Review: City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

The sixth and final novel in the Mortal Instruments series lives up to the momentum that was set early on in the series. This time around Shadowhunters (human's with angel blood,) Clary, Jace and their friends take on Sebastian in a deadly final showdown that happens inside a demon realm ... and the results are spectacular. 

This one was a fitting--and winning--conclusion to a series that had started to drag on a bit. Many of the problems with the previous two books are absent in this one and I felt that there was an improvement to the writing overall. (In all honesty, I think the events in books four and five could have been condensed down to one book.) Plotwise there are some interesting twists, and of course, Simon, a character who is as brave as he is under-appreciated by his so-called friends, sacrifices the most for the greater good. Without giving too much away, I do wonder if perhaps what Simon really gained toward the end was freedom. The novel also introduces a number of key characters from The Dark Artifices, another series featuring Shadowhunters penned by Cassandra Clare. (At present Clare has written three interconnected series, The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices and The Dark Artifaces series. All feature Shadowhunters and are set in different eras and cities.)

It was also delightful to see Jocelyn get some closure after all that she had suffered.

A fitting conclusion. Recommended.


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