City of Bones by Cassandra Clare – Review

Clary Fray is just your average fifteen year old girl, living in New York with her mum Jocelyn, right?

Well that’s what she had been led to believe all her life, but when she witnesses the murder of a ‘blue haired’ boy in a closet of a night club by three attackers, and no one else seems to be able to see anything, she goes home confused.

Out of the blue one day her mum announces that they are leaving New York, right away. Clary gets mad at her mum as she doesn’t want to leave and takes off with her best friend, Simon.

Whilst sat in the local café with Simon, she notices one of the attackers from the night club walk past the window, and goes out to follow him. He doesn’t understand how she can see him. He tells her that he is a Shadowhunter and that he can only been seen by others from his world or if he chooses to be seen.

Whilst talking to the Jace, the Shadowhunter, she receives a frantic call from her mum telling her not to come home. Doing exactly the opposite she races home, followed by Jace and finds it trashed, her mum gone and a strange hissing creature heading towards her. After a battle she manages to kill the creature but not before it has stung her.

With Clary now in grave danger after being infected by a demon, Jace does the only thing he can think of – he takes her to the New York Institution, the home for Shadowhunters, so that they can help cure her.

This is the start of Clary’s journey into a world that runs parallel with the mortal world, a world full of warlocks, witches, vampires, werewolves, faeries, demons and of course Shadowhunters.

If she’s going to find out what has happened to her mum, she must first discover who she truly is, and learn to fulfil her full potential.

This is the first book in "The Mortal Instruments" series. The books are aimed at the YA genre, but I was so enthralled by the plot and the hype around the book that I decided to read it.

I discovered a series of books that I love and that would keep me entertainment for a long time.

This is Cassandra’s first novel and it is well written for a debut, even if her use of metaphors in the first few chapters is a bit over the top, though that alone doesn’t take away the thrill and ease of the read.

Its a story of mystic, magic, romance, action, adventure, hate and anger all thrown in together. The plot develops slowly, chapter by chapter and we the reader, are continuously surprised throughout the book with each new development.

Clary is the protagonist and even with her being only fifteen, I found her enchanting, full of energy and she clearly is a fighter.

Jace is a very head-strong young man, who has had to fight all of his life making him quite stubborn and set in his ways. Then, along came Clary, giving him feelings that he’s never experienced before, finding himself attracted to her.

With the added bonus of a kick-ass female with a whip, Izzy, and her older, seriously moody brother Alec, along with geeky Simon, the book is full of well thought out characters, who work well together and are not overshadowed by the protagonists.

I love this book, even though it isn’t aimed at my age group I still found it engaging and mysterious. I love the idea of a world we can’t see but exists along side us.

The action and adventure fill the book and Cassandra’s eye for detail throughout, make visualising the scenes easy. There is also the obvious attraction that Clary and Jace have for each other running ever present in the background of the story, creating that, ‘will they won’t they?’ suspension.

I have since read the entire collection and have loved all the books, although when you discover the time that the whole series has been created in, it does seem a bit far fetched, for so much to happen in such a short amount of time.

The book has since been adapted in to a movie, which I can honestly say I wasn’t impressed with. The characters weren’t how I imagined them and there is a lot of the plot missing, including many key parts of the story.

This book is in my Top Ten Books.

My rating:

Five stars

Buy City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments) from Amazon, Here.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin