City of Bones

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

My rating:  5/5
Summary (from Goodreads):  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.... 

 My review:


City of Bones rates five stars with ease, as with the other books in the Mortal Instruments series.  I'd been looking for it for a while, and finally decided to get it out of the library.  I wish that I had bought it.  i could have read it again and again without getting tired of it.


I loved the characters, but I'll start with the beginning first.  It gets a little bit complicated at some points.  The main character, Clary Fray goes to the Pandemonium Club, and when she's there, she sees a boy about her age with lots of tattoos kill someone.  She goes to talk to him, and he's surprised that she was able to see him.  Clary ends up at the Institute, which is the home for Shadowhunters, a race of warriors who try to to rid the world of demons.  There, she formally meets the boy she talked to in the Pandemonium Club.


His name is Jace.  I must admit, I adored Jace, he is probably one of my favourite characters of all time.  I think that the only person he comes behind is Peeta, from The Hunger Games.  He sure doesn't seem like a very likable person at first.  He's arrogant, and seems to find everything funny, even when he should be being serious.  That was one of the reasons that I liked  him.  Clary finds him hot-headed and annoying, but eventually warms to him.  I liked him even when he was super frustrating.  Although he loved himself, and it seemed like only himself, you could see that he also began to like Clary, which was good.  That way, you could tell that he didn't live in his own little world, where he was the only one there.


Clary was also a great character.  All of her emotions felt real, no matter what they were.  You could feel her confusion and desperation as you read it.  You could also tell what she felt for Jace.  She loved him, but also hated him for all the pain he caused her.  She was always mad at him when he wasn't around for some reason, but when he was there, all that anger disappeared.


The world in the book was one that I would love to live in.  It was creative, and I loved the idea of the Shadowhunters, Downworlders and such.  It's interesting because in Clockwork Angel, which is set over a century before City of Bones, I get the idea that the Institute is quite shadowy, dark, and castle-like, with winding corridords, and tapestries on the walls.  In City of Bones, it seems like a brighter, cozier place.


Some thing about Cassandra Clare's writing keeps me craving for more, and once I finish a book by her, I'm frantic to read another, and I never stop thinking about it.  I loved the City of Bones, and it is easily one of my favourite books.  And also:  TEAM JACE!!!!!!!!!!!!