Consumed by "City of Ashes"

"City of Ashes"
By Cassandra Clare


6

Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who's becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn't ready to let her go — especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil — and also her father.

To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings — and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace.How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

In this breathtaking sequel to City of Bones, Cassandra Clare lures her readers back into the dark grip of New York City's Downworld, where love is never safe and power becomes the deadliest temptation.

Even though I thought the first book in this series was great, I enjoyed this book even more. I'm not sure if I found the first book a little slow, but I could not stop reading "City of Ashes". By the end of the book I was so invested in the Clary and Jace relationship that I had to take a break between the third book because I was so frustrated at them. This only happens with me when I am completely in love with the characters (if this happens to anyone else, please let me know because I feel pretty silly about it). I don't think there was a single character in the book that I could have done without, they were all so richly developed. I wasn't a huge fan of Simon in "City of Bones", I thought he was a bit obnoxious, but he even won me over. There was a lot of internal struggle in many of the characters in this book and Clare was able to bring them to the front of the story without slowing down the plot at all.

This is a book that should go in your must read pile. Check out the series at the website here. You can find an excerpt from "City of Ashes" here and more about upcoming books by the author. A prequel series is in the works!

Short Story Sundays

I decided to take a break from my usual ghost story collection and read some stories from "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark". I read The Girl Who Stood On a Grave, A New Horse, Alligators, and Room for One More.

The Girl Who Stood On a Grave is about a girl who is dared to stand on a grave. She completes her dare, but the story ends in a very surprising way. I think this was my favorite one of the four. I could totally see myself in that situation and having the same thing happen. I rate it a 4 because the ending was not at all what I expected and to me it was creepy.

Room for One More was my second favorite of the four stories. It is about a man's odd dream and how part of it plays out in real life. I know that isn't much to go on, but you must remember these stories are about a page long. This was another 4 for me.

A New Horse tells the story about a guy who claims that a witch is turning him into a horse at night and riding him around town. One night he manages to reverse the role and has his own fun with the witch. I found this story to just be completely goofy, not scary at all. I give it a 2.5 because it was okay, but I could have skipped reading it.

Alligators was another story I found to be kind of goofy. It divulges the tale of a woman who claimed that her husband was turning into an alligator. When they had children, she believed he was trying to turn them into alligators too. This one I felt had a little more scare appeal than A New Horse, so I grade it a 3.

These were some of my favorite stories growing up and I was not disappointed while rereading some of them. Even if some of the stories weren't scary, they were amusing enough to keep your attention for the short span that they lasted. Overall I rate "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" a 4 and it will be a book I keep in my collection forever.

*Sorry that this post is late! I've been having issues with my smoke detector for almost 24 hours and it just got fixed less than 4o minutes ago.

On My Chair

This is where I post the books that I borrow from the library, buy, or I receive via mail in the last week.

"Monstrumologist"

Rick Yancey

These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed.

But he is dead now and has been for more than forty years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets.

The one who saved me...and the one who cursed me.

So begins the journal of Will Henry, orphaned assistant to Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, a man with a most unusual specialty: monstrumology, the study of monsters. In his time with the doctor, Will has met many a mysterious late-night visitor, and seen things he never imagined were real. But when a grave robber comes calling in the middle of the night with a gruesome find, he brings with him their most deadly case yet.

Critically acclaimed author Rick Yancey has written a gothic tour de force that explores the darkest heart of man and monster and asks the question: When does a man become the very thing he hunts?

I saw this book at work and had to borrow it. It just sounds really cool and seems like the perfect book to get me in the mood for Halloween! It even fits perfect with the book challenge I am participating in. I am going to start it as soon as I finish all my blog postings! Enjoy the trailer as an extra tease!

This meme (In My Mailbox) is brought to you by Kristi's (The Story Siren)

Thursday Update

This is my big news of the week. The car that I've had for 8 years has finally driven over 100,000 miles! I really hope that it continues to be as reliable as it has been. The car is only a month or so shy of being 10... *crosses fingers*.
In other news, I finished "My Soul To Take", which I thought was awesome! I hope to post a review soon, but school is taking over my life. I have at least 300 pages of text book reading to do over the next week, so it may be a while before I get all caught up.
I thought there was something else I wanted to write about... but I am seriously dead tired and I can't think of it. I think I'll read some scary stories before I go to bed and hope they don't give me nightmares.

Short Story Sunday: Harry

This week I read "Harry" by Rosemary Timperley, which is the second story in "Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories".

"Harry " is a story about Mrs. James who becomes very concerned when daughter starts talking to her "brother" Harry. Mrs. James cannot see this Harry, but sometimes sees shadows by the rosebushes where her daughter, Christine, talks to him. Mr. James writes the daughters behavior off as her just being lonely and needing a friend to talk to, but Mrs. James isn't convinced even after a doctor agrees with her husband. Mrs. James only hope is that Christine will loses interest in Harry when she starts school and has children her own age to play with.

Even though this story wasn't anymore creepy than the last one I read, I think I enjoyed it a bit more. It was interesting to learn about Harry and I didn't find the story quite as predictable as "W.S.". I could also empathize with Mrs. James's situation. She is trying to be a good mother, but her feelings towards her daughter's behavior take over her better judgment. It is really interesting to see how this plays out throughout the story. I think "Harry" could be pretty creepy if you were a mother with a child who talks to an imaginary friend. I am giving it a 3.5 because I really liked it, but I didn't love it.