What happened in City of Fallen Angels?

Trust is dangerous, and to love is to destroy. Plunge into the fourth installment in the internationally bestselling Mortal Instruments series and “prepare to be hooked” (Entertainment Weekly)—now with a gorgeous new cover, a map, a new foreword, and exclusive bonus content! 

The Mortal War is over, and sixteen-year-old Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her. She’s training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power. Her mother is getting married to the love of her life. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last. And—most importantly of all—she can finally call Jace her boyfriend.

But nothing comes without a price.

Someone is murdering Shadowhunters, provoking tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters that could lead to a second, bloody war. Clary’s best friend, Simon, can’t help her—his mother just found out that he’s a vampire, and now he’s homeless. When Jace begins to pull away from her without explaining why, Clary is forced to delve into the heart of a mystery whose solution reveals her worst nightmare: she herself has set in motion a terrible chain of events that could lead to her losing everything she loves. Even Jace.

The stakes are higher than ever in the #1 New York Times bestselling fourth installment of the Mortal Instruments series.

TITLE: City of Fallen Angels

AUTHOR: Cassandra Clare

SERIES? Book 4/6 “The Mortal Instruments”

GENRE/ AGE RANGE: Fantasy, YA

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Death, loss of a loved one, death of children, injury, abandonment, relationship cheating,

TAGS: Gay side-character

PUBLICATION DATE: April 5th, 2011

SYNOPSIS:

Simon, Daylighter vampire teen is protected by the Mark of Cain, a pillar of fire from Heaven blazes attackers into salt, but an enemy gets at him through his first love Clary, who must face consequences, and maybe lose Jace. A Greater Demon infects nights of her Shadowhunter beloved for control, and sends grey-garbed minions for Simon himself.

Character Guide   ⇩

►Clary Fray → Main character, Shadowhunter
►Simon Lewis → Clary’s best friend, Daylighter/Vampire
►Jace Wayland → Shadowhunter, love interest
►Alec Lightwood → Shadowhunter, Gay
►Izzy (Isabelle) Lightwood → Shadowhunter, cute and powerful, I love her a lot
►Magnus Bane → High Warlock of Brooklyn, Bisexual, powerful, very chill
►Luke Garroway → Wolf, A good dad
►Jocelyn Fray → Clary’s mother Shadowhunter
►Maia → biracial, wolf, ptsd, scar along her neck
►Jordan → Maia’s ex
►Lillith → First of all demons

City of Bones | ★★★☆☆ | review

City of Ashes | ★★★☆☆ | review

City of Glass | ★★★★☆ | review

Clockwork Angel | ★★★★☆ | review

“This was Jace being brave, Simon thought, brave and snarky because he thought Lilith was going to kill him, and that was the way he wanted to go, unafraid and on his feet. Like a warrior. The way Shadowhunters did. His death song would always be this – jokes and snideness and pretend arrogance, and that look in his eyes that said, I’m better than you.” 

First up, I just want to say that this is a looong and negative review, so please be aware and maybe grab a snack! So, let’s get into the review!

I listened to this book on audio because that’s the easiest way I could get through this book while also travelling to and from Uni and let me tell you, I made a MISTAKE! The audiobook is dually narrated and it’s awful. Just awful. The man’s voice is barely legible and while for some books having 2 narrators can be really helpful, these two are both awful and having two narrators was just distracting.

Now, onto the actual book! I was barely into chapter one when I realised I was not going to enjoy this one. Everything about this series is flatter than TID – the characters are more boring and do more scandalous things and I’m over here like, next! The characters just seem set in their moulds already and so I don’t really care about what’s going to happen next because I know it will probably be fine for the main trio… it doesn’t really feel like there are stakes.

I just feel like this was such a disappointing read after I enjoyed Clockwork Angel, also straight up, there were TOO MANY povs.

“Or maybe it’s just that beautiful things are so easily broken by the world.”

THE GOOD

I’m going to be honest with y’all this section is going to be short, a lot shorter than the other sections in this review. The two (yes, only two) things I liked about this book were Clary and Alec.

I thought Clary was a lot more likeable in this book because she didn’t take any sh*t from Jace which I really appreciated. She really matured in this book so I’m interested to see how she develops in the rest of the series. *fingers crossed there’s some actual character development in this series* 🤞🤞🤞

The second thing I liked about this book was Alec. I don’t think I realised how much I appreciated his little sarcastic comments until he was literally gone. I think he’s going to end up really stepping up (which we saw a bit of in book 3)  and becoming a leader in this series, but honestly, I think he would also be a really good healer. Either way, he’s hella cute and VERY good at his job! I appreciate him a lot.

Also, side note: I think I’ve mentioned this in every review so far but, are Simon and Jace going to be friends??? Because I’m down with that.

“Still I pictured having you for fifty, sixty more years. I thought I might be ready then to let you go. But it’s you, and I realize now that I won’t be anymore ready to lose you then than I am right now. Which is not at all.”

MALEC

I’ve decided that Malec gets their own section because seeing them again brought me so much joy and realising where their storyline is going to go in the next book brought me so much pain. I don’t deserve this and neither do they.

•My first reaction to Magnus and Alec finally coming back into the plot was “finally 2 people with personalities who I don’t hate!” if that tells you anything about me or the characters.
•Malec is back and immediately angsty whyyyy

“…I watch my brothers give their hearts away and I think, Don’t you know better? Hearts are breakable. And I think even when you heal, you’re never what you were before.”

THE EH | *SOME SPOILERS*

SIMON & ISABELLE

Can I say something controversial (yet, so brave)? Simon and Isabelle have zero chemistry.

This is just my peronal opinion, and I’m saying this knowing that these two are endgame, and with them not having that much character or relationship development at this point. Also, side note but this really annoys me – Isabelle gets some of the least page time of any of the characters so she’s practically a side-side character at this point, I’m really hoping this changes soon!

I really think there’s more “chemistry” between Maia and Simon but it’s pretty clear that they’re not “endgame” so this is really weird to me. I feel like it was obvious who Clary was going to end up with but maybe CC cares a lot less about Simon? I honestly don’t know. Simon and Isabelle have no chemistry whatsoever but I think if they actually talk to each other and get some good character development I’ll believe that they’re endgame and start shipping them, until then I just want to see more Isabelle since we know hardly anything about her and she is one of the most underdeveloped characters in the series, which is really saying something!

SIMON

There is A LOT more Simon in this book which I’m pretty sure no one asked for but, okay. I find it so interesting how I don’t really mind him in the movie and I even really liked him on the show but in the books, I have to agree with Jace – he’s really fucking annoying and kind of useless. Like, yeah he’s a vampire and his family situation is seriously shitty, but everything else in his life?? Not bad in comparison. He’s got 2 beautiful ladies wanting to date him (he’s a fucking cheater wtf), he’s got a good bond with luke, he’s in a good spot with Clary and he’s still part of a band and all that stuff. AND YET HE’S STILL SOO WHINY.

Also, straight up he’s a cheater and I don’t really understand why this was a necessary plotline at all but basically, this was really petty and his reasoning for not breaking it off with one of them was immature, self-indulgent and selfish. Personally, I think the best outcome for this would have been if Iz and Maia had found out and started dating each other. I like to think that this happened in a parallel universe. I am glad that they both blamed Simon though, and didn’t take it out on each other, I’m super happy that they’re friends now, that made me really happy.

Basically, I can’t believe I was actually warming up to Simon’s annoying ass in City of Glass only for CC to pull this shit on me now. 

THE OTHER CHARACTERS (BUT MAINLY A JACE AND CLARY RANT)

Honestly, I just don’t care enough about Jace to feel sorry for him and I feel so bad about that but at the same time I just want to get through this book so I can move onto reading Clockwork Prince. I feel like this is the only downside to reading the books in publication order, it can take you out of the story to read one series with better writing and characters and then be put back in the TMI series with all the teen angst and lack of manners. I found TID charming (even though I wasn’t a big fan of Will) and honestly, I’m finding TMI annoying.
↦ TID – the fun aunt that you love
↦ TMI – that annoying cousin that turns up to all the family events and you kind of want to strangle them but that’s definitely illegal

•I cannot stress to you how much I could not care less about the latest Jace/Clary cockblock. I know it’s going to become a much bigger plot-device and it’s going to somehow create EVEN MORE angst and I’m not here for it. I live for the day writers/authors realise you can still have a good story without angst and tearing couples apart. 

•I don’t care about any of these characters except for Alec (who isn’t even fuckn here) and Izzy (who is getting zero page time)

EVERYTHING ELSE

•omfg I just realised Jace and Clary aren’t gonna bang until the last book I can tell the angst is gonna kill me and not in a good way.
•Also, can we leave the love triangles in the 1st trilogy, please?
• I AM UNDERWHELMED
•The narration is truly terrible. I hate it a lot. 0/10 do not recommend.

“No. That’s Clary; shes’s my best friend.” Simon pocketed his phone. “And she has a boyfriend. Like, really, really, really has a boyfriend. The nuclear bomb of boyfriends. Trust me on this one.”

THE BAD | *SOME SPOILERS*

So, my main “bad” rant for this book is Jordan Kyle. Are we really surprised? I mean, I’ve already ranted about our other problematic boys so we knew Jordan wasn’t going to get through this review scot-free.

Okay, so I don’t have a PhD in werewolves or wolves, in general, or anything like that but, I feel like CC is trying really hard to give Jordan an excuse for hitting Maia & rage-turning her into a wolf (something that he did on purpose and dramatically changed the outcome of her life, and also her appearance) and I’m sorry but I’m not going to fall for that shit.

The reasoning in this book is that Lycanthropy (infected, not born a wolf) gives the infected victim violent urges for the first few years (high suicide rate, huge domestic violence rate) of being bitten. But, I’m just not convinced that this is enough of a reason.

↦In my opinion, he hit her and that excuse is just not enough for me, so I’d be really interested to know your guys’ opinions in the comments!

I just feel like this is a total excuse for abuse, and if this plotline was going to be used as an exploration of abuse I’d accept it, but I really don’t think it’s going to be. I think Jordan and Maia are “endgame” and that they’re going to conveniently forget that it ever happened and live happily ever after and we’ll probably never see them again once this series is over and that feels awful and icky to me.

↦Also, his fake name was Kyle and I’ll never get over that

“Hearts are breakable,” Isabelle said. “And I think even when you heal, you’re never what you were before”.”

So, this review is almost over! But, I did have a few other little observations I wanted to tack on here! I hope you enjoyed, thank you for reading! 💕

•How do these characters not have awful PTSD – especially Jace???? Is this something we’ll see in future books? Because this isn’t “normal” Shadowhunter stuff that they’re trained for either.

•I feel like Jace only had two personality traits and I hate them both. Brooding or Rude & Sarcastic – sometimes both at once and this is why I don’t like him. I was finally starting to like him in book 3. Is he gonna be like this for the rest of the series??? What is it with all the guys in these books (except Luke) being trash???

•Why I didn’t like this book – very little “action” – mostly teen angst and secrets. This book is 90% angst and 10% plot that was tacked on in the last 50ish pages.

What happens at the end of City of Fallen Angels?

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