Clary’s own harsh breathing was loud in her ears.

She thought of the first time that Luke had ever taken her swimming, in the lake at the farm, and how she had sunk so far down into the blue-green water that the world outside had disappeared and there was only the sound of her own heartbeat, echoing and distorted. She had wondered if she had left the world behind, if she would always be lost, until Luke had reached down and pulled her back, sputtering and disoriented, into the sunlight.

She felt that way now

Hey, I think I figured out how this book got to over 700 pages long.

If you can’t figure out why that’s wrong, I can’t help you.  Sorry.

Jonathan has somehow developed telekenisis powers (oh, sorry, a spell, because the magic system in this book isn’t fucked enough) and uses that to pin her to a wall while taunting her.

White-pale hair

…if it’s white, isn’t it by default also pale?

They banter for a while, because has anyone ever passed up a chance for banter in this book?  The incest and sexual assault abound, but I talked at length about that in CoLS and now I’m just so sick of the whole mess that I’d rather skim.  It’s not like there’s anything new to be said besides “ew.”

Uhg, the religious rhetoric just drags on and on and on.  “Lucifer was an angel.  He didn’t want to bow to humans because humans are icky.  I’m just so much fucking better than everyone.  Lucifer Almighty.”  Yeesh, if you’re going to trod over the same ground as a thousand other stories before it, at least put your own flavor to it.

By the by, go read the Sandman Slim novels.  They’re a bit crass, but the second book “Kill The Dead,” has Lucifer as a character and he’s at least got a fresh feel to him while he’s saying the same old things.  Worth looking into.

They continue on with just stupid amounts of angst that we’ve heard over and over again, only to have Sebastian offer to let her join him.  Again.  So…basically nothing has changed from CoLS, but we had to go through several pages of pontificating to find that out?  Color me underwhelmed.

But, hey, even that is too much progress for this book to handle, so we switch over to Magnus at the fairy dinner instead.

“Everything is about personal relationships,” said Raphael, dipping something unpleasant-looking into his fondue. “Why do you Shadowhunters have this problem? Because Jonathan Morgenstern has sworn vengeance against you. Why has he sworn vengeance? Because he hates his father and mother. I’ve no wish to offend you,” he added, nodding toward Jocelyn. “But we all know it’s true.”

It’s so fun when the book points this stuff out for me. 

Of course it would be more fun if they didn’t preface this with several pages about who is sleeping with who before pointing out that all they ever talk about is personal relationships.

“If it were not for me and for Valentine, Sebastian would not exist, in any sense of the word. I take full responsibility for that.”

Um, how about no.  Like, in every sense of the word. 

Jocelyn had a child with her husband whom she loved very much (at the time).  It’s a perfectly reasonable thing for a young woman to do.  Valentine decided to turn that child into an unholy demon mix.  Jonathan’s demon nature prevented the natural bonding process between mother and infant (which, let’s face facts, is mostly a hormone issue, not maternal magic moon sparkles).  Jocelyn tried anyway, but between the lack of bonding and the complete absence of prenatal maternity care in this culture, developed what seems a lot like Post-Partum Depression.  She had no idea why her son was evil, but she did know that her husband was evil, and she tried her best with the knowledge she had to end it.  She assumed Valentine and Jonathan were dead at the end of it, and she can’t exactly fart out the knowledge that they were still alive.

In short, Jocelyn did nothing wrong.  Unless some soothsayer came up to her and said “if you have a kid, it’ll turn out evil and take over the world,” then there is exactly zero blame to be placed on Jocelyn.  Judging by the fact that she raised Clary into a perfectly…um, well, unveil child, one would assume that without the demon blood incident (which is fully Valentine’s fault), Jonathan would have turned out just fine.

The fact that blame is being placed on Jocelyn, and that she takes it on herself thereby giving it a tone of legitimacy to the reader, pisses me off beyond belief.  It plays into this ridiculous notion that our culture has that motherhood should be something automatic, something as close to magic as our culture can get without actually saying the word.  We consistently refuse to admit that mothers don’t just automatically know how to raise children as soon as they push one out, that it takes work and trial and error and a hell of a lot of advice from more experienced women, and that there are times it just plain old sucks.  There’s this notion that if you don’t bond instantly (and consistently) with your child, you’ve failed as a mother, and this failure is assigned before any help is offered, because so many people think that the mother “should just know.”

Fuck. That.

Well, back to the story.  It turns out that the fairies drugged everyone insensate with their wine and there’s Evil Bad Guys waiting in the wings to do nefarious things.  Dun dun dun.

Back with Clary.  She refuses Jonathan and tries to stab him, but since she’s still pinned in place, it doesn’t go so well.  Jonathan decides to respond with sexual assault, because we’re still fucking stuck on that.  *shudder*

Thankfully (never thought I’d say this) Jace walks in.  There is, you guessed it, MORE FUCKING BANTER, but at least it’s better than what was going on before so I’ll take it. 

They spend time talking about how Jonathan wants Clary to want to join him and didn’t we just have an entire book on exactly this subject?  Why is it getting thrown out again like it’s some new thing Jace just now put together?

More people arrive downstairs, and for some reason they stay there long enough for Jonathan to…stab himself in the chest with Jace’s sword?  …apparently just for shits and giggles?  Yeah, I don’t know either.  He spouts off some ominous portents and then disappears.

And now over to Maia, who is at the werewolf headquarters and quite pissed off that this Rufus character is talking smack about Luke.  She decides to confront him head-on.

If you’re telling people that they should stay out of the Shadowhunters’ war, then you’re a liar.

Pretty sure that’s on opinion, not a lie…

Actually, we don’t know exactly what Rufus has been saying beyond “Luke has a bunch of ties to the Shadowhunters and that calls his loyalty into question,” which is, in fact, 100% true.

Rufus doesn’t like being called a liar, so he punches her.  Bat, acting as second in command of the pack, decides to kick him out.  Instead of leaving, Rufus challenges him for leadership of the pack.  Is that even possible, since Bat isn’t technically the leader?  Isn’t he challenging him for “temporary” leader?

After Bat accepts and sets the date for their duel, he tells Maia to leave, because Rufus is unstable and might do who knows what to her.  And then, of course, since Bat has a crush on her, we have to have even more relationship talk.  At least it’s relatively short.

Back with Clary and Jace.

At some point, Clary didn’t remember when, he had picked up Sebastian’s fallen bracelet and clipped it onto his own wrist. She didn’t feel like asking him why.

Damnit, book, you’d better figure out a reason before that bracelet becomes important, because that is astoundingly lazy right there.

“Why did he kiss you?” It wasn’t what she’d meant to say, but she kept seeing it in her head, over and over, Sebastian with his bloody hand curling around the back of Jace’s neck, and then that strange and surprising kiss on the cheek.

She heard the creak of the leather sofa as Jace shifted his weight. “It was a sort of quote,” he said. “From the Bible. When Judas kissed Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. It was a sign of his betrayal. He kissed him and said ‘Hail, master’ to him, and that was how the Romans knew who to arrest and crucify.”

“That was why he said ‘Ave, master,’ to you,” said Clary, realizing. “ ‘Hail, master.’ ”

“He meant he planned to be the instrument of my destruction.

That is a hell of a lot of words for SOMETHING WE ALREADY KNOW AND HAVE BEEN TOLD REPEATEDLY.  We don’t need some convolute biblical allusion, and shoving it in here anyway accomplishes nothing besides saying “hey, look at me, I’VE GOT BIBLE SHITS.”

They talk about their feelings for a while, and then Clary flinches when Jace almost touches her.  This prompts her to reveal all about the rape attempt from the last book.

On the one hand, I want to…well, not pleased, but relieved that there’s some actual emotional reaction to that whole event.  On the other hand, the result of all of this is…more recapping of shit we’ve already seen.  Which seems to be what this book does just to kill time.  It makes it very hard to treat this scene seriously when it’s 1) more of the same and 2) pretty lackluster, really.  All she does is relate the actions, there’s a few lines about her shaking and shirking, but the whole thing lasts a page and we switch to talking about how Jace feels about it.  Honest to god, the section with Jace carrying on about his feelings is roughly equal to everything Clary has to say about the experience. 

Which about sums up the book’s priorities in a nutshell.

She had been so angry for so long—anger always under the surface of everything. Whether she was shopping for presents with Simon or sitting in the park or alone at home trying to draw, the anger was always with her.

Glad you told me; I would have never guessed otherwise.

Well, enough of serious issues, time for shmoopy relationship talk and kissing!  Because apparently the only reason to bring up fucking rape is so that Jace can assure her he still loves her and they can make out.  Just…I just can’t.  Fuck this book.

There’s more talking, but I don’t fucking care.