City of Bones
by Cassandra Clare

Quotes:

“'Have you fallen in love with the wrong person yet?'

Jace said, 'Unfortunately, Lady of the Haven, my one true love remains myself.'

...'At least,' she said, 'you don't have to worry about rejection, Jace Wayland.'

'Not necessarily. I turn myself down occasionally, just to keep it interesting.'”

“'Is this the part where you start tearing off strips of your shirt to bind my wounds?'

'If you wanted me to rip my clothes off, you should have just asked.'”

“'Don't touch any of my weapons without my permission.'

'Well, there goes my plan for selling them all on eBay,' Clary muttered.

'Selling them on what?'

Clary smiled blandly at him. 'A mythical place of great magical power.'”

Synopsis:

City of Bones is the first book in The Mortal Instruments book series. In City of Bones we meet fifteen-year-old Clary Fray, a girl who lives in New York City with her mother. One night, Clary goes to a club in Manhattan and witnesses a murder at the hands of a group of teenagers. The problem is, no one else in the club seems to be able to see these teenagers or see what they have done. Plus, when the group killed the boy, he seemingly disappeared into thin air, not even leaving behind a drop of blood. Clary later finds out that these teenagers are Shadowhunters- warriors whose sole purpose is to rid the world of demons . Shortly after her odd encounter with the teenage Shadowhunters, Clary's mother disappears and Clary is attacked by a demon in her own home. Clary is swiftly pulled into the Shadowhunter world and begins wondering- why would demons be interested in her or her mom? And why is it that she can suddenly see these demons and the Shadowhunters?

Review:

I have read many other reviews regarding this book and I have come to realize that the majority of people either really love this book or, in contrast, really hate it. As I was reading the book, I found myself overall enjoying it and, considering that it was a pretty long book, I was glad to find that it didn't seem to be a dragging read. In fact, I thought that the plot was considerably fast-paced.

Oh, but the plot and the characters. That is where this book becomes a bit controversial. Without spoiling anything too profoundly big, let's just say that there are some pretty heavy parallels between this book and the Harry Potter book series as well as to the Star Wars original trilogy. And by heavy parallels I mean nearly blatant copyright infringement. That statement might be a bit of a hyperbole and it is not to say that there is necessarily word-for-word copying going on, but, without even reading other reviews mentioning it, I found myself thinking that the plot, and certain tropes within it, seemed very familiar. But hey, I like Harry Potter and Star Wars, so maybe that's why I enjoyed certain aspects of this book. My point in mentioning this detail though, is to let it be known that while you may find a pretty good YA high fantasy book out of this one, you most definitely will not find an original read.

Going into a more positive direction, something refreshing and original within the book that I would like to mention is the characters and the dialogue between them (despite some of the characters themselves not being wholly original ideas). I put a couple of fan-favorite dialogue lines under the "Quotes" section of this review, because I think that the dialogue and certain character lines are truly a highlight of the book and are often a favorite aspect when you talk to others who have read it.

So, despite the unoriginality of aspects within the plot, I would still say that City of Bones is a necessary staple to add to your bookshelf or reading list. More so, I am speaking to those who are looking at getting into YA and YA fantasy or those that are already avid readers within the genre.

Genres (Taken from Goodreads):

Young Adult; Paranormal; Romance; Urban Fantasy; Fiction; Vampires; Supernatural; Angels; Magic; Young Adult Fantasy

*Although the City of Bones is an older book, Cassandra Clare recently came out with a new book within another one of her other Shadowhunters book series entitled Chain of Gold. The Mortal Instruments series is often considered to be the introductory series into the Shadowhunters world, so I feel that with the presence of this new book, this older series is once again relevant in terms of "newness." I decided to read and rate the first book in the first series, as this would be a great time to start the series and maybe pick up that new book eventually.