess. I loved that Jace was the one who turned Brother Zachariah back into Jem and again found that very fitting for the Carstairs/ Herondale relationship.
Tessa and Clary’s chat at the end of the book made me so happy and I thought the whole Fairchild + Gray = Fray thing was pretty cool. I wonder how long Cassie has been planning that one!?
In our UK edition we get a The Infernal Devices comic strip of Tessa and Jem’s wedding and I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed and basically re-lived my intense The Infernal Device feels over a few pages. Even though it wasn’t an actual part of the book I couldn’t *not* mention it because it was so beautiful.
I really loved how many nods Cassie Clare gave to The Infernal Devices and the characters and how she showed that no one is every really gone through them. I can’t begin to explain my joy when I read that Jem and Tessa are off to LA so there’s a very big possibility that they’ll feature in ‘The Dark Artifices’. Hurray!
My Favourite Moments:-
• Jocelyn holding Jonathan as he died.
• Simon saving Izzy and drinking Alec’s blood.
• Jem stealing Church.
• Simon naming his band ‘The Mortal Instruments’ and remembering Clary.
• Seeing the characters ‘hearts desires’ in the demon world.
• That gorgeous Epilogue. Seriously Cassandra Clare is the queen of beautiful endings.
Overall although City of Heavenly Fire was not my favourite Cassandra Clare book I was still really happy with the ending and am really looking forward to ‘The Dark Artifices’.
What did you think of City of Heavenly Fire?
