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- 4/5 Stars
Note- This was a reread as a part of The Dregs Society read-a-long being hosted by the lovely Emmmabooks.
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 humour 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.
I think it comes as no surprise to anyone who has been following me on here for a while, that I am a huge fan of Cassandra Clare's work. This year, a YouTuber I admire is hosting a year-long read-a-long and of course, I knew I was going to take part in it. City of Bones was the book that introduced me to this magical world and the magical world of reading. A part of me will always love these books as they hold such a sentimental place in my heart.
That being said, I did really enjoy it. It felt like I was reading it for the first time again and subsequently falling in love with this series again. There were a few moments were I wasn't enjoying it as much as I used to, but overall, City of Bones is a great first book in a series. It has all the things I personally look for in a first book in a series and does a really good job at establishing a fairly complex magic system.
While I do love it, my opinions have changed since I first read it back in 2013. I was a very different reader back then and now I understand more about the reading world. One of the things I don't particularly like about CoB is how information-based it is (but I'll talk more about that in a later paragraph). As the novel is now around 11 years old, you can see how it reflects the vibes of the early 2000s. It definitely fits the trends of novels being released at the time of a person not knowing how they form a supernatural race of some sort. The characters to me feel a bit underdeveloped and there are times when I almost hate Clary and Jace because of how whiny and wingey they are. My favourite characters in this book are Simon and Magnus as to me, they have more layers to them than the others.
At the time of picking this up, I was a bit under the weather and as, for once, I had the time to sit down and read, I flew through this book. I think I read it in 2 or 3 days, but you'll have to check my Goodreads to find out (I've been posting reviews for all the books I've been reading in 2018). I love that I was able to fly through it and also that it was so easy to fly through it.
When compared with Cassie's latest novel (at the time of this being published, I'm comparing it to Lord of Shadows), you can see how far she has developed as a writer. Her style isn't as defined or for me, as engaging, I'm definitely a fan of her later works more than I am her earlier works. I always look forward to her new books and I think rereading them in preparation for Queen of Air and Darkness, I am going to be appreciating how much she has developed as a writer.
As I mentioned earlier, one of the reasons I think I gave this 4/5 stars was because it is very info based. This is because it is establishing a system that is going to be spread across many different series, but to me, there were times when it became bogged down in the details rather than describing that characters feelings. There is a saying that I hear a lot in my Creative Writing classes and that is "show don't tell" and this is very much a show and no tell situation. It's probably my personal reading preferences, but I am not a fan of massive info dumps.
City of Bones used to be one of my favourite books in the series, however, this read I felt that it had probably become my least favourite in the series. I just didn't enjoy myself as much as I remember doing when I first read it. That being said, I still love this series. But, I found it a bit difficult jumping back into this series.
So, my plan is to post reviews for all the books in this reread even if, like City of Bones, I already have a review up for it. I have a few to catch up on, but I will try and post them sporadically so this doesn't turn into just a Shadowhunters blog.
Carenza x
