Synopsis:
Sebastian Morgenstern is on the move, systematically turning Shadowhunter against Shadowhunter. Bearing the Infernal Cup, he transforms Shadowhunters into creatures out of nightmare, tearing apart families and lovers as the ranks of his Endarkened army swell.
The embattled Shadowhunters withdraw to Idris - but not even the famed demon towers of Alicante can keep Sebastian at bay. And with the Nephilim trapped in Idris, who will guard the world against demons?
When one of the greatest betrayals the Nephilim have ever known is revealed, Clary, Jace, Isabelle, Simon, and Alec must flee - even if their journey takes them deep into the demon realms, where no Shadowhunter has set foot before, and from which no human being has ever returned...
I can't believe I hadn't written about this yet; but I guess it's true I just needed time to think it all through, to recover from the book. Because it really did kill me. I couldn't stop thinking about it for days and days after I finished it. It was mainly because of what I read, but the fact that The Mortal Instruments, a saga that I've grown up with, spent all my teenage years with, was over also destroyed me...
Since it's the last book in the series I just need to spill everything out and talk and talk about everything that's happened, which means it's a post full of SPOILERS. I'm just warning, because I've seen people complaining about getting spoiled after reading something, so I'm just saying it in advanced. If you haven't read City of Heavenly Fire, don't read this.
I am going to start my saying that my favorite thing in TMI and my ultimate ship is the perfect couple that Alec and Magnus make. So after they broke up in City of Lost Souls I was devastated, and nothing mattered most to me than them getting back together and getting the happy ending they have always deserved. And I got to say that they did get it. Which made me the happiest person on Earth after crying for over fifty pages. (If you've read more posts from me you'll probably think I cry a lot but that's it, I'm really emotional, and books and TV shows get tears out of me all the time).
I have to say that I ended up liking the ending. I knew from the beginning that it was the last book, so there was no way it was ending happily ever after for every single character; some of my beloved ones had to die and I was really worried. Since it came out and before I had the opportunity to buy it (which I did halfway through July while I was in Scotland) I spent my time thinking about the characters and who had more chances to die. I am very used to my favorite characters dying, but I knew I wasn't ready for TMI to finish and rip my soul again and again. But for months I was sure Alec was going to die. I was so so so so so worried... My favorite character was in my mind the one with more chances of dying. There was no way that Magnus and Alec could fix the immortality problem (Alec wasn't going to become a vampire or anything because it would be too cliche and nothing like him, and Magnus didn't look like he could lose his immortality that easily), and Alec looked the most likely to die and for his death to have a big impact on his friends. Isabelle wasn't going to be the Lightwood to die, obviously, so Alec had more chances than someone like Jace and Clary (obviously the two main characters couldn't be the ones to die)... Even though we already lost Max so many years ago in City of Glass and losing another Lightwood would be plain cruel... Idk, I just had that constant anxiety and pain in my heart. But then, after everything, Simon was the one to suffer. I must say I loved Simon in the last book, since he got way better than how he started in City of Bones, and I wasn't actually expecting him to be the one who ended tragically. I got so very sad with the scene with Magnus's father. It crushed my heart. For this really brief moment, barely half a page, I thought everything could end greatly and that Magnus could give his immortality to his father in exchange of going back to their world and everything could be perfect. But then I remembered why I admire Cassandra Clare and why I've enjoyed her books so much. Even though the ending of Clockwork Princess was... not that good, since she managed to make everyone happy in different moments of time; I enjoyed this ending way more. Not because it made me happy (which it didn't) but because it wasn't typical or stereotyped and I deeply enjoy that. But the ending ending did have too much happiness in it, which I disapprove of in a last book, but every author does it differently... So Magnus couldn't get rid of his immortality, and they didn't find it that easy to go back home. Someone had to sacrifice themself, and I wasn't expecting it to be Simon... An incredible amount of sadness just suddenly stroke me and I couldn't believe I was crying again. I had been crying some pages before when Sebastian died, because he was one of my favorite characters too and his becoming the Jonathan in Clary's dreams and then dying was too much for me. And everything was sad and sad and sad and the ending came and there were lots of pages left for everything to be more or less fixed in the epilogue. More or less because a happy ending, a completely happy ending, isn't believable after everything that happened. But the wedding was nice, the way they got Simon to the party was good but Simon "remembering" Isabelle and stuff was too nice to be true. Too safe, Cassie. The book should've felt sadder. It should have been more... torture to us. It was too safe and happy at the end. Oh, and Simon's band being named The Mortal Instruments was just epic.
Speaking of Simon, one of the best things in the novel was the awkward "I swear I am not attracted to you" scene in the tunnels when Simon was supposed to feed on Alec. Vampire & gay shadowhunter. Perfect scene. I laughed so much.
My favorite thing (and one of the saddest ones) was the chapter about their deepest dreams. When entering the demon realm to save Magnus, Luke, Jocelyn and Raphael (RIP, I loved him. Had forgotten he was just a 14-year-old kid, though, until he died... I got really sad), they get absorbed by a demon that feeds on their dreams and then they experience their heart's deepest wishes. Isabelle's made me sad because it revolved around Max and even though I don't remember much about him, since it's been a really long while since I read both City of Ashes and City of Glass, it was really emotional. Clary's was also very sad, because Jonathan (my beloved Jonathan a.k.a. Sebastian) was her brother, her good, older brother and she was getting married to Jace and her mom had had a daughter, Val, with Luke and everything was too perfect to be true... I didn't like Simon's that much because I felt this sort of betrayal towards my Sizzy feelings; I hadn't pictured Simon and Clary as a couple in a long time and didn't thing he could be still thinking about it. But Alec's was also sort of sad. His strict father was proud of him, everyone was happy because of his engagement to Magnus (Malec!) and Max was there too... And Jace's dream didn't appear and he said he had seen nothing and it got me really worried but then afterwards everything was figured out. So I loved that chapter.
Another awesome thing which was the most popular thing I have since in Twitter, Jem stealing Church. It needs to comments, it was just as epic as it sounds.
I also liked the idea of introducing our new main characters, Emma and Julian and everyone else that's going to be in The Dark Artifices next year, but after some chapters I got really tired of them and even though I found them cute I couldn't stop thinking that they are going to have a series of their own so they shouldn't steal screen time from Jace and company. But I think Emma's strong and she's going to make a good main character, sort of like Jace. Emma, I'm going to love you so much.
Someone I am not going to complain about being there is Jem. Let's take a minute to talk about how perfect it was to have former Brother Zachariah in the book as handsome young Shadowhunter James Carstairs. I loved how Isabelle kept saying how hot Brother Zachariah looked, it really made me smile. And then he was there, going to see Tessa! Part of me got really happy, even though I couldn't stop thinking about Will... And then Jem telling Jace stuff about the Herondales and everything... But Tessa. Tessa, couldn't you mention Will's name or even say Jem's name out loud? I needed that.
There are characters who I liked way more in this book than before. While I didn't like the way Maia had been dealing with dating Jordan, I really did like how she fought for the NY pack and showed how strong she really is.
I am still mourning for all the lives lost during the books, and mainly in City of Heavenly Fire. Jordan, who I had grown to like and feel sorry for. Raphael, who deserved a bigger storyline. Sebastian, who had always a Jonathan inside. Simon's memories (which ended up being fixed too swiftly and happily for my taste, but whatever). Maureen died, yeah, but she was insane. She had to die. And Amatis did too, which was sort of sad for Luke, but she hadn't been developed that much so I didn't feel it that much. The other known person who died was Andrew Blackthorn, and that was the trigger for TDA, so it was okay. But, even though I couldn't have been able to handle it and I would be complaining now, I wish Cassie would've been a bit more... bold with deaths.
Let's take a moment and admire Clary and Jace's scene at the cave. Finally. After six books.
There were so many beautiful quotes in the book, so many sassy comments that I couldn't stop laughing about... I'm going to share some (there are thousands of good quotes, so read the whole book again!):
“Brother Zachariah,” Isabelle said. “Months January through December of the Hot Silent Brothers Calendar. What’s he doing here?”“There’s a Hot Silent Brothers Calendar?” said Alec. “Do they sell it?”
“You're pining," said Jace.
Alec shrugged. "Look who's talking. 'oh I love her. Oh, she's my sister. Oh why, why, why—”
“Herondales." Zachariah's voice was a breath, half laughter, half pain. "I had almost forgotten. No other family does so much for love, or feels so much guilt for it. Don't carry the weight of the world on you, Jace. It's too heavy for even a Herondale to bear.”
Sassy Jace. Sassy Alec. I am so glad I met them through Cassandra Clare's writing. I am so thankful for TMI and TID and everything that's about to come... But mainly TMI because it means growing up for me, going through my teenage years and growing up just like Clary. I was younger than her when City of Bones came out, and now I'm seventeen so these books meant so much to me... The characters have grown on me, to story has developed more and more and it ended up being perfect and I am really thankful for it. When you love evil characters like Sebastian, you know that the author is doing something good while giving them the deep stories that make them so lovable. For that and for Clace, for Malec and Sizzy, for being so human that both good and bad characters have died, I am thankful (even though it helped me survive, it was too good to be true to have all the ships stay intact. But if Cassandra Clare had killed Alec, I would've been forever and ever dead. Ever). Thank you for Alec's evolution. He was the best thing that's happened to TMI, because he's learnt a lot from Jace ;)
Thank you, Cassie.
(PS. I'm probably going to keep remembering more stuff to comment on later on and probably be modifying the post, so... idk)
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