City of Bones; Book Review

What’s up, Reporters? It’s your favorite blogger, Abby.

Anyways, today I’m doing another book review for the first book in one of my favorite series; The Mortal Instruments, which is one of many of the series in the Shadowhunters universe.

Let’s jump right in!

YA

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Romance, Contemporary

I give City of Bones a four out of five.

Before I explain why, here’s a summary:

Clary Fray is nearly sixteen. She’s visiting an all-ages club with her best friend Simon, when she witnesses a strange trio of teens murder a boy. Worse yet; no one else sees it. What could this mean?

When Clary confronts them, they explain to her that the victim wasn’t human; and they aren’t entirely either. But these teens would like to know how suddenly a mundane, a mundie, like her can suddenly see them. The Shadowhunters, aka the teens, take Clary back to their house and Clary meets a boy named Jace. She’s pretty confused as to what’s happening, and Jace is just the most annoying type of guy; snarky, sarcastic, and arrogant.

What happens next? You’ll have to read to find out.

So essentially, this book is written for teens. There’s no way around that. It’s not a book targeting adults. Sure, adults can read it, but they might not enjoy it in the way teens will. It’s also not a book for younger kids. There’s some slightly mature themes and some violence.

Now back to why I rate it 4 stars.

City of Bones is pretty well written. It has a good plot and keeps you engaged the whole time. The character development is believable and the people in the book are well described. It’s realistic.

However, if you really read between the lines, it can be a little bad fanfiction-ey. For example, the Mortal Cup, the Mortal Sword, and the Mortal Mirror (The Mortal Instruments) can be compared to the Goblet of Fire, the Sword of Gryffindor, and the Pensieve from Harry Potter, as well as how there’s three of them gifted by an archangel, very similar to the Deathly Hallows.

One or two of the characters are overused stereotypical hot guys at first. For example Jace, at first seems like a trope often used in fanfiction, as is Alec, the other guy main character.

However, it took me a while to realize that, and like I said you really have to read between the lines to notice it.

I really do love the Shadowhunters books, though my favorite series from it is The Infernal Devices, followed by The Dark Artifices.

Cassandra Clare’s world is an urban fantasy Middle-earth, written over the course of fourteen years. It’s not even done yet.

Here’s a few links if you want to get into it:

Thank you for reading my book review, and except another next week. It’s easy for me to write these, so when I’m short on time I will just look at my bookshelf and pick one out to review. 📖

Next week I’m reviewing Twilight, which is NOT on my bookshelf. 🤢

Have a great day! 🙌

“The descent into Hell is easy.” -Virgil