City of Heavenly Fire Review
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| Taken from Goodreads |
City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
Book 6 of The Mortal Instruments Series
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Adventure, Romance
City of Heavenly Fire holds the title of being
the final instalment in the Mortal Instruments series. It has alternate worlds,
journeys through desert-like places, numerous battles, and of course romanceJ. However,
Clockwork Princess is still my favourite book so far. I don’t know if it’s
because I didn’t feel as much for the characters in TMI than in TID, or maybe
it’s because I didn’t reread the previous books before COHF. Nonetheless, I
still enjoyed this book and cannot wait for Emma and Jules story.
In the beginning, we are introduced to Emma,
Jules, and the rest of the Blackthorn family. Within that one prologue the
readers are really able to get a feel for their family dynamic and insight into
each character. This sets it up really well for the next series as we already
know the basics about each character. For instance I really like how strong and
focused Emma is even at a young age. She’s definitely capable of managing
herself and the younger Blackthorn children, and I’m excited in seeing how
Jules and Emma managed in raising the younger children. Then the first chapter
begins which features a calm-before-the-storm type of scene. Clary and everyone
are all watching Jace train to control the heavenly fire in a relaxed hanging
out atmosphere. That doesn’t last long as soon all the shadowhunters are
heading to Idris because of safety in numbers. And Sebastian. Mainly Sebastian. Here we see
how the Clave is still treating them as children not worthy of attention and
how ultimately that blindness is what allows Sebastian to defeat them time and
time again.
MILD SPOILERS UP AHEAD! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Liked
1. I’ve already mentioned this
above but…. Emma and Jules!!! Honestly they are such good friends as they know
how to console each other, defend each other, and just be by their side to ease
the anxiety. That scene where Julian is getting questioned with the sword and
Clary notices how tense he looks up there scanning the crowd for someone. Then
Emma leaps onto the stage and instantly he looks a lot more relieved. Also,
throughout the book Emma is consistently showing how she good and level-headed
she is as the moment she knows something she will find someone to divulge that
information to. The Carstairs family (or what’s left of them) must be so proud.
2. Speaking
of Carstairs… Jem and Tessa’s scene at the end. Or even all the scenes Jem or
Tessa was in.
3. Magnus
and Alec’s relationship development. These two have been through a lot together
and it’s great to see how their relationship has matured into a deeper
longer-lasting love.
4. Magnus’s
backstory. I knew before that life has not been the kindest to Magnus, and how
strongly he’s been fighting against his own demons as his immortal life
stretches on but I loved that in COHF we were able to see his own opinions on
the pros and cons of immortality. Oh and the revelation about Magnus’s dad
explains a lot about him.
5. Jace
and Clary’s relationship and how Jace explained how much he has changed for the
better because of Clary. Need I say more?
6. The
themes of love, belonging, and family in this book. Especially how skewed
Sebastian’s idea of love is resulting in his wrongful actions.
7. Johnathan.
At the end. You know what I’m talking about if you’ve read the book.
8. The
demon guarding the entrance to the demon realm who gave each character a warped
version of their deepest desires. That was a great scene as the readers get to
explore how each character has developed over the series and how certain events
have impacted them forever. Izzy’s dream about Max was one of the most
emotional dreams of the bunch as it lets the reader infer quite a bit about her
character.
9. Alec
and his determination to get Magnus back. He was never one of the most eager
and ready to fight type of person, opting more often to follow caution over
action. In this book though, he becomes one of the first to react, first to
fight, and just ready to go all because of his love for Magnus. That is quite a
major change he went through making him more relatable in my opinion.
10. Not too many devastating deaths. Except I
guess it rounds out because of the Simon situation in the end. POOR SIMON!
11. The whole exploration of the alternate
shadowhunter realm thing. Mind boggling!
12. The
epilogue!!! Who doesn’t love a wedding? ;P
13. Lastly, the book was well paced with few
moments that dragged (except for a bit in Alicante), utilized a great form of
switching between point of view’s, and wrapped up the Mortal Instruments series
pretty well.
Dislikes
1.
This is not really something I
disliked but more of an observation that I don’t understand. Based on the
epilogue, I’m wondering if shadowhunters do not recall what happened after WW1.
The Treaty of Versailles caused many problems later on and created a lot of animosity
that was a part of WW2. Do shadowhunters not have any records of those wars? I
know that they often look down upon mundanes but the wars must have affected
them. How could none of them advocate for the fey except for Magnus and a few
others? This is major foreshadowing for the Dark Artifacts series.
2. There
was barely any Tessa till the end. I expected more for some reason even though I
know that the epilogue of Clockwork Princess happens after the events of City
of Heavenly Fire. A chapter in Tessa’s point of view would have been nice.
3. The beginning was very
reminiscent of City of Glass. One of the characters even commented on that as
they were leaving Simon behind again.
4. It would have been better if
the alternate world idea was explored a bit more. It's not really clear how the
alternate worlds fit into the main world, as it's not explained if there is a
main world, or every world is a main world, if they coexist, or one is the past
and one is the future, etc.
Overall, City of Heavenly Fire was a great
ending to the series. Most of the loose ends were tied up in a way that still
left room for the next series. I highly recommend that the Infernal Devices
series be read before this book though for maximum reading pleasureJ.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for
sending me a copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads giveaways. This
has in no way swayed my rating of the book and all opinions are my own.
