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Cassandra Clare – City of Glass | Review

Title: City of Glass

Author: Cassandra Clare

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 512

Rating: 4*/5

Cassandra Clare – City of Glass

This is the third book in Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series, and I’ve been reading through her books in order with a couple of YouTube friends. I don’t think she’s the most amazing author on the planet, but her stories have been enjoyable enough so far, and this was possibly the best one I’ve read to date. There were actually a couple of plot points that genuinely took me by surprise and which I didn’t see coming, which was a nice bonus.

Sure, there are a few things that I didn’t like, but nothing so bad that it stopped me from enjoying the book. And a few things were just downright weird, like the fact that Jace kept breaking windows. On the other hand, I also felt as though Clare had finished establishing the world and the characters and was able to focus on just having fun in this one. We get to see some of the legends as they develop – and we also get to see certain relationships developing too, which is good news if you’re into that sort of thing.

One thing that I will say is that I’m getting kind of sick of characters getting killed off and then randomly wheeled back out again. I don’t know, I’ve just never been a fan of authors bringing characters back from the grave. I think it destabilises the story itself and then makes any other deaths kind of irrelevant. Death should be final, even in fantasy novels. But I suppose that’s personal preference.

Cassandra Clare

Because this book is the third in the series, it means that Clare has had some time to develop as a writer, and she does feel a little more skilled in this book than in the first two. Still, there are flaws and it’s not perfect, but at the same time it keeps you turning the pages. This is especially true for the last 200 pages or so, because that’s when the story really starts to take off. But unlike the first two books which have both had parts that felt like nothing was happening, this one had better pacing and there was always something going on. Even if that was just Jace breaking another window.

We also get to find out more about the relationships between different characters, from the key players to more minor characters like the former inquisitor from the earlier books. It’s interesting to see how Cassandra Clare approached the task of worldbuilding and how she adapts legends that we all know about and then puts them to work for the world of shadowhunters. I’m sure there’s stuff I can pick up from her and apply to my own writing to score a series of bestsellers. I just haven’t figured out what it is yet.

If you haven’t read this already then the chances are that you never will. But if you do get round to it then it’s not too bad at all.

Cassandra Clare Quote

Click here to buy City of Glass.

Peter James – Dead Man’s Grip | Review

Title: Dead Man’s Grip

Author: Peter James

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 504

Rating: 4*/5

Peter James – Dead Man’s Grip

I had mixed feelings on this one, which is kind of annoying because I had mixed feelings about the last Roy Grace book that I read. Bizarrely enough, because I read the books out of order, this book is the book before the last one that I read, but that’s my own fault and actually it didn’t make too much of a difference here.

The problem that I had with this book is that little things kept distracting me, such as the number of times that police briefings were interrupted by someone’s phone ringing. I counted that happening at least three times in this book alone and I know that it’s happened in others, and I don’t understand why people don’t have their phones on silent. It seems pretty unprofessional for a homicide team, but James does plenty of research and so I guess it’s normal.

Another problem that I had was that the blurb covered about two thirds of the book’s plot, so if you read that then you’re going to get a good idea of whether you’ll like it or not. I’m not sure if I’ve ever read a crime novel that reveals this much on the book’s blurb, and I feel as though it took a lot of the tension away. When you’re 200 pages in and none of the three drivers involved in the collision has died, you find yourself wondering whether the entire book is just fleshing out the backstory. My friend Neil also jokes that every Peter James novel has some sort of road traffic collision, and this one is certainly no exception.

Peter James

But there were plenty of good things about the book that helped it to earn a 4* rating, starting of course with just the quality of the writing. Peter James is a cracking writer and I’m slowly working my way through his back catalogue, and all of his books have something to recommend about them. Here, I quite liked the way that he worked with the New York mafia, and the way that he portrayed the leading players felt both human and genuine. There was a twist there that I saw coming a mile off, but I also thought it was pretty well executed and so it felt like when you watch an action movie knowing that the hero will come out on top in the end.

All in all though, there’s pretty much everything you need here, from Mafia hitmen to slow and painful deaths and mystery and intrigue. I wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s the best book in the series, but it’s still very much worth reading. It also has some decent scenes in and around Shoreham Harbour, and it does a pretty good job of capturing the vibes of both Brighton and New York. There’s nothing not to love here, so there’s no reason not to just crack on with the series. Enjoy!