'City of Fallen Angels' Spoiler Free Review

I had a lot that I liked about City of Fallen Angels, but also a lot that I didn't like. First of all, this book was a step back from the last installment in The Mortal Instruments series, City of Glass, but that was to be expected as the series should be divided up into two trilogies, with this book being the start of the second one. Many people expect books in a series to have a 'bigger' story each time, but that is not the case for this book. Also make sure you read the first prequel, Clockwork Angel, before reading this book. I did, and I would have struggled to understand some of the things referenced in this book if I hadn't. Go into this book expecting a similar story to City of Bones. I enjoyed getting more lore in the series, particularly surrounding the vampires. As always with Cassandra Clare's book, I thought I knew what was happening and that the story was simple, but Clare always finds a way to subvert our expectations with plot twists most people don't see coming. That being said there were still elements to this story which I did not like. Firstly, Clary and Jace, I still think are the most unlikeable protagonists ever. I struggle to understand their motivations and their relationship is not a good one. Jace continually acts like the personification of an emo phase. The only reason I can give is that the books are trying to appeal to an audience of younger teenage girls who find this attractive. Luckily, they aren't as much the focus of this book as they have been in the previous three. Simon has more of the dominant role in this story which is good because he is a much better-constructed character. My other main criticism is that Clare doesn't know how teenagers work and the things they are into. This was at it's worse when Simon was playing GTA on a DS. Although it is true that this game exists on this console, no one played it on there, and definitely not Simon. As well as that, the characters, who are supposed to be 16-year-old teenagers in the present day talk like they're retired pensioners, using words such as 'incontrovertible' when they're talking to each other. This just made them even more unbelievable and drew me out of the story. Ultimately, I will be finishing both this series and the prequels, but I hope the things that I didn't like in this book are improved upon in later installments.