Hello, hello!
We are in the final stages of this book! I have 200 pages of reading in each class on average per week but my god we are going to finish this.
Fairy has just pulled the cup out of the tarot card, and apparently no one is impressed:
Clary looked at the Cup in her hand. It was the size, perhaps, of an ordinary wineglass, only much heavier. Power thrummed through it, like blood through living veins. “It’s a perfectly nice size,” she said indignantly.
“Oh, it’s big enough,” he said patronizingly, “but somehow I was expecting something… you know.”
Yes, please continue to bicker about things completely unrelated to the plot. But anyway, I’m highlighting that because it comes directly before possibly the dumbest comparison I’ve seen in this book so far:
He gestured with his hands, indicating something roughly the size of a house cat.
Everyone, please picture a housecat.
You know how we’re all picturing different sizes? That’s why it’s not a good idea to use something like that for a comparison.
“It’s the Mortal Cup, Jace, not the Mortal Toilet Bowl,” said Isabelle.
Ye....es, because that’s a similar thing.
So I guess Dorothea has been Imperius’ed or whatever, and she’s all “You’re leaving? So soon? Here, LET ME OPEN THE GATES OF HELL FOR YOU.”
I’m paraphrasing but you get the gist.
Dorothea turns into
I have praised CC’s writing of action scenes once before and I will do it again—when she’s not drenching her writing in purple prose, she has a knack for fast-paced description.
But of course:
“Give me,” it said, in a voice like the wind blowing trash across empty pavement,
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| you all have katy perry stuck in your heads now. you're welcome. |
It’s a huge demon and so naturally Jace just mouths off to it, because he’s way too cool for school, and they begin to battle, where we’re treated to phrases like this:
It howled and struck at him, knocking him aside the way a cat might bat aside a kitten.
Even I'm not this obsessed with cats.
It injures Isabelle and Alec, and then moves for Fairy, and everyone rushes to protect her, and then Simon rushes in to save them all I guess?
she saw Simon standing in the open doorway. Simon. She had forgotten he was outside, had almost forgotten he existed
Forgot About Dre: 37845789290484784
At what point does Simon stop being a character and start being a plot device for Fairy and CC to conveniently forget and remember in order to deus ex machina their way out of everything?
Simon actually does save the day because the demon is secretly a vampire and can’t be in the sunlight without dying, so he shatters the skylight with the bow and arrow Alec left behind and the demon dies.
Then she zipped the Mortal Cup into the pocket of her hoodie and got to her feet.
I’m gonna call bullshit since you referred to it as about the size of a regular wine glass, which would definitely not fit into a pocket. This sounds more like an egg cup.
Alec has been poisoned and they can’t heal him in time to save him. They all load into the car to try and get him back to the Institute and Jace says this:
“Drive fast, mundane,” he said. “Drive like hell was following you.”
Which, I get the sentiment, but I can’t help but laugh because all I can hear is:
“Drive fast so we all die and not just Alec. That’s the logical thing to do.”
I can’t really explain exactly what happened to Dorothea, so I’ll let them explain it for you:
“The demon possessed her, then hid the majority of its ethereal form just outside the Portal, where the Sensor wouldn’t register it. So we went in expecting to fight a few Forsaken. Instead we found ourselves facing a Greater Demon. Abbadon—one of the Ancients. The Lord of the Fallen.”Clear as mud? Awesome.
They arrive at the institute and rush Alec into Hodge’s care, but Simon and Fairy hang back so he can be worried about her and she can have survivor’s guilt.
“Not a scratch. Everyone else got hurt, but not me.”
THANKS FOR THE HELP SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE FAIRY.
Church met her at the top of the stairs, yowling like a foghorn
Er, maybe CC has never actually met a cat. That’s why she’s so confused about their size and their regular behaviour.
Fairy runs into Jace outside of the infirmary, and it’s very ‘YEAH YEAH WHATEVER ALEC ISN’T DOING GOOD MORE ABOUT WHAT STAR-CROSSED LOVERS WE ARE’. Jace is really torn up about the fact that he loves our special snowflake heroine, which is such a turn-on. I love when men are upset that they love me.
I also love when they kind of roundabout blame me for their problems:
“So tell me, if you’re so sure this wasn’t my fault, why is it that the first thought in my mind when I saw Abbadon wasn’t for my fellow warriors but for you?”
Hodge comes out and tells them that he cannot heal Alec, that he must send for The Silent Brothers, and they all return to the library.
And this is where I must admit CC did pull a nice plot twist off. I’m still not sure if it qualifies as one when you don’t lay any groundwork for it and then pretend like we should have known all along, but this was certainly an interesting one and I tip my hat to her.
“I do not work for Valentine,” said Hodge. He lifted Jace’s hand and drew something from it. It was the engraved ring Jace always wore. Hodge slipped it onto his own finger. “But I am Valentine’s man, it is true.”
Voldentine makes his appearance in the library, and it all becomes confusing again. I would’ve thought that the appearance of one of the most feared Clave members would be a lot more dramatic, but he just appears casually and walks over to Hodge. He’s even wearing a suit for crying out loud.
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| no? just me that thought of this? |
Hodge appears to be bartering with Voldentine about the cup, saying he’ll only give it up once Voldentine does what he promised.
Pause for this:
letting out his breath with a hissing gasp.
Resume:
Voldentine placed a curse on Hodge wherein he can’t leave the Institute (I think?) without... dying or something, and he placed it on Hodge because of something Jace’s family did. So he hands over the cup and Voldentine lifts the curse, but not before running off with Jace:
For a moment he himself seemed to shimmer, as if he stood underwater. Then he vanished, taking Jace with him.
I’m going to point out that this whole interaction took place while Fairy was in the room, and she did and said nothing, and Voldentine didn’t fucking look at her or talk to her or notice her, even though we know (and so does she!) that she’s his daughter.
Like, on what planet would somebody (a murderous, evil somebody) walk into a room and not immediately assess who was in it with him and whether or not they were a threat?
This book, man. It’s like one step forward and five million thousand steps back.
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