Life of Bry

Welcome to Part 2 of all my thoughts on City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare. In my first post, I tackled the addition of Emma and Julian, why Sebastian/Jonathan is now my favorite book villain and my thoughts on Jace and Alec’s parabatai bond.

Of course, I have so many more thoughts, so a second part was warranted. Strap in, remember to keep all hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times and prepare for one wild ride. Here’s the rest of my thoughts on CoHF.

Dear Alec …

My babies. I haven’t cared about a fictional relationship so much since my Twilight phase in 2008. Alec and Magnus have staked a huge claim on my heart, individually and as a couple. I’m not afraid to admit that I ugly cried when they broke up in City of Lost Souls, and the entire way through CoHF I was praying to Raziel that they’d get back together.

Understandably the break up left both parties shattered. I already pointed out how Alec had become colder due to heartbreak, but he also constantly calls and texts Magnus (until Jace breaks his phone) and his friends take turns going to the warlock’s apartment with desperate pleas for reconciliation. Magnus is drowning in empty Chinese takeout containers and wallowing in self pity while putting up a defensive front. It looks like Alec has taken the time to think through his actions and understand why he was wrong, but Magnus refused to acknowledge his role in the situation; until Alec addresses it before evacuating the Institute.

“It was my fault, what happened. But it was your fault too. I could have learned not to care that you’re immortal and I’m mortal. Everyone gets the time they get together, and no more. Maybe we’re not so different that way. But you know what I can’t get past? That you never tell me anything. I don’t know when you were born. I don’t know anything about your life — what your real name is, or about your family, or what the first face you ever loved was, or the first time your heart was broken. You know everything about me, and I know nothing about you. That’s the real problem.”

Alec to Magnus, Page 66

Magnus isn’t fair to Alec in any capacity during this scene. He shows up unannounced after ghosting Alec, they kiss and Magnus continues to say it just won’t work, then to seal the deal he tells Alec, “I need you to live,” before leaving. It’s cruel. The High Warlock of Brooklyn is scared to love someone who is mortal because he knows the pain it will cause him when they ultimately pass on, and he’s projecting his own fears onto Alec. When Magnus is kidnapped, held prisoner and slowly being killed by the demon dimension that belongs to his father, he’s constantly thinking about Alec and reflecting on how things ended. In these thoughts, readers finally get some insight into why he is so afraid of falling in love with a Shadowhunter. When Sebastian hands Raphael a knife to kill Magnus, the warlock immediately thinks of Alec and admits for the first time that it was fear that led him to the breakup.

“He remembered Tessa weeping in his arms in Paris, and thinking that he had never known the loss she felt, because he had never loved like she had, and that he was afraid that someday he would, and like Tessa he would lose his mortal love. And that it was better to be the one who died than the one who lived on … But for an immortal to love a mortal, that had been the destruction of gods, and if gods had been destroyed by it, Magnus could hardly hope for better.”

Magnus, Page 447

Side note! I wish Cassandra Clare would’ve mentioned Raphael’s connection to Magnus earlier in the series. Raphael’s mother brought him to Magnus’s doorstep the night he was attacked by vampires in hopes that he could save her son’s life. Raphael had already turned, but Magnus still took care of the boy who couldn’t bear the thought of being a monster. It felt cheap to establish this past relationship just to have Sebastian murder Raphael shortly after. It gave us a reason as to why Raphael couldn’t kill Magnus, but it would’ve been a much more impactful death if we knew this connection earlier and had time to process and understand what they meant to each other. 

Magnus also tells Luke why he shys away from giving his whole heart to a Nephilim.

“But I’ve never been in love with a Shadowhunter, not until Alec. For they have the blood of angels in them, and the love of angels is a high and holy thing. Sometimes it comes down to a choice. Between saving one person and saving the whole world. I’ve seen it happen, and I’m selfish enough to want the person who loves me to choose me. But Nephilim will always choose the world.”

Magnus to Luke, Page 383

OK, I’ll give Magnus this one. Of course you want the person you love to choose you over everything else, but Shadowhunters don’t always have that option. They are born to choose the world.

But Alec doesn’t choose the world. As Clary and Jace race to stop Sebastian and end the war; Alec, Izzy and Simon search for the missing Downworlders. It’s Alec, with his eyes “huge and blue and full of anguish,” that finds Magnus and gives him relief despite his deteriorating health.

“Oh, my Alec. You’ve been so sad. I didn’t know.”

Magnus, Page 510

When Asmodeus, Magnus’s father, wants his son’s life in exchange for the gang’s safe departure from Edom, our group of Nephilim and Simon refuse. Alec even offers to stay behind with Magnus so they can die together, and he says the eight words that the High Warlock of Brooklyn never thought he’d hear from a Shadowhunter.

“I don’t want the world. I want you.”

Alec to Magnus, Page 555

Alec proves over and over again that he’s willing to choose Magnus over the world, and, in the end, Magnus decides to give himself over to a Shadowhunter despite the pain it’ll cause later in life. My heart felt so incredibly full of love as Magnus handed Alec the notebook that contained bits of his life story and gave the Shadowhunter the option to get back together. 

“I wasn’t sure, but I hoped — if you wanted to be with me, as I want to be with you, you might take this as evidence. As evidence that I am willing to give you something I have never given anyone: my past, the truth of myself. I want to share my life with you, and that means today, and the future, and all of my past, if you want it. If you want me.”

Magnus to Alec, Page 589

It takes courage to fully give your heart to someone, to trust them with your secrets and allow them to keep all these pieces of yourself safe from judgement. When you’re 400 years old (maybe older?), your past is full of demons (literally), nobody has spotless hands after four centuries of life. 

This is why I unconditionally loved the story arc of these two characters. They both had to learn hard lessons in order to be together. Alec and Magnus learned to love as you are with all your faults and all your strengths, to cherish the time you have together and to be open and honest with your partner. These are important lessons for anybody, whether you’re 18 or 400.

I just want to thank Cassandra Clare for writing these characters … The story of Magnus and Alec both warmed my heart and also shattered it into a million pieces. 

Things are Heating Up in H*ck

On the topic of cute couples, let’s take a look at our favorite non-sibling duo of Clary and Jace. 

After their discussion at the end of CoLS, Jace is no longer trying to control Clary anymore — thank the Angel. He trusts her and knows that she can’t be protected by forcing her not to do all the dangerous things, so now they jump into danger together. The entirety of CoHF is just Clace throwing up a middle finger to the Clave and doing whatever they think needs done to save the world, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Throughout everything, Jace and Clary become a team while learning and growing together; which is what being a couple is all about. 

I’ve spoken a ton about Jace’s character development in each one of my blog posts, but I’m going to do it again. He starts the series as a total asshole ridden with teen angst. He had 50-foot tall barriers around his heart that he safely guarded with arrogance, sarcasm and sharp daggers. Throughout the books, Clary slowly chips away at these barriers until they crumble nearly completely in CoHF.

Clary is a huge part of his growth, and she has her own character development as well. When we first met Clary, she was extremely selfish and waltzed her way into danger without an ounce of knowledge of how to protect herself or not harm those around her. She was an all-around brat, terrorizing the Shadow World to get what she wanted. But she’s grown on me. I think she matured a lot and found her footing in the Shadow World. She’s a fairly competent fighter and she’s learned when to follow strategy already set and when to go rogue.

She and Jace work well as a team. Despite being told not to, the pair sneak their way through the portal and into the battle at the Citadel because the Clave has inadvertently set their Shadowhunters up to fail. At the time, the Clave still told the Nephilim that a cure might be possible to save the Endarkened Ones, which led Shadowhunters to plead with and wound Sebastian’s warriors instead of kill. I was honestly infuriated that the Clave just allowed their people to blindly go through the portal believing they could reason with their enemies. They led their own to be slaughtered.

It was Jace and Clary who knew the truth and they were first to realize that it was a trap for Sebastian to test his forces against the Nephilim. Clary holds her own in a one-on-one battle with Amatis, while Jace and Sebastian meet face to face once again. In dramatic fashion, Sebastian stabs Jace in the shoulder — obviously not a kill shot, but a way to prove a point — however the Heavenly Fire in Jace travels up the blade to burn him, proving that Jace is a deadlier weapon than originally expected. 

As Jace lay wounded on the ground, Brother Zachariah places a runed hand against the boy only to be thrown back with immense force. Turns out this exchange somehow turned our guy Zach back into a Shadowhunter. Jace believes that he killed Zach Attack and is terrified that anybody else who touches him will meet a similar fate. Of course it’s Clary who throws herself onto Jace, holds him down and scrawls the Iratze rune into his skin despite his pleas for her to stay away. 

“And she was on the ship again with her father, with Valentine, and she was throwing everything she had, every bit of strength, every last atom of will and energy into crafting a rune, a rune that would burn down the world, that would reverse death, that would make the oceans fly up into the sky. Only, this time, it was the simplest of runes, the rune every Shadowhunter learned in their first year of training: Heal me.”

Clary, Page 175

Then, while in Edom, Jace is faced with a demon that appears to him as the Iron Sister that Sebastian forced him to kill. It’s such an emotional moment that the Heavenly Fire engulfs him. Once again, it’s Clary who makes her way through the flames to save him and finds that he’s waiting to die. But he doesn’t die, she remembers a rune she saw in a vision and uses it to trap the fire into her blade.

The strength, bravery and vulnerability of these two is striking and beautiful in its own way. The way Clary can crack Jace open like a book when no one has been able to reach past his barrier is heartwarming. I also appreciate how willing Jace is to listen to Clary and understand her, which is a much different boy than the one who lashed out at her in the Penhallow’s library not too long ago. 

The bravest thing any character has done in this series is when Clary tells Jace that Sebastian assaulted her in the apartment when he was gone. If I remember correctly, this is the first time she tells anybody of the incident. She’s been holding onto this trauma, and it takes extreme courage to confide that to someone. Of course, Jace’s first instinct is rage, but he also tells Clary that he wants to be there for her in whatever way she needs him. That’s important. According to the CDC, 1 in 3 women experience sexual violence involving physical contact, and each of those women need something different to cope and heal. Jace takes this information to heart and asks permission before each touch and kiss, assuring Clary that he’s only ever going as far as she wants him.

“Every time I kiss you, every time you touch me, it’s a victory, if you ask me. Sebastian, he did what he did because — because he doesn’t understand the difference between loving and having. Between giving yourself and taking … But when I touch you, I do it because I want to, and that’s all the difference. And he doesn’t get to have that or take it away from me. He doesn’t.”

Clary to Jace, Page 254

I love that Clary says this. Sebastian doesn’t get to take away the pleasure and love that can be in a touch, in a kiss, in a caress. Clary is only 16, she’s far too young to have already learned such a terrible, awful lesson about giving and taking in love. It just really hit home for me and made me emotional. 

And while we’re talking about kisses and consent, we’ll stop at the sweet scene in Edom where Clary and Jace take their relationship to that next level.

“Each kiss was different: quick soft kisses that told her he loved her, long slow worshipful kisses that said that he trusted her, playful light kisses that said that he still had hope, adoring kisses that said he had faith in her as he did in no one else.”

Clary, Page 470

This scene showed me just how much these two trusted each other and proved to Jace that you can love and be loved without destruction. That’s really all I have to say about it. 

Side note! Jace bringing a condom to Edom made me laugh so hard. They had ten minutes to pack their gear before leaving and that was on Jace’s list of things to bring. My guess is that he had his wallet with him and that’s where he was keeping it, but then why do you need your wallet in hell?  Good on him for having protection, but it still makes me giggle.

While Clary’s impeccable bravery is on full display throughout COHF, we also really get to see what a soft boy Jace truly is when he’s not pissing off demons, Downworlders and Shadowhunters. I personally believe that Clary learned rather quickly that being ‘absolute good’ can be a weakness, especially when battling those who don’t care about virtue or goodness. However, Jace is too focused on being good; he wants to prove to everyone that he is good so bad that it interferes with his judgement. Even the Seelie Queen notices the difference.

“You were always Valentine’s gentlest child.”

Seelie Queen, Page 319

This is a low blow. Clary doesn’t have to prove she’s good; everyone assumes she is because she was raised by Jocelyn in the mundane world. Jace, on the other hand, was raised by Valentine to be a weapon. He has to work harder to show people that he’s not a monster like Sebastian, which isn’t fair but it’s the truth.

But there’s one thing he wants more than to be good. Clary. The pair shared another touching moment at Jocelyn and Luke’s wedding in the epilogue, where Jace just let go of everything he’d been holding onto. 

“I was brought up to believe I had to be perfect. A perfect warrior, a perfect son. Even when I came to live with the Lightwoods, I thought I had to be perfect, because otherwise they would send me away. I didn’t think love came with forgiveness. And then you came along, and you broke everything I believed into pieces, and I started to see everything differently … I think you were the wrong person for the Jace that I was, but not the Jace that I am now, the Jace you helped make me. Who is, incidentally, a Jace I like much better than the old one.”

Jace to Clary, Page 616

Side note! There was a moment in the epilogue where Jocelyn asked Jace to play piano at her wedding that completely unraveled me. We know that Valentine taught Jace music and that Jocelyn expressed the importance of art to her ex husband, so there’s a chance that she was the one who taught Valentine how to play. In asking Jace to play, Jocelyn extended the opportunity to prove to himself that not everything his adoptive father taught him was destructive. Perhaps this is part of the reason Jocelyn grew to like Jace; he exuded the qualities of Valentine that made her fall in love with him and not the ones that made her ex husband a monster . It just made me emotional, ya’ll.

Dude … I love me some good character development and Jace’s is top tier. I just can’t get over it. I will continue crying about it to my husband until he ultimately hides from me to escape my ranting.

Give it up for Simon Lewis

Simon gets a couple big wins in CoHF, and sadly a massive L. 

I really enjoyed Simon’s character, mostly because he wasn’t raised in this world like the Lightwood children and he wasn’t born to be a part of it like Clary; he was thrust into the Shadow World because he loved his best friend so much that he’d do anything to protect her. Then, he was forced to remain a part of it because he was killed and turned into a vampire. Oof. 

Simon’s story is one of suffering and sorrow, but also love, perseverance, loyalty, unwavering bravery and pop culture references. I give this boy credit, because he’s constantly being kicked down by life and he just keeps getting back up. 

I think Simon is the one who feels the pressure of change more heavily than Clary ever did. Clary always had an immediate support group between Jace, Luke, Simon and the other Lightwood children — even when her mother was gone. But Simon is essentially alone. His mother has convinced herself that he’s dead, his sister is away at college, he often can’t follow his Shadowhunter friends due to Clave law, and his fellow vampires want to stake him.

“Maybe it’s not like old times. I would have gotten you pencils usually, art supplies, but you don’t draw anymore, do you, except with your stele? You don’t draw, and I don’t breathe. Not so much like last year.”

Simon to Clary, Page 46

To make matters worse, it’s moments after saying this that Jocelyn tracks them down to drag Clary to the Institute, where Simon can’t go because it’s a church and he is eternally damned. Then the Shadowhunters have to evacuate to Idris, and Simon is left behind with Jordan, his Praetor Lupus protector, by his side and Isabelle’s demon ruby around his neck. Izzy claims the pendant originally came into her family by way of a vampire, which, if true, is an extremely sweet story and gesture. 

The pendant saves Simon’s life when an Endarkened One arrives at his and Jordan’s apartment. Simon survives, but is kidnapped by the New York vamp clan, made into Maureen’s weird romance novel slave, freed by Raphael and dragged to Idris because of his relationship with the Lightwoods may be of use.

He even tells Izzy that the necklace saved him after she snatched it off him for questioning why she went straight to kissing him instead of telling him that she was upset. 

Side note! Alec walks in on Simon and Izzy kissing twice in this book, it killed me both times. It will never not be funny. He doesn’t even tell them that they can’t make out, just don’t do it on his bed or in front of him. I think that’s a reasonable request for a big brother.

I felt so awful for Simon as Izzy emotionally pushed him away simply because he called her out for using him as a distraction instead of talking about her feelings or telling Simon that Clary and Jace ran into battle. To make matters worse, Alec’s parabatai senses are tingling, which means that Jace is hurt and Simon knows that Clary would be with Jace no matter what. But, once again, Simon is forced to stay behind as Izzy coldly throws in his face that it’s Shadowhunters only. 

“Simon wanted to say something to him, wanted to say that his best friend had also gone into the battle and was also missing, wanted to say that he understood. But maybe you could only understand parabatai if you were a Shadowhunter. He doubted Alec would thank him for saying he understood. Rarely had Simon felt so keenly the divide between Nephilim and those who were not Nephilim.”

Simon, Page 193

I think Simon is onto something. Being parabatai is pretty much like being best friends, just with way more risks and responsibilities and a little bit more combat. Simon cares for Clary just as much as Alec does Jace. He would die for her (again) and he’d be destroyed if something were to happen to her. Plus, if we’re counting, Simon and Clary were best friends before Jace even arrived at the Lightwoods. In that moment, Alec acted like his bond with Jace was more important than Simon’s with Clary because he had a rune to show for it. 

Or maybe Alec was just worried about his parabatai and still stunned and sickened after walking in on his sister role playing with Simon to realize that anybody else existed. Can’t blame a guy for that one.

Side note! I legit cackled when Raphael gave Simon the spiked blood that caused him to get tipsy and confess his love for Izzy by screaming outside her family’s home. Then, her father comes out with a crucifix and Simon just plucks it out of his hands because he’s Jewish. It absolutely sent me.

Simon and Alec make amends in Edom after Simon uses his vampire blood to heal Izzy from a demon wound. In exchange for saving his sister’s life, Alec allows Simon to feed on him and gives him the closest thing to a blessing that Alec could muster.

“She’s my little sister. I think she’s too good for everyone. But you — you’re a good person, Simon. Regardless of whether you’re a vampire, too. You’re loyal and you’re smart and you — you make Isabelle happy. I don’t know why, but you do. I know I didn’t like you when I met you. But that changed.”

Alec to Simon, Page 457

Getting on Alec’s good side is a big W for our boy Simon, and the wins just keep on coming. He gets to say ‘I told ya so’ to Jace when the Jonathan Shadowhunter statue with the skeptron turns out to be a trap, just like Simon told him. Then, Simon gets to put his D&D strategy to the test again when Jace approves his plan to kill Endarkened soldiers and wear their clothes to sneak into Sebastian’s fortress.

That’s where the winning ends for Simon. When Asmodeus asks for Magnus’s life, Simon offers his immortality instead.

“I’m only seventeen. If he takes my immortality, I’ll live out my life — I won’t die here. I never wanted immortality, I never wanted to be a vampire, I never wanted any of it.”

Simon, Page 557

However, Simon’s immortality is not enough for the Prince of Hell. Asmodeus also wants all of Simon’s memories of the Shadow World— and Simon willingly pays that price despite his friends’ rebuttals. 

I agree with Izzy, Simon’s fate is far worse than death. With death, you can grieve the person who’s no longer with you, but how do you grieve when the person is alive and well, they simply have no recollection that you ever existed or all the memories you shared? How do you keep moving forward when the first boy you truly loved, your best friend, your loyal companion and your daily annoyance, doesn’t remember who you are? It was painful — way more painful than any death in the series.

Maybe it’s this collective pain that drives Magnus to find a way to help bring Simon back, or perhaps he feels he owes a debt to the mundane-turned-vampire-turned-mundane who saved his life. Turns out the Clave is desperate for Shadowhunters after the Dark War obliterated their forces, and Magnus has a gut feeling that Simon would be a perfect candidate to ascend. He and Izzy give a very confused Simon an absolute baller sales pitch to step back into the Shadow World.

“The world is full of magic. You had magic, but it was taken from you. The idea was that you would live out the rest of your life without it, without remembering it. That you would forget the people you loved, if they knew about magic. That you would spend the rest of your life ordinary. And there’s something to be said for that, for being relieved of the burden of greatness. Because you were great, Simon. You were a Daylighter, a warrior. You saved lives and slew demons, and the blood of angels rocketed through your veins like sunlight.”

Magnus to Simon, Page 610

I loved that Simon was given a choice since he didn’t have one the first time around. He was dragged into and through the Shadow World without his consent and treated like the Nephilim’s lap dog. Now, he gets the option to step into the shadows, and he gets to choose with some warnings about the dangers and without the emotional pull of a best friend pushing him forward. Simon accepts Magnus’s offer based on the gut feeling he’s had of something — and maybe a few someones —  missing from his life. 

Magnus surprised the gang with Simon, who’s slowly regaining some memories, at Luke and Jocelyn’s wedding, and it hurt my heart (in a good way). It was all so touching, from Clary barreling toward him despite Magnus’s warnings that he may still not know who she is, to the way Simon touches the faerie ring on Clary’s finger and says he remembers that she’s his best friend, to how Alec tells Magnus that he doesn’t even want to know what he did but that he’s thankful, and then to Izzy standing at a distance because she’s not quite sure she’s ready to give her broken heart back to the boy she allowed to shatter it by no fault of his own.

Simon does remember Izzy though. He dances with her, tells her that he dreamt of her all those months he was in the dark, and says what has become his catch phrase to Izzy.

“You’re a heartbreaker, Isabelle Lightwood. I remember that much, at least.”

Simon, Page 630

I’m glad that Simon got a decently happy ending. In a story revolving around trained demon slayers and magical beings, Simon consistently came out on top despite tragic circumstances ever since the first book. He shot the skylight out to kill a greater demon, he fought in the war against Valentine, he raised the angel Raziel and got Glorious, he saved Izzy’s life in Edom and sacrificed his immortality and memories to send his friends safely home. Plus, he did it all while cracking jokes and confusing the hell out of Jace with pop culture references, which always made me laugh.

Not bad for a mundane. 

The Epilogue

This is where I’m going to get critical. 

My issue with the epilogue that ends The Mortal Instruments series is the same one I have for the Avengers. I don’t want to have to read 10 other books or watch 300 other movies to fully enjoy a series. I understand if I’m all alone in this sentiment. I know that those who already read all of Cassandra Clare’s books probably loved all the Easter eggs in CoHF’s epilogue. For me, it just made me angry, like when Thor randomly had an eyepatch in Infinity Wars, and my husband had to explain the entire plot of Ragnarok to me. I was heated.

Throughout the entirety of CoHF, we get hints that Brother Zachariah and Tessa Gray have ties to the Herondales, which Tessa confirms in the epilogue.

When Jace visits Zach Attack after the incident at the Citadel, Brother Zachariah tells him that he should’ve expected a Herondale to be the “bringer of my deliverance” and that Jace shouldn’t carry the weight of the world on his shoulders because “it’s too heavy for even a Herondale to bear.”

With this exchange, my guess is that Brother Zachariah’s parabatai was a Herondale and that is why he felt such a strong need to help Jace.

If I’m correct about that notion, then I can take an educated guess and say that Tessa fell in love with that Herondale. I have a few reasons for my thinking. First, we know that Tessa did fall for a Shadowhunter at some point because Magnus tells the story of comforting her after she lost him. Second, both Tessa and Brother Zachariah sit together at the wedding and admire Jace playing the piano and share some sentiments over somebody they lost.

“‘I remember you said this war was a story of Lightwoods and Herondales and Fairchilds, and it is, and Blackthorns and Carstairs as well, and it’s amazing to see them. But when I do, it’s as if I see the past that stretches out behind them. I watch Jace Herondale play, and I see the ghosts that rise up in the music. Don’t you?’

‘Ghosts are memories, and we carry them because those we love do not leave the world.’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I just wish he were here to see this with us, just here with us one more time.’”

Tessa & Brother Zachariah, Page 626-627

Third, Tessa gives Clary a Herondale ring for Jace but doesn’t want to meet him because he looks happy and she doesn’t want to burden him when he’s finally finding peace in who he is. Lastly, Tessa tells Clary outright that her life has always been intertwined with the Herondales. You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to put the pieces together.

Brother Zachariah also has some connection to Emma Carstairs that I clearly don’t know about yet. He plans to go to California to keep an eye on her. Thinking back on it, Emma tells Jace that her father said that the Carstairs owe the Herondales. How far does the debt go back? There’s a chance that the Herondale that was Brother Zachariah’s parabatai is the one that the Carstairs’ owe a debt for. 

I’m starting to feel like the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia meme, so I’m going to put away my red thread and corkboard and hope my questions all get answered when I read The Infernal Devices.

Now that it’s all off my chest, I’m not as mad as I was when reading. Mostly because the TID books are already sitting on my headboard waiting to be read. A couple friends told me that those books will rip my heart straight out of my chest and step all over it. I can’t wait.

Side note! Brother Zachariah straight up steals Church, the Lightwood’s cat that lives with them in the Institute. Is Church his cat? Is Church immortal? Will the Lightwood children just accept that Brother Zachariah stole their cat? WTF my guy, you can’t just show up and steal the family pet!

End of Part 2

This became way longer than I expected (what’s new?). To avoid making this any longer than it already is, I’ll be putting together my final review of the entire series in a brief separate post. 

Overall, I thought City of Heavenly Fire was a decent finale for the series, even though it doesn’t feel like the end of these characters’ stories. If there weren’t sequels, I’d probably feel differently about the loose ends; especially with Emma and the Blackthorn family. Clare packed so much into this book that I often thought certain moments came from City of Lost Souls while writing this post because it felt like they happened an eternity ago. All this action made for a quick-paced novel that made me laugh out loud, cry my eyes out and stay up late into the night thinking about these characters and how they stole my heart. I didn’t like it as much as I did CoLS, but it’s probably my No. 2 choice. 

Bonus Quotes

“I’m a warrior. I was brought up a warrior. I didn’t have toys, I had weapons. I slept with a wooden sword until I was five. My first books were medieval demonologies with illuminated pages. The first songs I learned were chants to banish demons. I know what brings me peace, and it isn’t sand beaches or chirping birds in rainforests. I want a weapon in my hand and a strategy to win.”

Jace to Jordan, Page 33

“Don’t you ever think that the whole parabatai business is rather cruel? You can choose your parabatai, but then you can never unchoose them. Even if they turn on you. Look at Luke and Valentine. And though your parabatai is the closest person in the world to you in some ways, you can’t fall in love with them. And if they die, some part of you dies too.”

Magnus to Jace, Page 49

“Heroes aren’t always the ones who win. They’re the ones who lose, sometimes. But they keep fighting, they keep coming back. They don’t give up. That’s what makes them heroes.”

Clary to Emma, Page 91

“Here we are, back in Alicante, back in a war, and there sits my daughter with blood on her face and a Morgenstern blade in her hands.”

Jocelyn, Page 202

“Because that which was new was almost always temporary. And that which was temporary broke your heart.”

Magnus, Page 233

“When I asked you why you agreed to it, you said it was because I needed someone to look after me. You were right. I never thought about it again, because I never had to. I had you, and you’ve always looked after me. Always.”

Jace to Alec, Page 275

“Don’t look at me,’ said Jace. ‘My adoptive father was a mass murderer. And I still worried about what he thought. It’s what we’re programmed to do. Your dad always seemed great in comparison.’

‘Sure, he likes you,’ said Alec. ‘You’re heterosexual and have low expectations of father figures.’

‘I think they’ll probably put that on my gravestone.’”

Alec & Jace, Page 392

“Hope is all that keeps us going sometimes, biscuit.” (Magnus, Page 548)

Magnus to Clary, Page 548

“We might not have that much time. I’ll get old and I’ll die. But I promise I won’t leave until then. It’s the only promise I can make.”

Alec to Magnus, Page 624