City of Heavenly Fire
by Cassandra Clare
Reviewed by Ruby
Institutes are being attacked across the world. Sebastian and his new forces, called the Endarkened, are bringing the fight to the Clave, forcing them to retreat to Alicante. As Shadowhunters from every corner of the earth begin pouring into the city, Sebastian proves that even there they aren’t safe by attacking them in their very home. He gives them an ultimatum, give him Clary and Jace or die.
Not ones to trust in the wisdom of the Clave, Clary, Jace, Izzy, Alec and Simon travel to the very heart of Sebastian’s stronghold, determined to defeat him once and for all or die trying.
This was the first book in the series that I think I enjoyed completely from cover to cover. Or maybe it has something to do with how much I hated the last one. All I know is that there were scenes that were devoted to non-romantic relationships and I feel like that’s what was missing from the earlier books. Before, there were a lot of Clary/Simon scenes and a few Jace/Simon scenes that are always funny but that was about it. Now finally in book six we get to see the relationship between Alec and Jace, who are supposed to be closer than brothers but it always seemed very one way before. I can’t help but feel like there were so many lost opportunities in the earlier books to showcase the other characters. Like, how come we didn’t get scenes exploring the bond between Jace and his adoptive siblings, or between Clary and them. They went from basically hating her in the first book to being practically family by the end of the series with very little explanation. There is even a scene at the end of book six where Robert Lightwood is apologizing to his son for saying ‘unforgivable things’ to him and I was sitting there confused because there was no indication of that before. He went from being ok with his son being gay in book three, to ignoring it in book four and five, to hating Alec in book six? How did that happen? It would have made that scene, touching as it was, more impactful if we knew what the Hell was going on.
With this book finally focusing on people other than Clary and Jace, it was really enjoyable to me. On top of that, since their annoying relationship wasn’t the focus and their internal monologues weren’t really all about how they longed for each other but could never be together they were actually likable characters. I didn’t think I would ever say that.
I had a few minor problems with the book, like the new characters that were suddenly brought in for no reason. It took six books for the author to properly flesh out her main characters and now she’s bringing in more? There is also the stupidity of the Clave. They remind me a great deal of the Watcher’s Council in Buffy and whatever the council was called in Harry Potter; their only purpose is to be an obstacle to the main characters. Here they are more believably written but their point is still painfully obvious.
Still, this was a very enjoyable conclusion to the series.
Grade: B Coral's Review Unlike my sister, I did not enjoy this book cover to cover. Like Ruby mentions above, there were some scenes in this book that just highlighted missed opportunities from the previous books to explore relationships outside of the Clary and Jace one. And in the book where we finally get some meaningful scenes between Jace or Alec, or Alec and his family, too much space is taken up by the characters that will be featured in the sequel series. To me, I didn't mind the re-introduction to the characters who will be the focus of the new series, but I definitely think too much time was spent on them. It was the literary equivalent of a backdoor pilot episode, where there are forced meetings and connections between old and new characters. Otherwise, the book felt like most of the other books. The Clave remains useless and stupid, Clary makes reckless decisions that always seem to work out for her, and the kids save the day! I actually liked the moment in this book where it looked like Clary and her friends weren't going to make it out unscathed and actually have consequences to their actions, but then the author goes and undoes it in a couple of chapters!
