My rating: 2 of 5 stars

When I read City of Bones, the first book in this series, I was unimpressed but still interested in the story enough to pursue the series. It took months for me to pick up the second book, which I only did then because my husband read City of Bones and actually liked it. Neither of us appreciated City of Ashes, though. If it were up to me, I’d stop reading the series right here, if my husband hadn’t already purchased the third installment, City of Glass. So I’ll read that one, too, eventually. But unless City of Glass GREATLY exceeds the standards set by these first two books, I will be done with Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments.

The problem is that Clare has developed an interesting world, but she’s put next to no depth into her main character, and even less into her presentation. Jace is the only character who deserves any empathy, and even his descriptions are repetitious to the point that they’ve become predictable and boring. If I have to read one more time that his golden eyes are like a lion’s or that his blond hair looks like a halo in the light, I will throw the next book across the room.

In addition, not much happened in City of Ashes. The plot could have been summed up in a much shorter book. And the delivery was so uninteresting- despite the potentially interesting events therein- that the book put me to sleep almost every night I tried to read it. I don’t mean, of course, that I read it until I was so exhausted I fell asleep against my will. No, I fell asleep after a page, maybe two, when I hadn’t even been tired.

That being said, I am still, oddly enough, looking forward to Clare’s Infernal Devices series, because I’m intrigued by the setting. I’m giving her a lot of chances here. If Clockwork Angel is “bleh,” I’ll be seriously disappointed and yet somehow unsurprised.

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