It’s here! It’s here! The explosive midpoint to the Mortal Instruments series is here! Cassandra Clare’s City of Glass truly marks the beginning of the signature Cassandra Clare shadowhunter novel. We’ve got a short timeframe, quick pacing, high tension and high stakes, a full array of character perspectives and movements, motives and internal conflicts riddled throughout the main plot and the subplots that develop in the background, culminating in a mid-point climax that truly had me losing breath.

Finally, we get to see Idris, Alicante and the Lightwood siblings actually playing an active role in the progression of the main plot. I’ve been anxiously waiting for Izzy and Alec to have a bigger part to play in the narrative and to have their perspectives brought to paper since City of Bones. I find them to be a lot more interesting that Clary and Jace (sorry Clary and Jace) because of their upbringing, their internal conflicts, their prejudices and their understanding of the world so strongly shaped by their parents and the law. Because Izzy was seen through Clary’s perspective in City of Bones she came across as rude, superior and bitchy but here we get to unveil the human side to her. The truth of her feelings, her thoughts, her alliances and intentions. With Alec, though he received a similar narrow-minded portrayal in City of Bones, his impression wasn’t so cold as his injury gave Clary a way into the softer side of his being. Here, we see Alec being an “adult” and finding out a lot of the truths of the people around him, the people he’s meant to stand behind and support, and in seeing this reality his personal feelings and goals become more important to him. City of Glass is not possible without these two.

The plot is a lot more active, with more significant plot points and character interactions, subplots and threads lingering under the surface waiting to be sewn into the tapestry of this series. The description of Idris and Alicante really helped to engage me in this as I am very much a fan of landscape development and setting details. Without them, everything falls apart. We also have multiple character with their own paths and secrets. When there’s uncertainty surrounding what a character is doing because they’re out of the picture it creates a positive tension of anticipation for their return. Sidenote: the not-so-subtle hints about a certain character and how they make Clary feel doesn’t fix the fact that we’ve had to deal with one of the worst themes for far to long. Even the subliminal notice that’s it’s okay now doesn’t sit well with me still.

We also get the downworlder interactions I was hoping for in City of Ashes. It works well here and the tension between shadowhunter traditionalists and downworlders feels very appropriate, aiding in the plot and supporting the movement and integration of the relationship and plot lines for future books. It also, funnily enough, works to illustrate why past interactions between the downworlders and the shadowhunters have been so frigid and the historical fiction spin offs of The Infernal Devices Trilogy and The Last Hours trilogy explore these tense relations in great depth.

The series really needed this kind of book to set the mood and intensity for the latter books because City of Bones and City of Ashes lacked a lot of relevance to the overall storyline. We needed grit, oomph, and significance and City of Glass gave us that.