City of Bones
3 Stars

Strong world building but the teenage sniping and romantic angst illustrates once again why I dislike reading YA (I had enough of this nonsense in high school and I have no wish to relive it in my reading).

None of the characters are particularly likable, and there is a complete lack of camaraderie between the so-called protagonists. What should come across as friendly teasing and ribbing is actually harsh and cold, and the derogatory comments are delivered not softly with a hint of humor but with scorn and a tinge of malice. There is also an unappealing elitist and prejudiced undercurrent in their words and behavior that makes it difficult to identify with them.

That said, Clary turns out to be a courageous heroine and the gradual buildup of her relationship with Jace is very appealing. Jace, however, can be an obnoxious jerk although he does have his intriguing moments of vulnerability and some slight romantic hero potential, but he isn't quite there yet.

The plot is engaging and the basic premise of a villain with a racist ideology in search of a cup that can help him build an army is compelling, if unoriginal. Moreover, the main antagonist, while despicable, does not have that all encompassing, menacing and world destroying evil that characterizes other works of epic fantasy. Clare's writing also lacks the creativity, foreshadowing, intertextuality and language construction of these stories, i.e. Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, and Harry Potter.

On a final note, the Star Wars inspired twist at the end turns the book into a soap opera. Unfortunately, I have a very unhealthy addiction to soaps (they are like watching a train wreck - you just can't help yourself) and now I'm going to have to continue to find out if this travesty is going in the direction I think it is.

Narration: Ari Graynor's narration is not the best - even those characters who are adults sound like snotty teens. I've learned that subsequent books have a different narrator so I will probably listen to the next one as well. ( )

the characters and dialogue were atrocious , i want to cry ... the infodump was very bad and the twist at the end is soooo unnecessary and made me feel uncomfortable .. ( )

Though I am not in the target demographic by more than a few years, I do enjoy reading a lot of YA fiction. The Gone novels by Michael Grant being a particular favorite of mine, and I have read Harry Potter and Twilight (talk about going from one extreme to the other). I picked up the first book in Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series, CITY OF BONES, because it had some plot elements that appealed to me, namely old school supernatural monsters like vampires and werewolves, not to mention warlocks, spells and magic. I went into this series cold, not having seen any of the TV and screen adaptations, and with no knowledge of the controversy surrounding the author with charges of outright plagiarism, not to mention a general reputation for very unoriginal writing.

That CITY OF BONES cribs most of its plot, characters, and themes, from Harry Potter and Star Wars is evident before the half way mark. The central character is Clary Fray, a fifteen year old girl who is drawn into the paranormal world of the Shadowhunters, an ancient society of warriors who battle monsters and demons who escape to earth from Downworld. As the story unfolds, Clary becomes aware that she has more than a passing connection to these Shadowhunters and the teenage boy, Jace Wayland, who leads the group she falls in with. Jace seems to be a dreamier version of Draco Malfoy, and there are other characters who are equal parts knock off versions of Hermione Granger, Ron and Ginny Weasley, Lupin and Snape, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black, not to mention Padme and Professor X for good measure. The Big Bad of the story is named Valentine, whose name shares a first letter of the alphabet with Voldemort and Darth Vader, and whose motivation is very similar to Magneto’s. Simon, Clary’s muggle—I mean mundane—best friend, who is obviously in love with her even if she doesn’t notice it, bares more than a passing resemblance to Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There’s a plot twist near the end of the book involving Clary, Jace, and Valentine that would make even George Lucas groan. Bottom line, the whole book felt like a huge cut and paste job from the most popular pop culture phenomenas of the past few decades.

All that being said, I certainly didn’t hate CITY OF BONES in the way that other reviewers who poured their wrath and venom on the book, as most YA fiction, especially when it comes to the paranormal, are hardly original. I think Cassandra Clare was just a little more blatant about it, and her past FF writing didn’t endear her to many readers. As unoriginal as it might be, CITY OF BONES held my interest, and I kept turning the pages to see what happened next. My biggest complaint is that Clare wrote the book from Clary’s POV through a shaky 3rd person when the story would have been much better served by having told in 1st person with Clary’s voice clear and present. But that leads to another problem in that Clary, as written, comes off as vague and generic when she needs to be distinct and unique. CITY OF BONES was written in the mid 2000s, back before the insufferable teenage girl had become such a trope, but a little more attitude it would have helped her character a lot. I kept thinking that the story would have been so much better if it had been told from the POV of Jace, or Alec and Isabelle Lightwood, even Simon, all of whom had some real personality.

As the first book in a series, the finale of CITY OF BONES felt very anticlimactic, with dangling plot threads in all directions, and for that reason, I am going to give Cassandra Clare, and CITY OF ASHES, a chance. ( )

uh,okay.

I don't really know what to say about this book.I'mm just glad that I didn't buy a box set,which I probably would never have done anyways!I'm not a shadowhunter,guys.I'm just not.The only person I loved in this book was Simon.I kinda hated him a bit at time(you know when).I am not a fan of Clary.I do not ship Jace and Clary,no,just no!I don't think I'm going to read the next book.I do NOT remember most of the parts in this book.That's it.It's a no from me.


But I heard that the first book is bad but the rest of the series is awesome..I don't know..I'm confused.. ( )

When I finished this book, I felt angry with the lack of resolution so I read the 2nd book to find out what happened. After reading the 2nd book, I am stopping because there still has not been enough resolution, and now I don't care enough to want to find out. I don't care for this style of writing where I feel manipulated into wanting to know more, through painstaking withholding of information and cliffhanger-type endings. Instead, I like to care about what happens to the characters because I like them - or have come to care about them despite not liking them because the author has written them with insight and sympathy.
( )