City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Title: City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1)

Author: Cassandra Clare

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Supernatural

Published: January 2007

My Rating: 3/5
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.

Yes!!! Yes, I finally did it, people!! I did! I finally hopped on the train!! I'm here!

I've been wanting to start reading this series for years and now I've finally made it, I read the first book :D

I must admit that I had mixed feelings about it. I've seen that people seem to either love City of Bones or hate it, I was right in the middle though. But I still want to keep reading the other books, because I did love the story and this series just caught my attention so long ago in a way that I feel like I must read it. It's like it's this big thing and I want to be a part of it.

Vampires, demons, warlocks, hunters, werewolves... I mean, how could I not want to read something like this? And why did it take me so long? I even refused to watch the movie so that I could read the book first. The world of the shadowhunters is definitely something I loved, and I want to stay in it for a while and find out what happens in the story :)

So let's get to it...

Spoiler alert, proceed with caution.

Soo... Clary. I think Clary is a really nice character, I liked her, and I loved the fact that she's an artist. Seriously, when there's a main character in a book that likes to draw, I just lose it. It's like I feel some sort of connection to them. Although Clary didn't really make a great first impression on me.

Something very interesting about this book is that the narrator constantly changes, but I was ok with it, it was nicely done.

I don't know how to feel about the characters though. I feel like I need to read a little bit more of the series to get to know them better... and like them better too. Let's just start with Simon, since he's there from the very first moment... and he's there all.the.freaking.time...

Oh God, I seriously can't express how much I despise Simon. Wow. Someone needs to slap some sense into this kid. At first he acts like he's this very nice boy, the typical childhood friend that's always been in love with the girl... but he's not. He's not a nice guy. He's just annoying. Endlessly.

When they meet the shadowhunters all he ever does is drool over Isabelle's hotness. Totally forgets about Clary because, apparently, she's just not hot enough for him. So all he wants to do for most part of the book is get into Izzie's pants. Typical and so lame.

And, for some weird reason, Clary always ends up defending him when Jace makes fun of him or says the truth about him. Why? Why, Clary? He just kinda ditched you when he saw a girl he thought was hotter than you and is totally obvious about it. So what's the problem if Jace points it out?

I LOVED Jace the moment he said: "No, you don't, you just want to sleep with Isabelle".

I don't even know why they keep him around. He's completely useless and just gets into trouble. The only time he actually does something useful is when he shoots that arrow during the battle, but other than that...

But here's the best part of all... When he sees Clary likes Jace, he gets all mad at her, like the Isabelle thing never happened. But wait wait, he says that it was all a stunt, so that she would get jealous and be with him. Ooooh but it doesn't end just there, my friend, oh no. He says that all those girlfriends he had in the past were there so he could "practice" until he could be with Clary... Wait, what?

He clearly knows how to charm a girl. Why make things so complicated and then blame Clary, for God's sake! I bet he says girls are complicated, right? I mean, DUDE. If you like a girl you can't just start dating others, drool over some hot chick everyone wants to be with and then get mad at the girl you say you like, because she didn't see that you liked her all those years. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?

Now I'll just stop complaining about this guy. Sorry you had to read that...

So apart from Simon, we have Jace. He's the complete opposite, thank goodness! I actually kinda like Jace, I find that he needs a little bit more of character development but maybe I'll get to see that in the other books. He's very strong, independent and loyal. I find it so sad when he tells Clary about his dad, especially the story about the falcon... I thought his dad was the worst person ever for breaking the bird's neck T.T but hey, we then find out that his dad was Valentine, so yeah, I was right. He's a bad guy.

For some reason, I didn't see Valentine to be this awful villain... I don't know. Ok, all right, he killed his wife's parents and all, but he's not that bad, I think? He's no Voldemort or whatever. He's just a sociopath.

I actually got worried for a second when they make us think Luke is also a bad guy, because, even though we didn't get to know him that much in the beginning, he seemed incredibly nice to me, I liked him. But thank God he wasn't bad! Although Hodge did turn out to be... I hated that they didn't tell the others the whole truth about him. People deserve to know!

Oh and please, please. Can we just agree that it was so incredibly obvious from the very first moment that Clary's mom was Valentine's wife??

And now here's a very, very sad fact: I already knew about the sibling situation we had here. I remember I heard it somewhere long ago and while reading the book I just tried to push it to the back of my mind to enjoy the moment and root for Jace and Clary. Because they're adorable.

But let's just be honest now. Jace finding out about who his real father was... that was just ridiculous. Why did he behave like that?? It's like Harry Potter finding out that Voldemort's his actual father and going all crazy about him and loving him and wanting to play ball with him! (So sorry again for the Harry Potter comparison).

I was all "Ok. Ok, Jace. Just shut the hell up, please, and leave us alone and go to your daddy. But don't expect us to go with you!" I mean, all the respect I felt for the guy just flew out of the window like it was nothing. How very disappointing. To me this was WAY worse than the incest thing. Now I don't care that much about this guy, he's just a silly boy.

But hey, I still really liked the book. I know I just gave it 3 stars but I wasn't going to give it more. The story's amazing but I didn't find the book to be too entertaining. Nonetheless, I still want to know what happens. I hope the other books are a lot better and that I end up liking this series (and The Infernal Devices), because it looks very interesting to me.

Sorry for all the complaining, guys, especially about Simon, but it's just so good to let those kinds of feelings out, right? :)

Have you read this? Or the whole The Mortal Instruments series or even The Infernal Devices?

Thank you for reading! Bye-Bye! ♥