City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare: A Bad Book Break-up

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

Published April 5th 2011 by Margaret K. McElderry
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From Goodreads: City of Fallen Angels takes place two months after the events of City of Glass. In it, a mysterious someone’s killing the Shadowhunters who used to be in Valentine’s Circle and displaying their bodies around New York City in a manner designed to provoke hostility between Downworlders and Shadowhunters, leaving tensions running high in the city and disrupting Clary’s plan to lead as normal a life as she can — training to be a Shadowhunter, and pursuing her relationship with Jace. As Jace and Clary delve into the issue of the murdered Shadowhunters, they discover a mystery that has deeply personal consequences for them — consequences that may strengthen their relationship, or rip it apart forever.

Meanwhile, internecine warfare among vampires is tearing the Downworld community apart, and only Simon — the Daylighter who everyone wants on their side — can decide the outcome; too bad he wants nothing to do with Downworld politics. Love, blood, betrayal and revenge: the stakes are higher than ever in City of Fallen Angels.

Dear City of Fallen Angels,
     The old adage "This is going to hurt me far more than it's going to hurt you," doesn't really apply here and if the truth imparted in the following letter brings you any discomfort, know that you have only yourself to blame. The only fault that I will admit to being entirely my own, is the fact that when I first met The Mortal Instruments, I was on the rebound and in rehab for my Twilight addiction and I perhaps fought for our relationship to be of stronger stuff than it would have been if left to run its natural course. The initial book lust and longing I felt for you has faded now. Where I was (at first) glamored and in awe of you, I now find I can't stand to stomach your presence any longer. That's harsh, I know, but I realize now that our entire relationship has been based on lies and deceit and yeah, I feel a bit cheated.
     When a helpful B&N employee and a Goodreads list (a friend that I have always trusted) suggested that City of Bones and I get together, I agreed because I was lonely and I was looking to get over a previously failed book relationship. So I agreed to a book date. We went out. We read. Things got hot and heavy and one thing lead to another and I bought your sequel. Things were great. They even got quasi-serious and I jumped head first into the entire series. I let you move in. I gave you your own shelf and a bookmark. You were so good looking, as a trilogy, with your shiny, flashy covers.
     Not that we didn't have some tough times. There was the whole possible incest thing- that was tough but we worked through it. Then there was that time when you were going through some sort of mid-series crisis and thought you were the you from a past life, a prequel of sorts. Even that was tolerable as it at least kept things interesting.
     I was hooked, hung up on you like a love sick teenager- which I know now was your goal. You planned it. It was all part of your marketing. But I would have continued to buy it. I would have stayed sold on you if you hadn't done something so horrible I don't even like to think about it.
     You changed. You're not the wonderful, thrill ride fantasy that I knew back in 2009. You've become this shallow, boring, vapid vessel and I don't even recognize you. What's worse, is that you are so emphatic about your new "greatness" that I've begun to realize that you must have been acting all along. You never really cared. You never were the wonderful series that I thought you were, else how...how could you do this to me? To us?
     The whole thing sickens me. I stayed until the end, I gave you as much of an opportunity as I could to redeem yourself and in the end, you didn't deserve it and you don't deserve me.
     So this is goodbye. I'd like to think that my leaving you would affect you, but you're so caught up in your own hype that I truthfully don't think you'd even notice, which makes this just that much easier. I'm deleting your sequels from my TBR and I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't try to call or text.
     And oh yeah, that part were I said you were one of the best YA series I'd ever read and no other book affected me the way you did? I was faking it.

It's not me, it's you,
-Laura

P.S.

I haven't been horrible to a book in a VERY long time so you're not allowed to yell at me. I'm entitled to a breakdown and a bout of bad blogger behavior every now and then. I realize it's taboo to criticize this book right now, but I couldn't find one single thing I liked about it. Not one. And I really, really did try. The writing was atrocious, rushed and repetitive. Not a page went by where someone wasn't describing the current color/state of someone else's eyes. With absolutely NO segue, two main characters have suddenly broken up. I mean together and happy, turn the page and we get unexplained despair. Jace was turned into the biggest PUSS ever, making it hard to believe he was ever once considered the hero. I couldn't even enjoy Magnus and Alec's relationship (I had adored Magnus and the idea of the two of them together) since the author found it amusing to suddenly portray Alec as a raging drag show bitch queen. The hastily thrown together demon/vampire mix of a plot line totally shit on the world and lore I felt was carefully crafted in the previous books and Clary just whined and whined, OH DEAR GOD HOW SHE WHINED.

So yeah.