Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Review: CITY OF HEAVENLY FIRE

City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6)City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments #6)
Cassandra Clare
Fantasy, Romance

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT FOR ALL CASSANDRA CLARE BOOKS EXCEPT THE BANE CHRONICLES

GUYS. *sobs* THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS IS OVER.

Why has it taken me forever to post this review? For starters, it took my copy FOREVER to get here. TEN DAYS AFTER THE RELEASE DATE IS TEN TOO MANY, BOOK DEPOSITORY. YOU COMPLETELY MISUNDERSTOOD THE IDEA OF PREORDERING.

Second, by the time I HAD gotten it I was back at the dorms and suffered from a lack of computers. AND BY THE TIME I DID HAVE ACCESS TO A COMPUTER, dance and exams set in and there was no time to write it. The last two reasons also (poorly) excuse why I haven't been blogging much. HOWEVER, last final is next thursday and then I'll be free as a bird (jk, still have dance and work) to read and blog.

As you can already see, anything written by Cassie Clare will have a whole long review in which I'll talk about only HALF the things I could go on and on about  and will be FILLED with capitals. Anyhoo, let's get to it. 

I'll start and say that unfortunately my expectations far exceeded the reality. I came at it expecting a Clockwork Princess level tear-jerker and staring-into-space-causer but it really wasn't like that. I did cry in the end when Simon had to give up his memories and I genuinely was sad, but it was a little forced. Did anyone else feel this way? In CP2, halfway through I was suffering from book PTSD.

Unrelated to the tear- factor, predictability for this novel was high. On that front, I didn't expect it to be anything like CP2 because we know already that Tessa's not involved, Jem is, two weddings, a boyfriend dies, and everyone's identities. Also, for me Jordan was the top of my likely-to-be-killed list. The only bf who could die without ruining the story and shattering TOO many people's hearts. As for the Heavenly Fire being used to cure Jem, that much Christine from PolandBananasBooks had guessed and I agreed. (I recommend this girl's videos ridiculously. She's always spot on and hilarious). So basically, the two major OMG moments I knew in advance.  However, I didn't think EVERYTHING would be that obvious- even the smaller OMGs were easy to forsee 100 pages before they happened. (Jessamine saving the London Institute, Magnus's father being the Prince of Hell everyone kept mentioning, etc) 

MY MAIN DISAPPOINTMENT was Jordan basically being wiped off the map after he died. Maya didn't even CRY, and was all like, WELL I WAS GOING TO BREAK UP WITH HIM ANYWAY. (GO FREAKING FIGURE OUT WHY) Cassandra Clare wrote about it on her Tumblr, but I was still not satisfied - I mean, he was stabbed right in front of you and died in your lap. THE TRAUMA ALONE SHOULD HAVE HER BAWLING. Let alone loving him. Even after that, his death was mentioned only when the other characters were told. No mourning or wishing he was there or doing something for him or anything. As a big fan of his, I wanted to see more reaction to him. REST IN PEACE JORDAN KYLE.

My secondary disappointment was the underlying theme of Some Things Can't Be Forgiven. That may be true, but when a person completely changes I believe they delete the person they were before and should be given a second chance. Jordan deserves COMPLETE AND TOTAL forgiveness, and Jonathan was who he was because of things that were physically and emotionally done to him before and after his birth, and therefore the untainted boy we got to see for a few seconds before his death deserved burial according to traditional Shadowhunter customs. The things he did weren't HIM, just as Jace is not held responsible for the things he did while possesed, nor Jordan should have been for hurting Maya on his first Change. IT'S NOT THE SAME AS SOMEONE SANE AND AWARE DOING SOMETHING UNFORGIVEABLE AND SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN TREATED LIKE IT WAS. In both cases.

AND NOW FOR THE THINGS I LOVED

-Jem kidnapping Church. Now THAT made me happy cry. Their reunion was beautiful.
-Jace bringing a condom to Hell. You know, just in case.
-That interesting snippet of OMG information that was sooooo underrated about Luke's and Amatis's  mom being an Iron Sister. Ten bucks that comes to play in TDA.
-JEM. I JUST
-THE WEDDING COMIC (I know that there were two different comics for two different editions. Mine was the British one- the tear jerker for all TID fans. CASSIE CLARE, THAT WAS CRUEL. BUT GOOD. I DON'T KNOW ANYMORE
-Jessie saving the London Institute. I loved her a lot in TID and wished we could have explored her character more, so it was so nice to hear of her, even in passing.
-Izzy and Simon. Nuff said.
-Malec. Are. Back. 
-EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING SIMON SAID OR DID. I used to think he was annoying, and now I find him heroic. 
-Really hilarious scenes (the usual) e.g. the sarcastic clapping at Clace in the beginning, MY EYES MY EYES, You-straight-people, Simon feeding on Alec (It was not sexy. I had some feelings.) Jace visiting Magnus in the beginning, Jace and Jordan meditating, BROTHER ZACHARIAH STOLE OUR CAT.
-EMMA, JULES, AND THE BLACKTHORNES.
-Magnus's speeches- especially in the end, about how if you show your enemies something other than harshness, you might get something other than hostility. 
-Tessa in the Spiral Labyrinth. I DEMAND MORE INFORMATION
-Simon Acsending. *commences party*

THE ISABELLE LIGHTWOOD THEORY. I'm still a believer. It'll happen.  
Minor OMG I wanted to mention: THE FAERIE QUEEN SLEEPING WITH SEBASTIAN. WHAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTT EWWWWW OMGGGGG HOWWWWW

Okay, and with that I'll stop. 
It was fun, and beautiful.  Though I'm pissed that now we HAVE to read TDA (the next Shadowhunter series), and if you haven't read TID you're probably kicking yourself. 
On the bright side, MORE JACE, MAGNUS, AND JEM.  #TheShadowhunterMen 
Rating: 

Love, 
Esty

2 comments:

  1. I would have agreed with you about Jordan at first, but the more thought I've given to it, the more I've become okay with it. I completely understand why Maia broke up with him. I don't think it was that she hadn't forgiven him, it's that she couldn't forget, and I see the two things differently. She knew it wasn't his fault, so she didn't still blame him. Still, I can see how that would weigh on her mind. What he did to her was horrible, and yeah, it wasn't really his fault, but I can't blame her for being unable to get those thoughts out of her mind. Some of it had to be really scary stuff that would leave you unable to forget it. She forgave him, and I think she thought she should love him too, but just because you forgive someone doesn't mean you're still in love with them or completely able to forget everything. I don't blame Maia at all.

    The one thing that I'm still kind of bothered by is that Maia didn't have to actually break up with him. It seemed like kind of a sell out to have him die instead of her having to do it. Still, I'm not that concerned about it overall.

    Also, it sounds like this book made me a lot more emotional than it did you. Haha. I was in tears basically from the time Sebastian made Clary "his queen" to the very end of the book.

    I do agree with a lot of what you said though. I really loved the review.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! Loved hearig your thoughts- I see what you're saying about Maia not being able to forget.

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