City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare – review

I finished this book a few weeks ago and have been hesitating in writing this review. The thing is, I really loved the Mortal Instruments trilogy; it was clever, imaginative, and fast-paced, with characters who you couldn’t help but invest yourself in emotionally.

I’m not sure why Clare decided to make this series longer than originally intended. Instead of wasting her time on this fourth book, which reads like an 8th grader’s fanfiction, she ought to have focused her energy on her prequel, Infernal Devices, which looks to be as promising as the first three Mortal Instruments.  She definitely did her fans and her series a disservice writing this fourth book, and I will tell you why.

If you’ve read the first three books, you will remember how involved the plot was. This is not so in CoFA. This book is supposed to take place mostly with Simon, and while it does focus on him a lot of the time, his relationship with two girls plays a bigger role than the actual plot of him being a daylighting vampire and the political implications that result from this. Instead, Simon juggles two girls, Jace is standoffish to Clary (gasp! Huge surprise!), and Alex and Magnus squabble over Magnus and his past loves.

The actual plot plays second fiddle to the made-up drama of the teenage couples. The book is supposedly about the murdered bodies of Shadowhunters appearing all over the city. These murdered Shadowhunters were in our previous villain’s circle, and the reader can’t help but wonder who or what is killing them. Are they trying to start dissent among Downworlders and Shadowhunters by making it appear as though Downworlders are killing them?

Enter Camille, a very influential vampire who appears in the city, trying to get Simon to join her and help her get the city’s vampires back under her wing. Everyone wants Simon on their side, and he is learning that despite his efforts to be normal, he is far from it. In fact, he is a very peculiar vampire with the mark of Cain inscribed on his forehead. As several attempts are made on his life, he sees that the true power of this mark is awesome and terrifying.

As this is going on there also seems to be the issue of someone who is trying to create children the way that Valentine did in the previous books (I won’t spoil it if you haven’t read it, but let’s just say this isn’t a good thing). The reader is guessing that all of these things (dead Shadowhunters, attempts on Simon’s life, and demon children) are all connected, but the connection is poorly executed.

The plot takes a back seat to the characters and their forced problems. Jace can’t sleep because he’s having nightmares where he kills Clary. Because of these nightmares, he stays away from her, and, of course, their scenes are dramatic because she doesn’t know what’s going on. Forgive me, but it’s Twilight all over again. “I love you, but we can’t be together….”

I will say that Clare does at least create a reason why Jace is having these dreams and she does, eventually, draw the characters into the plot. But it’s disappointing because the entire first half first three-quarters of the book are riddled with angst and void of any real plot. Oh, I’m not saying that Clare doesn’t write the plot. She does. But she writes it in summary. All kinds of things happen, but we never see them happening. We always hear about them from a third party. (Note, if you aren’t writing in first person, write some scenes of what’s going on in the background. Especially if you are having difficulty creating a cohesive plot. Letting us see first-hand the murders or even the discovery of the dead bodies will make us feel as though the actual plot is a bigger part of this book.)

To be honest, it seems to me, when reading this, that Clare used this fourth book as an excuse to write about the angsty problems in the relationships of teenagers. It’s just sad that this group of young Shadowhunters, who spent the entire first three books breaking laws and trying to solve mysteries, seemingly ignore the death of the Shadowhunters and just live the lives of sixteen-year-olds who are “in love.”

Yes, yes, I understand that they are teenagers, but they are supposed to be more than that. They are warriors. Trained from a very young age, Shadowhunters are the police of the Downworlders. They are descendants of angels, for crying out loud. They fought in a hardcore battle against Valentine and destroy demons every single day! The first three books portray them as very serious warriors. Yes, teenagers, too, but they seemed to take their job a lot more seriously. Now, they are spending their time avoiding one another and bickering. They are so involved in themselves they ignore what’s happening in the city to the other Shadowhunters, where in previous books they would have been right in the heart of the action!

The ending ties all the seemingly unrelated events together in an unconvincing way, but at least it finally begins to happen in front of us, rather than just told to us through other characters who say, “Oh, btw, someone was murdered.”

Quite frankly, I found this book obnoxious. It’s unfortunate to have to say this about this fourth installment, especially when I was so looking forward to this book. What can I say? I absolutely loved the first three books and liked even better the prequel. I never imagined I would find this book torturous and trite.

Dear authors:  please, please, please, when you write a successful set of novels, don’t agree to write more just for the sake of it. Let it end where it ends and move on to something else. You don’t see Rowling writing more Harry Potter, do you? You don’t see Meyers writing more Twilight (or at least more Edward and Bella), do you? (Yes, despite any arguments that may arise, she IS successful, and, no, the half novel on her website from the perspective of Edward does not count).  This is because they wrote their books to end and realize that unless they can come up with a coherent plot to continue the story, they can’t just write more books for the sake of keeping characters alive. It only ends in banal, one-dimensional characters. City of Fallen Angels is a perfect example of this.