Book Review: City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1)

Author: Cassandra Clare

Published: 2007

Format Read: Paperback

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

My Rating: 1/5 stars (Did Not Finish; DNF’d)

PLEASE REMEMBER! This review is my opinion. I know there are a lot of people out there who love these books still. It’s all to personal taste.

I currently base my reviews loosely around the CAWPILE system developed by Book Roast on YouTube. I modify the categories depending on the format of the story I’m reviewing.

My star ratings are purely by my opinion and not measured by any particular metric.

SPOILER WARNING: This review will contain spoilers! Proceed with caution!

Summary

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...

Characters

Clary is fine, maybe a bit blank at times, a little counter to how her personality was originally portrayed. I think she’s supposed to be headstrong and mildly rebellious. Granted, she’s been through a lot, but still. Now, the rest of them… all the Shadowhunter kids are horrible people. Especially Jace. He’s arrogant and rude. He’s obviously supposed to be the love interest, but he treats Clary horribly and is awful to and about her best friend. The only characters I liked were Hodge (our mentor character) and Magnus Bane, wh’'s far more interesting than anyone else. I would rather have more of him in the story. (Go figure, as I transfer this from my story journal to the blog, I discovered there is actually a series about him that is, like, 11 books long.) And then there’s Simon, the shafted best friend who is a poor caricature of… something.

Atmosphere

Giving New York City Underground. Pretty standard. Potential, though.

Writing Style

The concept was cool. The writing was mostly easy to read except every once in a while she would use an obscure world reference out of nowhere.

Plot

The plot itself starts off interestingly. Heck, it all was pretty interesting and would have continued if the characters were better. It is reminiscent of Angel or Sanctuary, both of which I very much enjoyed. I like the hidden world in plain sight kind of thing.

Intrigue

There was the mystery in the beginning, but once we learned Clary’s mom and family friend had been part of the same group as Hodge and they all wound up in the same place by chance… It lost me.

Logic

The magic system made sense as did (kinda) the organizations and their feuds or whatever. The underlying story made sense.

Enjoyment and Final Thoughts

There was so much potential for this to be good. Even with the fact that they’re teens, the characters were horrible. I simply couldn’t get past the fact that Jace is clearly the love interest, but he is a horrible person. Abused history is no excuse either. Something about this book seems like she was trying to get on a trend that was popular or something.

I have no plans nor desire to read any more of her books and will likely even donate this one so I don’t need to look at its stupid cover again. (Did I mention that I hate the cover art, too? It looks too much like a romance novel and not enough like a fantasy story, even urban fantasy.)

Would I Recommend?

I, personally, would not recommend this book as I did not enjoy it. However, I know that the series was very popular for a while and it wound up with a movie adaptation. There are likely many of you that still love it, and that’s fine. It’s not to my taste.