The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones

First of all, I had wanted to read it for a very long time because it had good critics, the story seemed great and I love series, you have more time to love the characters. When I learned a movie was going to be made, I bought the books to read them before the movie (I hate going to see a movie without having read the book when there is one). I wasn’t disappointed. It’s a great story, with a lot of imagination, and you can easily believe in the story, I mean the author doesn’t make huge mistakes about how this new world works. I think it’s really hard not to make any mistakes when you write about a world that doesn’t exist, you have to work on every detail because people need to believe in this new world and when something feels wrong, the reader doesn’t believe in it anymore.
The only thing that wasn’t really clear was when people could see the Shadowhunters or not (they are demon hunters and people are not supposed to see them), I didn’t understand this very well. The story is well constructed and you never get bored. I had a problem at the beginning because there was too much action and not enough thoughts. It felt like a succession of actions where you didn’t get the feelings of the characters enough. I felt a change around page 300 or a little before, after they went to the vampires’ lair. Much more feelings, still a lot of action but it was better written since that part of the book. Maybe it’s just my imagination but I really felt a change.

Anyway, a really great book if you like young adult fantasy novels. It made me think of a lot of other books because I read a lot, but it has its differences, I loved it and I can’t wait to read the following books.

Better to be tardy to the party than to never attend at all, right? That pretty much sums my main stream reading up in a nutshell. It seems like I am always way behind the fan club when it comes to my reading. I just read City of Bones, despite numerous people telling me how awesome it was. I probably would have waited even longer to read this, had it not been for the movie coming out in a few weeks. (I have this thing about reading the book before I see the movie.)

That being said, I finally sat down and started reading City of Bones.... and I finished it a few days later. I would have had it read in less time than that, but I kept being dragged away from my reading spot by friends. When I did get to read, I couldn't put it down. I even found myself trying to read it all bleary-eyed and delusional from lack of sleep. Cassandra Clare has a way with words!

The story grabbed me from the start. Since I had seen the movie trailer at least three times before starting the book, I had a little something to go on. (I am going to stop right now though and say how horrible I think the casting for Jace is. He is nothing like the book character. I seriously hate Hollywood's choices sometimes. I can also deal with Clary, but I think her hair should be a brighter red.) My favorite aspect of the book has to be the wit behind the characters. Jace and Clary were uproariously funny at times. It did not seemed forced, either. I was impressed that there was a natural flow to the dialogue that seemed natural, almost as if I was talking with my group of friends. How can you not connect with the characters when they come across like that? Here is an example:


"So when the moon's only partyly full, you only feel a little wolfy?" Clary asked.

"You could say that."

"Well, you can go ahead and hang your head out the car window if you feel like it."

Luke laughed. "I'm a werewolf, not a golden retriever."

Love this! I seriously chuckled so many times as I read this book.

I also want to give props for the world building. The Shadowhunter aspect was original and captivating. A lot of effort was made to make the modern world blend in with this super secret alternate reality. Everything worked well together and was believable. You could imagine this setting as you read.

Obviously, I enjoyed City of Bones. I'm hooked. I shall be reading the rest of this series soon because I need more Jace.