City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Publication date: March 27, 2007
# of pages: 485
Genre: Young adult, Fantasy and Romance 

City of Bones is the first book in Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series. This is the first book I've read by Cassandra Clare. I must say that I was a little on the borderline on how I would feel about this book and whether I liked this style. After finishing this book, I want to read the second book in the series, City of Ashes,

The main character in this story is Clary Fray. I loved how easy it was t remember her name because it really goes together. The story begins with Clary and her friend, Simon, going to a club named Pandemonium in New Work City. While there Clary sees three individual with weird tattoos an weapons, however, her friend Simon can't see them. I thought this was super weird. 

After seeing them, Clary decides to follow them and ends up witnessing a murder where the body disappears into thin air. 

This incident is Clary's first encounter with the Shadowhunters. The Shadowhunters are warriors dedicated to getting rid of demons on earth. This is also where she first meets Jace who's a shadowhunter. When Clary arrives home, her mother has disappeared and she's attacked by a demon. To look more into her mother's disappearance, she needs Jace and the other shadowhunters help. The real questions are: (1) why the demons took interest in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? and (2) how is Clary able to see the Shadowhunters?

When I first started reading this book, I was very intrigued. I knew Clary was different because of what she could see. At first I thought Simon might just have been blind and somehow couldn't see the three people Clary saw because he wears glasses. I mean it was a nightclub they were at. Then I figured there must be reason why Clary could see them and Simon couldn't. After the night at Pandemonium, Clary's life changed for the worst if you ask me.

I felt like Clare went through the action-packed parts of the story way too fast and left the explanation of everything in the middle in a semi-boring way. If the two would have been a little more mixed together, I would have enjoyed it a little more if the action and explanation would have been blended together a little more. I almost gave up on the book trying to get through the middle of it. Most of the story was predictable as I guessed most of what was going to happen before it happened. There were some parts I didn't expected the betrayal, Jace and Clary's relationship to each other, and Luke's status.

If it wasn't for how the last part of the story went, I think I would have hated this book. The ending completely shocked me and makes me want to read the next book in the series. I'm glad I struggled through the middle to get to the end of the book.

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