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When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder -- much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing -- not even a smear of blood -- to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?
This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . . .
Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.
I had just finished Clockwork Angel and was anxious to continue with that series when I saw the film trailer for City of Bones and got excited to read the book. I’m a late starter when it comes to book series, obviously. (I didn’t read the Twilight Saga until Twilight was a movie, and I’m admittedly still working on the Harry Potter books.)
I wasn’t sure how I’d like the book because there’s a lot of talk about The Infernal Devices being better than The Mortal Instruments, but it was fine. I liked the story in City of Bones. It was engaging and kept me going, though I don’t think there was anything that was really “wow!” about it. (Well, maybe a couple things…. There’s a “spoilers” section at the bottom of the post.) It wasn’t predictable, but I wasn’t surprised by very much that happened. I said, “I should have guessed that.” more than once while I was reading. Also, this isn’t a comparison between Clockwork Angel and City of Bones, but did anyone else notice some small similarities between the two in terms of characters and such? Are all Shadowhunter love interests programmed to be cocky, sarcastic, and prone to innuendos?
I love Cassandra Clare’s writing style. She’s brilliant at effortlessly sliding in humor to an otherwise heavy book. Her characters tend to be witty and strong (even in their weaknesses) and I’ve noticed they never have severely one-track minds as some fictional characters sometimes do. “But Lisa! Isn’t it human to focus on one thing?” Uh, yeah, it is… but it’s also human to have other things going on inside your head. No one is ever so enveloped in something that everything else falls away completely. We have front burners and back burners, middle burners et cetera. Clary is thinking about her mom’s disappearance, but also Simon, Jace, Luke, her true identity, and just life in general.
ETA: I was looking over the synopsis on a few websites and I was taken by one thing. I feel like every description of this book talks about how much of a jerk Jace is, but I honestly don't feel like he deserves the bad rap people are giving him. We all have our moments, and though Jace is conceited and very sure of himself I don't feel like it's so bad that he starts seeming unlikable. Perhaps I need to continue reading the books to see it more? I don't know.
All in all it was well worth the read and I’m super stoked to continue on and see what on Earth is going on in this series.
Spoilers here: click to show/hide
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
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