The third book of The Mortal Instruments is City of Glass, which acts as the finale for the first trilogy. Thankfully, City of Glass if full of answers. Plus, with the two previous books, it wraps up nicely into a trilogy. I did read the second trilogy in the series as well. But I enjoyed having a ‘break’ as I could read other books and then jump back into this world.
I loved that City of Glass moved from New York to Alicante in this book. The change in scenery gave us a lot more world building. It also gave us a chance to push Clary even further out of her comfort zone. Clary showed us what she can do on her own. Which I personally think, is a lot better. I also enjoyed the insight into the Clave. In the previous books, the Clave was made to look slightly inept, so seeing how it was run answered a lot of questions.
The characters have definitely grown. You can clearly see the differences in their behaviors throughout City of Glass. Clary, although still impulsive, does start to listen to other people as she realises her actions are affecting those around her. Which makes her a bit more likeable. Some have also been developed more. Especially Isabelle who is brought out a bit more and explored as a person. This a lot more bearable than her being the girl Clary dislikes just because she’s pretty.
The ending of the book was the biggest issue for me. The defeat of Valentine was overly easy? It also made me think about whether anything Clary, Jace, Alec etc did anything within the three books really had any input to this. For example, some of the action in previous books was unnecessary. Valentine would have ultimately ended up at the same place anyway, without their trying. Therefore, I’m unsure as to why some of the problems needed to occur. Did anyone else feel this way?
The epilogue was a nice way to wrap up the end of the book. Although, as I know there’s a fourth book I’m definitely reading a lot into the seelie queen interaction. I also think is very very over the top happy ending style, and I’m not sure how this will affect my reading of City of Fallen Angels.