City of Fallen Angels (Mortal Instruments, Book 4) [Hardcover]

Cassandra Clare (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 5, 2011 | Series: Mortal Instruments (Book 4)

Don’t miss The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, soon to be a major motion picture in theaters August 2013.

The Mortal War is over, and sixteen-year-old Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her. She's training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power. Her mother is getting married to the love of her life. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last. And—most importantly of all—she can finally call Jace her boyfriend.

But nothing comes without a price.

Someone is murdering Shadowhunters, provoking tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters that could lead to a second, bloody war. Clary's best friend, Simon, can't help her. His mother just found out that he's a vampire and now he's homeless. Everywhere he turns, someone wants him on their side—along with the power of the curse that's wrecking his life. And they're willing to do anything to get what they want. Not to mention that he's dating two beautiful, dangerous girls—neither of whom knows about the other one.

When Jace begins to pull away from her without explaining why, Clary is forced to delve into the heart of a mystery whose solution reveals her worst nightmare: she herself has set in motion a terrible chain of events that could lead to her losing everything she loves. Even Jace.

Love. Blood. Betrayal. Revenge. The stakes are higher than ever in City of Fallen Angels.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Many familiar characters make an appearance, including some from Clockwork Angel . . . The cliff-hanger close will leave series fans clamoring for more." --Booklist

About the Author

Cassandra Clare made her fiction debut with The Mortal Instruments series, which has been on many bestseller lists. Cassandra lives in an old Victorian house in western Massachusetts with her fiancé, their cats, and lots and lots of books. Visit her website at CassandraClare.com. Learn more about The Mortal Instruments series at MortalInstruments.com. Learn about her new trilogy The Infernal Devices at TheInfernalDevices.com.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books; First Edition edition (April 5, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1442403543
• ISBN-13: 978-1442403543
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (663 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,682 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #86 in Books > Teens > Horror

More About the Author

Cassandra Clare is the author of City of Bones, the first book in the Mortal Instruments trilogy and a New York Times bestseller. She was born overseas and spent her early years traveling around the world with her family and several trunks of books. Cassandra lives in Brooklyn with her boyfriend, their two cats, and these days, even more books.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#26 Overall (See top 100 authors)

#2 in Books > Teens

#26 in Books

#33 in Kindle eBooks

#2 in Books > Teens

#26 in Books

#33 in Kindle eBooks

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

180 of 190 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars fine line between love and hate April 13, 2011

By lovespell

Format:Hardcover

if you are anything like me then about a year ago or so you closed the cover of city of glass and placed it on your shelf with a satisfied sigh. It was a good ending to a great trilogy. For the next few months you would touch the books fondly as you passed by your bookshelf, reminiscing about the world clare had created. Then one day you heard the impossible, maybe from a friend, bookseller, or book review...there would be a fourth mortal instruments book "But i thought...!", you exclaim. Well, you thought wrong! Cassandra was indeed adding a fourth, fifth, and sixth installment to the beloved series. Your heart raced and your fingers twitched just thinking about it. So when that fateful day came you ran to the bookstore and grabbed the book. You went home, opened it and began devouring the pages. Except..you couldn't. Two days passed And you were only fifty pages in. Hmm how peculiar, usually you would have finished the entire book in one sitting. But this story was different. It didn't captivate you like the others had. Sure Simon was just as endearing as always. But the others. Well you just had the overwhelming desire to strangle them. Much like Jace did with Clary, in fact. Which you might add was rather annoying. Couldn't they just be together without any problems?! Jace had a completely different voice in this book. Gone were his witty banter and endearing arrogant nature. Sure, he had his moments. But most of the time he was in the corner brooding. Last time you checked twilight was still sitting on your shelf.... OH and the ending, Dear God. Way to take a hard earned twenty dollars and flush it down the toilet cassandra Clare! Why can't dead characters stay dead! move on! we are tired of living in the past! overall, this was not what i expected from one of the best book series i've ever read. Sure, ill read the next one. But i won't be expecting much...

145 of 163 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't decide whether I hated or loved it April 6, 2011

By M

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I just finished the book, and haven't decided whether I hated it or loved it. I'm giving it 3 stars because I was hooked, and that counts for something.
I just want to say I was highly anticipating this book, I read all the sneak peeks on the site, all the bonus chapters, everything. And they all made me even more excited to read it. I feel a little bit cheated, it was like the best bits in the book were taken and became the 'sneak peaks'... and what I assumed would be emotionally-charged scenes ended up being a very small portion of it.
I'll try to keep spoilers out of this review.
I read the first chapter on Cassandra Clare's site, and the second chapter at the back of 'City of Glass'. They were easily the best chapters of the book. I didn't enjoy the scenes after that-Clary's dialogue was choppy, very out- of character. She shifted back into the Clary we know and love from the first few books somewhere in the middle of the story. I also disliked the Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde thing Jace has going on, I swear at the end of one chapter he's telling Clary he loves her and at the beginning of the next he's avoiding her. I was looking forward to the Clary-Jace scenes, but 60% of them involved Clary whining about him not returning his calls and Jace repeatedly trying to convince her that he loves her, but can't be near her. Why can't this couple be left alone? I assumed at the end of the last book that they'd uncover some dark secret of their past, why Clary was the 'wrong person' to fall in love with. Maybe they will in one of the next two books but their relationship was mainly Jace and Clary pining after one another from a distance. Oh, and their final scenes in this book were so sickeningly 'been there, done that'. I used to love Jace's character, because his snarkiness and dark sense of humor made for some interesting dialogue. I figured with Valentine dead he wouldn't be whining about how he was a monster, and didn't deserve Clary etc. But of course Clare found a way to incorporate that into this book, too. The ending frustrating me immensely, I won't spoil it but I wish dead characters would stay dead.
I almost wish that the series had ended at City of Glass, but I don't regret reading this, it gave some insight into the other characters (not enough Alec-Magnus, they only really were featured in the last half of the book, pity). But it was interesting reading from Simon's point of view. I found Simon a very dull character previously, he's a little more three dimensional to me now. I expected a bit more drama with Maia-Isobel, but I guess what was in the book was sufficient. I really enjoyed Isabel in this book, and her relationship with Simon is definitely not what I expected. Some new surprise characters turned up, and were pretty cleverly played out. This book seems to be setting the stage for the last two, which will hopefully live up to City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass.
From the sneak peeks I also expected some more Simon and his mother scenes, him opening up to his mom. Well, I got once scene and it was partially covered in the sneak-peek.
Many elements in the book were picked up and dropped quite suddenly. Things like Jocelyn and Luke's wedding, (did they even get to it, in the book? It's not clear) were brought up when Cassandra Clare needed to fill in empty space. The Seelie Queen's appearance was confusing and just didn't fit with the rest of the book. There are some clear cliffhangers that will be resolved in the next book I assume, but all they did here was slow down the plot. The difference between this and something J.K Rowling writes is that you read through the books, and things that you just read through in the first book reappears in the seventh, but not in an obvious way, and you could hardly imagine it would somehow make it's way back into the plot. In City of Fallen Angels it's very, very obvious.
This book definitely did not live up to my expectations (which, granted, were pretty high), but it was Cassandra Clare and somehow she makes you believe it's all real. There were some enjoyable Jace lines, some enjoyable Isabel scenes. I'm glad I read it, but can't help feeling some disappointment. Not as much re-reading potential as the rest of the series.

51 of 58 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Unnecessary Sequel June 14, 2011

By Kaily Neels

Format:Hardcover

This book is obviously an attempt to revive a series that has already been concluded and resolved in order for the author and the publisher to make a predictable buck from Cassandra Claire's fans. I just wish the novel hadn't made that fact so obvious.

Simon being made into the main character was a mistake. He doesn't have a strong enough personality to carry a book. He has no drive, and no real goals except for his constant whining about being a vampire. I was even more annoyed with him because of his continual immoral and irresponsible behavior in this book. He kept causing himself trouble by being inconsiderate and stupid. I also thought that he could have been used more as some sort of fighting character. He's practically invincible, and yet he never really fights in the book. He stands there while others try to hurt him and fail.

Jace had his moments. Fans love Jace because of his rude sarcastic exterior hiding a decent, angst filled, brooding guy. But at the end of City of Glass, he got his happy ending, and therefore had no more reason to be angst filled or guilty. Claire quickly tries to remedy this by attempting to bring back Jace's self-loathing and perception of unworthiness, but it feels forced and poorly motivated. It's not until late in the book that Jace's reasons for being filled with guilt and shame seem reasonable, but by then I was too annoyed by his earlier ridiculous guilt to feel better about it.

The end of the book was the best part in my opinion. The action was decent, and the resolution well set up. But overall I was dissapointed by City of Fallen Angels. I had to force myself to finish this book, and I haven't had to force myself with anything else of Claire's so far.