Reviews with content warning for Death - City of Ashes

Reviews tagging 'Death'

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

40 reviews

breedawnwriter's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Cassandra Clare has done it again. I literally could NOT put this book down—I read it in like two days.

The tension between Jace and Clary in this book was entirely unhinged, and I loved every single freaking moment of it.

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chrstnlvly's review

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adventurous funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Mundane humans create distinctions between themselves, distinctions that seem ridiculous to any Shadowhunter. Their distinctions are based on race, religion, national identity, any of a dozen minor and irrelevant markers. To mundanes these seem logical, for though mundanes cannot see, understand, or acknowledge the demon worlds, still somewhere buried in their ancient memories, they know that there are those that walk this earth that are other. That do not belong, that mean only harm and destruction. Since the demon threat is invisible to mundanes, they must assign the threat to others of their own kind. They place the face of their enemy onto the face of their neighbor, and thus are generations of misery assured.

To be honest, not much really happened in this book.

Spoiler

Although Simon turned into a vampire, we saw Robert and Maryse, and there was a battle between the Shadowhunters and Valentine, the plot felt lacking.

In my opinion, the events of City of Ashes could have easily been combined with either City of Bones or City of Glass. I don't believe there was enough substance to justify an entire book dedicated to these events.

I did find City of Ashes to be funnier than City of Bones, but Clary's character was quite irritating!

Spoiler

And yes, the incest thing bothered me more in this book because of Clary.

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barbarella85's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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onyxem's review

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

i couldn’t just put this series down after book one!! immediately, i wanted to place myself back into the Shadowhunters universe. i once again see such passion Clare has for building this universe and fleshing it out. i want to learn more and more, and explore even more environments that expand the story!

to begin, i really enjoyed the plot developments that occurred in City of Ashes. my critique of the last book was that some explanations were droning on too long, and i was happy to see that there was none of that for me in this one! everything was well paced, especially at the beginning of the book. there was a point at about the 75% mark where it got a bit slow, but other than that it picked up pace for an action-packed ending.

my favorite part of City of Ashes was the Queen of the Seelie Court. oh my gosh, i haven’t in YEARS ducked my face into a book giggling like a child over a character. i absolutely loved everything about the descriptions of the Seelie Court and that’s honestly the highlight of the book for me.

overall, without making this way too many paragraphs, i think i enjoyed this a bit more than the first one! overall, 4.25 stars! :))

(p.s. Jace is my son)

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