City of Glass (Mortal Instruments)

This article is about the young adult novel by Cassandra Clare. For the novel by Paul Auster, see City of Glass (Paul Auster book). For the novel by Douglas Coupland, see City of Glass (Douglas Coupland book).

City of Glass(mortal instruments)
American cover of the book City of Glass.
Author(s)	Cassandra Clare
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	The Mortal Instruments Series
Genre(s)	Young adult
Publisher	Margaret K. McElderry
Publication date	March 24, 2009 March 24, 2009
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	560 pp (hardback, first edition) [1]
ISBN	ISBN 1416914307
Preceded by	City of Ashes
Followed by	City of Fallen Angels

City of Glass is the third book in The Mortal Instruments series, a young adult urban fantasy series set in New York written by Cassandra Clare. It was originally published in the USA in hardcover on March 24, 2009. A fourth book is expected in March 2011, named the City of Fallen Angels,to be followed by two more novels, City of Lost Souls (2012) and City of Heavenly Fire (2013). This new trilogy was originally planned to follow Simon and his new vampire life, but has now been extended to include the other characters as well.

Plot

The third book in the Mortal Instruments series starts a week after City of Ashes. The Lightwoods, Jace, and Clary are leaving for the city of Alicante that evening with the help of Magnus who was going to open a Portal. However, Simon goes to the Institute, where he and the Shadowhunters (except Clary) are attacked by dozens of Forsaken. One of them ends up hurting Simon. Magnus Bane opens the Portal they were using to get to Alicante that night, and the group jumps through to escape their attackers, taking Simon with them. Clary finds out and is infuriated because they left her, and in her anger creates a Portal to the city. Luke, knowing she could hurt herself, jumps in with her. They land in Lake Lyn, where the angel Raziel came out of to make the first Shadowhunters. Clary swallows some of the water and, because of the lake’s cursed magical properties, she begins to fever and hallucinate while she and Luke walk to Alicante. Luke gets Clary help from his sister, Amatis Herondale, (Stephen Herondale's first wife). Amatis agrees to let Clary stay with her.

Meanwhile, Jace, Simon, and the Lightwoods are introduced to Aline Penhallow, and her handsome cousin Sebastian Verlac. Jace immediately dislikes Sebastian, and flirts with Aline - a fact that angers Simon. Alec is ordered to bring Simon to meet the new Inquisitor, who is curious as to why they brought a Downworlder into Alicante. Simon, while under the impression that the Clave will Portal him back to New York, is thrown in jail after being interrogated. The next day the Inquisitor talks to him and tells him he wants Simon to lie about the Lightwoods, meaning that they never left Valentine and that they (including Alec, but not Isabelle and Max) are working for him, which Simon refuses and he puts him in jail again.

Clary sneaks out of Amatis’s house to visit the Lightwoods, where she catches Jace and Aline kissing and got into a big argument with Jace. Leaving in anger, she runs into Sebastian, and tells him about how her mother is in a magical coma, and that she needs to find the warlock Ragnor Fell to fix it. Jace lashes out at Alec, admits that he knows Alec thinks himself to be in love with him but says that it is because he (Jace) was “safe”, and an excuse to not get into a relationship with Magnus.

Clary and Sebastian go to Ragnor’s house the next day, and Clary (while Sebastian is frozen because Magnus doesn’t trust him) is shocked to learn that Ragnor was killed and Magnus was there in his place. Magnus tells Clary what she needs, and the answer is in a spell book disguised as a cookbook in the Wayland country home. Sebastian takes Clary to the ruins of Fairchild manor where he kisses her but she pushes him away feeling that something was wrong, yet, he insisted which hurted Clary somehow. Sebastian then tells Clary about Simon being in jail. In jail Raphael (in projection=not corporally there) visits Simon and tells him to go far where no one can find him because he (Simon) is dangerous for the vampire species.

Clary returns to Amatis's house to find Jace waiting for her. She confronts him about Simon ending up in jail, and they have a brief fight. Afterwards, she gets Jace to take her to Wayland manor making a portal with Jace's stele, where they discover an underground laboratory that Valentine had below the manor. They find a half-dead angel named Ithuriel who shows them memories, and Jace learns that he has demon blood, due to an experiment that Valentine performed on him while Jace was in the womb. The two then give Ithuriel a knife, realizing that there was no way to nurse the angel back to health. Ithuriel kills himself and the manor collapses, but both Jace and Clary survive. They kiss passionately in the grass just near the Manor despite of the thought that they were brother and sister, then get into an argument from the ring that Clary had from Jace's chest, and they walk the five hours home in silence because Clary lost Jace's stele so they lost the opportunity for Clary to make another portal back to Alicante, and there found the city below them, Alicante, in flames.

Meanwhile, Alec, Isabelle, Aline, Sebastian, and Max are in Alicante, and they are attacked by demons, taking Aline, Isabelle goes out while Alec hides Max. In the streets she finds out there are a lot of demons and the wards are no longer working. Alec finds her and heads to the house. Sebastian, Max, and Isabelle hide in the house, while Alec goes out again to fight demons. Isabelle while in the house goes upstairs to get weapons, and returns to find Sebastian in the kitchen, and Max nowhere to be found. Isabelle starts to worry, right before she gets hit in the head with a hammer. Meanwhile, Alec is out looking for Aline when he finds Magnus. After saving his life they have a discussion about their relationship and Alec promises that if they both live he will introduce Magnus to his whole family. Jace and Clary enter Alicante and find Maia who saves them from a demon and tells them that Luke brought all the werewolves he could think of to help the Shadowhunters and that they have been helping by hiding the Shadowhunters in the Hall of the Accords (including Alec and Magnus).

Jace and Clary run to the Hall of the Accords with Maia and find Alec. Clary meets Luke, who starts having a discussion with the Consul. Clary sneaks off and gives the spell book they found at the manor to Magnus, who promises to cure Clary’s mother, Clary thanks him when Sebastian comes in and sees Magnus with the book, at the same time Jace appears with Alec. Sebastian takes Clary out of the group and tells her Simon is still in jail. Clary runs off with Jace and Alec.

The trio arrives at the jail where Simon is kept and breaks him out. They also get Samuel out, who they learn is actually Hodge, the previous keeper of the Institute. He tells them that the third of the Mortal Instruments (the mirror), the only one Valentine does not possess, is none other than Lake Lyn. Sebastian goes up and kills Hodge, claiming it was to keep them out of danger. When Simon sees Hodge's blood, he goes away to calm himself. Jace, Clary and Alec realize Sebastian is not who he pretends to be. Realizing his cover is blown; Sebastian admits to being a spy for Valentine and starts a fight with them, then Simon appears and attacks him, causing Sebastian to run away. The four teens go back to the Hall, and learn that Max was killed by Sebastian.

The next day, Aline visits Clary and Simon and tells them the Sebastian who had been with them is not the real Sebastian by showing them pictures of the real Sebastian (she hadn't seen Sebastian since she was a child) and they also suspect that it has happened to others. Valentine comes as a Projection and warns the Clave that they have until midnight of the next day to surrender. If they don’t, then Valentine will attack Alicante and slay every Shadowhunter left. He kills the Inquisitor instead of Luke, to Clary's surprise. After that the he leaves.

Clary and Simon go to the new house where the Lightwoods are staying and tell them (excluding Isabelle because she is locked in her room) that Sebastian wasn't really Sebastian. Jace takes Clary to Amatis's house while Simon decides to stay and try talking to Isabelle who blames herself for Max's death. Reluctantly Isabelle let Simon go inside her room and the two end up sleeping together. Meanwhile, at Amatis’s house Jace tells Clary how much he loves her. They talk and end up falling asleep on the bed together. At the Hall of the Accords, Luke and some other Shadowhunters are trying to make a plan with no progress when discretely Jace comes. Luke goes out to talk with Jace who tells him he is going to go and find Sebastian and kill Valentine. At Amatis’s house, Clary wakes up to find that Jace is gone, and in his place he left the Morgenstern ring and a note, saying that he has gone to find Sebastian.

Clary goes downstairs and sees Simon and Isabelle making breakfast. She tells Isabelle what happened and they have a discussion where Simon interferes. Then Clary’s mother Jocelyn, after coming out of her coma, shows up at the door. She and her mother argue, then Clary, in a fit of anger, storms out of the house to a hill, where she is eventually joined by Simon. They have a conversation and realize that the reason Simon can go out in sunlight is because he had drunk Jace’s blood, who isn’t a “normal Shadowhunter”. They also see, while sitting on the hill, that the Clave was planning to surrender to Valentine. Clary flashes back to a rune that the dying Ithuriel had showed her, and realizes that it was a binding rune, meant to bring a Downworlder and a Shadowhunter together so they can share each other’s powers. She tells the Clave this which, after much deliberation, accepts.

Clary talks with her mother and tell her she is proud of her. She also tells her that Clary was given angel’s blood while in the womb, thus giving her the power to create new runes. Clary also discovered that, while Jace wasn’t actually her brother, Sebastian is (so Sebastian has the demon blood, not Jace). Jace was the son of Stephen Herondale, therefore grandson of the previous Inquisitor (Imogen Herondale, who died in the previous book), and while Jace was not born, he also received angel blood, explaining why he could jump extremely high. Then people start bonding with the Downworlders. Alec "comes out" by kissing Magnus Bane in front of everyone in the Hall, including Robert and Maryse Lightwood.

Meanwhile, the vampire leader Raphael shows up in Projection form and says that if the Clave hands over Simon, then the vampires will fight in the battle. Simon, knowing that Raphael intends to kill him, lets Clary mark him with the Mark of Cain, the first Mark ever used and an extremely powerful protection spell. Simon goes to Raphael, who can’t kill him upon discovering the Mark, but Simon must now fight in the battle.

Jace finds Sebastian talking with Valentine, who intends to go to Lake Lyn to summon Raziel. After Valentine leaves, the two boys fight, and Sebastian tells Jace that he is Clary’s brother, not Jace. Isabelle shows up as Jace is almost killed but Jace has to save her and so kills Sebastian. Clary, upon learning of her father’s plans, Portals to Lake Lyn to stop Valentine from summoning Raziel to get a wish. Valentine binds and silences her with runes. Jace comes to stop Valentine after healing himself from the wounds Sebastian gave him. Because the summoning requires death, Valentine then proceeds to kill Jace and summon the angel Raziel. Raziel, however, sees through Valentine’s selfish plans, and because Clary managed to put her name on the Binding runes instead of her father's, Raziel kills Valentine. Because of the runes Clary gets a wish from Raziel and wishes Jace back to life.

The story ends at the Downworlder party when Clary finds Jace. They kiss and then watch the fireworks. Clary said at the ending of the book that the fireworks look like fallen angels.

Cover

The cover features the new character, Sebastian, who is a Shadowhunter. He's a cousin of the Penhallows, who are friends of the Lightwoods', and he grew up at the Institute in Paris. His age is about seventeen.

References

1. ^ Borders.com http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=1416914307

External links

• The Official Mortal Instruments Website
• Cassandra Clare's Official Website
• Review of The Mortal Instruments Series