City of Glass is the third book in the Mortal Instruments series, or what was originally supposed to be the end of the series. This was a reread roughly ten years after I originally read it.
I found this book really hard to get into and if it weren’t for the audiobook, I wouldn’t have finished it in any sort of timely manner. There were a lot of parts that I didn’t think were really necessary in the long run, but made for an okay story in the end.
This book picks up about a week after the events of City of Ashes and I felt that the recap was a little unnecessary, even with reading the books back to back. There were a lot of things that I didn’t remember from the first time I read the book (thanks, Shadowhunters…) so the reread was well worth it. The one important thing that I did remember was who Jace really is. I think I talked about that a little in my review of City of Bones. Knowing who his family really is had me yelling at the audiobook a lot. Like, a lot a lot. 😆 Which made the reread all the more frustrating because Jace and Clary spend the whole book agonizing over the fact that they’re brother and sister and they can’t act on their feelings for each other.
I, of course, wasn’t a big fan of Sebastian Verlac from the first page he appeared. Then again, I already knew who he really was and he’s never been a favorite of mine. Especially after what he did toward the end of CoG.
Aline Penhallow was okay, but she struck me as the Mary-Sue type; mostly there for Jace to have a “rebound” girl or whatever. She ended up being more trouble than she was worth.
Now, the audiobook… It was, interesting, to say the least. On the drive to my parents’ house I could only listen to a few chapters before I had to turn it off. I thought the narrator was really annoying at first and the way she did the different character voices really got on my nerves. Specifically Inquisitor Aldertree and Raphael. Thankfully Raphael wasn’t a part of this particular book for very long; Aldertree on the other hand, was in the book a little too much for my liking when it came to the audiobook. Aside from those two characters, her voice started to grow on me the more I listened. However, the way she pronounced certain words got on my nerves. For example, she pronounced Amatis’ name like Ah-muh-tiss, whereas when I was first read it my brain pronounced it Uh-Mah-tiss. Which is how the tv show pronounces her name. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I know that’s a little knit-picky, but it makes the world of difference between a mediocre audiobook and a great audiobook for me.
We finally get some closure with Valentine. We learn why he’s so against the Downworlders, what the deal is with Clary and Jace, and why he was raising Jace as a Wayland when we know that’s not who he really is.
Overall, I’m glad I reread this one. It caught me up with things that I missed and things that I just needed a refresher on. Looking forward to finally finishing The Mortal Instruments after all these years.
I am taking a bit of a break after this one to read The Illuminae Files while waiting for some friends to catch up so we can start The Infernal Devices next week.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.25//5
Next Stop: Illuminae
A Little Bit of Stardust 