Synopsis: "Sixteen-year-old Clary Fray is an ordinary teenager, who likes hanging out in Brooklyn with her friends. But everything changes the night she witnesses a murder, committed by a group of teens armed with medieval weaponry. The murderous group are Shadowhunters, secret warriors dedicated to driving demons out of this dimension and back into their own. Drawn inexorably into a terrifying world, Clary slowly begins to learn the truth about her family - and the battle for the fate of the world."
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare book follows the life of sixteen-year-old Clarissa Fray whom witnesses a murder committed by three mysterious teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the murdered body disappears into thin air and it's hard for her 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? That question ultimately leads to Clary's journey of learning who she really is and the history of her family after she discovers a connection between the sudden disappearance of her mother, the three mysterious teenagers and an attack she receives from an alleged demon working for a mysterious figure of Clary's mother's past.
I was rather skeptical about starting this series as so many people love it and have hyped about it and I tend to find that when something is overly hyped, much like The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, I over anticipate the read and find myself quite disappointed. This however wasn't so much the case with City of Bones, but saying that I didn't love it either.
To begin with I struggled to get into the story and the world Clare has created. However, once I became used to and found myself enjoying her writing style I found it easy to get lost within the story. I felt that Clare had managed to reinvent the fantasy genre of demons, werewolves, vampires and other creatures in a modern light (minus the sparkly skin) as well as pay homage to the classic traits of such beings that were portrayed by the likes of Bram Stoker in Dracula and other great authors.
Although the overall pacing of the book was a bit slow, I did enjoy the various action sequences portrayed as they were fast paced and I found myself easily visualising the events that were unfolding. The sequences were laid out in various points throughout the book so it was never a case of too much happening or not enough happening; it was just the right balance. I also found some of the twists that were thrown in so gripping to read as they completely threw me off guard and I love that in a book!
Saying that mind there were times when I really wasn't sure if I wanted to slap the main characters or if I wanted to slap Clare. I don't know what it is about these characters but I found them so hard to connect with and ended up hating the majority of them with the exclusion of Simon, Alec and Luke, all three of which aren't in the book all too much. If the reader can't build some sort of connection with the main characters then said reader is more or less done for. Yes, it's good to hate characters, but to hate the majority of them just takes the biscuit.
I also had a bittersweet experience with the ending. I just felt it was so rushed and I couldn't process what the hell was happening as I felt as if it was all leading up to this explosive finish when in fact it was incredibly slow paced with nothing exciting happening. Some of the things the characters did were ridiculous and I struggled to understand some of the things that were occurring which is weird because they were pretty simple happenings, the issue is just the way they were written. I also never found myself completely drawn into the book, there were times when I was captivated for a chapter or two but after that I grew bored and put the book down for the rest of the day which is why it took me so long to complete.
Overall City of Bones is a novel that brings back the traits of creatures such as vampires and demons that we all know and love and is gripping at times but boring at others. I won't be rushing out to purchase the sequel, City of Ashes, but I'll get round to it eventually.
I give Cassandra Clare and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones ★★★
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