Review: City of Ashes

City of Ashes is the second and rather dismal book in the Mortal Instruments Trilogy by Cassandra Clare. The sequel picks off where City of Bones ended, launching the reader facefirst into Valentine (a watered down version of Lord Voldemort) Morgenstern’s evil plans to take over the world. I… did not see that one coming. I was also struck with a sense of déjà vu at this point, upon realizing that the whole thing smelled like a poorly-rendered version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

By this point, Clary and Jace have moved into phase 2 of their newfound sibling relationship – the part where all propriety goes out the window in favour of their budding sexual attraction. I’m sure we all know what that’s like, eh? Clary hooks up with Simon in early parts of the story, but it’s obvious that the relationship isn’t going to last, if her constant pining for Jace is of any indication. Jace reprises his role as maladjusted blond antihero, who spends the better half of his day coming up with witty barbs to hide the broken and lonely child inside. As a result, no one gets together with who they really want, and the vicious carousel of unrequited love is complete. Clare makes it a point to dispense liberal amounts of angst and wallowing to all of these characters, effectively turning Simon (who used to be the most tolerable of the bunch) into an emo, whinging bitch, and subsequently, an emo, whinging vampire.

There was an excess of unnecessary side characters, most of which were cliché with tedious backstories to follow. Maia, a werewolf in Luke’s pack, had a particularly cringe-worthy personal history that had me frantically skipping pages in an effort to keep my eyes from burning out of their sockets. Clare attempts to inject modern youth culture into numerous parts of the story, alluding to “hip” shiznits like Naruto manga and anime. These references only reinforced the impression that I was reading a piece of crappy fanfiction printed off the internet.

City of Ashes ended up being a total snore fest for me, despite all the blurbs singing its praises (considering how I actually paid money to read this crap, I was not at all amused). Clare obviously enjoys playing up Jace’s “hotness” – note the quotation marks – to an extent that almost every time he takes the scene, “bruises” and “shadows” seem to highlight the contrast of his pale, pale skin and fair golden locks. It is quite possible that no other fictional character in existence has been described in as much excruciating detail as Jace Wayland has - I wouldn’t have batted an eyelash if Clare chose to elaborate on the number and density of pubic hairs hidden under his tight leather pants. (Hey, it could happen.)

The book’s primary weakness lies in its lack of focus. Attempts to combine and stitch together elements of paranormal realms with weakly-defined characters rendered the story messy and poorly written. Witty repartee was lost amidst the convoluted, predictable plot devices, making this an exceedingly dull read.

See also: City of Bones, City of Glass

Plot/originality: 2/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing style: 2/5

Total score: 6/15