The Ninja Reader

Sweetheart, it's not you, it's me...Oh, wait, wrong conversation bubble.Although, in some ways...Okay, here's the thing. City of Glass... isn't that bad. There, I said it. Say what you will about Cassandra Clare, she paces her novels very nicely. And she sure as hell makes us care for her characters. Alec and Magnus alone are enough to skyrocket this book into the list of the cutest couples in YA... ever. Right up there with Alona and Will from "The Ghost and the Goth", and Esme and Rowie from "Sister Mischief". I loved them, I loved them, I loved them both! The darlings.Also, this installment is really good, wrapping up the story from the other two books in a conclusion that is not only satisfying, but open-ended enough to leave readers guessing.So, by all rights, this should be a very good book, well deserving a four star rating. Yeah, like I said, maybe it's just me...But goddamn it, if there was ever an epic Dumbass in Distress, it has to be Clary! I know she's our protagonist and its her job to evolve with the books and make mistakes, but this is just ridiculous. Maybe I could have bought her cluelessness in the first two books, since she was new to the whole Shadowhunter/Downworlder thing and she didn't know, but she has seen her best friend get turned into a rat! And then into a vampire! And she nearly got caught in the Seelie court!She should have learned her lesson, is all I'm saying. Don't rush headlong into something you don't have a full grasp on. If it weren't for Luke (and Jace, and Simon, and nearly every other person in the book), she would have died because she wouldn't sit down for two minutes to think things through. (In fact, she reminds me of a certain Harrietta Potter, and the less said about that, the better). I'm really baffled whenever Clare says that Clary is a kickass heroine. It's not that she isn't a heroine in her own right, but her involvement in the story is just too little, and it comes too late. If you spend most of a book getting pushed around, letting the men around you do all the work, it's hard to think of you as an independant, strong heroine.Jace, you bloody drama queen, I actually agreed with you the first time you told Clary off!And Max... don't get me started on Max. Clare is almost as bad as Rowling in that aspect.All in all, it's a good book, but nothing spectacular. Don't think I'll be picking up Fallen Angels, even out of morbid curiosity.