gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Blended reading (physical and audio)
The Details:
Narrated by Molly C. Quinn and Ed Westwick
Unabridged
A book focused more on Simon - my favourite!
So initally I wasn't sure what direction book 4 would take as the previous one felt like it wrapped up a main story arc quite well, so I was satisfied when more was released about things we thought would be lain to rest.
Jace felt so pretentious in this one! I mean, he's always got this general arrogant thing going for him and I know he was going through the motions of all the reveals from City of Glass, but as a character I've not liked much from the start, he just irritated more so with his mopping and I wanted to give him a good shake - he is the king of miscommunication, I swear... or rather, lack thereof.
I also feel like I missed an important fracture between him and Clary. They were acting so weird around each other and I mean the obvious reason I got but also... come on?
Simon was great in this. I'm so glad he had more main character energy but I still feel like he's being pulled about by the true puppeteers. But I felt like he had some major character assassination with and what a whole can of worms that all unleashed!
I realise despite this feeling like a Simon centered story, I don't have a lot to say about him...
The main plot twist had me shook but that ending rattled these old bones then some!
What a fantastic next book. This could have easily fallen into a sleepy sequel situation, bit it brought the drama, action and character development and I was here for it.
The Details:
Narrated by Molly C. Quinn and Ed Westwick
Unabridged
A book focused more on Simon - my favourite!
So initally I wasn't sure what direction book 4 would take as the previous one felt like it wrapped up a main story arc quite well, so I was satisfied when more was released about things we thought would be lain to rest.
Jace felt so pretentious in this one! I mean, he's always got this general arrogant thing going for him and I know he was going through the motions of all the reveals from City of Glass, but as a character I've not liked much from the start, he just irritated more so with his mopping and I wanted to give him a good shake - he is the king of miscommunication, I swear... or rather, lack thereof.
I also feel like I missed an important fracture between him and Clary. They were acting so weird around each other and I mean the obvious reason I got but also... come on?
Simon was great in this. I'm so glad he had more main character energy but I still feel like he's being pulled about by the true puppeteers. But I felt like he had some major character assassination with
Spoiler
cheating arc between Izzy and Mia and the biting of Maureen. The prior, I get that they were both sort of situationships, but at least communicate that and make sure everyone's on the same page and then with Maureen, yeah things slip. You're a vamp, I get it... but jeez! Wrong person, wrong timeI realise despite this feeling like a Simon centered story, I don't have a lot to say about him...
The main plot twist had me shook but that ending rattled these old bones then some!
What a fantastic next book. This could have easily fallen into a sleepy sequel situation, bit it brought the drama, action and character development and I was here for it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, and Torture
breedawnwriter's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Cassandra needs to leave Jace alone.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Blood, Child death, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Sexual content, Cursing, and Body horror
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Physical abuse, and Domestic abuse
kybearbroski's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore, Mental illness, Child death, Torture, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Body horror
gurnoor's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Torture, Death, and Biphobia
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, and Self harm
jaynovara's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm
Moderate: Murder, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Vomit, Violence, Domestic abuse, Torture, and Toxic relationship
ramireads's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
loooove the focus on izzy in this one<3 makes me so happy my gal is getting the time she deserves
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore, Child death, and Torture
roget's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I’ll probably give it another go eventually, after I’m less busy. For now, this is the last thing I’m reaching for from the tbr pile, so I’m setting it free.
Update: Finally finished it on a whim. There was a lot of cringing, incredulous "what"-ing, and the like. I don't recommend this book to ANYONE with trauma from a domestic violence or infidelity history, as some of the material will likely be incredibly triggering. Probably don't read this review. It's unfiltered, my initial impressions, and slightly unhinged with frustration.
Clary proceeded to be the least likeable person in the book, still. Very much reads like something written during the era when we were judging celebs for shaving their heads or daring to be a size 10/12.
Jace's issues were incredibly frustrating, and the line of delineation between Jace's actual trauma and what's being caused by the big bad's is often unclear.
Strong points: Luke is usually the only person with some amount of common sense, and Max's prior death continued to be painful. Watching them all continue to try to go on without him was rough, and it didn't feel like it was glossed over much.
The end of it seems to create YET MORE opportunities for grossness that I'd hoped we'd left behind us, which makes me want to throw up in my mouth.
Jace is hard to like because the narrative is clearly so in love with him but he's also clearly so dysfunctional and absolutely awful at communicating about it. It's like everyone's always like "Oh, he's so HOT and TORTURED and look at his muscles and how HOT he is and how much every girl ever WANTS him" which is a bit much to take when he is ten kinds of immature and in need of serious intervention on top of being, what. Sixteen? Seventeen? A literal child. (Ugh. Can you tell I'm not the YA target audience? Even still, I don't think adolescent me would've found him all that appealing.) Gross, gross, gross. You'd at least think that the other POV's would be less complimentary to Jace, but Simon's even all "Wow. Jace is so cool and nonchalant and BROKEN INSIDE." I mean, this boy manages to be so toxic Clary thinks he's ending things because of a 24 hour gap of contact. (And that in and of itself was mind-bendingly melodramatic. Like, the text read like a parody of YA romance--like something written to make fun of it.) I just have a really difficult time believing that Clary and Jace love each other the way they're constantly thinking they do when they jump to conclusions, keep secrets, and treat each other like vipers that might strike out and cause damage at any moment.
Yet these books always sort of patch it up right at the very end so Clary and Jace can have an "us against the world" moment before the credits roll. TLDR: as an adult, I do not find teenage Jace appealing in the slightest, so it's really rough trying to slog through Clary's perpetual drooling.
And don't even get me started on Simon's nonsense this book. Totally disappointing. OH. AND the fourteen year old? Did NOT like Simon biting her. That set off so many alarm bells. Even though Simon doesn't see Maureen that way, the scene read very predatorial, and Clare wasn't careful about the way that was unpacked. The text didn't make it into something nearly as disgusting as it should've been. I also find it near-impossible to believe that Jace and Jordan would've let Simon out of the apartment had he been in that bad of shape. I don't think Simon would've neglected himself to that degree. He's not stupid. He wouldn't be like, "Oh, neglecting to feed--I can do that. It doesn't matter." No. He'd be hyper-cautious, taking all steps he could to try to mitigate the risk he presents to others.
So I don't buy that for a minute. The conflict there felt completely contrived out of a series of bad decisions to get Simon to not have agency and do something shocking and monstrous to give us a jump scare.
Why am I reading this? Mostly anthropological urge to track this cultural phenomenon from when I was a tween/teen. But every time I pick one of these books up, I'm reminded why I have to take the series in VERY. SMALL. DOSES.
a;sldkfa;lsdkjhga;lskjhdg;alksdhg;klahsd;lgkja;sldkga;lsdkhg;lakshg;lak;lskdhg;lgshhkgdllk;asdglhglhkaglh;kdshl;ahlsfjkglhakdjf
Update: Finally finished it on a whim. There was a lot of cringing, incredulous "what"-ing, and the like. I don't recommend this book to ANYONE with trauma from a domestic violence or infidelity history, as some of the material will likely be incredibly triggering. Probably don't read this review. It's unfiltered, my initial impressions, and slightly unhinged with frustration.
Clary proceeded to be the least likeable person in the book, still. Very much reads like something written during the era when we were judging celebs for shaving their heads or daring to be a size 10/12.
Jace's issues were incredibly frustrating, and the line of delineation between Jace's actual trauma and what's being caused by the big bad's is often unclear.
Strong points: Luke is usually the only person with some amount of common sense, and Max's prior death continued to be painful. Watching them all continue to try to go on without him was rough, and it didn't feel like it was glossed over much.
The end of it seems to create YET MORE opportunities for grossness that I'd hoped we'd left behind us, which makes me want to throw up in my mouth.
Jace is hard to like because the narrative is clearly so in love with him but he's also clearly so dysfunctional and absolutely awful at communicating about it. It's like everyone's always like "Oh, he's so HOT and TORTURED and look at his muscles and how HOT he is and how much every girl ever WANTS him" which is a bit much to take when he is ten kinds of immature and in need of serious intervention on top of being, what. Sixteen? Seventeen? A literal child. (Ugh. Can you tell I'm not the YA target audience? Even still, I don't think adolescent me would've found him all that appealing.) Gross, gross, gross. You'd at least think that the other POV's would be less complimentary to Jace, but Simon's even all "Wow. Jace is so cool and nonchalant and BROKEN INSIDE." I mean, this boy manages to be so toxic Clary thinks he's ending things because of a 24 hour gap of contact. (And that in and of itself was mind-bendingly melodramatic. Like, the text read like a parody of YA romance--like something written to make fun of it.) I just have a really difficult time believing that Clary and Jace love each other the way they're constantly thinking they do when they jump to conclusions, keep secrets, and treat each other like vipers that might strike out and cause damage at any moment.
Yet these books always sort of patch it up right at the very end so Clary and Jace can have an "us against the world" moment before the credits roll. TLDR: as an adult, I do not find teenage Jace appealing in the slightest, so it's really rough trying to slog through Clary's perpetual drooling.
And don't even get me started on Simon's nonsense this book. Totally disappointing. OH. AND the fourteen year old? Did NOT like Simon biting her. That set off so many alarm bells. Even though Simon doesn't see Maureen that way, the scene read very predatorial, and Clare wasn't careful about the way that was unpacked. The text didn't make it into something nearly as disgusting as it should've been. I also find it near-impossible to believe that Jace and Jordan would've let Simon out of the apartment had he been in that bad of shape. I don't think Simon would've neglected himself to that degree. He's not stupid. He wouldn't be like, "Oh, neglecting to feed--I can do that. It doesn't matter." No. He'd be hyper-cautious, taking all steps he could to try to mitigate the risk he presents to others.
So I don't buy that for a minute. The conflict there felt completely contrived out of a series of bad decisions to get Simon to not have agency and do something shocking and monstrous to give us a jump scare.
Why am I reading this? Mostly anthropological urge to track this cultural phenomenon from when I was a tween/teen. But every time I pick one of these books up, I'm reminded why I have to take the series in VERY. SMALL. DOSES.
a;sldkfa;lsdkjhga;lskjhdg;alksdhg;klahsd;lgkja;sldkga;lsdkhg;lakshg;lak;lskdhg;lgshhkgdllk;asdglhglhkaglh;kdshl;ahlsfjkglhakdjf
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Toxic friendship, Blood, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Child death, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Grief, Incest, Dysphoria, Gore, Vomit, Infertility, Mental illness, Stalking, Domestic abuse, Torture, Death of parent, and Sexual content
aklovekorn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence
mir_frog73's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit, Violence, Torture, Murder, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Death, Confinement, Child death, Body horror, Blood, and Abandonment
kate_1910's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
🤐🤐🤐🤐🤐
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Grief, Misogyny, Stalking, Torture, War, and Violence
Moderate: Incest