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City of Bones

(Mortal Instruments)

By Cassandra Clare

(132)

| Hardcover | 9781416914280

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Book Description

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 pContinue

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.

Critics

  • CITY OF BONES: The Mortal Instruments, Book One

    Under the sparkling steel and neon lights of Manhattan, a race of ethereal warriors called Shadowhunters fights malicious demons. Artist Clary Fray is blissfully ignorant of the existence of Shadowhunters until one dry-ice hazy night at the Pandemoni ... (read full critics)

    teenreads published on Thu, 16 Sep 2010

  • CITY OF BONES: The Mortal Instruments, Book One

    Under the sparkling steel and neon lights of Manhattan, a race of ethereal warriors called Shadowhunters fights malicious demons. Artist Clary Fray is blissfully ignorant of the existence of Shadowhunters until one dry-ice hazy night at the Pandemoni ... (read full critics)

    teenreads published on Mon, 13 Sep 2010

14 Reviews

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  • 2 people find this helpful

    Significantly better than I expected from the cover art and general stereotypes about the teen fantasy genre. I was given this for my birthday and was told that "the author of those Twilight books says its really good!" Well thanks dad. That's just what I want to hear. Once I eventually picked it u ... (continue)

    Significantly better than I expected from the cover art and general stereotypes about the teen fantasy genre. I was given this for my birthday and was told that "the author of those Twilight books says its really good!" Well thanks dad. That's just what I want to hear. Once I eventually picked it up though I blew through it, and as soon as I get the chance I will definitely be reading the others in the series. Not saying it was awesomely written or totally original, but I want to read more, so that says something I guess?

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    Sarabear135 said on Feb 24, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • 2 people find this helpful

    *** This comment contains spoilers! ***

    You must know that I bought this book mostly because I sorta of knew the author, that was pretty famous in the HP fanfiction world and I definitely loved her writing style from the very second I put my eyes on DV's trilogy.

    So, encouraged by my optimism, I finally made up my mind and I got my ... (continue)

    You must know that I bought this book mostly because I sorta of knew the author, that was pretty famous in the HP fanfiction world and I definitely loved her writing style from the very second I put my eyes on DV's trilogy.

    So, encouraged by my optimism, I finally made up my mind and I got my copy at Borders, whilts I was in Melbourne this summer, though I've seen it around even here in Italy (but by now you know what I think about translations, do you?). This it the first book of the Mortal Instruments Trilogy, where we start to know the universe of Shadowhunters, so you have to approach it with this clearly into your mind: you won't be able to appreciate the whole story unitl you'll read the very last line of the third book. That's the first thing I've learned about the author, so this is a sort of free advice.

    Anyway, since this is the first book of a trilogy and we live in a world where things goes on only if they make you earn a lot of money, I can easily say that they story sort of close itself, allowing it almost to be a standing-alone book.

    Almost.

    Going on speaking of the story, without being too much spoilerish, I can tell you it has both good original peaks and some already seen around.

    The original peaks are about all the Shadowhunters world, the explanation about how demons are flowing into our world and all the difference between mundandes (regular people), Shadowhunters and Downworlders (Vampires, faeries, etc). I definitely like all the runes related stuff and how the reality seems splitted in three parallels systems... that they aren't parallel at all, but strongly mixed into heach other, but that still seems so far away, like we are talking of different worlds instead of Earth.

    The stuff already seen, instead, it's mostly related to character development. Clary, the main character, is beautifully portraied: she's a young teen-ager that grows up through the book: starts as a naive girl, she finds love and then she has her first real fight against reality and the hardness of things. And we can see her react to situations quite realistically, besides the fact that she's a bit reckless (but if it wasn't the case, we wouldn't have any story XD). The only flaw about this character is her best friend, Simon. The VERY BEST FRIEND EVER, he has all the right reactions, the supportive side and even when he starts to realize that the love of his life loves someone else, he faced it pretty well. You know, there aren't many people like this around and suddenly it happens that there are two of them in the same city, in the same circle of friends?! I'm referring to Luke and Simon, if you were wondering... and if I can believe this behavior from Luke, that is an adult, it's quite hard to accept from a teen.

    And then Jace. Or should I call him Cassie!Draco? At the beginning I thought it was just a bad impression of mine, but when he told Clary the falcon story and when we were introduced to Valentine (the copy of Cassie!Lucius), the resemblance was too evident to be discharged. Not that this is a bad thing, because I always thought she did a brilliant work with those two character in DV: they were brilliant and vivid, with their flaws and smartness and the same applies to Jace and Valentine. Jace is amazing, always on the edge of becaming an unbelievable Mary-Sue and then, suddenly, he does something that destroy all that perfect aura, leaving just the boy behind the façade. Sure, he's the clear stereotype of the hero, beautiful and strong, always head down in danger... but there's even his humanity that comes out, the strangeness habits and traits (like his monk-like room) and his hunger of always be the best.

    Valentine, as I told above, reminds me strongly of Cassie!Lucius and this is even better, because I've always thought that he was probably the best charcater out of DV. And Valentine seems quite amazing even here, even if it remembers me too much of Voldemort&Death Eaters from Harry Potter's series, which is the bad thing about him... because I can accept a resemblance to a character you invented (and, besides the same name, I can assure you all that Cassie!Lucius was completely hers), but not to someone elses'.

    But besides that, this is a good book. Description are good, in enough amount, and well mixed with the story... actually, they are what makes the whole story believable. I appreciated how the author stands and describes a city she deeply knows, instead of going for a foreigner setting, that would sound more exotic but harder to handle. And when she has to move things in a different place, it's somewhere that actually doesn't exists. I also appreciated how she refers to Idris, because it reminded me of Dante's pleas during his exile, how he portrayed his city, Firenze, as both the perfect and worse place in the world.

    It was definitely good the work she made with the different cultures (mundane vs shadowhunters) and how often they clashes to each other, because they had backgrounds and references that don't mix together. I laugh a lot, for instance, when Jace quoted Blake and Clary recognized it, but only because it's a line from a Doors' song. And she never misses a beats about this aspect, neither when the plot jump and take a faster pace. This shows only attention to what she's doing, which should make the reader grateful.

    About her writing style, it definitely improved and I noticed she is still experimenting with POV switching, even if not always the final results is good... I'm referring to a peculiar point of the book, at the very beginning of chapter 18, when suddenly we are in Jace head and a page an a half later we are back full force to Clary's POV. That sounded definitely wrong to me, really.

    The last thing I want to talk about is the major themes affronted into the book, that didn't sound to me good for a young audience. I don't know in other countries, but here in Italy the books are sold in the children section! And there are themes portrayed in the book that aren't surely suitable for a younger audience... actually, I don't even think that most of the kids around Clary's age wouldn't be able to completely understand what's going on with Clary and Jace, what are the deeper implications and why they are so desperate. It's actually surprising coming even from them too, but I guess that in that case it's the author speaking, not her characters. All in all, I would even thought of older characters (not too much older, 3/4 years would be fine), to make the whole ordeal more believable, but this is just me I guess.

    Anyway, the final conclusion about everything is this one: read this book, read it AS A BOOK and enjoy the story. It's worth of trying, even if my general observations still stands and probably most of you will notice them during reading.

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    Esus said on Oct 11, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    Decent book, with a *very* big BUT...

    If you choose to read this book, it ends at chapter 22. Remove chapter 23 and everything following before starting the book and dispose of it. Once seen, it is impossible to un-see it, no amount of brain bleach can get you over the horror contained within. The majority of the book is adequate, bu ... (continue)

    If you choose to read this book, it ends at chapter 22. Remove chapter 23 and everything following before starting the book and dispose of it. Once seen, it is impossible to un-see it, no amount of brain bleach can get you over the horror contained within. The majority of the book is adequate, but the latter bit is a trap sprung by a former fanfic author with delusions of greatness to ensnare and torment innocent readers. You have been warned, should you choose to unwisely read chapter 23 and what follows.

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    Tegwen said on Mar 24, 2012 about the Paperback edition | 1 feedback

  • It wasn't bad...

    Hmm... Well it wasn't bad. I mean it wasn't ohmygod brilliant either. In the beginning I kind of got this whole Harry Potter vibe from it with a bit of Harry Dresden mixed in and a dash of Twilight but by the end I'm not really sure does it deserve all these comparisons.

    First of all Clary is grea ... (continue)

    Hmm... Well it wasn't bad. I mean it wasn't ohmygod brilliant either. In the beginning I kind of got this whole Harry Potter vibe from it with a bit of Harry Dresden mixed in and a dash of Twilight but by the end I'm not really sure does it deserve all these comparisons.

    First of all Clary is great and Cassandra Clare really does know how to write good characters, I also adored Simon and Jace. Clary is a funny, typically insecure teenager but her friendship with Simon made her stand out from the Bella Swans of this world. It was cute and funny and her relationship with Jace evolved into something similar. I loved the whole humor element in Clare's writing style.

    The plot was okay, bit scrambled in places and a bit too many twists and turns, I find that usually one good twist is better than a hundred non-significant ones. I did like the whole Shadowhunter world that the author has created and find myself more intrigued about various creatures and places half mentioned in the book than the actual plotline which I suppose isn't actually a good thing.

    Beware of spoilers in this paragraph. The ending was blah. They're brother and sister? The two characters who we've grown to love and were hoping would end up loving eachother? The two characters who kissed in the greenhouse so passionately? (Yuck by the way) I was disappointed to say the least. It was nearly as bad as just having Clary sit up in bed and say 'Oh, it was all a dream'. Brother and sister? Like really? Does this somehow miraculously become irrelevant in the next book can someone please tell me because otherwise where is the author going with this story. I don't know and I'm not overly pushed to find out. Ultimately disppointing.

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    Lauraolsthoorn said on Mar 2, 2012 | Add your feedback

  • Basically Harry Potter style YA adventures with Twilight aftertaste. Ah, I guess they add a touch of Lord of the Rings here and there. Not my cup of tea, thank you. I read boring books too often to force myself on reading further this Mortal Instruments saga.

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    DevilKitty said on Sep 17, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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