Some confessions:

1. When I heard that Cassie Clare, OMGFAMOUS fanfic writer, had gotten a book deal, the first thing I did was roll my eyes and think “well, THAT’LL be great.”

2. When the galley of CITY OF BONES arrived at the shop, I rolled my eyes again and thought, “okay, you’re in for a sucky time!”, cracked open the book, and started to read.

3. When I was finished the galley of CITY OF BONES, I took it back to the shop and said to my coworkers, “Okay, she can actually write. Buy it.” I thought Clare’s writing was awkward in places, and seemingly based on her fanfic in others, but I thought her plot and characters were compelling, her world-building more than competent, and, well, Jace just seemed hot. Even better? I thought boys would like it too.

EXCEPT there was no way they were ever going to read it, because it had a shirtless guy on the cover along with a quote from Holly Black about the book being sexy. What 13 year old boy’s going to be caught dead with a book featuring a shirtless guy and the word sexy? So unfortunately CITY OF BONES was a “girl book” in our shop, and from what I’ve read online, everywhere else too. That’s really a shame, because the male characters are just as important as Clary (the female main character) and boys would like this series too, but with that CITY OF BONES cover it’s just not going to happen much.

Anyway. So I admitted I was wrong that day in the shop several years ago, and now I’m owning up to feeling that way right here at Kidliterate and telling you that I went on to love CITY OF ASHES and, now, CITY OF GLASS. Finally in this, the third book of THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS, Clare has truly found her stride. She’s cast off the mantle of fanfic writer once and for all and now she’s just a writer. A good one. And CITY OF GLASS is not only far and away the best of the three books, it is one of the most satisfying endings to a YA fantasy series I’ve ever read.

I’m not going to give you a plot description because there’s no way to do that without spoiling the plots of the earlier novels. I am going to recommend this series highly, though, if you are a fan of YA fantasy. This series owes a debt to Buffy, to Harry Potter, to Charles de Lint, to Neil Gaiman – it has elements that remind me of all of those things/those authors. Urban fantasy’s a good descriptor for it. The characters are flawed and interesting, the dialogue snappy (she overdoes it in the first book but settles down by the second) and the magicks original and well explained (without making you feel like you’re in school).

I enjoyed this series enough to keep it. That doesn’t happen often.