City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

If there is one thing the Shadowhunters have always depended on, it was knowing who was the enemy. But as Sebastian Morgenstern wields the infernal cup, swelling his ranks with Endarkened warriors, the Nephilim must face their own in a war that is threatening to drag them under. Darkness is falling and Clary and her friends might have to go to hell and back to make things right. 

City of Heavenly Fire is the sixth and final book in the Mortal Instruments series and the ninth book that takes place in the Shadow world. 

This book was something of a roller-coaster, wrapped in evil, twirled in darkness. I don't think it can be said of any of these books that they were exceptionally light in theme and tone, but I would venture that this is the darkest and possibly the most mature of the books Clare has produced thus far. It can also be agreed that Clare has never been afraid to push the boundaries of the socially acceptable, especially concerning that wonderfully controversial topic of incest. This book takes that idea to a whole new level of creepy. 

I will say that there was still the trademark wit and humor that is usual and expected in Clare's writing. However, there really wasn't a lot to laugh about in this novel. This is a story of a people at war. Not about to go to war, not on the cusp of war, or at the beginning of it. At war. I wouldn't say this is Game of Thrones, with every character in the book being slaughtered left and right, but it was realistic to war. It is a Shadowhunter's life, and if we've gone this far in the series without seeing THAT much death, it's made up for in this last book. 

I gave it as high a rating as I did because I love Clare's writing and I love this series. I read it fast despite it being a honking big book and I liked the way it ended. I really did like this book a lot.

I did not give it a 5/5 because there were a few things that bothered me. 

*SPOILERS AHEAD* *DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU HAVE NOT READ COHF*

The first, and lesser, of these issues was plain and simple "the love scene". I'm sorry, but when I'm quite literally in hell and about to die a probably horribly death at the hands of a psychopathic incest loving demon boy, sex is not the first thing on my mind. However, I can understand the approach. After all it is the age old cry of "we must experience this before we die!". I also get that Jace and Clary couldn't touch for most of this novel because of the heavenly fire, and that when this obstacle was removed there was obviously going to be some hanky panky between the unsupervised teenagers who are on a suicide mission. What I couldn't get over was that damn condom.

There are a few reasons why a detail as harmless and insignificant as a condom has got my panties in a twist, reasons I will probably elaborate far too much on, but here they are nonetheless.

1.     I don't believe that Shadowhunters would be in the know about them enough to have one on them during such a dire circumstance. As has been elaborated throughout this series, Shadowhunters are a rather old race with many archaic politics and practices. They don't have computers, they don't use modern electricity (using witchlight instead), none of them know anything about popular culture, and when we visit Alicante we "go back in time". If Jace doesn't know what facebook is, I have my doubts that he would be totally on board with safe sex practices. However, if it were the case that the Shadowhunters had caught up with the times in this one department, then I bring forward my next point.

2.     How was it that a condom made it onto the list of necessary items to go to the demon realm? I mean how did that go? Gear? Check. Stele? Check. Witchlight? Check. Food? Check. Weapons? Check. Condoms? Check??? NO. Just No. When traveling to dimensions of hell, condoms just aren't going to make the list.(Where would he even put it? Does the gear have pockets? Was it in the packs next to the food?) My fiancé has informed me it's an unwritten guy code to always have some on you. However, other than referring to #1, this brings me to my final point.

3.     When they entered the demon realm, Jace was under the impression he might never be able to fully touch Clary again. Sure, they had the occasional holding of hands or gentle kiss. But much more than that and they would be facing some holy incineration. Jace says straight out that Clary had changed him for the better. She is the girl for him. He isn't looking elsewhere. So reason stands, that if he couldn't have it with Clary, he wouldn't really be preparing for it in any way. It would be a pretty callous thought process anyway, "Hmm, so we're going to hell to save my girlfriend's parents and my parabatai's  love, who have all been kidnapped and might be dead. And in the meantime our world is facing Armageddon. Sounds like a great time to make some moves and do the do with my girl!'......Again, may I say....no...

Now, don't get me wrong. I very much was interested in seeing Jace and Clary complete their love. At this point I had become almost annoyed at Cassy Clare for cockblocking one too many times. I could get where she was coming from. She didn't want to promote teenage sex. But let's be real. Teenagers have sex. Especially if they are head over heels in love. So the fact that the plot literally barred this from happening over and over seemed very much by design. However, it was the setting and timing that just rubbed me the wrong way. I don't know if I just dislike Clare's approach to romantic scenes in general, or if it was just in the few books where she has one that bother me. I didn't like how it happened in Clockwork Princess, and I didn't like how it happened in this one. They always seem awkward and ill set, rushed in during times of high danger.

I don't know why something so menial as one sentence mentioning a condom has my panties in a twist, but there it is. 

The one other part of the book that made me subtract another .1 from my rating was the end of Sebastian. It was just so...happily ever after everyone is good after all!.....I really appreciated the villainy of Sebastian. He was a mentally and emotionally unstable young man who killed without thought or remorse and harbored incestuous fantasies about his sister. He was one sick puppy and he needed to be stopped. To go and make him good, after all that....it didn't make much sense to me and I felt like it cheated his character. I know in real life you have to acknowledge that nothing is black and white. No one is all good or all bad. This is very much addressed in the comments made of Shadowhunter politics. However Sebastian is not fully human. He is demon spawn, literally. I think some things in this world are supposed to represent pure evil and he was one of them. I always admired Cassy Clare with his characterization. She made him unstable, creepy, and downright scary without becoming unrealistic. Possibly I could understand seeing a flash of humanness in his eyes near the end, similar to what we saw from Amatis. But for that whole drawn out episode with him becoming “Jonathan” and apologizing and etc....it just felt empty and weird after everything. I didn’t buy it It really didn't even make sense after everything that was gone over about what demon blood and demonizing does to a person. He was literally infused with demon blood before birth. How could there be any remnant of what should have been, left inside him? If that was the case, why was it that there was no helping the Endarkened? I mean, I guess it could be explained away as another miracle of the heavenly fire, but it didn't really seem right to me. 

And that about sums that up for me. Overall I really liked how the series ended and I would recommend the series to any and everyone. I also very much look forward to reading more about the Shadowhunter world in future books. 

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones – Book to Movie Review

I am going to start this up front with a disclaimer. There has been a lot of hate floating around, and a lot of fans becoming very defensive of the movie and books because of this hate. I am a huge fan of the books, and I did not dislike the movie. I am not here to hate or crush people’s happiness. I am simply going to explain what I liked and disliked about the movie,  as a fan of the book series and book world, as a reader, as a movie lover, and as a writer myself. These are my opinions, and may be very different from other peoples. Anyone and everyone can feel free not to like them. I am certainly not going to be the one to say that I am the queen of all and know more than anyone else about films and books. Please feel free to disagree, though I elect to ignore senseless hate. However I will again iterate, what is to follow is not hate. I do not hate the movie. I am merely going to explain likes and dislikes. I usually don’t have to explain this kind of thing up front, but with trolls rampant and fans getting more than a little upset, I wanted the record to be straight.

As a book to movie interpretation I give this one a 4 out of 5. Granted, there are a lot of things changed, especially in how the movie handled the end of the story. However, as a reader I cannot say they messed anything up. There was a lot of the same amazing wit from the book, something I loved about the writing.  Many lines were given verbatim, and that is just something great to see when analyzing book adaptations. It really brings the story to life. Also, the things they did change helped move the story along in the film version. There is no way to make an exact replica of a book’s story when transitioning it to film, but the story was, I have to say, very intact. The ending, though different in the setting and the way it was approached (including with some minor changes in scene and happening) stuck with the original story, and there wasn’t really anything important that was left out, torn apart, messed up, deluded, or any of the other numerous horrors that book fans fear when their beloved reads hit theaters. Lovers of the books breathe a sigh of relief, the story was intact!

Also, another sigh of relief, the characterization was spot on and amazing. In my opinion, just about all the characters hit me in just the right way. I was very happy to see that the actors and actresses were their characters. The only character I was massively disappointed in was Magnus. Now, I will say Godfrey Gao looked the part perfectly and he was not a bad actor, especially considering English is his second language. However, I was not sold on his performance of the infamously snarky and flamboyant warlock that the Mortal Instruments readers have come to know and love. There was just something in his lines that lacked that emotion and personality that is Magnus. I hated to say it, but the moments with him felt, to me, very wooden and rehearsed. I do hope that it has something to do with how little screen time he had in this film, and I am hoping it will become better with more in the future films. If I had not read these books, he would have been a pretty forgettable character to me, and Magnus written is anything but forgettable.

On a lesser note, Valentine was another character that I didn’t quite expect to come across as he did. He certainly was the perfect psychopath. However, I’d always seen his character as a cool and collected socio-path, ready to screw maliciously with your mind until you want to die. His truly crazy snap doesn’t really come out until much later story plot in the books, and not until the very last moment. I’m willing to blame this on the actual actor’s diva like performance, than the writing of the script.

And now further into the film:

For this second part I wanted to give a little input on the film itself and how it came across as a narrative. I personally give it a 3.5 out of 5 simply as a film. It was not a bad movie, nor was it amazing. I felt in the middle about it, though I did come away pretty happy.

One of the issues I had with it was that many of the scenes came off as so dramatic, almost to a degree that was unneeded. The fact that I wasn’t a big fan of the music selections for said dramatic parts might not have helped. On the other hand, the Mortal Instruments middle name is drama, and perhaps coming to film emphasized that in a way I noticed much more than when I read the books.

Another major issue that I noticed even more was the “convenience” of exposition and happenings. Exposition is such a hard thing to work out in this kind of situation. It can be the biggest challenge of a book to movie adaptation to give the exposition so that non- readers and newbies to the story world can keep up, but without becoming bored. This film did a pretty good job of explaining things (a fact I can back-up after speaking with a non-reader of the books after he saw the movie). There is enough that the watcher can keep up with the story-line of this film, understand what is going on, and be engaged. However, my problem was less with the content of the exposition and more with delivering of it. The way it came out just didn’t seem natural to some of the characters who were giving it, and even seemed to answer the questions before the “mundane” characters of the story even thought to ask further. I do understand what with a strict time setting and other film concerns, characters have a limited amount of time to deliver story in-between the action, especially in this film. I don’t think this film did a bad job per say. I just walked away feeling that it felt convenient the way it came across, and couldn’t get it out of my head. This especially came across for me in the scene where Isabelle is speaking with Simon, and again when Clary is with Magnus. Neither Isabelle nor Magnus would have naturally given up so much information, Isabelle not to a strange Mundane, and Magnus at least not without being coy, tight lipped, and slightly irritated at the Shadowhunter intrusion.

These nitpicks and critiques are just on the whims I felt personally as I watched the film. Overall I was pleased and I definitely urge fans to see the movie. Certainly it had some critique, but I still liked it, found it immensely entertaining, and was able to be emotionally attached to the film characters. I am also glad I can very safely say, they didn’t mess it up!

-Special love to all the Mortal Instruments fans.

By: Alissa Tsaparikos

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

5/5 stars

Tessa Gray and her Shadowhunter friends are back fighting for humanity once again in this third and final installment of The Infernal Devices series. However, things are more complicated than ever with threats rising up darker and more dangerous than ever as the inhabitants of the London Institute find themselves without aid in the face of the greatest evil they have yet faced. As they fight for the world and their lives Tessa finds herself torn between love and honor, and yet driven forward by the very love that has caused her so much confusion and pain.

As the last book in this steampunk rendition of the shadowhunter world, Clockwork Princess had a lot to live up to. And it did so nicely and with flare. As usual with Clare’s work there was nary a dull moment and every page has you begging to go on and every chapter ending just when things are starting to get good. Clare’s fast wit and easy narration carries you through as effortlessly as it does in her previous novels, living up to her excellent characterizations and delivering noteworthy plot.

This novel was most assuredly a good read, and well worthy as an end cap to the Infernal Devices trilogy.

*SPOILER WARNING*

The ending however, in my opinion, left something to be desired, and in the opposite way than one would think. It felt almost too happy, too perfect. As a reader I am often fond of happy, well wrapped up endings, but this one had the distinct taste of almost unrealistic and convenient. It was a little bit of having one’s cake and eating it too that has been often criticized in such end cap novels as the Harry Potter books. That being said, I still very much enjoyed the story and the writing on the whole.