School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-In the two previous books, Clary learns that she is a member of a race of demon-hunters and that she has the special ability to create new versions of the runes that give these Shadowhunters their power. Her mother has been hiding the truth from her for years to protect her from her father, Valentine, a cult-leader-turned-villain who is seeking to gain control over the Shadowhunters by obtaining the three Mortal Instruments. Now, Valentine has only one Mortal Instrument left to find, and the Shadowhunters must ally with the despised Downworlders, including vampires, werewolves, and fairies, to prepare their final defense. The question of whether Clary will be able to harness her unique abilities in time to helpand whether they will let heris sidelined by the question of whether her love interest, Jace, is really her brother. Though the story is hampered by predictability and overblown writing, Clare continues her talent for mixing hip, modern humor with traditional fantasy, and fans eagerly awaiting the series conclusion should come away more than satisfied. Eliza Langhans, Hatfield Public Library, MA

ALA Booklist

In search of a potion for her dying mother, Clary sneaks into the City of Glass and is immediately caught up in a life-and-death battle. As the children of the Moon (werewolves), Night (vampires), and Faerie gather for a war that will rend the heavens, Clary calls upon her untrained powers to control an angel who will save or destroy them all. Readers should be familiar with the first two installments in the Mortal Instruments series, but there is nevertheless plenty of romance, loss, honor, and betrayal to make the journey worthwhile. An experienced storyteller, Clare moves the plot quickly to a satisfying end.

Kirkus Reviews

How could things possibly work out for Shadowhunter Clary in this trilogy conclusion? Her mother's still in a coma, her boyfriend Jace is still her brother and her best friend Simon is still a vampire. As the Shadowhunters prepare for war against the army of demons raised by Clary's father, Valentine, Clary's bound for inspection in Idris, the Shadowhunter country. She's joined there by Simon and her werewolf father-figure Luke, though as Downworlders, their presence in Idris is illegal. Soon all the magical beings readers have met in Manhattan—vampires, warlocks, faeries and werewolves—have converged on Idris in a last-ditch effort to save the world. Betrayal and intrigue suffuse Clary's world as she navigates between angels and demons, politics and war. As lurid battle scenes cut to the requisite shocking revelations and angst-drenched reunions, readers will almost hear the John Williams music swelling. Derivative though it may be, melodramatic emotional wallowing has never been so much fun. (Fantasy. YA)

Voice of Youth Advocates

Ash and her friends, a ragtag band of surfing teenagers, live alone at the edge of the world in a fenced-off beach camp. A terrifying wildness consumes the few who dare to venture past the perimeter warning signs. Isolated since childhood with no adult influences, the teens live in the moment with no history and no real sense of a future. Everything changes when Ash is kidnapped by an intelligent yet brutal species of Raptors, who live beyond the fence. Ash is suddenly at the center of an interspecies power struggle in a post-apocalyptic world of genetic engineering gone awry. The outside world and all its terrifying, mutated chaos comes home. Ash must find a way to escape captivity to reunite with her friends, and together they must carve out a place in this bewildering new world. BrindleyÆs premise is original and promising. The setting and world creation are richly imagined, and the teens are pitch-perfect as products of their environment of early isolation and limited education and experience. Plenty of action keeps the story galloping along and the reader engaged. Where things begin to fall apart is in the plotting. Plot elements appear to come out of nowhere and disrupt the flow of the narrative. Brindley relies far too much on deus ex machina to rescue the plot, and several such moments stretch the limits of believability. Despite the rough execution, however, this original and entertaining read will appeal to fans of post-apocalyptic fantasy.ùAmy Fiske. Clary is back in the final installment of the popular Mortal Instruments trilogy, and she does not disappoint. Her mother is dying, and Clary must delve even deeper into the world of the Shadowhunters, even though she is neither trained nor very welcomed. Her own brother does not support her decision, and tension between the two teenagers fills the novel. Their father is set to open the doorway to hell, but Clary convinces the Shadowhunters to join forces with the vampires, fairies, and werewolves to unite ag

Horn Book

Demon-fighting teens Clary and Jace, with a large supporting cast of friends and family, climactically defeat their murderous archvillain father. In this exhilarating trilogy ender, Clare relies less on fantasy cliches and hip banter; instead, her characters drive the breakneck story, as does the love between Clary and Jace (who, luckily, aren't really siblings after all!). A scintillating, if bloated, page-turner.