Steve Review: City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

Jun 28, 2011 by shanyn

Title: City of Fallen Angels
Series: The Mortal Instruments #4
Hardcover, 424 pages
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Publication Date: April 5, 2011
Source: Purchased
Buy: Amazon

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Book Summary:
City of Fallen Angels takes place two months after the events of City of Glass. In it, a mysterious someone’s killing the Shadowhunters who used to be in Valentine’s Circle and displaying their bodies around New York City in a manner designed to provoke hostility between Downworlders and Shadowhunters, leaving tensions running high in the city and disrupting Clary’s plan to lead as normal a life as she can — training to be a Shadowhunter, and pursuing her relationship with Jace. As Jace and Clary delve into the issue of the murdered Shadowhunters, they discover a mystery that has deeply personal consequences for them — consequences that may strengthen their relationship, or rip it apart forever.

Meanwhile, internecine warfare among vampires is tearing the Downworld community apart, and only Simon — the Daylighter who everyone wants on their side — can decide the outcome; too bad he wants nothing to do with Downworld politics. Love, blood, betrayal and revenge: the stakes are higher than ever in City of Fallen Angels.

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Steve Review:
I like the Mortal Instruments series quite a bit.  I like the characters, I like the action, I even don’t mind the drama too much (shh!).  Cassie Clare has really done it again in City of Fallen Angels (CoFA).

I hadn’t read any of the first 3 books in the series in quite some time.  I remembered the series vaguely and liking it, but as far as specifics go I was a bit out of touch.  Once I got all the characters straight again in the first couple chapters the book flowed nicely from there.  You readers should know by now that characters are what make or break the book for me and this book has a ton of likable, sarcastic, teenage angst filled characters.  My favorite! haha, but seriously I love the banter between Jace and Simon and a couple new characters as well.

The only drawback to this 4th installment in the Mortal Instruments series is where the story is going.  They just defeated a really horrible bad dude in the last book who was related to many lead characters.  They had to kill a brother figure to do it, lost another brother to their other bad “brother”, and lost a ton of friends and people they care about (anyone else confused yet?  heh, now maybe you guys can understand why I didn’t remember every detail from the series, it’s complicated yo!).  But even as they try to celebrate Clary’s mom’s wedding the book is already trending towards another evil plot manifestation.  Now, personally, I’m not one for happy go lucky everything always goes right books.  But you can just tell as each little thing continues to go wrong in CoFA that it’s leading up to a new and horrible ordeal.  The ending is stunning and it’s hard to say more than that without giving it all away.  If you read any of the rest of this series you won’t be able to put this book down, even as it tears as your heart throughout and makes you wish SOMETHING, ANYTHING good would happen to these poor characters.

Points Scale:
Cover: 3/5 – I read this on my Nook, one of the ebooks I bought for a vacation!  As such, the cover is very small.  It looks shiny, and it appears to have Clary and a not hot enough looking Jace?
Title: 3/5 – Sticking with the “City” theme.  Not bad but not SUPER applicable imo.
Plot: 7/10 – See above where I beg Ms. Clare to let something go right for once for the characters.  Just a little lull where they can be happy for a bit?
Characters: 9/10 – Great crew, doesn’t matter whose viewpoint it is, I care about each one.
Writing: 8/10 – Keeps you hooked and rich in detail but not overboard with it.
Ending: 9/10 – Must. Not. Give. Anything. Away. Next book ASAP please.

Total: 39/50 – A pretty great score on my harsh grading curve.  Well done and let’s keep this series rolling!

Check out Steve’s reviews on the other Mortal Instruments series books here:
City of Ashes
City of Bones
City of Glass
Clockwork Angel

Buy: Amazon

Related Posts:

• Review: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
• Steve Review: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
• Steve Review: City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
• Steve Review: City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
• Steve Review: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare