The City of Glass

I have started reading the book City of Glass by Cassandra Clare. It is part of a series called the Mortal Instruments. The series is about a girl named Clary that gets mixed up with a world full of monsters. A group called the Shadowhunters bring peace in the world of fairies, werewolves, vampires, and demons. Clary learns that she has Shadowhunter’s blood, when her mother is kidnapped. Now, she is going to the capital city of the Shadowhunters, which is called Alicante, to find her mother.

When I’ve read the title: The City of Glass, I’d thought about New York with all those skyscrapers and buildings made of glass and steel. The thing is that the city of Alicante does not have any glass buildings. It is a normal, wood and brick city. This is very interesting because the author gives this title, but in reality the city is not of glass at all. I hope that later in the book there will be something to clear this out.

I think that this mysterious title, City of Glass, means something else than just the glass as a material. Glass is very smooth and shiny. This can suggest that some of the characters might be nice on the outside (smooth and shiny), but really they are deadly, just like glass is. You can see through glass, but also it gives you some shadowy reflection. Glass and mirror’s reflection are always misleading: your right is left in the mirror. Many of the characters lie to each other, although they try to show themselves clear like a glass. There is also one more characteristic of glass: when is broken, it is sharp and can hurt.

There is a little bit of dramatic irony here: as we read, we learn some things about the characters, but they don’t know that yet or may not ever find out. Life around us is exactly the same: we hide our bad habits, showing only our “good side", but other people talk behind our back and draw a picture of us much different from our own.  

So, I am really into this intriguing story and hope that Clary will uncover the truth by “seeing through” other characters and find her mom. But hope is again like glass, can be easily shattered.