Shadowhunters Saturday – City of Ashes

We are back for another Shadowhunter Saturday! Where Ellie (Read to Ramble) and I are discussing our journey through the world of the Shadowhunters! If you missed our announcement you can find all the details about this collaboration Here or if you are interested in our thoughts on City of Bones

The first section is my spoiler free mini review of what I thought of the book followed by my interview of Ellie and her Thoughts. If you would like to see my answers to the interview questions and Ellie’s mini review you can find it one her blog Here.

The Inquisitor arresting Jace

Ellie: This was quite surprising, for once, I didn’t think the Inquisitor was a sort of character that I expected to be bad or do something like arrest Jace. I was more surprised by everyone standing by and letting him be taken to the Silent City, I was surprised by Maryse’s attitude, she has known Jace for the past 7 years and suddenly now she only sees Valentine in him. I did think the Inquisitor had an ulterior motive or was blinded by something though.

The death of the silent Brothers

Ellie: No way did I expect this. The whole time Jace was being arrested, taken to the Silent City and locked in a cell, I was really surprised, and then when the Silent Brothers started dropping and Valentine turned up I was really shocked. I was afraid they would say it was Jace’s fault and at this point, I was starting to wonder if Cassandra Clare was going to turn the whole thing around and kill all the characters off. The Silent Brothers seemed immortal and un-killeable to me, so I was not expecting them to just basically drop dead, and when you find out they died of fear, I was even more surprised because as mind manipulator type people, I was expecting them to be able to face fear down or something, lol, I read too many books where things turn out good at the end I think.

The Clary/Jace Kissing At the Fairy court

Ellie: This was another WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING moment. A) I was really annoyed for Simon and I would have stormed off like he did too. B) I know Clary and Jace had to kiss to get out of the Seelie court, but seriously, I think they both enjoyed it a bit too much, and I’m still fairly shocked about the whole brother-sister situation. Even though Cassandra Clare writes some really yucky plot twists, I did think “wow, what is going to happen next”, she does have a bit of a shock factor, but it keeps you reading!

Simon is a Vampire

Ellie: This was one of the most unbelievable things I’ve read in a book, not that I didn’t believe it was true, but more like wondering how on earth it actually happened and where it all suddenly came from. You know how when you read books and something bad happens and you shrug it off and think it will all turn out fine, well, that was not one of these moments, I was expecting someone to say “lol, only joking” and for Simon to be human again, but the fact that he wasn’t and was now suddenly a vampire I found really strange, but also really great, even though I kept thinking “poor Simon”. My thoughts don’t make sense, but this has been whirling around in my head for the past week and I’m still not over it aha!

Jace visits Valentine/arrested again

Ellie: We have to admit that when you tell a character not to do something, they’re going to go and do it. I knew Jace was going to go back to Valentine, but I was surprised that afterwards, he didn’t take his deal. I think that after Jace nearly went through the Portal to Idris with Valentine in City of Bones, I always expected him to inevitably betray Clary, Isabelle and Alec and go back with Valentine, but I was pleasantly surprised that he stood up to him – even though he shouldn’t have gone to visit him in the first place.

Clary and Jace have special powers

Ellie: Cool plot twist! I hadn’t really thought about any of the things that happened and that Clary and Jace accomplished – and this makes me think that there are still things about them that we don’t know or that Valentine is hiding. Obviously, there will be something about HOW Valentine gave them special powers, and I think that just before the Inquisitor got killed on the boat, she said something to Jace which is going to resurface either in City of Glass or a future book, and I’m really intrigued to know what, apparently it’s something to do with a scar on Jace’s shoulder. I wonder when/if Clary’s mother is going to wake up, if she will be aware of what Valentine did to them, and if she did why she didn’t say something before? I think there is still potentially a lot to come out of this.

Simon captured by Valentine

Ellie: I completely forgot that Valentine had to go after a Vampire for the Ritual to change the Soul-Sword, so when he broke into Simon’s house and kidnapped him, I was quite surprised. I was expecting Simon to fight back a bit, you know “super strength” and everything else about Vampires, I think the whole kidnapping thing happened a bit too seamlessly, but I thought Valentine had already got what he needed so I was surprised that he captured Simon. It feels like everything he does is to go against Clary and Jace and to bring them to him, so it would make sense, but I didn’t think about it at all.

The fight against Valentine 

Ellie: I’ve read so many battles in fantasy books, and I actually found this one a bit underwhelming. I was expecting more casualties, or more OMG reactions from myself while I was reading, but it was almost like everything was happening in slow-motion, either because I was reading ridiculously slow for once, or because it was all a bit uneventful. I still haven’t really grasped the whole amazing hype behind these books yet, I do get it, they are addictive and the plot twists are really surprising, but I don’t think that the battles have been all that amazing YET (I hope it will get more deadly and end-of-the-world-esque in future books). It is only the second book out of 20 in the same world, so it’s not surprising it’s still fairly docile and it actually might just be a case of me and my high expectations anyway. But, long story short, I was more surprised by how it ended, I sort of knew Valentine was going to get away as I feel like there is more to him and what he has done to Clary and Jace, but I didn’t expect Clary to explode the whole boat to pieces.

Simon and the sun

Ellie: By this point, Simon had died, become a Vampire, got kidnapped by Valentine, been drained of his blood and sort of died again (or died more should I say), and then was revived by Jace’s blood, so by this point I thought “Is this it?” I was starting to panic because Clare had gone through all that and Simon surviving multiple times and for him to just died from the sun would have been like ARGH – I was very frustrated by this point, but!!!!! Then I wasn’t expecting him to be okay, and even in the epilogue I was like “What???”. Valentine said something about Jace and how he shouldn’t have given Simon his blood so I was a bit sceptical and frankly lost at this point. I could have been super angry if Clare had just killed Simon with the sun after he went through all that, so I’m glad he didn’t actually get burned right there in the truck-bed, on the river after the battle and the boat exploding and everyone being okay aha!!

Epilogue – break up/ Jace+Clary/ Jocelyn

Ellie: I did not expect this! I didn’t think that Simon and Clary were still actually together after all the events of the book, and then he was like “baby” and 3 seconds later he is breaking up with her? Gah, this book has given us so many plot twists in such few chapters that I was just screaming inside my head at this point. Have you ever seen that picture of that girl screaming her head off? That’s what it was like inside my head. 

Then, Clary was off to see Jace and to tell him she loved him and wanted to be with him (I suspect this is what she was going to see him for) and frankly, I’m getting annoyed at how hard Clare is pushing this incest thing. Valentine did a long monologue where he was explaining how mundanes and Shadowhunters/Downworlders are all different, and that their laws and customs are different, how mundanes will create enemies just for the sake of it and that Shadowhunters don’t see things in the same way, but I still don’t think all that explains why we need to have these two sibling teenagers fall in love and be together, like, that’s just yuck, not amused by this! So, I am sort of glad that Jace completely pushed her away, BUT, I know this won’t be the last of their relationship we see, so I expect there will be more yucky moments to come. 

And FINALLY, Jocelyn! Again, I thought that they ALL forgot about Clary and Jace’s mum being in hospital and in a coma, they went to see her and talked about her at the start but then they all went off to fight Valentine, so I thought that she was just forgotten about. I dropped the book at one point and opened it to that page and saw the last sentence (I got very annoyed at myself at that point), so I knew what was coming, but when it happened and Madeleine said that Jocelyn did it to herself and only she could reverse it, I was surprised. I feel like this book is all shock factor and plot twists that can’t be anything else than surprising, but this was one plot twist where I thought “ooooooooh!!”.

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If you want to read my answers to the questions and read Ellie’s mini review you can find them all on Ellie’s Blog Read To Ramble

We also would love to know what you thought. If you have read City of bones let us know your answers to the questions! and come discuss the world of the shadow hunters in the comments!

I would love to chat all things bookish with you! You can comment down below or find me on Twitter or Goodreads!

Happy Reading!