You know I really feel like this book series should’ve been 3 books for the first run and then the last three as their own thing. These are two different arcs with two totally different tones. The first three is establishing the world and the characters and the last three seem to be the ones that test their mettle. They all go through some really tough stuff in the latter half of this series and I’m really loving it. I feel like the plot lines for each character test them all in a unique way.

Simon: dealing with being a vampire and how that effects his family. Also the mark of Cain and how that whole thing is going to effect him. Girls and all that comes with that.

Isabelle: the loss of her brother, acceptance of women as friends not adversaries, learning how to love someone in a romantic way, and learning how to be vulnerable.

Alec: dealing with facing his own mortality and knowing Magnus will not grow old with him and the consequences of his actions because of that fear.

Maia: coming to terms with how she was turned. (Although I’m not a huge fan of returning to someone who abused you but I’m willing to overlook that because of paranormal circumstances).

Jordan: we got to see more of the Praetor and how it’s run which was cool but I don’t see much else for him besides that and his connection to Maia.

Magnus: not much for him this book but I think that will change veeery soon.

Clary: Learning more about her lineage, her brother, and overcoming all obstacles including her own damn self for love. It was hard for me to see progression for Clary even from the first book. I mean I appreciate her tenacity and staying true to herself but she doesn’t seem to learn from her mistakes. They end up being “ok” in the end but “ok” just means “a lot of people died or were injured because of this but it’s ok because it did no personal harm to ME or the people I love”.

Jace: feeling broken and corrupted for a lot of this book and remaining strong and true to himself as much as he can under the circumstances. He spends most of the book I guess you could say incapacitated so it was hard to see any progression for him other than that and surviving it.

Overall, I feel like the plot was really gritty and dark and pushed a lot of the characters to their limits. It presented new challenges in an interesting way and kept me hooked from the first page. Recently it’s been hard to just sit and read the way I did in high school but I read it all and am writing this review at 4am because I just couldn’t put it down.