Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21160 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

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.

Customer Reviews

A good book with a few flaws...
City of Bones is a good book, I like the characters in it and the storyline is ok. Clary Fray finds that she can see people who are invisible to everyone else and learns that she has a role to play in the world of shadowhunters and learns that her mother wasn't who she thought she was. I like the story and the atmosphere of the book and it's definitely an easy book to get into if you just accept all the similarities with other novels of its genre.

To be honest though, it has most definitely taken some aspects from other sci-fi and fantasy books. The love triangle is very similar to the Twilight series and the main baddie is a little too similar to Voldemort to be given any particular credibility.

I really enjoyed this book but was a little let down by the ending, not enough that I won't read the next book though as I'd like to see what happens next to the characters. The love story in the book (which is no way the main aspect of the book, but is still worth mentioning) is really great and I thought, at first, that the couple had the makings of another Edward/Bella (Twilight :) ) but they didn't, I won't say anymore about that as I don't want to spoil anybody.

I do recommend this book as it's easy to read and I found myself not wanting to put it down as the characters are great, but don't expect too much else from this book.

Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.
I read this book when it first came out as I was at a phase where Urban fantasy was the only type of book I would read. I saw this on the shelf, read the blurb and thought it was interesting. I went home and read it in approximately four, five hours and about two hours into the story I felt the huge urge to throw this book at the wall. It was that bad. Before I began, this review is going to be talking about the story, (I.e SPOILERS) so those who haven't yet read the book and still wish to should stop reading. Right? Right.

Purple Prose. Purple-freaking-prose was my first problem. take these quotes as examples,

'he had electric-blue dyed hair that stuck up around his head like the tendrils of a startled octopus.'

What the Hell does this line want to say? That his hair was floppy? Or that it was sticking out in all directions? The image that this, among many, many other descriptions created was one the stopped the flow of the paragraph, as it disrupted my thought-process. I don't mind some colorful descriptions and, contrary to popular belief, I think that a little purple prose actually helps the story with imagery, and a few odd similes actually add substance and originality but this book was so full of them that I could not appreciate it. Purple-ness is good in small amounts.

The dialogue was incredibly cliche, and quite frankly, I was surprised and irritated with the way this supposed 'teens' were speaking. Now, I am considered a Nerd, a 'boffin' by definition, and I consider myself rather well-versed in vocabulary yet even I do not talk like these kids. In fact, I am certain that a university lecturer in Oxford doesn't speak as they do. I know that Cassandra Clare was probably trying to make them all look intelligent but when every other word consisted of a fourteen-lettered adjective that average, every day people cannot understand-heck, even I had some trouble with one or two words and I'm clearly not dumb- it interrupted the flow of the story. There were so many parts that consisted of witty repartees and responses that made me roll my eyes. They were not funny. They were not amusing. They were a big red sign that flashed 'I'm trying too hard to make my teenagers look intelligent'. I am in no way being derogatory to teenagers since I am one, but instead of letting them talk how they would realistically talk , she makes them unrealistic. And realism in an urban fantasy is crucial to make the story work.

I am going to give my biggest problem at the end, and I am sure that those who have read the book know what I am talking about. But back to the characters; there was every single freaking cliche:

Beautiful, but unaware girl with super, hidden powers? Check.
Mysterious, sexy guy who falls for her? Check.
Best friend who is in love with her? Check.
Sexy girl who is threatened by her beauty? check.
Old mentor who is hiding something? check.
crazy villain linked to pretty, new girl? check.
Check. Check. Check!

God! Clary was the most irritating character I have met in a long time. She is beautiful, thinks she's ugly, draws really well, has great-wow-super-powers and is the epitome of feisty-yet shy. Mary Sue. That is a Mary Sue if I ever saw one. She is annoyingly perfect, and her only flaw is that she doesn't know to choose between the hot guy or her best friend. Wow. What a huge, heart-breaking problem. She really annoyed me, because her character was, again, unrealistic. I know, I am repeating myself but it really annoyed me. Nobody can ever relate to somebody like that. Then there's Jace. Poor, tortured, handsome, witty Jace. Yet another text book example of a love interest. His character could have worked, had he not been so incredibly shallow. He had no substance what so ever and it felt like I was reading a 2D version of Fandom Draco Malfoy. It was pathetic. Throw in the cackling evil guy and the bumbling best friend and you have a story that gives nothing new to the YA genre, but simply recycles old concepts and ideas.

*THE ENDING*
That was the worst attempt at a plot twist I have ever, in my entire time of reading, ever read. Where in her mind did the author think that making Jace and Clary RELATED would add to the plot in any way? The only reason she did it was to add angst-bucket loads of angst- into the story in an effort to make her characters seem more real. The only thing it actually achieved was me throwing up in my mouth. That was disgusting, and even though I had lost any semblance of hope for the story, I still kept reading further, hoping that she would salvage the horrible twist with *something* credible. As you might have guessed, she didn't. And the way she wrote it was so superficial and void of any real emotion I laughed out loud.

I am not going to be reading any of the sequels and hope that other people will see reason, rather than see only a sexy man who they can day dream about. I am horrified that this is the type of books that dominate the YA genre. Surely these authors see their mistake? I think the fundamental problem is that the authors are writing for the screaming fan girls who don't know great literature if it bit them on the nose, and are all following the trend that is in the 21st century with regards to urban fantasy. I am very disappointed with this book.

*By the way, I don't care if these flying motorcycles were powered by 'demon energy', they were a clear rip-off of Jk Rowling's flying motorcycle with Hagrid. Truly pathetic.

Very good
City of Bones is a really good book. It's got a great story line that you're drawn into right from the word go. However, the ending was actually really disappointing for me. Doesn't any one else find the brother/sister twist a little disturbing? I would recommend it to read because it is very good but in all honestness, I didn't like the ending at all.