Book Review | City of Bones

4:30 AM


synopsis.

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. (Good Reads

my thoughts.

This is a very popular, very well known book and this is only my first foray into the world of the nephilim, Shadowhunters and demons. By description, this is definitely my kind of book, however I felt this first instalment fell a little flat for me. Overall it was a good book - and there’s enough questions and curiosity left at the end that makes me want to continue the series eventually, but it was not a fantasy world that grabbed my attention from the get-go.

I didn’t feel a strong connection with the main characters - for the most part it felt like Clare was spending more time on world building and backstory that the story itself didn’t move forward with enough momentum. Which is not always a bad thing, but for the main plot of this particularly story, the sense of urgency just wasn’t there for me. I struggled to connect with Clary as a character - a lot of her decisions just left me thinking “what are you doing?!” - and the immediate love-triangle grated.

That said, I do appreciate the detail included in the Shadowhunter world so far, and the interplay between the different species. Magnus Bane is the character who intrigued me the most, partly because we see so little of him, but also because his motivations are less clear.

Overall, I gave this book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

title // The Mortal Instruments #1 City of Bones 
author // Cassandra Clare
publisher // Walker Books Ltd
genre // Young Adult, Science-Fiction & Fantasy
publication date // February 26th, 2008
format // Paperback


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