From now on, I will not scene jump, no matter how much the book wants me to.  I’ll give you all of Clary’s scenes in a run, then all of Simon’s scenes in a run, etc, regardless of the fact that the book breaks them up for no damn reason.

Clary wakes up after her horror show last chapter and sees she’s in Jace’s room and he’s asleep next to her.  And, yup, turns out it was all an illusion from the drugs she took.  She goes to the bathroom to get cleaned up, and finally we get some condemnation of the whole taking-drugs bit, but it seems mostly to revolve around the fact that she hallucinated scary things.  As if taking drugs in a club would have been fine, if only they’d worked properly.  There’s no thoughts about how easily she was convinced to take it, no wondering about Jace and how he could take such a risk with her health.  It’s treated like this terrible thing that just mysteriously happened, not something with a clear source.

Then Clary notices that her ring is gone, and I don’t really share in her frantic-ness, because that’s a very important ring that she shouldn’t be wearing unless she is talking to Simon.  Not because she might lose it – it’s safest on her finger, frankly – but because Jonathan might see it and recognize it.  It’s some basic common sense, dear.  Don’t leave your only link to the outside world in plain view.

Except Clary thinks the ring fell off, despite the fact that when she put it on it molded to her finger, so really the more logical option is that someone took it.

She moved toward Sebastian’s room, and hesitated. She couldn’t imagine why the ring would be in there, and waking him up would only be counterproductive.

Clary, you are stupid.  It’s in his room 1) because it’s the only place she doesn’t look, so the text draws a big red arrow to it and 2) BECAUSE IT DIDN’T FALL OFF, HE TOOK IT, THIS IS SO OBVIOUS, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?

Clary goes downstairs to look for her ring there, but she finds Jonathan leaving the apartment instead and she decides to follow him.

Her feet made the choice before her mind did. Spinning away from the wall, she darted through the dark opening of the door moments before it closed behind her.

Oh, sorry, her feet decided to follow him.  Because Clary’s feet have more agency than she does.

When they get outside, Clary realizes they’re in France now.  Specifically, Paris.  Clary follows Jonathan until he gets to a apartment buildings and goes in one.  When Clary follows him in, she recognizes the smell of demons, notes that she has no weapons on her…and then keeps walking down the stairs toward the demons.

You know, I keep seeing Clary praised for being “independent” and “no one can stop her from doing what she wants,” I think they mean passages like this.  But there’s a huge gap between “independent” and…this.  Especially since Clary just does it for the sake of the plot, not because she has any driving beliefs or even curiosity.  She just does stuff when the book needs her to, and at all other times she’s content to do whatever the pretty boys tell her to.  And in this case, not only does she go downstairs because…reasons, but she does it after explicitly pointing out that doing so is needlessly dangerous.  Without telling us why.  She’s going into the den of demons without a weapon because…the plot said to.

She was doing this for [Jace], she reminded herself. To get him back.

Oh, sorry, we do get a motivation.  A very vague and boy-centric one, though.  Still no clue why she thinks running into a pit of demons without a defense is going to help.  Also, notably absent are any fucks about Jonathan’s plan, except where said plan concerns Jace.

Really, it’s disturbing how much the “end of the world” is an afterthought in this book.

A door opened suddenly in the wall to her left, and the voices grew louder.

[…]

Very slowly Clary peered around the edge of the doorway.

The phrase is “a door opened suddenly” which means that someone or something was at the door and opened it.  Something caused that door to open.  Except a couple of lines later, there’s no one at the door.  In fact, there’s not even a door, there’s just a doorway.  So what the author probably meant to write was that Clary came across an open doorway while sneaking along the hall.  Unfortunately, what the author meant to write and what she did write are two different things.

Inside the room are a bunch of demons talking very conveniently about the plot.  Jonathan is going to give them earth…for some reason, and they plan to suck earth dry and also kill Jace.  Much time is given over to how they hate Jace.  I care not, because why should I when I’m so ticked off about “suck the earth dry and leave it as ash” is glanced over?

One of the demons sees her, because Clary doesn’t understand the concept of “you don’t have to stick your head inside the room to eavesdrop.”  They chase her down the hall, where she conveniently finds a decorative axe hanging there and starts chopping them up.  I guess the author didn’t mind sending her down there defenseless because she knew she could just write in a weapon or two.  Still doesn’t excuse Clary, who isn’t supposed to be privy to authorial knowledge. 

But there’s six demons and only one Clary, so one of them traps her.  Jonathan comes in to kill it and save her, but not before Clary gets poisoned by one of her injuries.  She passes out as Jonathan carries her away.

—

Jocelyn sits with Luke and ruminates about what he looks like and their past together.  It’s all padding and tells us nothing we didn’t already know, just in more useless details.  Frankly, I wouldn’t mind all these details (they’re pretty cute) if only the book wasn’t so stuffed full of padding that I can barely tell what the plot is supposed to be.  If this scene had been a quiet moment between action chapters, it would be sweet and a nice breather, but instead it’s just more of the same.  Move on, book.  Move on.

Luke wakes up and they talk about the book so far.  Well, no, just about Clary going off on her suicide mission.  For some reason, Jocelyn has taken over the role of saying “no, don’t go after her,” just like people were telling her earlier.  Apparently the book can’t stand to have two people in the same room both agree that Clary needs to be rescued, because that would get in the way of angsty make-outs.

And then they both talk about how much they love each other and how angsty their past is, because that’s really all this book is about.  The demons are a footnote.

“I was thinking about the day I married Valentine.”

Luke lowered the glass. “The worst day of my life.”

“Worse than the day you got bitten?” she asked, folding her legs up under her.

“Worse.”

It’s just…this whole book in a microcosm.  Romance is of ultimate importance in this book.  It’s the top priority of absolutely everyone.  To the point where it’s even more angsty than getting bitten by a werewolf.

On the other hand, it’s not like being a werewolf has any downsides in this world…