City of Heavenly Fire Cover Analysis

I promised you all a high quality version of the photo, and here it is. Now that I can see the photo more clearly, there are a lot more details that I missed at first glance.

First off, the cover is pretty normal for The Mortal Instruments. Russell Gordon has a very distinctive style with the editing of these covers: the light illuminating from the runes, the city scape, the model(s) on the cover where you can't see their entire face (Though City of Fallen Angels was an exception to this with Clary's face on full view). This cover incorporates all of the classic details.

The first thing I noticed was that Clary was wearing white. In Shadowhunter culture, white is the colour of mourning - the sort of thing that would be worn to a funeral. Cassie has already told us that there will be a number of deaths in the book (6 characters that we already know, I believe is the number she gave us). Does this mean that someone close to her dies? Simon, Luke, Jocelyn... Possibly even Jace. Again. In today's society, white also represents purity and "good", so it could be saying something about, as Simon put it, "team good" and "team evil". She is also holding the hilt of a weapon. The way that she is holding it implies that instead of using it to slash at something, it was used to stab. Who did she stab? It could have been Sebastian, considering he's right in front of her. It could also be representing the Angel blade which Clary had used to stab Jace with (and causing his body to be filled with heavenly fire - which is what the book is named).

Next there is Clary's posture to consider. See how she's standing with her back towards the viewer? This could be representing her turning her back upon something or someone. The clave? Jace? But she also isn't facing Sebastian full on. She's turned slightly away, as though she's trying to avoid him but he's in the way. Or she's trying to avoid the disaster that would surely follow him. Though it's difficult to see, it looks like she's looking downwards. Possibly, she could be looking at the disaster that's around her on the cover.

Clary's hair is something in itself. Besides it slightly mimicking an old Windows screen saver, it also looks like fire (*cough* City of Heavenly Fire *cough*). This could be because she was the one who put the heavenly fire into Jace. Also, in City of Lost Souls, Sebastian says that "this world will be consumed by hellfire." Could some of the bad things that happen in the book be because of Clary herself - making her almost a personification of this "hellfire" that Sebastian speaks of?

Enough about Clary. Sebastian is standing in a shadow, looking at Clary. The juxtaposition between the light Clary and the darkened Sebastian could be representing the fact that Clary is more angel while Sebastian is more demon. It could also represent (along with the fact that Clary is facing the darkness) that the ginger may be joining Sebastian on the "dark side." It's a bit of a stretch, but hey. Anything could happen in this book. Sebastian's gaze in Clary's direction could be showing that he wants something that he cannot have. As shown in the book prior, there are some seemingly sexual feelings on his end towards his sister (going into incest there, click here to see Clare on the topic). It could also been seen as slightly hateful or resentful, considering Clary had put a damper on his plans by taking Jace away from him..

And then there are Sebastian's wings. The wings are a reoccurring thing throughout the books - mostly in Clary's dreams. I assume that it's safe to say that they are supposed to represent his demonic angelicness. If my memory proves correct, in one of Clary's dreams she had seen him with dark wings (though please do correct me if I'm wrong). I doubt that he will actually grow wings in the book. On the other side of this, the wings could be there to represent that fact that some angels may be appearing in this book. As Raphael put it in CoLS, "even the Angels will be destroyed." So will there be a mildly more friendly appearance of angels in this book? Or will they appear to scorch some Shadowhunters (or Sebastian's crowd). It could also be referencing to the ending of the previous book where Sebastian had placed a pair of bloodied angel wings in the New York Institute.

Then there is the background. This cover is the first one in the series in which the city scape is behind the character(s) on the cover. So why the sudden change? This could be because the world is coming to an end and that life as they [the characters] know it. This idea is also supported by the parched and cracked land in front of it. But back to the city for a moment, what city is it? It would be a bit of a stretch to say that some of the buildings look similar to the ones of the cover of City of Glass, considering most taller structures do look pretty similar when you can't see any small details on them. But there are a few pointed buildings which, in fact, imply that this may be Alicante. It's a possibility that this landscape is indeed the home to the Nephilim.

As for the fire in the foreground, part of that comes into the obvious bit that it comes from the title of the book. It's implied through the dry land right behind it that the fire consumed part of it. This could be literal and have fire sweeping across lands. Raphael in CoLS seems to have a pretty good prediction of things as well, proved when he said "there is a great darkness coming it will sweep the Earth with fire and shadow." There is certainly earth being shown, along with fire at the foreground and Sebastian as the shadow.

So what does the cover say about City of Heavenly Fire as a whole? Well, we can be sure that this book is going to be dark - most likely the darkest out of all of them - with a whole lot of feels to go around. The book will be released on on 27 May, so it's not too far now! It's a whole lot closer than series four of Sherlock. What are you all expecting to see from this book? Any other interpretations of the cover you can think of? Feel free to comment them below!

City of Heavenly Fire cover

If you haven't seen it yet, here it is! The cover of the final book in The Mortal Instruments: City of Heavenly Fire. Expect a better quality photo at a later time. Not much of an analysis I can give quite yet, but we do know for a fact that it's Sebastian (Jonathan) and Clary on the cover, and that Clary is in white (which, if you remember, if the colour that Shadowhunters wear for mourning). When I get a better quality picture, I'll have a full analysis for you guys!

Legend Review

The fandom for Marie Lu’s Legend is ever growing, especially with the (not so recent anymore) release of the third book. I decided to give it a try and, finally, I reached the part of my personal stack of books where that book was waiting to be read.

            Legend takes place on the west coast of the states in a future (dare I say a dystopian one) where the country is split into two – the Republic and the Colonies – and they are at war with each other. The story is told from two perspectives: June, a talented girl who grew up in an elite family and is trained to be a solider for the Republic, and Day, who is an infamous criminal who was born in the slums. They end up meeting through certain events involving the death of June's brother and become unlikely allies. 

            The book is written in first person present tense, but unlike some books (is totally not looking at Allegiant), Lu does a good job at writing this way. Usually this type of writing bothers me, but she managed to keep it interesting. There were varying sentence lengths and sometimes slightly more complex vocabulary.

            Also, the characters have a very distinct voice when the story is being told from their perspective. And if that voice wasn’t enough for you to tell the difference (as well as the character’s name at the start of the chapter), the font actually changes colour in my edition depending on whether you were reading from Day’s or June’s  perspective.

            Something strange that stood out was the fact that almost all of the characters mentioned seemed to be left handed. I’m not sure the reason for this, but it was mentioned enough that it caught my attention. A bit strange, really, considering most of the human population today seems to be right handed.

            The setting of the book is very well written. The description is phenomenal, making a clear picture of what was going on and what everything looked like – something that is very important in a book where the setting is different than it would normally be if it was set today.

            Overall, I’d give this book a four out of five. It wasn’t an outstanding book, and I’ve similar plots before, but it’s very well written and it is very interesting. The fact that I managed to finish it without forcing myself to continue reading is a pleasant change from the books I’ve had to read more recently for school. I will continue to read this series. I would recommend this book to any teenager who enjoys a mix of action with a hint of romance and wouldn't mind reading yet another book set in a dystopian society. 

Happy 2014! Overview of 2013

Happy 2014 everyone! Last year was a huge one for literature, with countless series both starting and ending (autumn was extremely busy with so many books coming out – some of which I still have yet to read). You had the Divergent series coming to a close with Allegiant, James Dashner’s new book The Eye of Minds - the first in the Mortality Doctrine series, Cassandra Clare’s The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Princess, The Alex Rider prequel Russian Roulette, the US release of Oblivion - the final book in Anthony Horowitz's Gatekeepers... So many books in such a short time! Not to mention all the books that got turned into movies.

Of course, with so many books coming out, you did have the good and the bad and the controversial. The much anticipated Allegiant was one of the greatest flops of the year. Poorly written, it left more than just a few fans unhappy with it. On the other hand, there was Light, the final Gone novel written by Michael Grant and Clockwork Princess, both of which have received overall high reviews.

            One of the biggest biggies of the year was definitely The House of Hades, written by Rick Riordan. He took a huge risk with *mini spoiler* making Nico gay (if you didn’t know that already, you probably haven’t used Tumblr since before October). There was a lot of controversy over that, with many parents upset with the fact that he chose to make that decision. Then again, the book series was about Greek mythology and if someone can’t stand non-heterosexual relationships, they should probably avoid that area in general.

And then there were the movies! I lost count of how many adaptations I had seen. There was The Great Gatsby, directed by Baz Luhrmann, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones directed by Harald Zwart... Let’s not forget The Sea of Monsters, which Thor Freudenthal (hehe... Thor...) directed and ended up with very mixed reviews (hey, I give him credit for working with the mess of a film the first one was and managing to do a fairly decent job). There was also Catching Fire, directed by Francis Lawrence, which was possibly the most successful book-to-film adaption that I ever seen in my entire life. And that was just a few of them.

2014 is going to be a huge year. We have the film Divergent coming out, directed by Neil Burger, first of all. The casting may be a bit iffy, but I have a feeling that it’ll be a pretty decent film. There’s also going to be The Fault in out Stars, directed by Josh Boone, so prepare your tissue stash when you go to the cinema.

And as for actual books, by the gods there will be a lot. We’ll be having the second book in The Mortality Doctrine; The Rule of Thoughts by James Dashner, which is supposed to be released in the autumn. The Mortal Instruments will have its conclusion with City of Heavenly Fire, which is planned to be released on 27 May – but don’t worry. Cassandra Clare is planning on writing yet another series in the Shadowhunter Chronicles; The Dark Artifices (The first book is planned to be titled Lady Midnight). Let’s not forget about The Blood of Olympus, the final book in the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan.

            Finally, there is no way we can forget about the film based around Newt Scamander who had written Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them to the Harry Potter universe – with a screenplay written by the brilliant J.K. Rowling. There are also rumours that she may be writing more books based around the HP universe, so keep your eyes peeled for more news about that.

            2013 has been a giant year full of new releases, and I expect nothing less from 2014. Have a happy new year, and don’t forget to keep reading!

Paper Towns Review

I’m apologising in advanced here: I have recently decided to participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), despite the fact that it is already halfway through the month. This means I have to write about 3,000 words a day if I want to complete it on time. This also means that my very minimal free time that I had before will now be gone until the end of the month. This includes my blog. There is a huge chance that I will not be able to get reviews up for the next couple of weeks so, to my very few and very amazing readers, I am sorry. But I will complete NaNoWriMo this year! (heh, as if that will actually happen…)

Anyhoo, this week I read yet another John Green book. I have to say, I’m getting addicted. This one was Paper Towns, a book that personally is currently one of my favourites. In a very short summary, this book is about a girl named Margo who disappears after the narrator Quentin spends a night running around the town with her doing crazy stuff. Quentin becomes obsessed with trying to find her and follows a bunch of clues, trying to piece together the story. It was very fast paced, not at all boring, and the ending was probably one of his more satisfying ones.

First off, I have to say that the age group for this book is slightly more mature, I can say that about most John Green books, but this one in particular sounds most like an average teenager. And by that, I mean that there is cussing and explicit mentions (or joking from the character’s perspectives) of sex. So if you’re a teenager, I’d say great! Go on and read! But if you’re one of the more sensitive types, you might want to avoid the book.

That being said, I feel like this is one of Green’s most realistic teenage-perspective books. They character’s aren’t over or under done, and to be honest, I found the characters saying things my friends or I would probably say. There were also a few references to things that made me flail around happily at the fact that I understood the reference (such as to Harry Potter, which was, in fact, mentioned). I could relate to bits of this book on a level that I normally can’t with most books, so I have to say I was quite impressed.

The point of this book was for there to be character development – specifically for the character Margo. So much of the plot was based off of that, and John Green did a very good job. It was a risky thing to do in a book, basing a plot fully on how much you learn about a character, but he implicated perfectly.

Overall, I’d give Paper Towns a five out of five. It easily made my top five books, probably above his Fault in Our Stars. The book was very well written, well thought out (unlike this review), and well detailed. I honestly don’t think that there was anything I didn’t like about it. I would recommend to anyone who wants to read a very teenager-ish, mystery-ish bo

The Eye of Minds Review

After waiting weeks, I finally managed to get James Dashner’s new book. I was really excited to get it. I enjoyed The Maze Runner and I was hoping that this book would be just as good.

It was better.

The Eye of Minds by James Dashner is the first book in the new series The Mortality Doctrine. The second book is planned to be released in autumn of next year (Pulling a Rick Riordan, are you Mr. Dashner?). The book takes place in a sort-of futuristic setting where people are spending more time in the virtual work, VirtNet, instead of the real world. It’s one of those books that takes place mostly in a digital world where there is somebody hacking the system of harming people. I have seen this before, at least twice (though I can’t remember the first time I saw this per say), the second being in the Pendragon book The Reality Bug). But even though I have seen this type of setting, this book felt different to read.

Well, the book started off fairly regular. Somebody spending time in the VirtNet, except something weird happens. It’s the type of formula that has been seen before multiple times in multiple books. The book seemed fairly average until about halfway through, when things started to get good. I can’t say what happened because of spoilers, but things got dark and crazy and the book ended with a twist that had me wishing autumn 2014 would come a lot sooner.

Honestly, I just need to talk about the setting of this book. I feel like that is a huge part about what made this book what it was. It was brilliantly done, what with the line between what was fiction and reality. That line being a very, very thin line at times. The way that Dashner talked about the VirtNet made it feel like it could almost be real – like I could go to the corner of the room and there would be my “coffin” (a sort of container-type thing where a person laid while they accessed the VirtNet) waiting for me. And while sometimes the virtual world felt realistic, other times it was written to be very clearly digital. It was brilliantly done, and the book itself kept you, as the reader, guessing as to what was going on.

It wasn't very difficult book to read. Between books that I've been reading for school and some books I've been reading for fun that were a little more on the complex side, this book was an enormous relief for my mind. No, the plot was not obvious nor was it not complex, but there were no crazy symbolisms and there was no fancy language that was akin to Shakespeare. I managed to finish in only a few hours, which is something I haven’t been able to do with a book for a long while. And it was interesting enough to keep my undivided attention for said hours.

Overall, I’d give this book a four out of five. It was very well written, very interesting, and overall just a good read. I’d recommend this book to people who want a break from extreme fantasy or crazy sci-fi. This book is a bit of a cross between those genres, while keeping a very realistic element to it. Like I mentioned before, it isn't a very difficult book to read, but I wouldn't recommend giving it to someone under the age of 12. There are some dark elements that had even me slinking under my blankets once I turned out the lights.

The Fault in Our Stars Review

It’s really quite amazing how a book can change ones view of the world and, more often than not, make them feel pretty damn insignificant. This is how I felt after reading the infamous The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

' Sobre Café E Livros: Por Que Ler A Culpa é Das Estrelas, De John Green (com Fan Arts!). N.d. Photograph. ' Sobre Café E Livros: Por Que Ler A Culpa é Das Estrelas, De John Green (com Fan Arts!). Web. 01 Nov. 2013. <http://sobrecafeelivros.blogspot.com/2013/05/por-que-ler-culpa-e-das-estrelas-de.html>

I don’t like most books about cancer. A lot of the time, they’re unrealistic or about those few who did something really brilliant. TFIOS was different. This book is about a teenager named Hazel who, if you couldn't guess, has cancer. The book basically sums up the hell that she has to go through because of cancer – including her love life. I don’t often cry for books, but by the end of this one, I was brought almost to tears (the reason I probably didn't cry was because I was too emotionally tired from starting the book a few hours prior and reading it all over a short amount of time).

Besides the realistic-ness of the book, symbolism plays a huge part in the book as well. Not symbolism like in The Great Gatsby where the reader has to find out about it themselves, but symbolism that is very clearly put in almost bold letters I am a symbol. It adds both a bit of deeper meaning to the text as well as give the bluntness of the average teenager. Especially a dying one. There’s also a lot of emotion behind these symbols. The word “okay” holds more meaning than the word “always” means to Potterheads, which is saying quite a bit.

I know that I say this about almost every book I've reviewed on here, but this book had dynamic characters. Hazel grew emotionally stronger and her view of the world did change, Augustus… Well, let’s actually not talk about him right now. I honestly didn't think there be so much development in a book about cancer, I’m not quite sure why, but this book completely changed that. Especially because she [Hazel] didn't act like the stereotypical cancer kid.

The writing style of this book was very John Green. It was sarcastic, joking, and made references to a book that to my knowledge doesn't actually exist throughout the book. Despite not being a teenager, he has definitely succeeded in sounding like one, where many authors have failed (yes, I am looking at some popular YA authors). At times, it seems to be a little overdone, but it only adds to the lighter tones of the book. But as a general rule, the narrator acting like a teenager really helps to connect to the readers. I can see why so many people like the book.

Overall, I’d give the book a five out of five. This book easily made it into my top five favourite books (place number one still goes to Anthony Horowitz’s Oblivion). It’s deep, funny, light-hearted, depressing, and everything in between. It plays with your emotions so much throughout the book. You, as the reader, actually almost feel like you’re in the book. I would recommend this book to everyone. I repeat; everyone. It is a book that, within the time that I spent reading it, completely changed my view on the world. There isn't one person who shouldn't read this book, no matter the age.