CITY OF GLASS

by Cassandra Clare
541 pages, McElderry Books

Review by Melissa Conway

The third and final installment of The Mortal Instruments series, City of Glass didn’t disappoint.

It’s hard to write about the third book in a series when I’ve already reviewed the first two books, because it’s really just a continuation of the same story. The plot threads left dangling in the second book are neatly woven together into a satisfying ending. There were no real surprises, although I did guess wrong at the true identity of a newly-introduced character. It was fairly obvious that the love existing between the two main characters, Clary and Jace, would be resolved, and the big, fat Obstacle that has prevented them from uniting would be, in fact, a misunderstanding. Although there’s nothing particularly mind-blowing about the plot, author Clare’s characterizations and world-building are exactly what I look for in a series. Once you’ve read the first book, like an addictive drug, you’ll be back for more.

The same minor issues I had with the first two books are still in force here. Once again, I flipped past pages where the wahngst got too thick or the battle scenes too long. I get impatient when scene after scene is laid out describing the countryside as a character is slowly making his/her way to a confrontation. Stop dawdling! Just get there already! And it *almost* ruins it for me when the denouement drags on and on. But as I mentioned in my previous reviews on Clare’s books, I’m not the target audience, and younger readers may enjoy what I consider to be too much padding in the narrative. It in no way deterred me from needing to read the next book.

The world Clare has created, where fairies, vampires, werewolves and nephilim mingle unseen among humans, is inspired. So much so that I hear a movie is in the works. I can’t wait.