Review | City of Bones

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1) by Cassandra Clare
March 2007 by Margaret K. McElderry Books
485 pages
Five stars



"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."- Goodreads



I was so happy I finally read this book. I've heard so many good things and I wanted to see what the hype was about. Something that really pushed me to finally start reading this was that Freeform is coming out with a TV adaption in January 2016. There was a movie adaption of the first book, but I never got around to watching it. I wanted to start reading before I watched any of the adaptions.

City of Bones is the first book in The Mortal Instruments series. Clary Fray knows nothing of demons and Shadowhunters until she meets Jace, Isabelle and Alec at Pandemonium Club. When her mother goes missing from their home she is thrown into a world she knew nothing about. Suddenly, she sees vampires, werewolves and faeries all over New York City. Clary and her friends try to save her mother, what is so important about the Mortal Cup and find out what happened the night Valentine was defeated. 

I absolutely loved this book. It was so fast paced, addicting and the world was so immense. The Shadowhunter world Cassandra Clare has created is amazing. It is so rich and diverse. The language is hard to keep up with at times but it just makes you fall deeper into the world. One of the things I love so much about fantasy is the world building. This book does such a great job at that. 

The characters are diverse, unique and well developed. I was immediately attracted to Clary and Jace. They both have such great character development. While Clary was kind of shy in the beginning she really becomes a different person by the end of the book. She stands by the people she cares about them and won't them be hurt if she can stop it. Jace has a change of heart and softens a lot throughout the story. One character I would love to see more in the next books is Alec. I feel like I didn't get to know him enough. I am totally shipping him and Magnus. 

At times City of Bones was predictable. I won't go into specifics butwas really intetesere were some things I had predicted within the first few chapters of the book that turned out to be true. There were also some things I hadn't predicted and by the end of the story I was so impressed. It was balanced so well with what I thought would happen and what I never saw coming. It was really interesting to see how everything played out. 

I am so excited to pick up the next book in the series. City of Bones left off on a really great note and I can't wait to see what happens from here.