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| Taken from Google |
Author- Cassandra Clare
Series- The Mortal Instruments
Published- March 27th 2007 (according to Google)
Page Count- 506 (UK Movie Tie-In Edition)
Publishing House- Walker Books Ltd (UK Movie Tie-In Edition)
Rating- 5/5 Stars
Note- This was a reread in preparation for Lord of Shadows (review coming soon)
About the Author
Cassandra Clare was born to American parents in Teheran, Iran and spent much of her childhood travelling the world with her family, including one trek through the Himalayas as a toddler where she spent a month living in her father’s backpack. She lived in France, England and Switzerland before she was ten years old.
Since her family moved around so much she found familiarity in books and went everywhere with a book under her arm. She spent her high school years in Los Angeles where she used to write stories to amuse her classmates, including an epic novel called “The Beautiful Cassandra” based on a Jane Austen short story of the same name (and which later inspired her current pen name).
After college, Cassie lived in Los Angeles and New York where she worked at various entertainment magazines and even some rather suspect tabloids where she reported on Brad and Angelina’s world travels and Britney Spears’ wardrobe malfunctions. She started working on her YA novel, City of Bones, in 2004, inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan, her favourite city. She turned to writing fantasy fiction full time in 2006 and hopes never to have to write about Paris Hilton again.
Cassie’s first professional writing sale was a short story called “The Girl’s Guide to Defeating the Dark Lord” in a Baen anthology of humor fantasy. Cassie hates working at home alone because she always gets distracted by reality TV shows and the antics of her two cats, so she usually sets out to write in local coffee shops and restaurants. She likes to work in the company of her friends, who see that she sticks to her deadlines.
(Taken from Cassandra's Website)
Plot
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 they never want to end.
(Taken from Goodreads)
Opinions
If you have been following me for a while, then you will know I am a massive Cassandra Clare fan. From 2013 when I first discovered the books to 2015, I have reread the books more time than I can remember. But, I haven't reread the series in a while and as Lord of Shadows was close to being released, I thought I would reread it. I do feel that my nostalgia and love for this series has made my rating higher than I would have given it if I was reading it for the first time.
I have to say that City of Bones is not my favourite in The Mortal Instruments, but without it, I wouldn't have picked up these books. I do like it, it's just not my favourite (as I already stated), but I did enjoy rereading it. I can see that it isn't the perfect book I thought it was when I first picked up and this review isn't going to be me fangirling. I want this to be a critical review.
The world building is very strong in this book. It is established fairly early on that this world (the Shadowhunter World) is similar to our own and coincides with our own. There are definitely times where we get a lot of info-dumping, which is something I hate. I understand that when world building you need to lay down the rules early on so the reader can get to understand them. However, there is an entire chapter that is just info dump in this book (it's Luke's chapter called The Werewolf's Tale). I feel as though we didn't need a whole chapter for this story of Jocelyn, Luke and Valentine's story. I think that this is a personal preference, rather than something that is flawed within the book.
The humour in this is something I love and it's something we still see popping up in Cassie's books today. Although it's not the comedy gold we know and love in her later books (people who've read LoS will know what I'm on about), it still makes me chuckle. I love the scene where Clary slaps Jace and it makes me so sad that they didn't include in the movie (I'm not referencing the TV show as I haven't seen it and most likely won't). I also love how sarcastic Jace is and Magnus is just fabulous (but then he always is).
I personally found the characters a tad annoying in this book, especially Clary. At times she would do quite stupid things for no reason. It definitely shows how Cassandra Clare has grown as an author as by the end of the series, the characters aren't as annoying. Jace in this book is a total dick, I'm sorry if you're a die-hard Jace fan, but in this book he is rude and very much a narcissist. Thank God, he grows out of it. I do love Magnus and Alec, I've loved them from CoB and I'm so happy they are getting their own series as they deserve it. I also adore Simon, he's definitely one of my fave characters from TMI.
At times, the plot was a bit predictable. You could tell from the beginning that Simon was in love with Clary and it was frustrating to see how ignorant she was. You could also tell that something was going to hinder Jace and Clary from being together. I still love this book, but now as a more mature reader I can appreciate it has flaws and not support it blindly.
I loved the way Cassandra Clare handled Alec being gay. As I was only little at the time, I can't say this will be 100% accurate, but I feel like this was something that wasn't really talked about in YA at the time and it's only in the past few years that YA has become better at dealing with diverse subject matters. Cassie deals with Alec's sexuality in such a delicate way. It's not included to shock readers, it's simply a part of the book. I've seen interviews with Cassie saying that so many people have found it helpful having Alec be gay as it's helped them to understand their sexuality. Alec is such a well developed character and, although he appears quite rude at the beginning, you do learn to love him.
I still love TMI and all of Cassie's works, but now as a more mature reader, I want to review them in a more mature manner than just saying I love them and that be that. I do plan on continuing these reviews once I carry on with my reread.
Carenza x
