Review: The City of Bones

Title: City of Bones 

Series: The Mortal Instruments #1

Author: Cassandra Clare

Pages: 485

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Published Date: March 27, 2007

ISBN 13: 9781416914280

Rating: 2/5

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 that they will never want to end.

Review: 

So, I had the misfortune of reading this book when I was still new to YA literature, and before I heard about dear Miss Clare and the Draco Trilogy. 

Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, until I realized it was almost exactly the same as one of her more notoriously known Harry Potter fanfictions. (The Draco Trilogy.) This knowledge only fueled me to revisit the series a second time. This did not help Miss Clare's case, for I managed to see all the awful parallels this time around. The entire plotline reeks of stolen material. 

Honestly, the only thing that saved this book at all was Clare's ability to write well. Putting aside the fact that this story is almost identical to her fanfiction, and that she was obviously living vicariously through Clary, I did genuinely enjoy some aspects of the book. 

The fight scenes were well thought out and detailed, and many of her descriptions often left me with a clear mental picture. There was just enough action to keep me reading to the end, but not so much that it got overwhelming.

As for characters, I often find myself attached to the lesser characters in a novel. Magnus, by far, was one of my favorite parts of the entire book. I don't normally enjoy it when an author will use stereotypes to portray a character, such as making Magus obviously flamboyant, but in this case, I feel like it worked for him. I only wish he would have had more appearances.

Alec and Isabelle were my other favorites. I loved their sibling dynamic, and their vastly different personalities. I could even feel myself sympathizing with Alec. He certainly got the short end of the stick in every situation.  

I'm not even going to touch upon the whole "kissing your brother" aspect of this novel, because frankly, it just creeps me out too much. I feel like that is an area of writing that Clare shouldn't have delved into. Things like that are better left in the dark, in my opinion.

All in all, I really wanted to give this book more stars, but in the end I'm going to have to stick to two out of five. As much as I would like to, I just can't forgive an author for plagiarizing her own work.