City of Bones-My Almost-Review

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1) by Cassandra Clare
Published: July 2007 (UK)
Publisher: Walker Books (UK)
Rating: 5/5


Goodreads description:


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.

My thoughts:


I'll start with a slight confession. I've actually known about the Mortal Instruments series for years. I never read it for 2 terrible, terrible reasons. Firstly, they were always put (wrongly in my opinion) in the children's (9-12) section of the bookshops I visited. This shouldn't've put me off, but it did, because I'm always conscious that I *may* be too old to enjoy YA/children's literature. Complete rubbish I know, I always lend my fave YA books to my mum and she enjoys them, so why shouldn't I? Secondly, the covers always looked a bit childish which backed up my first assumption. I know, terrible terrible reasons. I apologise Cassie Clare, for being so awful.

But now, onto the books themselves. The reason I finally read them, is actually b/c I read Clockwork Angel, the first of a prequel series called Infernal Devices. It was on offer on Amazon for a bargain £2.59, so I bought it. It took me a month or so to get round to reading it, and honestly I didn't expect that much from it. How very wrong I was, it's an incredible book, and I urge everyone to give it a go (I've already lent it to my housemate). But anyway, I read this, and couldn't get enough of Cassie Clare's writing! So I ordered the 3 MI books straight away (literally, at like 1:30am last sunday) and impatiently anticipated their delivery. They arrived on thursday (17th) which was awesome as I was ill that day, and I started reading the first one about 4/5pm. I literally could not put it down. You're sucked into the world Cassie Clare creates straight away!

I follow her on twitter, so I was worried that the things I'd unintentionally picked up about the books (Cassie answers alot of fan q's which is amazing) might spoil it a bit; I already knew about the characters, I knew Alec's secret, I knew there were shadowhunters, mundanes, I knew Magnus Bane featured and I knew Jace and Clary had a romantic interlude at some point. However none of these 'spoilers' had any impact on my enjoyment of the books.

Allow me to set the scene: 'City of Bones' starts with Clary and her best friend Simon getting into the Pandemonium club. I honestly thought the scene mentioned first referred to Jace, but no I was wrong. Then you meet the shadowhunters. The shadowhunters Clary can see, but Simon can't. It turns out Clary is a nephilim, a secret her mum hid her entire life. Her mum, coincidentally, has now vanished, taken it seems, by the mysterious and supposedly dead Valentine. There's a quest for a mystical object, a betrayal, a revelation (or six), a few heartbreaks, basically everything you could possibly want in a book. I was enthralled from the minute I picked it up, every text I sent my bf was "sorry, reading" "still reading" or words to that effect.

The characters are excellently written, Jace reminds me somewhat of Will from CA, and Isabelle slightly (but not a whole lot) of Jessamine. I wasn't a fan of Alec at first, but he grows on you. Clary and Simon are fantastic. Some people (like my boyfriend) hate the way characters are written with great one-liners, sarky comments, punchlines etc. It's been claimed this isn't very realistic but honestly? Who cares. I read because I enjoy it, it's escapism, not because I want a real life account. The one-liners make it more enjoyable for me (and I'm assuming for other people) and I'm more than happy for them to stay. Cassie writes these very well, they're funny, appropriate but not too OTT.

I did of course read the later 2 books, but I feel this 'review' would be the length of one of the novels if I tried to review all three. Here's all you need to know: I started thursday afternoon, and I finished early hours Sunday morning. If I can read 3 (sizeable) books in that time I can assure you they're worth reading. Go! Buy them!

Also follow Cassie Clare on twitter, she's fabulous!

So that's pretty much my first ever book 'review'. I would honestly give them MI series (and Clockwork Angel) 5/5. My only regret is that I didn't read them sooner. But now atleast I have a shorter wait for the City of Fallen Angels in April!


Oh and feel free to comment with your views! I'd love to hear what other people thought of the series, or what you think of my (admittedly terrible) review skills so I can improve next time!