Spoiler Review/ Discussion for City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
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?

Revisited: OCD, the Kindle and Me

Some of you may remember a post I did a little while ago called ‘OCD, The Kindle and Me’ where I talked about how my OCD affects the relationship I have with my Kindle and reading. I wanted to give you a bit of an update on this today and revisit the issue.

We’re currently in the process of decorating which is stressful at the best of times and for me a bit of a nightmare. A large part of my OCD is the need to have everything in its place and doing certain rituals and checking to prevent the high anxiety and worry that something bad will happen if these checks are not performed. A lot of the items I’d usually check have been put into storage meaning I can’t do my OCD reassurances.

The first few days I was a complete mess; hysterically crying and having several panic attacks. However over the last few days I haven’t felt so bad. It’s definitely gotten easier and it feels strangely liberating dealing with the panic head on and not burying it under false promises and unnecessary bargaining.

Another big change is that a lot of my books are now unavailable to me in storage. I actually can’t believe I’m about to type this but my Kindle has become my new best friend! I can’t keep rummaging through boxes of books looking for a specific title and so I’ve been reading more on my Kindle. I used to read one or two books a month on it if that but now the last four books I’ve read on the date that I’m writing this post have been on my Kindle. This is a huge deal for me as you’ll know if you’ve read my ‘OCD, The Kindle and Me’ post. I literally don’t know what I’d have done without my Kindle these past couple of weeks.

The stressful process of decorating has been a bit of a blessing in disguise forcing me to confront a few of my OCD related issues. I’ve definitely become more comfortable reading on my Kindle and only hope that I don’t revert back to my old ways once we’ve finished decorating. That’s not to say that I no longer love my physical books. I do still prefer them but now being able to read on my Kindle too is a welcome bonus. I’m so proud that I’ve reached my goals for project learning to love my Kindle. Although some may think overcoming an OCD related fear of Kindle reading is a bit strange and trivial it’s one step closer to overcoming all aspects of my OCD that have ultimately controlled my life for years and I couldn’t be happier!