City of Heavenly Fire: An epic ending to The Mortal Instruments series, or was the author in a hurry to finish it?
I knew Cassandra Clare wrote Harry Potter fan fiction, and I eagerly bought City of Bones back in 2007. I was very happy with my new-found series: Ginny Weasley lived through Clary, although this time her love interest is none other than the obnoxious Draco Malfoy through Jace. Don’t get me wrong – I love this version of Draco – but what I loved the most about the series is the fact that CC was able to play with her characters, make them develop until I fell in love with them. From Jocelyn Fray transitioning from a weird, overprotective mother, to a woman wise enough to hide the Mortal Cup in a drawing, to Simon, the adorable best friend turning to a vampire, and more. I love, love, love the characters.
It wasn’t the love story, mind you. The series started very promising. A young girl found out that she’s a member of a secret world and she’s off slaying demons. It couldn’t be helped that she fell in love with a perfect man (Why do writers have to do this? Do they actually expect all girls to find perfect Adonis-es walking around every day?), obnoxious and rude that he is. Aside from the love story however, there is a serious plot. Characters are being developed, and with their every failure they seem more and more human, until it reaches the point that you can actually reach out and embrace them, be friends with them in real life.
For me, TMI series stands for a light, happy read. True, there are battle scenes and complex plots (I cannot forget my friends’ bemused expressions when I tried to explain that Clary loves Jace but they are siblings only to backtrack after reading the third book and how frustrated I was and, well, okay, I’ll stop), but for me it didn’t require heavy thinking. What it required though was an open mind for a world of unknown, where warlocks and fairies are present, but there are no death eaters. Or wait, there are death eaters. Just in another word and form.
This gushing and love for the series being explained, you can probably imagine my glee when I finally got my hands on City of Heavenly Fire, the expected conclusion to the epic, happy series that spanned seven years. I was excited, exchanging frantic Oh-My-God moments with fellow readers, when I suddenly realized that the book is over. What’s that, you say? CC disappointed me big time.
I felt like CC wanted to wrap everything in a pretty ribbon and give us the ending we wanted for Harry Potter (Dumbledore! *sobs*) – a happy, mess-free ending. CoHF ended happily ever after, with all the couples reconciled and looking forward to a new feature. It turned the epic adventure to a *cringe* love story, for crying out loud. To top it off, the first half of the series was going along smoothly, pat down to CC’s usual style and phase. Then all of a sudden, the moment the characters crossed over the fairy land, it’s as if CC suddenly pressed the fast-forward button and pushed everybody to their destination. Of course, she had to hit pause to give Clary and Jace a love scene, spoiled by the fact that she added a condom to the mix (Really? You’re off to kill evil Sebastian and you pack a condom when you know you can’t even touch your girlfriend because of the heavenly fire cursing through your veins? This was a pathetic addition.).
At the end of the series, I felt seriously robbed. It just felt too… insignificant, as if all my emotional investment to the series wasn’t deserving. Perhaps I’ve been reading too much A Song of Ice and Fire, but at the end of CoHF, all I could think of was how the epic adventure I loved for seven years turned to a fairy tale, complete with the happy ending.
Even The Infernal Devices had a better ending, in comparison with TMI’s hurried ending.
4 stars
🙂 written by: Ellie Peaches Pants🙂
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