Yes, this is huge! Cassandra Clare gave an interview with EW’s Breia Brissey in Shelf Life, and there’s some interesting answers that she’s given regarding the final book of The Mortal Instruments series, City of Heavenly Fire. No spoilers, of course, but it will definitely have TMI fans stressed slightly more so. Here’s what she had to say about the cover of the book:
I really love this cover. Cliff [Nielsen] has done all of my covers since the beginning, and I think he has created a unique look that is specific to the series. We talked back in the beginning about deciding who was going to go on what cover, and that this cover was going to end up with Clary and her brother. This is the big face-off. This is the book where she goes up against her brother Sebastian, and he is the big villain. It’s kind of like a Batman/Joker cover. … And in a way, there’s a play of light and dark going on on the cover, and that sets up a big battle between good and evil with Clary standing for good and Sebastian standing for evil. There’s also little clues for the readers who have been reading the series a long time in the weapons that they’re holding, in the necklace that Clary is wearing, and especially in the landscape that they’re standing on. It gives a hint about what’s coming and what’s going to happen in the book.
In regards to the full jacket of the book, she says this:
This cover is exciting and really beautiful, but a really cool thing about it that hasn’t been revealed yet is that it actually wraps around to a whole back of the jacket. If you take the jacket off, the whole image wraps around to an interior image that shows all of the rest of the other characters. They’ve never gotten their own covers, so this is a chance to see them for the last time. I think it’s something that people are really going to love. It makes the jacket a piece of art.
I’m sure we definitely are looking forward to seeing what the rest of the characters look like, and it’s probably going to be nothing short of gorgeous.
One major tease that Cassie gave during the interview is regarding one of the characters. She didn’t say who, but I don’t think that eases the fact that it could be someone we love dearly, and there are many.
I can definitely say that the characters go to a location that we’ve heard about, but we’ve never seen in any of the books. There is a death of a major character really early on in the book that I think will surprise people. And there are two weddings.
Two weddings?! Which two couples?? I’m certainly crossing my fingers for one particular couple that I love. And no, I’m not going to talk about the other thing she said!
You can read the rest of the interview here, or you can read the excerpt below.
