City of Ashes, Chapter 5: This time, with almost no incest!

All right you nerds let’s get into this next chapter.

I want to commend CC for some top-notch writing at the beginning of this next chapter. I mean obviously she still over explains everything and spends a lot of time detailing things I don’t really care about, but she did a really good job making the reader feel frightened and in the dark here.

actual footage of me reading this passage

Jace is in the prisons in the Silent City, shackled to a bar so he has restricted movement. He begins to feel terror in the darkness, and then starts hearing screaming. Eventually one of the Silent Brothers falls dead before him:

The light was fading rapidly, but by [the torch’s] waning glow he could see Jeremiah’s dead face turned toward him, blood still leaking from his open mouth. His teeth were gnarled black stubs.

Jace’s chest felt as if something heavy were pressed against it. The Silent Brothers never opened their mouths, never spoke or laughed or screamed. But that had been the sound Jace had heard, he was sure of it now—the screams of men who hadn’t cried out in half a century.

So, yeah. That’s some solid frickin’ writing right there. It tells me just enough to keep me in suspense but not so much that I feel like the author is trying to hit me over the head like ‘HEY! THIS IS SCARY. BE SCARED!’

Jace (stupidly) decides to break a wrist bone to try and lunge for the torch that fell from Jeremiah’s hands. He’s honestly the most overdramatic male protagonist I have ever seen. He looks over and sees a door opening and a great giant demon creature with blue eyes is coming in and then he passes out.

MEANWHILE.

Kissing Simon was pleasant. It was a gentle sort of pleasant, like lying in a hammock on a summer day with a book and a glass of lemonade.

Was it... pleasant though?

actual footage of Simon and Fairy's kiss

Betcha guys missed the love triangle portion amirite? Right guys? Definitely we need more of this.

Also, man, if I was Simon and I was just described as a lazy summer day, I would be heartbroken.

The dialogue in this scene is so cringe-worthy, but I can’t decide if that’s because it reminds me of the dialogue I used to write or if it’s actually bad writing. I’m gonna go with both:

“Where were we?”
“Well, my face was approximately where it is now, but your face was a lot closer to mine. That’s what I remember anyway.” 

Like, guys, did you not just retreat into yourselves reading that. It’s SO CRINGEY. Maybe it’s just me, I might have liked this dialogue if I actually liked the characters.

So they have this weird conversation dancing around sex, and Simon tells her he loves her (!!!) and she literally responds with this:

“So you don’t want sex?”

Fairy is the worst person ever you guys.

She goes into the washroom to change into her pyjamas and immediately compares everything to her kiss with Jace, because despite the fact that her mother is possibly dying, we need to feel her REAL TEEN ANGST ABOUT THIS KISS.

I made the comparison once and I'll keep making it until you all see it

Don’t think about Jace, she told herself fiercely, but looking at herself in the mirror, she saw her eyes darken and knew her body remembered even if her mind didn’t want to.

this is what I picture any time an author uses that wording.

Fairy, it was a KISS, GORL. I can imagine feeling giddy at the thought of a kiss, maybe a bit turned on, but not at this level damn. CC is really trying hard to make me feel like this is the romance of the century when all I’m seeing is three horny teenagers who need to remember that TWO OF THEM ARE BROTHER AND SISTER.

She comes out of the bathroom and gets a text message, and runs out of the house.

It turns out the scary demon blue eyes were Voldentine, come to rescue Jace. I mean, at this point, I’ll take anything moving this plot forward, convoluted as it is.

[Valentine] squatted down, putting his cool black eyes level with Jace’s.

Man, whenever authors have the supposedly otherworldly villain do something utterly human it always just makes me laugh. CC is so bad with tone switching, it’s like she can’t decide what any of her characters are.

Voldentine apparently killed the Silent Brothers (literally all of them) to get a sword called ‘Maellartach’ which is ringing some Old English bells for me, but I did so poorly in that class that I can’t be assed to actually try and break down its roots. If any of y’all do, please let me know.

Anyway, it’s apparently the blade that drove Adam and Eve out of Eden.

Voldentine gives some vague bullshit speech about how he wants to trust Jace and tell him the true meaning behind everything he did, and I’m just honestly getting so annoyed at how the book is refusing to acknowledge that he was really abusive to his son. Like, in a way that needs to be addressed because Jace clearly has issues because of it. And then he hears people coming and just leaves which, of course, can’t let that plot get anywhere!

We’re back with Clary on the subway, who is en route to the Institute.

Remember when I praised CC for good writing at the beginning of this chapter?

As she hurried between the pews, the candles flickered as if they were laughing at her.

Well that didn't last very long, now, did it?

So Isabelle was the one who texted Fairy and apparently all she told her was ‘The Inquisitor put Jace in jail’ and she decided to just run down there in the middle of the night. So basically instead of using the phone that she had in her hand, she decided to just run over to where Alec and Isabelle were.

There’s some weird back and forth about how Jace has a death wish and it’s Clary’s job to remind him he has something worth living for, and all I can think is just YUCK STOP IT.

Max, who is Alec and Isabelle’s younger brother (as you’ll all recall) enters the room, and there’s a typical exchange with him. He’s reading Natruto, which I’m assuming CC left in as an Easter Egg for her readers back when this was a fic. To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure where I stand on actually naming works of art within the world you’re building with your novel. I find it strange, but I can’t exactly say why.

Isabelle bursts back into the room and says apparently they’ve been contacted by people in the Silent City. Max begs to come but obviously he won’t because he’s only nine.

The chapter ends with Fairy demanding to come with them, and Alec being a prick (he is such an inconsistent character):

"Last time we faced a demon, she just cowered and screamed."

I can't believe I'm about to defend Fairy here, but it's perfectly normal that someone who didn't know Demons exist would freak the fuck out when they saw one for the first time. Isabelle points out that she just needs a chance to learn, but I'm not entirely sure that a rescue mission is the right place for that.

The chapter ends with Isabelle about to give Fairy those Shadowhunter 'marks', so basically Fairy's gettin'  tattoos in the next chapter!

These chapters are so long and their length serves no real purpose. It’s getting exhausting, quite frankly.

See you next week for Divergent!