City of Glass

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

I don't normally do this, but the following passage resonated with me and I marked it:

“Oh, Clary,” Amatis said. “Don’t you see? There’s always something you can do. It’s just people like me who always tell themselves otherwise. I told myself there was nothing I could do about Luke. I told myself there was nothing I could do about Stephen leaving me. And I refuse even to attend the Clave’s meetings because I tell myself there’s nothing I can do to influence their decision, even when I hate what they do. But then when I do choose to do something – well, I can’t even do that one thing right.” Her eyes shone, hard and bright in the firelight. “Go to bed, Clary,” she finished. “And from now on, you can come and go as you please. I won’t do anything to stop you. After all, like you said, there’s nothing I can do.”

I'm really feeling this right now. Impotent is what I call it. And it calls to my attention that Amatis is an adult and Clary is the child. In children's literature, the children are always the characters willing to move forward, to invite change, to take the leap. And adults are inept or dead.

Am I inept or dead?

I guess I'm inept

I have to be careful about what I write or else I might say too much and spoil it.

Instead I will provide a couple of excerpts from my favorite scene. Here's number one:
Valentine: The Nephilim you created were a great race of men. For many years they valiantly battled to rid this planet of the demon taint. But they have failed due to weakness and corruption in their ranks. I intend to return them to their former glory-


Raziel: Glory? The Angel sounded faintly curious, as if the word were strange to him. Glory belongs to God alone.
If you have read the previous two books in this trilogy you will understand the premise. The Angel Raziel shared his blood with humans in order to make the Nephilim to fight the demons that invade our world. Throughout, the Nephilim, or Shadowhunters, have expressed doubt in there even being a God. Valentine in particular has always been jealous that the Downworlders; vampires, lycanthropes, fairies, and warlocks; are stronger in many ways than the Nephilim. Downworlders are humans infected by demon blood.

I was so excited for Raziel to not only acknowledge God, but also to give adoration where adoration is due. In addition it gave me a mini slap in the face. We say words like awesome and glorious with very little acknowledgement of the One and Only True Example of Awesome and Glorious.

Here's number two:
Raziel: God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son on an altar much like this one, to see who it was that Abraham loved more, Isaac or God. But no one asked you to sacrifice your son, Valentine.
I'm sorry, maybe it's inappropriate, but I just loved to see this. God's Word spoken as Truth in fiction. It's done so rarely in the secular world of literature. You can only talk about God in traditional Christian Fiction. OR if it is just a part of daily life thrown in, but not forced upon the reader.

I'll be done for today. I enjoyed the book. I have nothing additional to add beyond what I've mentioned about the series in the past reviews.