Review: City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

Recommended Read!

“He’s a great villain but moreso, he’s just a well-written character. As evil as he is, as selfish as he can be, he’s just a lonely boy in need of love and that’s what kills me about him. He’s so strong because he’s been hurt so bad and that concept fascinates me.”
~ Under the Covers

With this book, Cassandra Clare has made me a fangirl. It’s been a long time since I read the first books in the series and back then, this series was one of my all-time favorites. Since the release of the TV show, I found myself wanting to get back into this world and when browsing the author’s website, I realized that I hadn’t read this last book in the series. SHAME ON ME! I can’t believe I waited this long to read this book!

I know some people have mixed feelings about Clare continuing on with this world, wondering if she’s really milking the cow but I don’t think that’s true at all. While the last two books were good, CITY OF HEAVENLY FIRE is a masterpiece. What Clare does with these characters is stunning and really makes you take a step back to really consider what she’s done with this series. It’s no wonder why this series has such a massive following and why movies and TV shows have been made from Clare’s words, there’s so much to explore. So while yes, the number of spin off series can seem excessive to an outsider, I don’t feel like Clare recycles the same concepts and ideas with her other books. If you read this book you’ll understand that the world that she has built is complex and extensive and she has so much room to explore.

The Mortal Instruments series is one of those rare series where I love all the characters. This is a huge deal for me because there’s always one or two characters that I wish would be killed off early in the series but I can truly say that I love every single one of these characters. The reason being is that Clare takes her time developing these characters. Every page is dedicated to testing their abilities, to see what will finally make them crack and multiple times in this book I found myself tearing up because of what these characters must endure to survive. It’s tragic but it’s strangely hypnotic at the same time.

While I seem to love all the characters in this series equally, there is one character that rises above the rest. This may come as a shock to some but my favorite character of this entire series is Sebastian. I absolutely ADORE Sebastian. He’s just so intrinsically bad and I LOVE IT. His presence on the page demands your attention and every evil, manipulative thing he does makes me love him more. He’s a great villain but moreso, he’s just a well-written character. As evil as he is, as selfish as he can be, he’s just a lonely boy in need of love and that’s what kills me about him. He’s so strong because he’s been hurt so bad and that concept fascinates me.

Clare also sets up the next Shadowhunter saga with Emma, Julian and Mark’s characters. Their presence was intriguing enough to spark some interests, which further proves that Clare is a extremely smart writer. She is able to weave her different series together in a way that makes a cohesive whole, making this world all the more unbelievable and exciting. Shadowhunters in LA? I can’t wait!

Since I listened to the audiobook version, I figured I would touch a bit on that as well. I don’t know if it’s just me or if everyone else was thrown off with the British accents the narrators had. Like….I don’t understand. The series is set in NYC so why does Clary have an accent? I also found that the pronunciations of names and places threw me off. I also noticed that some character’s voices sounded exactly the same when they were different in other scenes and there would be emphasis on words that weren’t even important. So with the next book, I’ll probably skip the audio and stick to reading instead. Nevertheless, as you can tell, I still adored this book!

[about-author author=”Cassandra Clare”]

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