Review: City of Ashes

Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who's becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn't ready to let her go — especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil — and also her father.

To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings — and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

In this breathtaking sequel to City of Bones, Cassandra Clare lures her readers back into the dark grip of New York City's Downworld, where love is never safe and power becomes the deadliest temptation.

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Without a doubt, Cassandra Clare knows how to weave a twisted fairy tale into something you just want to wrap around yourself and curl up with for hours. I'm usually a character driven reader, but in this unique and rare case for me, I think I'd have to say the story creates the characters. There are so many unexpected elements, tragedies, emotional spikes, and battles that as soon as you get used to the way you think the story is going, it changes on you and presents a completely different perspective. The storyline is creative, original, and completely open to anything both possible and impossible.

I'd love to take a stroll through Clare's magic-filled mind. Her descriptions always leave me wondering, "how'd she come up with that?" Her imagination seems childlike, but it also adds that tinge of horror that makes what we are reading believable - in that fairytale way, of course. The demons she comes up with are, strangely, one of my favorite aspects. Some of them made me gag - no, really - which they are inevitably supposed to do with their evil intentions and overall nastiness. Disgusting demons aside, the other creatures she depicts, such as the fairies of Seelie Court and the hybrid Downworlders, draw you to this 'other' world, making it seem more real than the 'mundane' world Clary always thought was reality before she discovered the Shadowhunters.

The one and only problem I had with the book was Clary. She's not the most unlikable heroine I've ever come across, but her suffering maturity level and unfailing ability to ignorantly force her way into grave situations - on the premise that she wants to 'help' when really she just freezes, screams, and waits for someone to save her - really grated my nerves. However, I do understand that this world is still new to her and that she severely lacks the training that the others possess. I hope her 'helpless female syndrome' subsides as she learns more about herself and her heritage.
Now although I did say that I think the storyline steals the show in this book, as a character driven reader, I couldn't help but be entranced by the complexity of the relationship between Jace and Clary. All I'm gunna say is that I don't think Jace is who he thinks he is, and the angst they are causing each other is going to, has to, subside eventually.

Happy Reading Everyone :)

~ Keely ~

Happy Friday the 13th! ... Or not..?

The sixth day of the week. The thirteenth day of the month. With their associations to evil, these two numbers are eerie enough by themselves; put them together and all hell breaks loose. According to the superstitious anyway. That raises the question: Why are we so afraid of Friday the 13th?

Honestly, I enjoy the fact that it's Friday the 13th, and not because it's supposed to be evil. I don't believe that. It gives the day an aura kinda like Halloween, my favorite time of the year, and I love the spookiness that goes along with the day. Other people, on the other hand, will go so far as to forgo driving on this day due to their paralyzing superstition. I wonder how many people called in sick today?

Friday the 13th only came to exist because we created the calendar. It's an 'evil' of our own making (most evils in the world are) and people tend to take it very seriously. Think about it. Our world, our time, revolves around the number twelve ~ the number of 'completeness.' Twelve months in a year, twelve hours on the clock, twelve apostles... you get the idea. Thirteen is considered the 'Devil's Dozen.' It's also said, based on the Last Supper, that if you having thirteen people at a table will result in the death of one seated. Scientific studies have been done, and according to the British Medical Journal, car accidents increase "by as much as 52 percent." I guess I believe the numbers, but how much of that percentage is real and how much is caused by people thinking it will happen, so it does? We do that, you know. We get all worked up and afraid of something, inhibiting our perceptions, so the bad things we were so afraid of do happen, not because of evil lurking around a specific day of the month, but because we allowed it to control our thoughts.

To top it off, there are three occurrences of Friday the 13th in 2012 (supposedly the 'year of doom'), all exactly thirteen weeks apart. How spooky is that?

So, books to read on this cursed day:




Friday the 13th by Simon Hawke

Friday the 13th by Michael Avallone

So, whether you're superstitious or not, good luck on this supposedly unlucky day!

Happy Reading Everyone :)

~ Keely ~