So, apparently the sensor devices that these kids have includes GPS and a map.  It’s basically an iPhone with a “Find the Demon” app.  And these guys have regular phones.  Why did they just use one of those to get directions to the party?

Along the way, Clary BSs her way through some angst about how she doesn’t want people ‘digging through her brain’ anymore.  I’m unimpressed, because this has come up twice before, and she’s folded like a wet paper towel each time.  Heck, the last time she shook off her discomfort in a single paragraph.  Why should I believe this time will be any different?

They get to the party, and it seems vampires have their own special gothic motorcycles.  Oh…joy.  I guess there’s nothing wrong with the concept, I’m just a little bored of “So Badass It’s Cool” type vampires.  If they’re not named Spike, I’m just not interested.

They arrive at Magnus’s door, and when he answers they all make small-talk about how three of them are hunters who like to routinely kill the other people that are at this party.  How is that small talk?  How is that funny?  Why doesn’t Bane slam the door in their faces, since he’s a warlock and they are half-demon-hating fuckers?

Oh, look, more witty banter.  This surprises absolutely no one who has been half-awake through this book.

The party has your typical punk-goth vibe going for it, and all the guests are fairies of one type or another, so they look weird. Clary takes this all in stride, without a single thought about any of it, and I’m wondering once again why she’s even in this story.  The one possible thing she could add to the narrative is an outsider’s sense of wonder at experiencing all this for the first time, and instead she just drifts around looking at cool stuff but not even reacting to it.  (But smoothies at a diner?  Oh, that’s just too much handle.)

Oh, boy.  As they are talking to Magnus, a vampire shows up and gets angry because someone ruined his bike.  Put holy water in the gas tank.  Magnus tells him there’s nothing he can do, so the vampire gets angry.  Not violently-angry, just the normal kind of angry anyone would get when a host says “Your property was damaged while you were a guest at my house?  Fuck all if I care.”  The worst the vampire does is yell a little and get puffed up.  Magnus’s response is to magic the guy into choking, and then telekinetically tossing him out of the apartment.  Okay, I might be a little oversensitive to stuff like this in stories, because it’s not the first time something like this has freaked me out.  But the very thought of someone using magic to physically manipulate another being is disgusting to me.  It’s tantamount to physical assault, but there’s no way to punch the guy back, because he’s using magic.  It’s a violation of someone’s personal space so complete that they are helpless unless they also have magic, and sometimes not even then.

Naturally, because this other person was a vampire and therefore ‘lesser,’ Jace and all his buddies think that was just a hilarious show, and they are much impressed with their new bestest buddy, Magnus.  I didn’t think it was possible for me to hate Jace any more than I already do, but here we are.

Then Jace admits that he was the one that put water in the gas tank.  He ruined the property of someone who did nothing to him (the text says that the vast majority of vampires drink animal blood and don’t attack humans) because of nothing besides his petty nature and rampant racism.  The book treats this as a funny turn of events, not as Jace being a horrible, horrible person who should be marooned on a desert island for the good of all humanity.  And fairity.  (Fairydom?  Fairimanity?  Whatever.)

Jace asks if they can talk to Magnus in private, then threatens Magnus when he asks ‘what if I say no?’  Hate.  So much hate.  Why is this book trying to make me hate Jace?  I can think of no other explanation for the massive pile-up of spiteful character traits over the past few chapters.  It has to be intentional.  No one could write this and think they’ve come up with a decent character.

Magnus takes them to his room, and then he easily admits to messing with Clary’s mind.  He claims he did it at the behest of Clary’s mother.  The text treats this as some big reveal but, eh, I think it’s pretty weak.  I mean, who else would want her mind erased?  Her mother was obviously trying to hide all this hunter business from her, that’s not exactly news.

Also, this was an extremely short chapter.