The Disappointing Reality of The Mortal Instruments Series: A Mother's Sacrifice and the Frustration that Follows

My mom was like, unconscious or whatever, I don't think that we really get to do it. I mean, we did find out that she did it to herself in the book, in the show, and the movie. Okay, I just didn't remember that we got it in the book. This lady is the first one that reveals it to Clary that it wasn't something that was done by someone else, but rather her mom did it to herself.

She put herself into a coma or whatever, and there's nothing that a mundane doctor is gonna be able to help with. I am the only person that she entrusted with the secret of how to wake her up. So, we're kind of back square one again. Her mom is still asleep for the entire book. I told Chandler at one point, "I'm gonna lose my mind if this doesn't wake up in this book." And she didn't.

The narrator's absence was a significant part of my frustration with this book. The amount of time it took to get to the point where we find out about her mom's sacrifice was just too long. I enjoy reading at a leisurely pace, but this series has left me feeling rushed and unsatisfied. Chandler, on the other hand, is the king of listening to audiobooks on and just YouTube videos. Whatever content she consumes, she consumes it at like two or three times speed.

I don't do that ever. I really enjoy the amount of time it takes to read or listen to a book. It's not about the amount of time; it's about the experience. But, I digress. Chandler is not going to debate this with me, and we're not going to get into a argument about it.

The narrator for this audiobook was different from the one in the first book. I didn't enjoy this one as much, but maybe it's because I listened at two times speed. It would have been worse at one time speed, but I just don't love this narrator. Maybe it's not her fault that she wasn't emotionally resonant for me.

When we lose some characters in a series, it can be frustrating and emotional. I think we both lost something when we found out what happened to this lady's mom. She died because of her own sacrifice. It was a sad moment, but it also made me realize how much the series relies on these moments of revelation.

The author did a great job of building tension and suspense throughout the book. However, I didn't connect with some of the characters as much as I had hoped. There weren't enough romantic relationships to satisfy my craving for adult contemporary romance or sibling romance. The main characters are still teenagers, which was frustrating at times.

One thing that's for sure is that we will be reading the third book in the series, regardless of how disappointed we were with this one. If we decide after reading the third book that we don't want to continue with the DBVC (Downsides and Benefits of Continuing), I'll let you know. Hayden has been talking about some crazy plot twist that made her stop reading the books altogether.

That's something that needs to be addressed in a future review. Hayden seems to think it's going to be pretty bad, which is why she stopped reading. She's right; there isn't really anything else going for this series besides the answer. The author has promised some crazy revelation that's going to make you stop reading the books.

That's all I can say about that for now. I'll keep you posted if it turns out to be something significant. In the meantime, let's just agree that we're both frustrated with this book and move on to more enjoyable reads.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello welcome back to my channel and welcome my name is Chandler I'm Hayden and today we're going to be talking about a City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare this is a continuation of that first video we did when we read City of Bones if you want a link to that it'll be in the description down below but today we're reading the second book in The Mortal Instrument series I for one am quite excited to delve into this one given that this book is one that I actually haven't Revisited quite as much as City of Bones and I will say upon reread uh there's a lot that I forgot I'm ready to talk about it with you here today what are what are your initial thoughts Hayden this one was not my favorite not even because like I don't like the series or anything like that like I'll keep those those thoughts separate right yeah this one just felt like filler there were a couple of things that happen in this book but it kind of just seemed like a repeat of the first book in a lot of ways and I'll get more into that as we go through the plot points I basically felt like this book could have not existed and there wouldn't be very much change from the story for once I think you and I are actually on the same page about this I feel like this book was also kind of a rehash of the last one and I I didn't remember that from the first time that I read these books I've read City of Bones multiple times that's a book that I I feel like I remember pretty well plotline this one there were key moments that I recognized upon reread there were some things that I thought were going to happen that didn't actually happen in this book and I think that surprised me more than anything yeah I'm rethinking my thoughts on the series definitely after having read this book I I think this to me is a big question mark in red flag I suppose I don't remember some of the stuff that happened in this book and it's not that any of the things that happened in this book are necessarily egregious but it's definitely making me rethink my stance on how I feel about the series as a whole and I'll probably talk more about that in the next video that we do because I do know that if the things that I was thinking were gonna happen in this book didn't happen in this book they will happen in the next one we'll talk about it then overall I'm just feeling a little a little uneasy what was your stance before this was like an excellent like a god tier series I don't know that I would consider it God tier but it was certainly like a formative series for me I feel like Jace was one of like my first book boyfriends I still stand by that I really do like him I think he stands apart from a lot of other like why a Heroes but I do feel like overall the series has like gone down in my head a little bit just given this like one particular thing and I'm sure can all guess what that one particular thing is didn't love this one I listened to it all today so it's really like fresh in my mind and I think for me if I were to like Star rate this based on like my current thoughts and feelings and like how I feel now I think I'd give this like three stars I don't think it was the worst thing that I've ever read definitely kept me entertained and engaged but I do feel like it was a bit of a retread in terms of plotline it didn't feel like anything new or original was happening but I really wish new and exciting things would have happened this would be a two a two star for me that's a fair set you know I can't argue with that because you said that it kind of kept you like entertained and engaged yeah and I didn't even get that from it it wasn't like poorly written where it was like grading to get through you know like it wasn't it wasn't painful but it just didn't really give me much in terms of entertainment if I'm being quite honest that's fair I think for me like the moments of levity were what I appreciated and I do like the Mellow drama I would say in the series in general so like I wasn't mad at everything that happened it is just interesting viewing it through an adult lens some of the choices that this Cassandra makes especially surrounding the idea of siblings you know which I'm sure we'll get into as as we talk about the plot of this book because it's hard to divorce that from everything else that happens so I guess we can go ahead and get into it goodness I don't know how long this one will be probably I would I would assume not as long as our others just I'm looking at my notes they're a little a little skim a little a little shorter in comparison and like normally I have a lot of things to fill in like in your notes like either things to add to your notes that you already have or just things that I want to talk about that you didn't even put in your notes but this one like I said I just don't I don't feel that way so we'll see how it goes I'm gonna try not to like just complain at every plot point I mean feel free my opinions you know please do okay so this book opens we have I would say like two I don't say distinct timelines or plot lines but no let's go with poplines here we have Cleary and Simon and they're kind of just like hanging out being friends as friends do and we also have Jace basically being abandoned by his mom will say that's not something that I really remember happening it is not uncharacteristic of this family at all I would say I really don't love the is it lightwide family it's a lot of like Pomp and Circumstance with them it's a lot of like acting like they're super cool and like the best family ever but there's not a whole lot of like I would say real love between anyone in the family I'm not surprised that his mom abandons him at this very like opening scene I was sort of surprised so I feel like I should give a little bit more context here I was not surprised at all I just wanted to go ahead and say that put that out there Baris Lightwood Isabelle and Alex mom comes to the clay finally we've got adults here that are not just Hodge who ends up abandoning the children anyway she comes back and it's like like hey I brush your brother Max also hey Jace now that I know that Valentine is actually your father I don't really think I can pretend to be your mom anymore I know you think of me as your mother and I know that you think of your um friends as step siblings and you refer to them often as that however I'm gonna need you to get the out of my house yeah she's like I don't trust you because how do I know that you're not like working with Valentine I think this is an interesting form of questioning from her however I can't imagine it's not like looking your baby boy in the eye even even if he's not someone that you birthed out of your you know Cooter um I can't imagine looking my baby boy in the eye and being like you know what I'm gonna need you to leave questionable it didn't surprise me at all personally just based on what we know about the Lightwood children so far like Jace kind of being included in that and their relationship I could tell that you know their upbringing wasn't very loving to put it lightly yeah I mean they essentially abandoned their kids at this place like they're they're underage they're underage children in New York and they live in a different country and I I'm pretty sure are they banned from living at The Institute or something I think there's something funky going on there like maybe wasn't 100 their choice but we still get the vibe that like maybe they're not the best parents ever which is fine I guess but I think viewing it from the lens of an adult I like actually noticed this time I feel like when you're a kid almost all forms of media have children being abandoned by their parents or their parents die or like no they're orphaned because it makes the story move along a little bit better because you don't have parents questioning your every move I get it reading it this time I'm like parents are such an integral part of the story not only in this series but in other series that Cassandra Clare writes so it's just interesting to me that I have the one like mother figure in his life abandon him and you know what I sort of get it because that'll give him more angst do we though I think he has enough he had enough even before we found out that Valentine was his dad or that he was kissing his sister that stuff aside he was angsty from scene one of book one am I the wrong for being surprised by the fact that there was another sibling in the mix I don't remember that from the first one I think it's even mentioned I think it's a throwaway line about how their their brother their little brother Max is like alcante with their parents but did not remember that so when they were like Max I was like who's Max who the is Max did you guys just create another child and not only that but I thought it was like he was very much a throwaway character for me like he had literally zero significance in this book and I don't know if he will in any future books but like nothing that happens with Matt like you might as well just not have put him in this book I think I think he could have showed up in the book where he becomes important and it would have had the same impact personally okay so we have this run in essentially with Jason his uh adopted mother she says okay I don't really believe what you're saying I don't believe that you are not in Leagues with Valentine now not only are do we know he's your dad like I think you were in Leagues with him we're gonna call The Inquisitor here uh who's basically a big old who questions people The Inquisitor is invited to the Institute and she's going to question Jace and make sure that he is really like he's really cool but of course Jace has a big fat mouth he gets in trouble with the Inquisitor basically like immediately upon her arriving and he is thrown into the bone City I'm not gonna answer my questions and you're not gonna behave well you can go to the Bone City and uh so now he's with the spooky brothers and at the same time you know the thing that you said at the very beginning of this is that this book opens with Simon and Claire hanging out but what actually is happening is while Jace is getting thrown into bone jail clary's like well if I can't kiss my brother I guess I love my best friend kiss me also referred me as his girlfriend even though I am not saying that we're dating I'm also not gonna tell him no maybe because she's scared of losing him again or something I don't know I think clary's just vibing with those teenage hormones to be honest I think she's just like whatever moves well Simon was like really thought that he lost out and then he finds out that Jace is her brother he's like yes he's like I am in no but he says in his head I remember this distinctly I can remember what I was doing when I was listening to this I was raking our carpet with a little carpet right I was listening and he was like you know I really thought I was out of the running whenever Jace came into the picture but now that he's her brother I think I have a chance except for I don't know that I actually have a chance because she hasn't given up hope that she can make out with her brother and I'm like I don't know that that's something that anyone should be thinking she is correct besides the two weirdos involved do you know what I mean I don't know I don't like that everyone else is kind of catching the vibe because what what sort of off-putting disgusting Vibes are you giving off that everyone around you knows you want to your brother like I am unsettled I think this is around the time too when we meet Maya as well Maya is a werewolf character who comes into play she's not I would say super important she is about as important I would say as like an Alec or an Isabelle I would say that she is more important than Alex in this book and the last book they they really don't have much personality and that's something we can get into I guess right here I guess maybe it's because I've seen like the show and because I watched the movie and because I know the lore and like the love that people have for these characters but I remember in my heart of hearts that Alec and Demon daddy Magnus like I remember them being more more of a a player in the story um and not just being like the beer bait that I guess they essentially are in these first couple of books like we get this idea that Alec you know is gay and that he has feelings for Jace like they have almost no relevance to this book Magnus obviously is helpful because he's a warlock but like what the does Alec do I was gonna say Magnus is also a more important character than like any of the like actual language yeah the peripheral like Shadowhunters who should be doing things um and Alec I think is just there to like get injured like that is pretty much his thing Alec or Isabel yeah one of them is gonna get some Demon poison and they're gonna be out for a little bit yeah that's about it that's that's about the extent of their existence in these books and one of them has to go to like take care of the other one too so it like takes both of them out yeah we're like okay let's get rid of them all that to say Maya is someone who we're introduced to in this book she's a werewolf and she's part of Luke's pack she is the same age about as pretty much any of the other like Shadowhunters and uh she kind of becomes friends with like Simon and Clary I would say and she becomes important-ish later on in the book but I just wanted to like introduce her character here because I do think that like she comes in later I meet her like in a bar and Jace is there oh she does not like Jay so yeah she doesn't like Jay's this is like hella Moody I think oh for sure well because he just got kicked out of his house yeah he's like I can't make out with my sister and I don't have a place to live yeah what do I have to live for being a real piece of and then we find out that someone is it like one of the other werewolves someone gets attacked like in the alley like outside of the bar it's kind of just like brushed over at this point in the story like no one really questions it it just like it happens and someone tries to say that it's Jason's like no I really don't care about this honestly and Simon's like I know it wasn't him and that's basically it like all that there is of that he's a good guy in in this bar scene Jace talks to Simon and basically tells him hey the light Woods are back also they kicked me out and they hate me or not Simon Luke Luke is saying I don't really think that that's like the whole story and I don't really think that you tried to properly commune now that she's like maybe cooled down a little bit go back there try to explain yourself just talk it out I'm sure that they will be understanding and so yeah he goes back to the house that's when we get to meet the fabulous Inquisitor which he then mouths off to and goes to jail and while he's in the bone daddy realm he ends up coming into contact with Valentine in a very spooky fashion my Diane he is hearing ungodly screeches yeah just like what the going on and I'm pretty sure that he was like knocked out or something when he was brought there because I I think I remember him like waking up to this he was like putting up a fight maybe I don't actually know but they throw him in jail he doesn't doesn't really know how he got there he knows he's going there I think it's in total darkness as part of oh yeah it's so dark in there and all he's hearing are these ungodly screams stuff he's never heard before and then his daddy shows up thank God yeah thank God but not the only thing better would be his sister not before he sees the corpse of one of the silent brothers that he has personally come in contact with collapsing in front of him just dying dead and he realizes oh my God all of the silent brothers are dead my dad killed all of the people here and they didn't make a sound and he has this like delightful little conversation with his daddy and his daddy's like what's up I don't actually know what the interactions I don't understand like why he was meet him up here he's stealing the sword but he's also like yeah I'll break you free and he's like don't they already think that I'm in League with you so please don't do that I wouldn't want to give anyone the wrong idea yeah and he's like there's no way that you came here just to break me out and he's like of course not I came here to get this badass sword bro yeah it turns out the sword that he's stealing is the Angel sword which inquisitors slash like the whole the clave the clave uses this sword during like interrogation slash during like Oaths and stuff like that to like make people tell the truth pretty sure that there's probably another use for it Valentine's basically like yeah well I mean there's not really a point in you being in here anymore because they're not going to hold the trial because they don't have the stupid sword to like make sure that you're not lying to them and so they like they're not gonna try you at this point so at the same time we also find out that there is a berry that's killed somewhere in like another Park that draws the attention of all of the like clave members and like demon hunters and it's a ploy so that they won't realize that the bone city has been broken into by Valentine and that the silent brothers are all you know dead and the story The Sword is stolen and stuff if I remember correctly Clary and the rest of the Lightwood children like kind of figure this point out and so they go to like help out Jace realizing that you know everyone's being pulled away on some wild goose chase they go to help Jace out three Jace from the prison they see all the dead silent brothers and they're like you know some crazy shits going on and then they come outside and who is there mate Mavis Maris Mavis what's her name Mary slatewood yeah Maris Inquisitor and like a bunch of other Shadowhunters are there and they're like oh well you guys just thought you were so cool coming to bust your brother out of jail and they're like that's not what happened no like Valentine was here and they were like well how do we know that you didn't help him back where we started basically the whole time he's like yeah I helped my dad you're so right who true bestie about this time too that we figure out we're gonna go and talk to the Faye as the Faye child died and we also think that the celi queen might know some they want the Sealy Queen's help and they also want to inform the queen that like first of all this wasn't us right so it wasn't yeah right it wasn't a Shadowhunter but like an x one that we don't really like right we don't talk about him and they also wanted to let them know that something does happen and they don't help then Valentine's just gonna come after them next like hates all down worlders that includes you so if you don't help us now and he ends up like getting really strong which is what he's planning on doing then like it's gonna come back to bite you like underwater or something like that do you have to like go through a lake but it's not underwater yeah yeah but like the entrance is like in the water or something just remember them being like everyone's like soaking wet when they get in there a little snorkel Venture soaking away be careful because berries are very dangerous and they seem very alluring and they will like essentially like promise you things that you most want in the world and also like don't answer with them because you'll literally dance until you die Clary gets a little taste of this she like hears music when she first walks in and like doesn't even realize that she's like being drawn into dancing like that's my and she's like oh my God I am feeling this and then she gets like yanked away and she's like yo what the I was vibing man yeah we told you you will dance until you die and also don't like eat or drink anything that you get here either because that's Danger address for some reason that I can't remember well you have to stay forever oh if you like consume anything from them you have to stay forever not ideal so meeting this this big old or anything but she's not the most helpful just a little bit of a bedroom wait is she like physically a little no it's a tall person I don't know we meet the queen and I won't lie I don't really remember much of what she does except for she makes she makes her Barbie dolls kiss she makes them smooch makes them well we're getting there okay so you know the the things that need to be communicated or communicated Hayden kind of mentioned him earlier yeah which is basically like hey I know that this fairy died that wasn't us and they were like yeah it was it was a Shadowhunter and they were like yeah but he's bad they were like well it's your problem and they were like well don't help us when the time comes then it's gonna be your problem too whether or not you want it to be so and then she's like you know but you know what is a problem this she licked her fingers oh no and so the queen is like okay and she lick her fingers from because a little pixie bit her fingers and so she had blood on her fingers but she also had a tiny touch with a drink on her fingers and she's like yeah so unfortunately oh she's gotta stay forever unless she kisses the person whom she most desires for some reason this leads to like a weird chain of like people kissing each other actually I just want to point out real quick that I am fairly certain that it's Jace who must kiss the person that he most desires and not Clary and then it turns out that Clary is that person so I thought that Clary and Simon kiss first though and then and then he's like do I have to kiss that's the whole thing is like you're thinking that uh that would be the case but like Simon's just kind of like looking on in horror like I remember this being like kind of a like a Rocky Point in their newly found relationship no I know I think the first thing that happens is that he immediately kisses her and and nothing happens and then we're like yeah okay epideric moment live with Derek you know the show where they kiss each other oh no I'm not familiar with the show I don't get the reference but I'm sure that they're step siblings who have erotic undertones I think it was like a Disney show uh we have a big old smidge rail yeah and it's like between Jason Claire I mean I just feel like it's a given and it's not even just like a kiss like they rope each other and are Slip in big tongue you know it is a lot I'm pretty sure that they make mention in the book that it like goes on for longer than it should yes it does like they're like you guys have to kiss and they're like we have to kiss and then like by the end of it they're like we have to stop there's so much I want to say and I don't it all involves this spoiler from the next book yeah do you want me to go out of the room no I feel like I'm surprised that you don't know it already but but they're not actually brother and sister yeah I'm surprised I could have called it so here's the thing here's the deal this is why I don't like this book as much as I thought that I did right I remember that they were siblings when they kissed and I do remember it being angst the attention filled and it but I feel like I remember after this scene happened like not that far after we find out they're not actually siblings we're like no they're still siblings they're still siblings for this whole book spoiler alert I don't remember that and again I think that really uh changes things for me like it's kind of a weird thing to do in the first place let's be honest to like make this a big thing in your book it's it's even weirder you have this idea of a three book series and for two of those books you've got kissing siblings and then in the third book you decide to do away with that I mean I understand tension okay come on the most of the first book They're not siblings they're siblings and they're like oh we can't do this and the second book The reason why I'm not anywhere uh close to surprised by this reveal of yours right now is because they make too much of a deal about it the second book like obviously like they have to make a kind of a big deal about it in the first book if that's like your reveal of the first book right it just continued to like harp on it over and over again this like will they won't they like tension of we both still really love each other but like it would absolutely disgust everyone around us girl you're all ready to discussing everyone around you might as well just let them go for it at that point it's all I'm saying but yeah I think to me it made this book hard to read and challenging and I think just really goes to show how much your caricature can develop over time and I feel like I've changed I feel like I've changed I feel like I can read a forbidden taboo relationship now that isn't this I think like that was my first introduction into that one of them just actually be siblings no no no that's not what I'm advocating for I'm just I think for me like again this was my first um foray into that it's it's forbidden but also like we found out that they're not actually you know and so it's like satisfies of your angst intention needs as a young folk but I just um I think it went on a bit too long in this book I'll I'll admit in this scene uh was just further proof of that I remember like this was one of my favorite scenes because it was so drama it was like so dramatic and I don't think that's an unpopular opinion I think a lot of people were likely hoping that that would be included in like the movies in the show because it is so like a shocking off I didn't think it was very shocking no I mean it really it really wasn't but um it wasn't shocking I was gas I didn't really think that the first time very dramatic either like I think we all knew that like there was going to be at least one or two moments in this book where they kiss oh for sure anyways it's just a repeat of the last book nothing is developed nothing progressed or regressed it's it's the same it's exactly the same to mirror that sameness of the first book after this encounter happens Simon acts out by going to the hotel do more basically because coming a vampire I mean to make along with the story short it becomes a vampire he was scared he was turning into a vampire so he goes to seek out Raphael to ask questions other vampires catch him and end up like essentially murdering him I guess but since he had Raphael's blood in him from when he was a rat uh he doesn't actually die he becomes a vampire and I understand that like this obviously has more significance in terms of like the future of this yeah like he's not gonna not be a vampire anymore this is another moment where I'm just like this is the same as the first system yeah he was turned into a rat now he's turned into a bat just is how it is it like it's it's Simon acts out and gets himself in trouble and then everyone has to either like save him or look on in horror as he is like trouble and might possibly die not only that but it's still with the same as the first book it's not even with the news not even new vampires yeah exactly hang on from there I think the next plot point that I have written down is that Maya gets attacked yeah and there's this like whole thing with like a little bit of backstory worry that we get from Maya at the beginning of the book where like she dated some abusive guy and then she broke up with him and then he like backed her down in the park messed her up real bad and then turned her into a werewolf one thing that we didn't mention is that Valentine at the very beginning of the book summons a demon who is like the demon of fear and like shows you your biggest fear and so we get this a lot in in the book as it goes I'm pretty sure that in the prison when Jace is in prison he's Valentine yeah he sees his greatest fear imagined and it's like something bad happening to Clary or is it or is it people finding out that he has no no no no it's something bad happening to Clarion that being said we we keep getting this over and over again of like people seeing their biggest fears and then turns out no it's just this big bad demon that Valentine summoned right uh so that's what happens here she gets attacked but she sees guy that like turned her into a werewolf in the first place and like you know this was like a big traumatic moment in her life but anyways she gets attacked and then as part of this book because I think we're about like the 70-ish percent Mark at this point and you're like okay well not that much has happened this is kind of like what's going on I would say the last 30 of this book is just a bunch of boats we're on a boat some stuff's happening we'll get off the boat and then other stuff I just I will I'll be honest it's all blur to me but I'm sure Hayden will guide us through these Waters Jace takes a motorcycle and goes to visit Valentine on this boat I can't even remember how he like knows that he's there yeah but he goes and visits Valentine on this boat and is like yo what is going on man like what are you even up to and he's like oh you know I'm just gonna like you know raise an army of demons and that's what I've been up to this whole time one of the things that I need to do in order to like make all these demons cool with me is I also need blood from like each one of the down world or races it's basically the classic stupid Trope that I hate like hero villain I know of scenarios where the villain explains his entire plan instead of just doing it and succeeding this is exactly what I'm gonna do and also you can go now let's go explains this whole plan and so now we know why there was a fairy that was attacked we know that Maya was attacked we know that he needs like you know blood from each one of the downworlders and then does he keep Maya on the ship because I know he keeps Simon on the ship well I don't think Simon has been kidnapped yet well not yet but I just mean we're moving there right yeah Maya and Simon have a whole little like Heart to Heart moment on the ship because earlier whenever or no way actually this is like happening right now at the same time that they're on the boat Clary and Luke and Maya and Simon are all like hanging out at the house Maya gets like attacked like basically like in the front yard of the house or something and then gets like taken inside so she hasn't been like kidnapped yet I don't think because there's a whole interaction with Simon and Maya where like Maya finally find finds out that Simon is a vampire now and is immediately like get the away from me I will tear your up just because you're a vampire and he's like yo man we were cool like 10 minutes ago before you knew that like I'm I'm chill you're chill well you're in natural enemies yeah then also there's another like demon that attacks Luke out in the front yard or some all of that happens Jace has another like run-in with The Inquisitor where she's like you know I know that you went to go see your dad you get to go in the cage of Shame he basically gets put in a cage again which he breaks out of by just jumping really high because he's told that he has special demon abilities because his dad did like experiments and on him Larry can do like rooms that no one's ever seen before yeah Jace is just like super great at this job that's basically his skill and speaking of that whole bit we get this whole scene with like oh well Jace can do cool Clary I bet you can do some cool too you made that Rune that you know the the one thing that you did the last book that no one's ever seen before why don't you try to just do that again only like just think of something uh how about Fearless it's Fearless she makes a rune and everyone's like oh well who's she gonna put it on you know like don't don't give it to Jace because like we won't he's already feared yeah we won't be able to tell the difference so they put it on Alec and then the light would come home yeah and he's like hey by the way I have something to tell you guys I'm in a relationship and then gets like knocked the out basically before he can say that he's in a relationship with Magnus which again like I haven't even seen them interact like when did they get in a relationship am I missing something well no it's like kind of implied very heavily early on in the book that like Magnus and Alec have been hanging out a lot sure but like he still won't admit even to the rest of the people like the rest of the Lightwood children and stuff like that one that he's gay two that he's like actually in a relationship part of it is he doesn't want to come out I think the other part of it is that he's still kind of like a little bit like holding out hope for Jace kind of thing for sure but I think my my thing here is that in some of the other series I've read by Cassandra Clare she has you know things happening with a bunch of different characters at once so why the have we never seen them actually hang out like that to me was just like kind of weird and I guess she tries to correct that later on in the series and like Madness and Alec do have their own book series now at this point I think there's only a couple books out but like it's just weird that they're not really like you know I just thought about is the fact that Alec at this point is thinking oh well Clary can't get with her brother maybe I can still get with my brother the brother the Brotherly Love Brotherly Love does this does this take place in Philly oh yeah he almost like tells his parents and I'm pretty sure it's Magnus that like stops him from doing it yeah but he does it because he knows that like the Fearless Rune is on and like Alex not really ready to come out to anyone yet and so he's just like he truly cares about him so he's like he's a homie Magnus though he doesn't have that much green time time or you know page time in this book or the last book yeah it's like easily my favorite character oh he's a great guy I think that's a pretty Universal thing everybody loves Magnum he's like the only one does that mean he used to be a person no it's like a donkey oh like he was okay and like his parents were too different yeah when he stared off interesting so no pregnant Alec later not the emperor so we have Jason cage is really all that we needed to get from this but we got we got a lot more than we really bargained for right Jace is in a cage and Valentine at this point has stolen Maya and Simon he has him on his pleasure boat in the East River yeah as The Inquisitor likes to say and so Jace basically hits a kangaroo Jack and jumps like 30 feet like through the roof or some like that because the cage that she put him in only has four sides doesn't have a top size that's like the literally the logic that they explain it in the book when it happens they're like oh well you saw her put the sides up right and he's like yeah but you forgot the roof yeah did you ever see the roof so he's like yeah but it's like 30 feet and they're like yeah I bet you can't do it and then he hits a white boy can't jump jumps through the roof or whatever and like gets out and everyone's like oh and then we get you know clary's big Rune reveal anyways long story short then we realized that Simon's been kidnapped and so has Maya at this point sometime in here he's got those those people it's time to go to the boat again gotta gotta find Simon time to go to the yacht club make the car like fly slash like drive on water and Luke's truck that they can get to the boat they're like oh how are we gonna get out to the boat and Magnus is just like oh I'll just magic your car we'll spell it so they go out to the boat they find that Simon has his throat slit oh yeah Simon has his throat slip and we get arguably the most erotic moment of this entire book and it's not between the people you think it will be Jace decides that he's going to feed Simon because Simon's laying there dying and this is like maybe the only way he can save him and I guess clary's too puss to do this so no she's not like there there okay like he he's the one who like finds Simon and understands that like he's probably gonna die because he like has zero blood left in his body essentially country girls make do and in this case I guess Simon's the country girl country girls make don't please and Jace is the corn so he goes to town on his carotid and just it's erotic it's downright erotic he apparently leaps onto him after he starts like getting some of this blood in him and he's just like and then he realizes and he's like whoa whoa bro I could have killed you and he's like yeah I get that I would have been okay with it love that you could suck me dry nihilist um mad going down I mean basically like I said it's the exact same that happens in book one where they're like like kind of stop Valentine but like not really because they don't get any of the stuff back I think right like they don't get the sword they don't get the cup they don't get Valentine it kind of just disappears they just get scorpions they just get their friends back scorpions yeah like that's the that Kelsey Inquisitor oh yeah yeah yeah I kind of forget that she dies we also find out that the inquisitor's a because her son died she also I don't know if you picked up the implication before she dies she's talking to Jace her and Jace are kind of like fighting evil together uh she ends up kind of saving him actually um and takes the uh the Venom herself and she sees a scar on Jace and makes a comment like what is that Scar and he's like what and she's like what is that scar you have she's like who is your who is your dad and he's like you know who the my dad is like why are you asking me this question she dies before we really get to like explore that well I'm pretty sure that she says something to the tune of like I guess his name was like Jace to Jace Waylon like the Waylon's had a child named Jace she's like oh yeah I think he had a scar like that or something like that right oh okay no he's he is not a Weyland okay but she knows who that scar belongs to and it's not a Weyland and it's also not valentine and that's kind of the implication there that like he might not actually be clary's brother uh but we're not gonna get to know because she's dead and who else is gonna tell him the truth we don't know but I do she ends up being like kind of a homie towards the end she's like kind of apologizes for like being a the whole time respect it and then she dies so shut it off she really got hers you know um and I think some other people people get up here I think Isabel maybe also gets the Venom ether Isabelle or Alex somebody who gives a at this point it doesn't matter because they're fine you know yeah they didn't die and basically nothing happens to them does anything major happen between this point and the epilogue yes one thing happens and this is what I wanted to like this is what I said I would get through later as we are escaping from the boat everyone is like in the truck boat driving away then we realize that it's Sunrise is happening and Simon's in the back of the truck and they're like what the are we gonna do and then basically everyone's like well there's not really anything we we can do so my assignment they're like why don't we like throw a blanket over him or something like that and he's like no Raphael says that we have to be inside like a layer of clothing or something like that like won't stop it right and then Clary covers him yeah but she also like covers her own eyes too because she's like I don't want to watch and he's fine so like I was saying this the transformation um from rat to bat has some larger implications for the story because you know he's a vampire now but it doesn't really because that's like the one thing that vampires can't do is go out into the Sun and they can't eat like human foods yeah but who the cares if he can't eat human food I don't think that that's a major plot point you know I like food I guess but like I'd be a bummer for me what if he like uh I don't know like I'm trying to think of like a human like maybe blood's really delicious could you like lose your stomach or something or like for the rest of your life you have to be fed nutrients like intravenously you know like you can't like consume food anymore yeah so that could happen to him and he could still not be a vampire you know what I mean it wouldn't have a larger implication in the story besides like oh it's time to feed Simon get the needles you know yeah that's fair the fact that he can still go in the sunlight honestly pissed me off and it just added to the fact that this book did nothing did nothing in his nonsense so sorry sorry Cassandra if you're watching this kind of you fumbled the bag on this one you kind of hit a hit a flop on this one yeah because Andrew's in her flop era but I think she might make a comeback in the third book the third book I I think is like pretty solid I think most people it's agreed upon it's like a pretty strong Jason Clary finally have sex oh I think they do actually that's not why I liked it I'm a brother lover okay well epilogue comes and I don't find it that exciting except for we're kind of back to square one maybe not I don't know maybe this is a new development Jesus like hey Clary let's go to this Diner and eat it together and she's like all right sure let's go she wanted to talk to him and I think what she wanted to say is I'm ready to yeah like I don't care because they have this conversation earlier in the story where basically they're like Jace is like why don't we just do it man you know what who cares if people don't like it right and and Claire is like no we can't do that and so whenever we go to have this conversation at the End clary's clary's changed her tune because you know some shit's gone down and she's like I don't want to go out without having bang to my bro you know so who has Jace uh Jace comes out and is like hey um you know after everything that's happened I have figured out the opposite of what you figure weird out I don't want to anymore I want to just be your brother because I realized when I got kicked out of the house and when like you know my nobody loved me anymore that I want someone to love me um in a familial sense you know not biblically just familiar basically clary's like and that's the day my heart died pretty much yeah oh and also uh Clary and Simon break up and like not in like uh not in a bad way he's just like you know what you know man like I understand that like I can't really have you and I'd rather have you as a best friend than like have you play pretend as my girlfriend she never says really yeah exactly he's the only one that like says they're together and I think that was really like cool of him I think I'm glad that he didn't push forward anymore I think he's developing his character I like vampire Simon much more than human Simon even though they're the same even even though there's only minor changes to his physicality like I think his personality changes in a way that I like in the next book in the future books to wrap it up the only other thing that happens is uh we get like a a mysterious visit from a mysterious woman who's like I can wake your mom up the only person that knows how yeah Claire's like and that's how the book ends oh yeah and like that's that's one thing that I didn't like that we got in the the show or the movie or maybe both of them I think probably both of them but uh in the books in the lat in the first book when everything first goes down yeah and clary's mom was like unconscious or whatever I don't think that we really get do we get that she did it to herself in the book in the book in the show and the movie okay I just didn't remember that we got it in the book this lady is the first one that reveals it to Clary that it wasn't something that was done by someone else her mom did it to herself so that Valentine couldn't like use her as a tool to like get information or to like learn Clary or something like that so she like put herself sleep or like in a coma or whatever and there's nothing that a mundane doctor is gonna be able to help with and I am the only I'm the only person that she entrusted with the secret of like how to wake her up so that's it so we're kind of Back Square One the mom's not awake just again this is the same book as book one her mom is still asleep for the entire book I do I told Chandler at one point I'm gonna lose my mind if this doesn't wake up in this book at some point and she didn't the only thing that we got was we know how you know I think me and you me and you are dissatisfied with this book for very similar reasons you're upset because the mom's still not awake I'm upset because they're still siblings I make you upset it does feel wrung out after reading this book to be honest I like a used towel this was I I never do this Chandler is the king of listening to audiobooks on and just YouTube video Whatever content she consumes she consumes it at like at least two to like three times speed I don't do that ever I really enjoy the amount of time that it takes to like read or listen like a really long right we're not going to get into a debate about it it's not about the amount of time I know I'm enjoying it at my speed this is the first time that I listened on 2xb I didn't I actually because I really wanted to get through this I did want to point out that I actually didn't like this narrator I know you didn't really like the first narrator but it was a different narrator yes I didn't enjoy this one but maybe it's because I listened at 2x maybe I mean it obviously would have been worse at one time speed but I just don't love this narrator I I didn't didn't you didn't connect it wasn't emotionally resonant for me shall we say when some you lose some and I think we both lost today yeah I lost my mind but I I do hope that we find it in this third book that we're going to be reading I haven't decided yet at this point if I want to read past the third book in the series like if I want to read past the original trilogy when we when we talked about this last time I was like yeah we're gonna read all the books at this point I don't know if I want us to suffer that much we will see based on the third one I mean obviously hopefully the third one is like a lot better because this one left a bad taste in my mouth and my ears and so that is already setting the third book up for failure so it's got to be like pretty pretty positive to bring the series out of the negative yeah that's true you know what nothing for me now that I'm thinking about it I I can definitely promise you we're doing the third book and I think if we decide after reading that third one before doing the dbvc we don't want to continue on I'll let you know the crazy that happens in the last three books okay and just to get your your thoughts and feelings because I feel like Hayden really needs to know the crazy Cassandra Bulls you've been talking about it since I started reading I mean it's the reason I initially stopped reading the books so it takes a lot I feel like it's going to be pretty bad to make you stop reading yeah because like to me there isn't really personally and like not to like offend people but like there isn't really anything else this book series has going for it besides the answer there is something that is crazy enough that it made you stop reading it then I gotta know what that is I'll I'll let you know I'll keep you posted meet you here same place same time next month I'm gonna make sure that I don't don't enjoy this next book just so I don't have to read like five more to find out whatever crazy she's talking about I also just want to like read some romance with you honestly like I I miss it some more brother sister romance I was kind of thinking like an adult contemporary romance but you know whatever they could both be adults thanks so much for watching love you all so much and until next time till next timehello welcome back to my channel and welcome my name is Chandler I'm Hayden and today we're going to be talking about a City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare this is a continuation of that first video we did when we read City of Bones if you want a link to that it'll be in the description down below but today we're reading the second book in The Mortal Instrument series I for one am quite excited to delve into this one given that this book is one that I actually haven't Revisited quite as much as City of Bones and I will say upon reread uh there's a lot that I forgot I'm ready to talk about it with you here today what are what are your initial thoughts Hayden this one was not my favorite not even because like I don't like the series or anything like that like I'll keep those those thoughts separate right yeah this one just felt like filler there were a couple of things that happen in this book but it kind of just seemed like a repeat of the first book in a lot of ways and I'll get more into that as we go through the plot points I basically felt like this book could have not existed and there wouldn't be very much change from the story for once I think you and I are actually on the same page about this I feel like this book was also kind of a rehash of the last one and I I didn't remember that from the first time that I read these books I've read City of Bones multiple times that's a book that I I feel like I remember pretty well plotline this one there were key moments that I recognized upon reread there were some things that I thought were going to happen that didn't actually happen in this book and I think that surprised me more than anything yeah I'm rethinking my thoughts on the series definitely after having read this book I I think this to me is a big question mark in red flag I suppose I don't remember some of the stuff that happened in this book and it's not that any of the things that happened in this book are necessarily egregious but it's definitely making me rethink my stance on how I feel about the series as a whole and I'll probably talk more about that in the next video that we do because I do know that if the things that I was thinking were gonna happen in this book didn't happen in this book they will happen in the next one we'll talk about it then overall I'm just feeling a little a little uneasy what was your stance before this was like an excellent like a god tier series I don't know that I would consider it God tier but it was certainly like a formative series for me I feel like Jace was one of like my first book boyfriends I still stand by that I really do like him I think he stands apart from a lot of other like why a Heroes but I do feel like overall the series has like gone down in my head a little bit just given this like one particular thing and I'm sure can all guess what that one particular thing is didn't love this one I listened to it all today so it's really like fresh in my mind and I think for me if I were to like Star rate this based on like my current thoughts and feelings and like how I feel now I think I'd give this like three stars I don't think it was the worst thing that I've ever read definitely kept me entertained and engaged but I do feel like it was a bit of a retread in terms of plotline it didn't feel like anything new or original was happening but I really wish new and exciting things would have happened this would be a two a two star for me that's a fair set you know I can't argue with that because you said that it kind of kept you like entertained and engaged yeah and I didn't even get that from it it wasn't like poorly written where it was like grading to get through you know like it wasn't it wasn't painful but it just didn't really give me much in terms of entertainment if I'm being quite honest that's fair I think for me like the moments of levity were what I appreciated and I do like the Mellow drama I would say in the series in general so like I wasn't mad at everything that happened it is just interesting viewing it through an adult lens some of the choices that this Cassandra makes especially surrounding the idea of siblings you know which I'm sure we'll get into as as we talk about the plot of this book because it's hard to divorce that from everything else that happens so I guess we can go ahead and get into it goodness I don't know how long this one will be probably I would I would assume not as long as our others just I'm looking at my notes they're a little a little skim a little a little shorter in comparison and like normally I have a lot of things to fill in like in your notes like either things to add to your notes that you already have or just things that I want to talk about that you didn't even put in your notes but this one like I said I just don't I don't feel that way so we'll see how it goes I'm gonna try not to like just complain at every plot point I mean feel free my opinions you know please do okay so this book opens we have I would say like two I don't say distinct timelines or plot lines but no let's go with poplines here we have Cleary and Simon and they're kind of just like hanging out being friends as friends do and we also have Jace basically being abandoned by his mom will say that's not something that I really remember happening it is not uncharacteristic of this family at all I would say I really don't love the is it lightwide family it's a lot of like Pomp and Circumstance with them it's a lot of like acting like they're super cool and like the best family ever but there's not a whole lot of like I would say real love between anyone in the family I'm not surprised that his mom abandons him at this very like opening scene I was sort of surprised so I feel like I should give a little bit more context here I was not surprised at all I just wanted to go ahead and say that put that out there Baris Lightwood Isabelle and Alex mom comes to the clay finally we've got adults here that are not just Hodge who ends up abandoning the children anyway she comes back and it's like like hey I brush your brother Max also hey Jace now that I know that Valentine is actually your father I don't really think I can pretend to be your mom anymore I know you think of me as your mother and I know that you think of your um friends as step siblings and you refer to them often as that however I'm gonna need you to get the out of my house yeah she's like I don't trust you because how do I know that you're not like working with Valentine I think this is an interesting form of questioning from her however I can't imagine it's not like looking your baby boy in the eye even even if he's not someone that you birthed out of your you know Cooter um I can't imagine looking my baby boy in the eye and being like you know what I'm gonna need you to leave questionable it didn't surprise me at all personally just based on what we know about the Lightwood children so far like Jace kind of being included in that and their relationship I could tell that you know their upbringing wasn't very loving to put it lightly yeah I mean they essentially abandoned their kids at this place like they're they're underage they're underage children in New York and they live in a different country and I I'm pretty sure are they banned from living at The Institute or something I think there's something funky going on there like maybe wasn't 100 their choice but we still get the vibe that like maybe they're not the best parents ever which is fine I guess but I think viewing it from the lens of an adult I like actually noticed this time I feel like when you're a kid almost all forms of media have children being abandoned by their parents or their parents die or like no they're orphaned because it makes the story move along a little bit better because you don't have parents questioning your every move I get it reading it this time I'm like parents are such an integral part of the story not only in this series but in other series that Cassandra Clare writes so it's just interesting to me that I have the one like mother figure in his life abandon him and you know what I sort of get it because that'll give him more angst do we though I think he has enough he had enough even before we found out that Valentine was his dad or that he was kissing his sister that stuff aside he was angsty from scene one of book one am I the wrong for being surprised by the fact that there was another sibling in the mix I don't remember that from the first one I think it's even mentioned I think it's a throwaway line about how their their brother their little brother Max is like alcante with their parents but did not remember that so when they were like Max I was like who's Max who the is Max did you guys just create another child and not only that but I thought it was like he was very much a throwaway character for me like he had literally zero significance in this book and I don't know if he will in any future books but like nothing that happens with Matt like you might as well just not have put him in this book I think I think he could have showed up in the book where he becomes important and it would have had the same impact personally okay so we have this run in essentially with Jason his uh adopted mother she says okay I don't really believe what you're saying I don't believe that you are not in Leagues with Valentine now not only are do we know he's your dad like I think you were in Leagues with him we're gonna call The Inquisitor here uh who's basically a big old who questions people The Inquisitor is invited to the Institute and she's going to question Jace and make sure that he is really like he's really cool but of course Jace has a big fat mouth he gets in trouble with the Inquisitor basically like immediately upon her arriving and he is thrown into the bone City I'm not gonna answer my questions and you're not gonna behave well you can go to the Bone City and uh so now he's with the spooky brothers and at the same time you know the thing that you said at the very beginning of this is that this book opens with Simon and Claire hanging out but what actually is happening is while Jace is getting thrown into bone jail clary's like well if I can't kiss my brother I guess I love my best friend kiss me also referred me as his girlfriend even though I am not saying that we're dating I'm also not gonna tell him no maybe because she's scared of losing him again or something I don't know I think clary's just vibing with those teenage hormones to be honest I think she's just like whatever moves well Simon was like really thought that he lost out and then he finds out that Jace is her brother he's like yes he's like I am in no but he says in his head I remember this distinctly I can remember what I was doing when I was listening to this I was raking our carpet with a little carpet right I was listening and he was like you know I really thought I was out of the running whenever Jace came into the picture but now that he's her brother I think I have a chance except for I don't know that I actually have a chance because she hasn't given up hope that she can make out with her brother and I'm like I don't know that that's something that anyone should be thinking she is correct besides the two weirdos involved do you know what I mean I don't know I don't like that everyone else is kind of catching the vibe because what what sort of off-putting disgusting Vibes are you giving off that everyone around you knows you want to your brother like I am unsettled I think this is around the time too when we meet Maya as well Maya is a werewolf character who comes into play she's not I would say super important she is about as important I would say as like an Alec or an Isabelle I would say that she is more important than Alex in this book and the last book they they really don't have much personality and that's something we can get into I guess right here I guess maybe it's because I've seen like the show and because I watched the movie and because I know the lore and like the love that people have for these characters but I remember in my heart of hearts that Alec and Demon daddy Magnus like I remember them being more more of a a player in the story um and not just being like the beer bait that I guess they essentially are in these first couple of books like we get this idea that Alec you know is gay and that he has feelings for Jace like they have almost no relevance to this book Magnus obviously is helpful because he's a warlock but like what the does Alec do I was gonna say Magnus is also a more important character than like any of the like actual language yeah the peripheral like Shadowhunters who should be doing things um and Alec I think is just there to like get injured like that is pretty much his thing Alec or Isabel yeah one of them is gonna get some Demon poison and they're gonna be out for a little bit yeah that's about it that's that's about the extent of their existence in these books and one of them has to go to like take care of the other one too so it like takes both of them out yeah we're like okay let's get rid of them all that to say Maya is someone who we're introduced to in this book she's a werewolf and she's part of Luke's pack she is the same age about as pretty much any of the other like Shadowhunters and uh she kind of becomes friends with like Simon and Clary I would say and she becomes important-ish later on in the book but I just wanted to like introduce her character here because I do think that like she comes in later I meet her like in a bar and Jace is there oh she does not like Jay so yeah she doesn't like Jay's this is like hella Moody I think oh for sure well because he just got kicked out of his house yeah he's like I can't make out with my sister and I don't have a place to live yeah what do I have to live for being a real piece of and then we find out that someone is it like one of the other werewolves someone gets attacked like in the alley like outside of the bar it's kind of just like brushed over at this point in the story like no one really questions it it just like it happens and someone tries to say that it's Jason's like no I really don't care about this honestly and Simon's like I know it wasn't him and that's basically it like all that there is of that he's a good guy in in this bar scene Jace talks to Simon and basically tells him hey the light Woods are back also they kicked me out and they hate me or not Simon Luke Luke is saying I don't really think that that's like the whole story and I don't really think that you tried to properly commune now that she's like maybe cooled down a little bit go back there try to explain yourself just talk it out I'm sure that they will be understanding and so yeah he goes back to the house that's when we get to meet the fabulous Inquisitor which he then mouths off to and goes to jail and while he's in the bone daddy realm he ends up coming into contact with Valentine in a very spooky fashion my Diane he is hearing ungodly screeches yeah just like what the going on and I'm pretty sure that he was like knocked out or something when he was brought there because I I think I remember him like waking up to this he was like putting up a fight maybe I don't actually know but they throw him in jail he doesn't doesn't really know how he got there he knows he's going there I think it's in total darkness as part of oh yeah it's so dark in there and all he's hearing are these ungodly screams stuff he's never heard before and then his daddy shows up thank God yeah thank God but not the only thing better would be his sister not before he sees the corpse of one of the silent brothers that he has personally come in contact with collapsing in front of him just dying dead and he realizes oh my God all of the silent brothers are dead my dad killed all of the people here and they didn't make a sound and he has this like delightful little conversation with his daddy and his daddy's like what's up I don't actually know what the interactions I don't understand like why he was meet him up here he's stealing the sword but he's also like yeah I'll break you free and he's like don't they already think that I'm in League with you so please don't do that I wouldn't want to give anyone the wrong idea yeah and he's like there's no way that you came here just to break me out and he's like of course not I came here to get this badass sword bro yeah it turns out the sword that he's stealing is the Angel sword which inquisitors slash like the whole the clave the clave uses this sword during like interrogation slash during like Oaths and stuff like that to like make people tell the truth pretty sure that there's probably another use for it Valentine's basically like yeah well I mean there's not really a point in you being in here anymore because they're not going to hold the trial because they don't have the stupid sword to like make sure that you're not lying to them and so they like they're not gonna try you at this point so at the same time we also find out that there is a berry that's killed somewhere in like another Park that draws the attention of all of the like clave members and like demon hunters and it's a ploy so that they won't realize that the bone city has been broken into by Valentine and that the silent brothers are all you know dead and the story The Sword is stolen and stuff if I remember correctly Clary and the rest of the Lightwood children like kind of figure this point out and so they go to like help out Jace realizing that you know everyone's being pulled away on some wild goose chase they go to help Jace out three Jace from the prison they see all the dead silent brothers and they're like you know some crazy shits going on and then they come outside and who is there mate Mavis Maris Mavis what's her name Mary slatewood yeah Maris Inquisitor and like a bunch of other Shadowhunters are there and they're like oh well you guys just thought you were so cool coming to bust your brother out of jail and they're like that's not what happened no like Valentine was here and they were like well how do we know that you didn't help him back where we started basically the whole time he's like yeah I helped my dad you're so right who true bestie about this time too that we figure out we're gonna go and talk to the Faye as the Faye child died and we also think that the celi queen might know some they want the Sealy Queen's help and they also want to inform the queen that like first of all this wasn't us right so it wasn't yeah right it wasn't a Shadowhunter but like an x one that we don't really like right we don't talk about him and they also wanted to let them know that something does happen and they don't help then Valentine's just gonna come after them next like hates all down worlders that includes you so if you don't help us now and he ends up like getting really strong which is what he's planning on doing then like it's gonna come back to bite you like underwater or something like that do you have to like go through a lake but it's not underwater yeah yeah but like the entrance is like in the water or something just remember them being like everyone's like soaking wet when they get in there a little snorkel Venture soaking away be careful because berries are very dangerous and they seem very alluring and they will like essentially like promise you things that you most want in the world and also like don't answer with them because you'll literally dance until you die Clary gets a little taste of this she like hears music when she first walks in and like doesn't even realize that she's like being drawn into dancing like that's my and she's like oh my God I am feeling this and then she gets like yanked away and she's like yo what the I was vibing man yeah we told you you will dance until you die and also don't like eat or drink anything that you get here either because that's Danger address for some reason that I can't remember well you have to stay forever oh if you like consume anything from them you have to stay forever not ideal so meeting this this big old or anything but she's not the most helpful just a little bit of a bedroom wait is she like physically a little no it's a tall person I don't know we meet the queen and I won't lie I don't really remember much of what she does except for she makes she makes her Barbie dolls kiss she makes them smooch makes them well we're getting there okay so you know the the things that need to be communicated or communicated Hayden kind of mentioned him earlier yeah which is basically like hey I know that this fairy died that wasn't us and they were like yeah it was it was a Shadowhunter and they were like yeah but he's bad they were like well it's your problem and they were like well don't help us when the time comes then it's gonna be your problem too whether or not you want it to be so and then she's like you know but you know what is a problem this she licked her fingers oh no and so the queen is like okay and she lick her fingers from because a little pixie bit her fingers and so she had blood on her fingers but she also had a tiny touch with a drink on her fingers and she's like yeah so unfortunately oh she's gotta stay forever unless she kisses the person whom she most desires for some reason this leads to like a weird chain of like people kissing each other actually I just want to point out real quick that I am fairly certain that it's Jace who must kiss the person that he most desires and not Clary and then it turns out that Clary is that person so I thought that Clary and Simon kiss first though and then and then he's like do I have to kiss that's the whole thing is like you're thinking that uh that would be the case but like Simon's just kind of like looking on in horror like I remember this being like kind of a like a Rocky Point in their newly found relationship no I know I think the first thing that happens is that he immediately kisses her and and nothing happens and then we're like yeah okay epideric moment live with Derek you know the show where they kiss each other oh no I'm not familiar with the show I don't get the reference but I'm sure that they're step siblings who have erotic undertones I think it was like a Disney show uh we have a big old smidge rail yeah and it's like between Jason Claire I mean I just feel like it's a given and it's not even just like a kiss like they rope each other and are Slip in big tongue you know it is a lot I'm pretty sure that they make mention in the book that it like goes on for longer than it should yes it does like they're like you guys have to kiss and they're like we have to kiss and then like by the end of it they're like we have to stop there's so much I want to say and I don't it all involves this spoiler from the next book yeah do you want me to go out of the room no I feel like I'm surprised that you don't know it already but but they're not actually brother and sister yeah I'm surprised I could have called it so here's the thing here's the deal this is why I don't like this book as much as I thought that I did right I remember that they were siblings when they kissed and I do remember it being angst the attention filled and it but I feel like I remember after this scene happened like not that far after we find out they're not actually siblings we're like no they're still siblings they're still siblings for this whole book spoiler alert I don't remember that and again I think that really uh changes things for me like it's kind of a weird thing to do in the first place let's be honest to like make this a big thing in your book it's it's even weirder you have this idea of a three book series and for two of those books you've got kissing siblings and then in the third book you decide to do away with that I mean I understand tension okay come on the most of the first book They're not siblings they're siblings and they're like oh we can't do this and the second book The reason why I'm not anywhere uh close to surprised by this reveal of yours right now is because they make too much of a deal about it the second book like obviously like they have to make a kind of a big deal about it in the first book if that's like your reveal of the first book right it just continued to like harp on it over and over again this like will they won't they like tension of we both still really love each other but like it would absolutely disgust everyone around us girl you're all ready to discussing everyone around you might as well just let them go for it at that point it's all I'm saying but yeah I think to me it made this book hard to read and challenging and I think just really goes to show how much your caricature can develop over time and I feel like I've changed I feel like I've changed I feel like I can read a forbidden taboo relationship now that isn't this I think like that was my first introduction into that one of them just actually be siblings no no no that's not what I'm advocating for I'm just I think for me like again this was my first um foray into that it's it's forbidden but also like we found out that they're not actually you know and so it's like satisfies of your angst intention needs as a young folk but I just um I think it went on a bit too long in this book I'll I'll admit in this scene uh was just further proof of that I remember like this was one of my favorite scenes because it was so drama it was like so dramatic and I don't think that's an unpopular opinion I think a lot of people were likely hoping that that would be included in like the movies in the show because it is so like a shocking off I didn't think it was very shocking no I mean it really it really wasn't but um it wasn't shocking I was gas I didn't really think that the first time very dramatic either like I think we all knew that like there was going to be at least one or two moments in this book where they kiss oh for sure anyways it's just a repeat of the last book nothing is developed nothing progressed or regressed it's it's the same it's exactly the same to mirror that sameness of the first book after this encounter happens Simon acts out by going to the hotel do more basically because coming a vampire I mean to make along with the story short it becomes a vampire he was scared he was turning into a vampire so he goes to seek out Raphael to ask questions other vampires catch him and end up like essentially murdering him I guess but since he had Raphael's blood in him from when he was a rat uh he doesn't actually die he becomes a vampire and I understand that like this obviously has more significance in terms of like the future of this yeah like he's not gonna not be a vampire anymore this is another moment where I'm just like this is the same as the first system yeah he was turned into a rat now he's turned into a bat just is how it is it like it's it's Simon acts out and gets himself in trouble and then everyone has to either like save him or look on in horror as he is like trouble and might possibly die not only that but it's still with the same as the first book it's not even with the news not even new vampires yeah exactly hang on from there I think the next plot point that I have written down is that Maya gets attacked yeah and there's this like whole thing with like a little bit of backstory worry that we get from Maya at the beginning of the book where like she dated some abusive guy and then she broke up with him and then he like backed her down in the park messed her up real bad and then turned her into a werewolf one thing that we didn't mention is that Valentine at the very beginning of the book summons a demon who is like the demon of fear and like shows you your biggest fear and so we get this a lot in in the book as it goes I'm pretty sure that in the prison when Jace is in prison he's Valentine yeah he sees his greatest fear imagined and it's like something bad happening to Clary or is it or is it people finding out that he has no no no no it's something bad happening to Clarion that being said we we keep getting this over and over again of like people seeing their biggest fears and then turns out no it's just this big bad demon that Valentine summoned right uh so that's what happens here she gets attacked but she sees guy that like turned her into a werewolf in the first place and like you know this was like a big traumatic moment in her life but anyways she gets attacked and then as part of this book because I think we're about like the 70-ish percent Mark at this point and you're like okay well not that much has happened this is kind of like what's going on I would say the last 30 of this book is just a bunch of boats we're on a boat some stuff's happening we'll get off the boat and then other stuff I just I will I'll be honest it's all blur to me but I'm sure Hayden will guide us through these Waters Jace takes a motorcycle and goes to visit Valentine on this boat I can't even remember how he like knows that he's there yeah but he goes and visits Valentine on this boat and is like yo what is going on man like what are you even up to and he's like oh you know I'm just gonna like you know raise an army of demons and that's what I've been up to this whole time one of the things that I need to do in order to like make all these demons cool with me is I also need blood from like each one of the down world or races it's basically the classic stupid Trope that I hate like hero villain I know of scenarios where the villain explains his entire plan instead of just doing it and succeeding this is exactly what I'm gonna do and also you can go now let's go explains this whole plan and so now we know why there was a fairy that was attacked we know that Maya was attacked we know that he needs like you know blood from each one of the downworlders and then does he keep Maya on the ship because I know he keeps Simon on the ship well I don't think Simon has been kidnapped yet well not yet but I just mean we're moving there right yeah Maya and Simon have a whole little like Heart to Heart moment on the ship because earlier whenever or no way actually this is like happening right now at the same time that they're on the boat Clary and Luke and Maya and Simon are all like hanging out at the house Maya gets like attacked like basically like in the front yard of the house or something and then gets like taken inside so she hasn't been like kidnapped yet I don't think because there's a whole interaction with Simon and Maya where like Maya finally find finds out that Simon is a vampire now and is immediately like get the away from me I will tear your up just because you're a vampire and he's like yo man we were cool like 10 minutes ago before you knew that like I'm I'm chill you're chill well you're in natural enemies yeah then also there's another like demon that attacks Luke out in the front yard or some all of that happens Jace has another like run-in with The Inquisitor where she's like you know I know that you went to go see your dad you get to go in the cage of Shame he basically gets put in a cage again which he breaks out of by just jumping really high because he's told that he has special demon abilities because his dad did like experiments and on him Larry can do like rooms that no one's ever seen before yeah Jace is just like super great at this job that's basically his skill and speaking of that whole bit we get this whole scene with like oh well Jace can do cool Clary I bet you can do some cool too you made that Rune that you know the the one thing that you did the last book that no one's ever seen before why don't you try to just do that again only like just think of something uh how about Fearless it's Fearless she makes a rune and everyone's like oh well who's she gonna put it on you know like don't don't give it to Jace because like we won't he's already feared yeah we won't be able to tell the difference so they put it on Alec and then the light would come home yeah and he's like hey by the way I have something to tell you guys I'm in a relationship and then gets like knocked the out basically before he can say that he's in a relationship with Magnus which again like I haven't even seen them interact like when did they get in a relationship am I missing something well no it's like kind of implied very heavily early on in the book that like Magnus and Alec have been hanging out a lot sure but like he still won't admit even to the rest of the people like the rest of the Lightwood children and stuff like that one that he's gay two that he's like actually in a relationship part of it is he doesn't want to come out I think the other part of it is that he's still kind of like a little bit like holding out hope for Jace kind of thing for sure but I think my my thing here is that in some of the other series I've read by Cassandra Clare she has you know things happening with a bunch of different characters at once so why the have we never seen them actually hang out like that to me was just like kind of weird and I guess she tries to correct that later on in the series and like Madness and Alec do have their own book series now at this point I think there's only a couple books out but like it's just weird that they're not really like you know I just thought about is the fact that Alec at this point is thinking oh well Clary can't get with her brother maybe I can still get with my brother the brother the Brotherly Love Brotherly Love does this does this take place in Philly oh yeah he almost like tells his parents and I'm pretty sure it's Magnus that like stops him from doing it yeah but he does it because he knows that like the Fearless Rune is on and like Alex not really ready to come out to anyone yet and so he's just like he truly cares about him so he's like he's a homie Magnus though he doesn't have that much green time time or you know page time in this book or the last book yeah it's like easily my favorite character oh he's a great guy I think that's a pretty Universal thing everybody loves Magnum he's like the only one does that mean he used to be a person no it's like a donkey oh like he was okay and like his parents were too different yeah when he stared off interesting so no pregnant Alec later not the emperor so we have Jason cage is really all that we needed to get from this but we got we got a lot more than we really bargained for right Jace is in a cage and Valentine at this point has stolen Maya and Simon he has him on his pleasure boat in the East River yeah as The Inquisitor likes to say and so Jace basically hits a kangaroo Jack and jumps like 30 feet like through the roof or some like that because the cage that she put him in only has four sides doesn't have a top size that's like the literally the logic that they explain it in the book when it happens they're like oh well you saw her put the sides up right and he's like yeah but you forgot the roof yeah did you ever see the roof so he's like yeah but it's like 30 feet and they're like yeah I bet you can't do it and then he hits a white boy can't jump jumps through the roof or whatever and like gets out and everyone's like oh and then we get you know clary's big Rune reveal anyways long story short then we realized that Simon's been kidnapped and so has Maya at this point sometime in here he's got those those people it's time to go to the boat again gotta gotta find Simon time to go to the yacht club make the car like fly slash like drive on water and Luke's truck that they can get to the boat they're like oh how are we gonna get out to the boat and Magnus is just like oh I'll just magic your car we'll spell it so they go out to the boat they find that Simon has his throat slit oh yeah Simon has his throat slip and we get arguably the most erotic moment of this entire book and it's not between the people you think it will be Jace decides that he's going to feed Simon because Simon's laying there dying and this is like maybe the only way he can save him and I guess clary's too puss to do this so no she's not like there there okay like he he's the one who like finds Simon and understands that like he's probably gonna die because he like has zero blood left in his body essentially country girls make do and in this case I guess Simon's the country girl country girls make don't please and Jace is the corn so he goes to town on his carotid and just it's erotic it's downright erotic he apparently leaps onto him after he starts like getting some of this blood in him and he's just like and then he realizes and he's like whoa whoa bro I could have killed you and he's like yeah I get that I would have been okay with it love that you could suck me dry nihilist um mad going down I mean basically like I said it's the exact same that happens in book one where they're like like kind of stop Valentine but like not really because they don't get any of the stuff back I think right like they don't get the sword they don't get the cup they don't get Valentine it kind of just disappears they just get scorpions they just get their friends back scorpions yeah like that's the that Kelsey Inquisitor oh yeah yeah yeah I kind of forget that she dies we also find out that the inquisitor's a because her son died she also I don't know if you picked up the implication before she dies she's talking to Jace her and Jace are kind of like fighting evil together uh she ends up kind of saving him actually um and takes the uh the Venom herself and she sees a scar on Jace and makes a comment like what is that Scar and he's like what and she's like what is that scar you have she's like who is your who is your dad and he's like you know who the my dad is like why are you asking me this question she dies before we really get to like explore that well I'm pretty sure that she says something to the tune of like I guess his name was like Jace to Jace Waylon like the Waylon's had a child named Jace she's like oh yeah I think he had a scar like that or something like that right oh okay no he's he is not a Weyland okay but she knows who that scar belongs to and it's not a Weyland and it's also not valentine and that's kind of the implication there that like he might not actually be clary's brother uh but we're not gonna get to know because she's dead and who else is gonna tell him the truth we don't know but I do she ends up being like kind of a homie towards the end she's like kind of apologizes for like being a the whole time respect it and then she dies so shut it off she really got hers you know um and I think some other people people get up here I think Isabel maybe also gets the Venom ether Isabelle or Alex somebody who gives a at this point it doesn't matter because they're fine you know yeah they didn't die and basically nothing happens to them does anything major happen between this point and the epilogue yes one thing happens and this is what I wanted to like this is what I said I would get through later as we are escaping from the boat everyone is like in the truck boat driving away then we realize that it's Sunrise is happening and Simon's in the back of the truck and they're like what the are we gonna do and then basically everyone's like well there's not really anything we we can do so my assignment they're like why don't we like throw a blanket over him or something like that and he's like no Raphael says that we have to be inside like a layer of clothing or something like that like won't stop it right and then Clary covers him yeah but she also like covers her own eyes too because she's like I don't want to watch and he's fine so like I was saying this the transformation um from rat to bat has some larger implications for the story because you know he's a vampire now but it doesn't really because that's like the one thing that vampires can't do is go out into the Sun and they can't eat like human foods yeah but who the cares if he can't eat human food I don't think that that's a major plot point you know I like food I guess but like I'd be a bummer for me what if he like uh I don't know like I'm trying to think of like a human like maybe blood's really delicious could you like lose your stomach or something or like for the rest of your life you have to be fed nutrients like intravenously you know like you can't like consume food anymore yeah so that could happen to him and he could still not be a vampire you know what I mean it wouldn't have a larger implication in the story besides like oh it's time to feed Simon get the needles you know yeah that's fair the fact that he can still go in the sunlight honestly pissed me off and it just added to the fact that this book did nothing did nothing in his nonsense so sorry sorry Cassandra if you're watching this kind of you fumbled the bag on this one you kind of hit a hit a flop on this one yeah because Andrew's in her flop era but I think she might make a comeback in the third book the third book I I think is like pretty solid I think most people it's agreed upon it's like a pretty strong Jason Clary finally have sex oh I think they do actually that's not why I liked it I'm a brother lover okay well epilogue comes and I don't find it that exciting except for we're kind of back to square one maybe not I don't know maybe this is a new development Jesus like hey Clary let's go to this Diner and eat it together and she's like all right sure let's go she wanted to talk to him and I think what she wanted to say is I'm ready to yeah like I don't care because they have this conversation earlier in the story where basically they're like Jace is like why don't we just do it man you know what who cares if people don't like it right and and Claire is like no we can't do that and so whenever we go to have this conversation at the End clary's clary's changed her tune because you know some shit's gone down and she's like I don't want to go out without having bang to my bro you know so who has Jace uh Jace comes out and is like hey um you know after everything that's happened I have figured out the opposite of what you figure weird out I don't want to anymore I want to just be your brother because I realized when I got kicked out of the house and when like you know my nobody loved me anymore that I want someone to love me um in a familial sense you know not biblically just familiar basically clary's like and that's the day my heart died pretty much yeah oh and also uh Clary and Simon break up and like not in like uh not in a bad way he's just like you know what you know man like I understand that like I can't really have you and I'd rather have you as a best friend than like have you play pretend as my girlfriend she never says really yeah exactly he's the only one that like says they're together and I think that was really like cool of him I think I'm glad that he didn't push forward anymore I think he's developing his character I like vampire Simon much more than human Simon even though they're the same even even though there's only minor changes to his physicality like I think his personality changes in a way that I like in the next book in the future books to wrap it up the only other thing that happens is uh we get like a a mysterious visit from a mysterious woman who's like I can wake your mom up the only person that knows how yeah Claire's like and that's how the book ends oh yeah and like that's that's one thing that I didn't like that we got in the the show or the movie or maybe both of them I think probably both of them but uh in the books in the lat in the first book when everything first goes down yeah and clary's mom was like unconscious or whatever I don't think that we really get do we get that she did it to herself in the book in the book in the show and the movie okay I just didn't remember that we got it in the book this lady is the first one that reveals it to Clary that it wasn't something that was done by someone else her mom did it to herself so that Valentine couldn't like use her as a tool to like get information or to like learn Clary or something like that so she like put herself sleep or like in a coma or whatever and there's nothing that a mundane doctor is gonna be able to help with and I am the only I'm the only person that she entrusted with the secret of like how to wake her up so that's it so we're kind of Back Square One the mom's not awake just again this is the same book as book one her mom is still asleep for the entire book I do I told Chandler at one point I'm gonna lose my mind if this doesn't wake up in this book at some point and she didn't the only thing that we got was we know how you know I think me and you me and you are dissatisfied with this book for very similar reasons you're upset because the mom's still not awake I'm upset because they're still siblings I make you upset it does feel wrung out after reading this book to be honest I like a used towel this was I I never do this Chandler is the king of listening to audiobooks on and just YouTube video Whatever content she consumes she consumes it at like at least two to like three times speed I don't do that ever I really enjoy the amount of time that it takes to like read or listen like a really long right we're not going to get into a debate about it it's not about the amount of time I know I'm enjoying it at my speed this is the first time that I listened on 2xb I didn't I actually because I really wanted to get through this I did want to point out that I actually didn't like this narrator I know you didn't really like the first narrator but it was a different narrator yes I didn't enjoy this one but maybe it's because I listened at 2x maybe I mean it obviously would have been worse at one time speed but I just don't love this narrator I I didn't didn't you didn't connect it wasn't emotionally resonant for me shall we say when some you lose some and I think we both lost today yeah I lost my mind but I I do hope that we find it in this third book that we're going to be reading I haven't decided yet at this point if I want to read past the third book in the series like if I want to read past the original trilogy when we when we talked about this last time I was like yeah we're gonna read all the books at this point I don't know if I want us to suffer that much we will see based on the third one I mean obviously hopefully the third one is like a lot better because this one left a bad taste in my mouth and my ears and so that is already setting the third book up for failure so it's got to be like pretty pretty positive to bring the series out of the negative yeah that's true you know what nothing for me now that I'm thinking about it I I can definitely promise you we're doing the third book and I think if we decide after reading that third one before doing the dbvc we don't want to continue on I'll let you know the crazy that happens in the last three books okay and just to get your your thoughts and feelings because I feel like Hayden really needs to know the crazy Cassandra Bulls you've been talking about it since I started reading I mean it's the reason I initially stopped reading the books so it takes a lot I feel like it's going to be pretty bad to make you stop reading yeah because like to me there isn't really personally and like not to like offend people but like there isn't really anything else this book series has going for it besides the answer there is something that is crazy enough that it made you stop reading it then I gotta know what that is I'll I'll let you know I'll keep you posted meet you here same place same time next month I'm gonna make sure that I don't don't enjoy this next book just so I don't have to read like five more to find out whatever crazy she's talking about I also just want to like read some romance with you honestly like I I miss it some more brother sister romance I was kind of thinking like an adult contemporary romance but you know whatever they could both be adults thanks so much for watching love you all so much and until next time till next timehello welcome back to my channel and welcome my name is Chandler I'm Hayden and today we're going to be talking about a City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare this is a continuation of that first video we did when we read City of Bones if you want a link to that it'll be in the description down below but today we're reading the second book in The Mortal Instrument series I for one am quite excited to delve into this one given that this book is one that I actually haven't Revisited quite as much as City of Bones and I will say upon reread uh there's a lot that I forgot I'm ready to talk about it with you here today what are what are your initial thoughts Hayden this one was not my favorite not even because like I don't like the series or anything like that like I'll keep those those thoughts separate right yeah this one just felt like filler there were a couple of things that happen in this book but it kind of just seemed like a repeat of the first book in a lot of ways and I'll get more into that as we go through the plot points I basically felt like this book could have not existed and there wouldn't be very much change from the story for once I think you and I are actually on the same page about this I feel like this book was also kind of a rehash of the last one and I I didn't remember that from the first time that I read these books I've read City of Bones multiple times that's a book that I I feel like I remember pretty well plotline this one there were key moments that I recognized upon reread there were some things that I thought were going to happen that didn't actually happen in this book and I think that surprised me more than anything yeah I'm rethinking my thoughts on the series definitely after having read this book I I think this to me is a big question mark in red flag I suppose I don't remember some of the stuff that happened in this book and it's not that any of the things that happened in this book are necessarily egregious but it's definitely making me rethink my stance on how I feel about the series as a whole and I'll probably talk more about that in the next video that we do because I do know that if the things that I was thinking were gonna happen in this book didn't happen in this book they will happen in the next one we'll talk about it then overall I'm just feeling a little a little uneasy what was your stance before this was like an excellent like a god tier series I don't know that I would consider it God tier but it was certainly like a formative series for me I feel like Jace was one of like my first book boyfriends I still stand by that I really do like him I think he stands apart from a lot of other like why a Heroes but I do feel like overall the series has like gone down in my head a little bit just given this like one particular thing and I'm sure can all guess what that one particular thing is didn't love this one I listened to it all today so it's really like fresh in my mind and I think for me if I were to like Star rate this based on like my current thoughts and feelings and like how I feel now I think I'd give this like three stars I don't think it was the worst thing that I've ever read definitely kept me entertained and engaged but I do feel like it was a bit of a retread in terms of plotline it didn't feel like anything new or original was happening but I really wish new and exciting things would have happened this would be a two a two star for me that's a fair set you know I can't argue with that because you said that it kind of kept you like entertained and engaged yeah and I didn't even get that from it it wasn't like poorly written where it was like grading to get through you know like it wasn't it wasn't painful but it just didn't really give me much in terms of entertainment if I'm being quite honest that's fair I think for me like the moments of levity were what I appreciated and I do like the Mellow drama I would say in the series in general so like I wasn't mad at everything that happened it is just interesting viewing it through an adult lens some of the choices that this Cassandra makes especially surrounding the idea of siblings you know which I'm sure we'll get into as as we talk about the plot of this book because it's hard to divorce that from everything else that happens so I guess we can go ahead and get into it goodness I don't know how long this one will be probably I would I would assume not as long as our others just I'm looking at my notes they're a little a little skim a little a little shorter in comparison and like normally I have a lot of things to fill in like in your notes like either things to add to your notes that you already have or just things that I want to talk about that you didn't even put in your notes but this one like I said I just don't I don't feel that way so we'll see how it goes I'm gonna try not to like just complain at every plot point I mean feel free my opinions you know please do okay so this book opens we have I would say like two I don't say distinct timelines or plot lines but no let's go with poplines here we have Cleary and Simon and they're kind of just like hanging out being friends as friends do and we also have Jace basically being abandoned by his mom will say that's not something that I really remember happening it is not uncharacteristic of this family at all I would say I really don't love the is it lightwide family it's a lot of like Pomp and Circumstance with them it's a lot of like acting like they're super cool and like the best family ever but there's not a whole lot of like I would say real love between anyone in the family I'm not surprised that his mom abandons him at this very like opening scene I was sort of surprised so I feel like I should give a little bit more context here I was not surprised at all I just wanted to go ahead and say that put that out there Baris Lightwood Isabelle and Alex mom comes to the clay finally we've got adults here that are not just Hodge who ends up abandoning the children anyway she comes back and it's like like hey I brush your brother Max also hey Jace now that I know that Valentine is actually your father I don't really think I can pretend to be your mom anymore I know you think of me as your mother and I know that you think of your um friends as step siblings and you refer to them often as that however I'm gonna need you to get the out of my house yeah she's like I don't trust you because how do I know that you're not like working with Valentine I think this is an interesting form of questioning from her however I can't imagine it's not like looking your baby boy in the eye even even if he's not someone that you birthed out of your you know Cooter um I can't imagine looking my baby boy in the eye and being like you know what I'm gonna need you to leave questionable it didn't surprise me at all personally just based on what we know about the Lightwood children so far like Jace kind of being included in that and their relationship I could tell that you know their upbringing wasn't very loving to put it lightly yeah I mean they essentially abandoned their kids at this place like they're they're underage they're underage children in New York and they live in a different country and I I'm pretty sure are they banned from living at The Institute or something I think there's something funky going on there like maybe wasn't 100 their choice but we still get the vibe that like maybe they're not the best parents ever which is fine I guess but I think viewing it from the lens of an adult I like actually noticed this time I feel like when you're a kid almost all forms of media have children being abandoned by their parents or their parents die or like no they're orphaned because it makes the story move along a little bit better because you don't have parents questioning your every move I get it reading it this time I'm like parents are such an integral part of the story not only in this series but in other series that Cassandra Clare writes so it's just interesting to me that I have the one like mother figure in his life abandon him and you know what I sort of get it because that'll give him more angst do we though I think he has enough he had enough even before we found out that Valentine was his dad or that he was kissing his sister that stuff aside he was angsty from scene one of book one am I the wrong for being surprised by the fact that there was another sibling in the mix I don't remember that from the first one I think it's even mentioned I think it's a throwaway line about how their their brother their little brother Max is like alcante with their parents but did not remember that so when they were like Max I was like who's Max who the is Max did you guys just create another child and not only that but I thought it was like he was very much a throwaway character for me like he had literally zero significance in this book and I don't know if he will in any future books but like nothing that happens with Matt like you might as well just not have put him in this book I think I think he could have showed up in the book where he becomes important and it would have had the same impact personally okay so we have this run in essentially with Jason his uh adopted mother she says okay I don't really believe what you're saying I don't believe that you are not in Leagues with Valentine now not only are do we know he's your dad like I think you were in Leagues with him we're gonna call The Inquisitor here uh who's basically a big old who questions people The Inquisitor is invited to the Institute and she's going to question Jace and make sure that he is really like he's really cool but of course Jace has a big fat mouth he gets in trouble with the Inquisitor basically like immediately upon her arriving and he is thrown into the bone City I'm not gonna answer my questions and you're not gonna behave well you can go to the Bone City and uh so now he's with the spooky brothers and at the same time you know the thing that you said at the very beginning of this is that this book opens with Simon and Claire hanging out but what actually is happening is while Jace is getting thrown into bone jail clary's like well if I can't kiss my brother I guess I love my best friend kiss me also referred me as his girlfriend even though I am not saying that we're dating I'm also not gonna tell him no maybe because she's scared of losing him again or something I don't know I think clary's just vibing with those teenage hormones to be honest I think she's just like whatever moves well Simon was like really thought that he lost out and then he finds out that Jace is her brother he's like yes he's like I am in no but he says in his head I remember this distinctly I can remember what I was doing when I was listening to this I was raking our carpet with a little carpet right I was listening and he was like you know I really thought I was out of the running whenever Jace came into the picture but now that he's her brother I think I have a chance except for I don't know that I actually have a chance because she hasn't given up hope that she can make out with her brother and I'm like I don't know that that's something that anyone should be thinking she is correct besides the two weirdos involved do you know what I mean I don't know I don't like that everyone else is kind of catching the vibe because what what sort of off-putting disgusting Vibes are you giving off that everyone around you knows you want to your brother like I am unsettled I think this is around the time too when we meet Maya as well Maya is a werewolf character who comes into play she's not I would say super important she is about as important I would say as like an Alec or an Isabelle I would say that she is more important than Alex in this book and the last book they they really don't have much personality and that's something we can get into I guess right here I guess maybe it's because I've seen like the show and because I watched the movie and because I know the lore and like the love that people have for these characters but I remember in my heart of hearts that Alec and Demon daddy Magnus like I remember them being more more of a a player in the story um and not just being like the beer bait that I guess they essentially are in these first couple of books like we get this idea that Alec you know is gay and that he has feelings for Jace like they have almost no relevance to this book Magnus obviously is helpful because he's a warlock but like what the does Alec do I was gonna say Magnus is also a more important character than like any of the like actual language yeah the peripheral like Shadowhunters who should be doing things um and Alec I think is just there to like get injured like that is pretty much his thing Alec or Isabel yeah one of them is gonna get some Demon poison and they're gonna be out for a little bit yeah that's about it that's that's about the extent of their existence in these books and one of them has to go to like take care of the other one too so it like takes both of them out yeah we're like okay let's get rid of them all that to say Maya is someone who we're introduced to in this book she's a werewolf and she's part of Luke's pack she is the same age about as pretty much any of the other like Shadowhunters and uh she kind of becomes friends with like Simon and Clary I would say and she becomes important-ish later on in the book but I just wanted to like introduce her character here because I do think that like she comes in later I meet her like in a bar and Jace is there oh she does not like Jay so yeah she doesn't like Jay's this is like hella Moody I think oh for sure well because he just got kicked out of his house yeah he's like I can't make out with my sister and I don't have a place to live yeah what do I have to live for being a real piece of and then we find out that someone is it like one of the other werewolves someone gets attacked like in the alley like outside of the bar it's kind of just like brushed over at this point in the story like no one really questions it it just like it happens and someone tries to say that it's Jason's like no I really don't care about this honestly and Simon's like I know it wasn't him and that's basically it like all that there is of that he's a good guy in in this bar scene Jace talks to Simon and basically tells him hey the light Woods are back also they kicked me out and they hate me or not Simon Luke Luke is saying I don't really think that that's like the whole story and I don't really think that you tried to properly commune now that she's like maybe cooled down a little bit go back there try to explain yourself just talk it out I'm sure that they will be understanding and so yeah he goes back to the house that's when we get to meet the fabulous Inquisitor which he then mouths off to and goes to jail and while he's in the bone daddy realm he ends up coming into contact with Valentine in a very spooky fashion my Diane he is hearing ungodly screeches yeah just like what the going on and I'm pretty sure that he was like knocked out or something when he was brought there because I I think I remember him like waking up to this he was like putting up a fight maybe I don't actually know but they throw him in jail he doesn't doesn't really know how he got there he knows he's going there I think it's in total darkness as part of oh yeah it's so dark in there and all he's hearing are these ungodly screams stuff he's never heard before and then his daddy shows up thank God yeah thank God but not the only thing better would be his sister not before he sees the corpse of one of the silent brothers that he has personally come in contact with collapsing in front of him just dying dead and he realizes oh my God all of the silent brothers are dead my dad killed all of the people here and they didn't make a sound and he has this like delightful little conversation with his daddy and his daddy's like what's up I don't actually know what the interactions I don't understand like why he was meet him up here he's stealing the sword but he's also like yeah I'll break you free and he's like don't they already think that I'm in League with you so please don't do that I wouldn't want to give anyone the wrong idea yeah and he's like there's no way that you came here just to break me out and he's like of course not I came here to get this badass sword bro yeah it turns out the sword that he's stealing is the Angel sword which inquisitors slash like the whole the clave the clave uses this sword during like interrogation slash during like Oaths and stuff like that to like make people tell the truth pretty sure that there's probably another use for it Valentine's basically like yeah well I mean there's not really a point in you being in here anymore because they're not going to hold the trial because they don't have the stupid sword to like make sure that you're not lying to them and so they like they're not gonna try you at this point so at the same time we also find out that there is a berry that's killed somewhere in like another Park that draws the attention of all of the like clave members and like demon hunters and it's a ploy so that they won't realize that the bone city has been broken into by Valentine and that the silent brothers are all you know dead and the story The Sword is stolen and stuff if I remember correctly Clary and the rest of the Lightwood children like kind of figure this point out and so they go to like help out Jace realizing that you know everyone's being pulled away on some wild goose chase they go to help Jace out three Jace from the prison they see all the dead silent brothers and they're like you know some crazy shits going on and then they come outside and who is there mate Mavis Maris Mavis what's her name Mary slatewood yeah Maris Inquisitor and like a bunch of other Shadowhunters are there and they're like oh well you guys just thought you were so cool coming to bust your brother out of jail and they're like that's not what happened no like Valentine was here and they were like well how do we know that you didn't help him back where we started basically the whole time he's like yeah I helped my dad you're so right who true bestie about this time too that we figure out we're gonna go and talk to the Faye as the Faye child died and we also think that the celi queen might know some they want the Sealy Queen's help and they also want to inform the queen that like first of all this wasn't us right so it wasn't yeah right it wasn't a Shadowhunter but like an x one that we don't really like right we don't talk about him and they also wanted to let them know that something does happen and they don't help then Valentine's just gonna come after them next like hates all down worlders that includes you so if you don't help us now and he ends up like getting really strong which is what he's planning on doing then like it's gonna come back to bite you like underwater or something like that do you have to like go through a lake but it's not underwater yeah yeah but like the entrance is like in the water or something just remember them being like everyone's like soaking wet when they get in there a little snorkel Venture soaking away be careful because berries are very dangerous and they seem very alluring and they will like essentially like promise you things that you most want in the world and also like don't answer with them because you'll literally dance until you die Clary gets a little taste of this she like hears music when she first walks in and like doesn't even realize that she's like being drawn into dancing like that's my and she's like oh my God I am feeling this and then she gets like yanked away and she's like yo what the I was vibing man yeah we told you you will dance until you die and also don't like eat or drink anything that you get here either because that's Danger address for some reason that I can't remember well you have to stay forever oh if you like consume anything from them you have to stay forever not ideal so meeting this this big old or anything but she's not the most helpful just a little bit of a bedroom wait is she like physically a little no it's a tall person I don't know we meet the queen and I won't lie I don't really remember much of what she does except for she makes she makes her Barbie dolls kiss she makes them smooch makes them well we're getting there okay so you know the the things that need to be communicated or communicated Hayden kind of mentioned him earlier yeah which is basically like hey I know that this fairy died that wasn't us and they were like yeah it was it was a Shadowhunter and they were like yeah but he's bad they were like well it's your problem and they were like well don't help us when the time comes then it's gonna be your problem too whether or not you want it to be so and then she's like you know but you know what is a problem this she licked her fingers oh no and so the queen is like okay and she lick her fingers from because a little pixie bit her fingers and so she had blood on her fingers but she also had a tiny touch with a drink on her fingers and she's like yeah so unfortunately oh she's gotta stay forever unless she kisses the person whom she most desires for some reason this leads to like a weird chain of like people kissing each other actually I just want to point out real quick that I am fairly certain that it's Jace who must kiss the person that he most desires and not Clary and then it turns out that Clary is that person so I thought that Clary and Simon kiss first though and then and then he's like do I have to kiss that's the whole thing is like you're thinking that uh that would be the case but like Simon's just kind of like looking on in horror like I remember this being like kind of a like a Rocky Point in their newly found relationship no I know I think the first thing that happens is that he immediately kisses her and and nothing happens and then we're like yeah okay epideric moment live with Derek you know the show where they kiss each other oh no I'm not familiar with the show I don't get the reference but I'm sure that they're step siblings who have erotic undertones I think it was like a Disney show uh we have a big old smidge rail yeah and it's like between Jason Claire I mean I just feel like it's a given and it's not even just like a kiss like they rope each other and are Slip in big tongue you know it is a lot I'm pretty sure that they make mention in the book that it like goes on for longer than it should yes it does like they're like you guys have to kiss and they're like we have to kiss and then like by the end of it they're like we have to stop there's so much I want to say and I don't it all involves this spoiler from the next book yeah do you want me to go out of the room no I feel like I'm surprised that you don't know it already but but they're not actually brother and sister yeah I'm surprised I could have called it so here's the thing here's the deal this is why I don't like this book as much as I thought that I did right I remember that they were siblings when they kissed and I do remember it being angst the attention filled and it but I feel like I remember after this scene happened like not that far after we find out they're not actually siblings we're like no they're still siblings they're still siblings for this whole book spoiler alert I don't remember that and again I think that really uh changes things for me like it's kind of a weird thing to do in the first place let's be honest to like make this a big thing in your book it's it's even weirder you have this idea of a three book series and for two of those books you've got kissing siblings and then in the third book you decide to do away with that I mean I understand tension okay come on the most of the first book They're not siblings they're siblings and they're like oh we can't do this and the second book The reason why I'm not anywhere uh close to surprised by this reveal of yours right now is because they make too much of a deal about it the second book like obviously like they have to make a kind of a big deal about it in the first book if that's like your reveal of the first book right it just continued to like harp on it over and over again this like will they won't they like tension of we both still really love each other but like it would absolutely disgust everyone around us girl you're all ready to discussing everyone around you might as well just let them go for it at that point it's all I'm saying but yeah I think to me it made this book hard to read and challenging and I think just really goes to show how much your caricature can develop over time and I feel like I've changed I feel like I've changed I feel like I can read a forbidden taboo relationship now that isn't this I think like that was my first introduction into that one of them just actually be siblings no no no that's not what I'm advocating for I'm just I think for me like again this was my first um foray into that it's it's forbidden but also like we found out that they're not actually you know and so it's like satisfies of your angst intention needs as a young folk but I just um I think it went on a bit too long in this book I'll I'll admit in this scene uh was just further proof of that I remember like this was one of my favorite scenes because it was so drama it was like so dramatic and I don't think that's an unpopular opinion I think a lot of people were likely hoping that that would be included in like the movies in the show because it is so like a shocking off I didn't think it was very shocking no I mean it really it really wasn't but um it wasn't shocking I was gas I didn't really think that the first time very dramatic either like I think we all knew that like there was going to be at least one or two moments in this book where they kiss oh for sure anyways it's just a repeat of the last book nothing is developed nothing progressed or regressed it's it's the same it's exactly the same to mirror that sameness of the first book after this encounter happens Simon acts out by going to the hotel do more basically because coming a vampire I mean to make along with the story short it becomes a vampire he was scared he was turning into a vampire so he goes to seek out Raphael to ask questions other vampires catch him and end up like essentially murdering him I guess but since he had Raphael's blood in him from when he was a rat uh he doesn't actually die he becomes a vampire and I understand that like this obviously has more significance in terms of like the future of this yeah like he's not gonna not be a vampire anymore this is another moment where I'm just like this is the same as the first system yeah he was turned into a rat now he's turned into a bat just is how it is it like it's it's Simon acts out and gets himself in trouble and then everyone has to either like save him or look on in horror as he is like trouble and might possibly die not only that but it's still with the same as the first book it's not even with the news not even new vampires yeah exactly hang on from there I think the next plot point that I have written down is that Maya gets attacked yeah and there's this like whole thing with like a little bit of backstory worry that we get from Maya at the beginning of the book where like she dated some abusive guy and then she broke up with him and then he like backed her down in the park messed her up real bad and then turned her into a werewolf one thing that we didn't mention is that Valentine at the very beginning of the book summons a demon who is like the demon of fear and like shows you your biggest fear and so we get this a lot in in the book as it goes I'm pretty sure that in the prison when Jace is in prison he's Valentine yeah he sees his greatest fear imagined and it's like something bad happening to Clary or is it or is it people finding out that he has no no no no it's something bad happening to Clarion that being said we we keep getting this over and over again of like people seeing their biggest fears and then turns out no it's just this big bad demon that Valentine summoned right uh so that's what happens here she gets attacked but she sees guy that like turned her into a werewolf in the first place and like you know this was like a big traumatic moment in her life but anyways she gets attacked and then as part of this book because I think we're about like the 70-ish percent Mark at this point and you're like okay well not that much has happened this is kind of like what's going on I would say the last 30 of this book is just a bunch of boats we're on a boat some stuff's happening we'll get off the boat and then other stuff I just I will I'll be honest it's all blur to me but I'm sure Hayden will guide us through these Waters Jace takes a motorcycle and goes to visit Valentine on this boat I can't even remember how he like knows that he's there yeah but he goes and visits Valentine on this boat and is like yo what is going on man like what are you even up to and he's like oh you know I'm just gonna like you know raise an army of demons and that's what I've been up to this whole time one of the things that I need to do in order to like make all these demons cool with me is I also need blood from like each one of the down world or races it's basically the classic stupid Trope that I hate like hero villain I know of scenarios where the villain explains his entire plan instead of just doing it and succeeding this is exactly what I'm gonna do and also you can go now let's go explains this whole plan and so now we know why there was a fairy that was attacked we know that Maya was attacked we know that he needs like you know blood from each one of the downworlders and then does he keep Maya on the ship because I know he keeps Simon on the ship well I don't think Simon has been kidnapped yet well not yet but I just mean we're moving there right yeah Maya and Simon have a whole little like Heart to Heart moment on the ship because earlier whenever or no way actually this is like happening right now at the same time that they're on the boat Clary and Luke and Maya and Simon are all like hanging out at the house Maya gets like attacked like basically like in the front yard of the house or something and then gets like taken inside so she hasn't been like kidnapped yet I don't think because there's a whole interaction with Simon and Maya where like Maya finally find finds out that Simon is a vampire now and is immediately like get the away from me I will tear your up just because you're a vampire and he's like yo man we were cool like 10 minutes ago before you knew that like I'm I'm chill you're chill well you're in natural enemies yeah then also there's another like demon that attacks Luke out in the front yard or some all of that happens Jace has another like run-in with The Inquisitor where she's like you know I know that you went to go see your dad you get to go in the cage of Shame he basically gets put in a cage again which he breaks out of by just jumping really high because he's told that he has special demon abilities because his dad did like experiments and on him Larry can do like rooms that no one's ever seen before yeah Jace is just like super great at this job that's basically his skill and speaking of that whole bit we get this whole scene with like oh well Jace can do cool Clary I bet you can do some cool too you made that Rune that you know the the one thing that you did the last book that no one's ever seen before why don't you try to just do that again only like just think of something uh how about Fearless it's Fearless she makes a rune and everyone's like oh well who's she gonna put it on you know like don't don't give it to Jace because like we won't he's already feared yeah we won't be able to tell the difference so they put it on Alec and then the light would come home yeah and he's like hey by the way I have something to tell you guys I'm in a relationship and then gets like knocked the out basically before he can say that he's in a relationship with Magnus which again like I haven't even seen them interact like when did they get in a relationship am I missing something well no it's like kind of implied very heavily early on in the book that like Magnus and Alec have been hanging out a lot sure but like he still won't admit even to the rest of the people like the rest of the Lightwood children and stuff like that one that he's gay two that he's like actually in a relationship part of it is he doesn't want to come out I think the other part of it is that he's still kind of like a little bit like holding out hope for Jace kind of thing for sure but I think my my thing here is that in some of the other series I've read by Cassandra Clare she has you know things happening with a bunch of different characters at once so why the have we never seen them actually hang out like that to me was just like kind of weird and I guess she tries to correct that later on in the series and like Madness and Alec do have their own book series now at this point I think there's only a couple books out but like it's just weird that they're not really like you know I just thought about is the fact that Alec at this point is thinking oh well Clary can't get with her brother maybe I can still get with my brother the brother the Brotherly Love Brotherly Love does this does this take place in Philly oh yeah he almost like tells his parents and I'm pretty sure it's Magnus that like stops him from doing it yeah but he does it because he knows that like the Fearless Rune is on and like Alex not really ready to come out to anyone yet and so he's just like he truly cares about him so he's like he's a homie Magnus though he doesn't have that much green time time or you know page time in this book or the last book yeah it's like easily my favorite character oh he's a great guy I think that's a pretty Universal thing everybody loves Magnum he's like the only one does that mean he used to be a person no it's like a donkey oh like he was okay and like his parents were too different yeah when he stared off interesting so no pregnant Alec later not the emperor so we have Jason cage is really all that we needed to get from this but we got we got a lot more than we really bargained for right Jace is in a cage and Valentine at this point has stolen Maya and Simon he has him on his pleasure boat in the East River yeah as The Inquisitor likes to say and so Jace basically hits a kangaroo Jack and jumps like 30 feet like through the roof or some like that because the cage that she put him in only has four sides doesn't have a top size that's like the literally the logic that they explain it in the book when it happens they're like oh well you saw her put the sides up right and he's like yeah but you forgot the roof yeah did you ever see the roof so he's like yeah but it's like 30 feet and they're like yeah I bet you can't do it and then he hits a white boy can't jump jumps through the roof or whatever and like gets out and everyone's like oh and then we get you know clary's big Rune reveal anyways long story short then we realized that Simon's been kidnapped and so has Maya at this point sometime in here he's got those those people it's time to go to the boat again gotta gotta find Simon time to go to the yacht club make the car like fly slash like drive on water and Luke's truck that they can get to the boat they're like oh how are we gonna get out to the boat and Magnus is just like oh I'll just magic your car we'll spell it so they go out to the boat they find that Simon has his throat slit oh yeah Simon has his throat slip and we get arguably the most erotic moment of this entire book and it's not between the people you think it will be Jace decides that he's going to feed Simon because Simon's laying there dying and this is like maybe the only way he can save him and I guess clary's too puss to do this so no she's not like there there okay like he he's the one who like finds Simon and understands that like he's probably gonna die because he like has zero blood left in his body essentially country girls make do and in this case I guess Simon's the country girl country girls make don't please and Jace is the corn so he goes to town on his carotid and just it's erotic it's downright erotic he apparently leaps onto him after he starts like getting some of this blood in him and he's just like and then he realizes and he's like whoa whoa bro I could have killed you and he's like yeah I get that I would have been okay with it love that you could suck me dry nihilist um mad going down I mean basically like I said it's the exact same that happens in book one where they're like like kind of stop Valentine but like not really because they don't get any of the stuff back I think right like they don't get the sword they don't get the cup they don't get Valentine it kind of just disappears they just get scorpions they just get their friends back scorpions yeah like that's the that Kelsey Inquisitor oh yeah yeah yeah I kind of forget that she dies we also find out that the inquisitor's a because her son died she also I don't know if you picked up the implication before she dies she's talking to Jace her and Jace are kind of like fighting evil together uh she ends up kind of saving him actually um and takes the uh the Venom herself and she sees a scar on Jace and makes a comment like what is that Scar and he's like what and she's like what is that scar you have she's like who is your who is your dad and he's like you know who the my dad is like why are you asking me this question she dies before we really get to like explore that well I'm pretty sure that she says something to the tune of like I guess his name was like Jace to Jace Waylon like the Waylon's had a child named Jace she's like oh yeah I think he had a scar like that or something like that right oh okay no he's he is not a Weyland okay but she knows who that scar belongs to and it's not a Weyland and it's also not valentine and that's kind of the implication there that like he might not actually be clary's brother uh but we're not gonna get to know because she's dead and who else is gonna tell him the truth we don't know but I do she ends up being like kind of a homie towards the end she's like kind of apologizes for like being a the whole time respect it and then she dies so shut it off she really got hers you know um and I think some other people people get up here I think Isabel maybe also gets the Venom ether Isabelle or Alex somebody who gives a at this point it doesn't matter because they're fine you know yeah they didn't die and basically nothing happens to them does anything major happen between this point and the epilogue yes one thing happens and this is what I wanted to like this is what I said I would get through later as we are escaping from the boat everyone is like in the truck boat driving away then we realize that it's Sunrise is happening and Simon's in the back of the truck and they're like what the are we gonna do and then basically everyone's like well there's not really anything we we can do so my assignment they're like why don't we like throw a blanket over him or something like that and he's like no Raphael says that we have to be inside like a layer of clothing or something like that like won't stop it right and then Clary covers him yeah but she also like covers her own eyes too because she's like I don't want to watch and he's fine so like I was saying this the transformation um from rat to bat has some larger implications for the story because you know he's a vampire now but it doesn't really because that's like the one thing that vampires can't do is go out into the Sun and they can't eat like human foods yeah but who the cares if he can't eat human food I don't think that that's a major plot point you know I like food I guess but like I'd be a bummer for me what if he like uh I don't know like I'm trying to think of like a human like maybe blood's really delicious could you like lose your stomach or something or like for the rest of your life you have to be fed nutrients like intravenously you know like you can't like consume food anymore yeah so that could happen to him and he could still not be a vampire you know what I mean it wouldn't have a larger implication in the story besides like oh it's time to feed Simon get the needles you know yeah that's fair the fact that he can still go in the sunlight honestly pissed me off and it just added to the fact that this book did nothing did nothing in his nonsense so sorry sorry Cassandra if you're watching this kind of you fumbled the bag on this one you kind of hit a hit a flop on this one yeah because Andrew's in her flop era but I think she might make a comeback in the third book the third book I I think is like pretty solid I think most people it's agreed upon it's like a pretty strong Jason Clary finally have sex oh I think they do actually that's not why I liked it I'm a brother lover okay well epilogue comes and I don't find it that exciting except for we're kind of back to square one maybe not I don't know maybe this is a new development Jesus like hey Clary let's go to this Diner and eat it together and she's like all right sure let's go she wanted to talk to him and I think what she wanted to say is I'm ready to yeah like I don't care because they have this conversation earlier in the story where basically they're like Jace is like why don't we just do it man you know what who cares if people don't like it right and and Claire is like no we can't do that and so whenever we go to have this conversation at the End clary's clary's changed her tune because you know some shit's gone down and she's like I don't want to go out without having bang to my bro you know so who has Jace uh Jace comes out and is like hey um you know after everything that's happened I have figured out the opposite of what you figure weird out I don't want to anymore I want to just be your brother because I realized when I got kicked out of the house and when like you know my nobody loved me anymore that I want someone to love me um in a familial sense you know not biblically just familiar basically clary's like and that's the day my heart died pretty much yeah oh and also uh Clary and Simon break up and like not in like uh not in a bad way he's just like you know what you know man like I understand that like I can't really have you and I'd rather have you as a best friend than like have you play pretend as my girlfriend she never says really yeah exactly he's the only one that like says they're together and I think that was really like cool of him I think I'm glad that he didn't push forward anymore I think he's developing his character I like vampire Simon much more than human Simon even though they're the same even even though there's only minor changes to his physicality like I think his personality changes in a way that I like in the next book in the future books to wrap it up the only other thing that happens is uh we get like a a mysterious visit from a mysterious woman who's like I can wake your mom up the only person that knows how yeah Claire's like and that's how the book ends oh yeah and like that's that's one thing that I didn't like that we got in the the show or the movie or maybe both of them I think probably both of them but uh in the books in the lat in the first book when everything first goes down yeah and clary's mom was like unconscious or whatever I don't think that we really get do we get that she did it to herself in the book in the book in the show and the movie okay I just didn't remember that we got it in the book this lady is the first one that reveals it to Clary that it wasn't something that was done by someone else her mom did it to herself so that Valentine couldn't like use her as a tool to like get information or to like learn Clary or something like that so she like put herself sleep or like in a coma or whatever and there's nothing that a mundane doctor is gonna be able to help with and I am the only I'm the only person that she entrusted with the secret of like how to wake her up so that's it so we're kind of Back Square One the mom's not awake just again this is the same book as book one her mom is still asleep for the entire book I do I told Chandler at one point I'm gonna lose my mind if this doesn't wake up in this book at some point and she didn't the only thing that we got was we know how you know I think me and you me and you are dissatisfied with this book for very similar reasons you're upset because the mom's still not awake I'm upset because they're still siblings I make you upset it does feel wrung out after reading this book to be honest I like a used towel this was I I never do this Chandler is the king of listening to audiobooks on and just YouTube video Whatever content she consumes she consumes it at like at least two to like three times speed I don't do that ever I really enjoy the amount of time that it takes to like read or listen like a really long right we're not going to get into a debate about it it's not about the amount of time I know I'm enjoying it at my speed this is the first time that I listened on 2xb I didn't I actually because I really wanted to get through this I did want to point out that I actually didn't like this narrator I know you didn't really like the first narrator but it was a different narrator yes I didn't enjoy this one but maybe it's because I listened at 2x maybe I mean it obviously would have been worse at one time speed but I just don't love this narrator I I didn't didn't you didn't connect it wasn't emotionally resonant for me shall we say when some you lose some and I think we both lost today yeah I lost my mind but I I do hope that we find it in this third book that we're going to be reading I haven't decided yet at this point if I want to read past the third book in the series like if I want to read past the original trilogy when we when we talked about this last time I was like yeah we're gonna read all the books at this point I don't know if I want us to suffer that much we will see based on the third one I mean obviously hopefully the third one is like a lot better because this one left a bad taste in my mouth and my ears and so that is already setting the third book up for failure so it's got to be like pretty pretty positive to bring the series out of the negative yeah that's true you know what nothing for me now that I'm thinking about it I I can definitely promise you we're doing the third book and I think if we decide after reading that third one before doing the dbvc we don't want to continue on I'll let you know the crazy that happens in the last three books okay and just to get your your thoughts and feelings because I feel like Hayden really needs to know the crazy Cassandra Bulls you've been talking about it since I started reading I mean it's the reason I initially stopped reading the books so it takes a lot I feel like it's going to be pretty bad to make you stop reading yeah because like to me there isn't really personally and like not to like offend people but like there isn't really anything else this book series has going for it besides the answer there is something that is crazy enough that it made you stop reading it then I gotta know what that is I'll I'll let you know I'll keep you posted meet you here same place same time next month I'm gonna make sure that I don't don't enjoy this next book just so I don't have to read like five more to find out whatever crazy she's talking about I also just want to like read some romance with you honestly like I I miss it some more brother sister romance I was kind of thinking like an adult contemporary romance but you know whatever they could both be adults thanks so much for watching love you all so much and until next time till next time\n"