Book Review – City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Series: The Mortal Instruments, #1
Published March 27th 2007 by Margaret K. McElderry Books
Genre: Romance, New Adult, Contemporary
485 pages
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Find on Goodreads
Get it on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3vjI7ju

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…

Review

This series, The Mortal Instruments has been in my TBR since forever but I’ve just read it now, *wink. I remember how popular it was a few years ago especially when the movie was out, which I haven’t watched yet. Then just now, I found out there’s a tv series which I am yet to check out.

Since it’s been a pretty long time since I’ve read the sypnosis and watched the film trailer, I honestly forgot what this book is all about, that’s why I was kind of excited when I started it. Sometimes, it takes me a chapter to know if I will enjoy a story or not. And City of Bones started really well. It’s my first time from Cassandra Clare so I wasn’t sure if I’m going to enjoy this one or not. 

Looking at the cover, I really thought it’s NA so I was surprised when the main characters we’re introduced. I usually prefer YA especially when it’s in this genre, so that’s really good….until I came to the love triangle part lol. I don’t usually like triad but there were some that I really enjoyed. For this one, hmmm, I’m not really sure. All I know is that Jace is hot (not hot hot hot though) and Simon is a perfect boyfriend material, so I guess all’s good.

Main Characters:

For Clary, she wasn’t really what I expected. I expected an angsty 16 year old but so far, her character didn’t annoy me at all. And she was actually pretty tough considering her life just changed drastically after she saw the incident in the Pandemonium club involving a demon and three teenagers who call themselves as shadowhunter.

And for Clary’s bff Simon, as I’ve said above, I really adore his character. He’s this dependable friend you can always count on and is kind of funny, really. His most memorable part for me was when he turned into a rat, that was a pain in the ass moment, lol.

And for Jace. Well, I always thought he’s this hot shadowhunter until I came to the revelation part. It’s not really funny but whenever I remember that scene, I just can’t help but suppress a laugh. But overall, I guess he’s a pretty decent kid.

Plot

I honestly don’t fully understand the whole plot yet and I have to say that I’m still digesting what I’ve just read. I don’t find anything about this story that will give a week’s hangover but I still think it’s a decent read, it just didn’t appeal to me that much. I guess it was because of my mood when I read it. You see, I’ve been like a walking zombie this past few days so I guess the reason why I didn’t enjoy this story that much was partly because of that.

In the second half, I already felt the tension as some of the puzzles were slowly back into their proper places. But when they face Valentine, there’s just something off about it. I dunno, I just had this idea that Valentine is like Voldemort in Idris, so I was expecting a really powerful ex-shadowhunter. And ofcourse it didn’t help that Jace was so convinced about his story and then suddenly was on his side. Then a miracle happened and he just came back to his senses. I dunno. It’s just that switching sides wasn’t that convincing for me.

But overall, I still think that City of Bones is a pretty decent read even if I was in such a not-so-good mood when I read it. That said, I’m still planning to read the other books in the series.

Challenges

• 2017 New To Me
• 2017 Mount TBR Reading
• 2017 eBooks Reading
• 2017 You Read How Many Books?
• 2017 Review Writing

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