City Of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1) by Cassandra Clare

"YA Fantasy where loner girl who hasn't found her place in the world is thrust into a world of danger, magic, darkness, all that jazz. It was full of unrequited love, teenage angst and overwrought, contrite, absolutely painfully oblivious characters and by the end, I was just glad to be done with it."

2 STARS

Pros: The one pro was the mention of the Nephillim but why would the offspring of mortal women and angels be, essentially, demon hunters? Aren't they themselves "half breeds" thus their hunting "downworlders" seems rather hypocritical since they're not pure blood either.

Cons: Full to bursting with unrequited love triangles, contrite and ridiculous/Clary is the most absolutely oblivious and idiotic female protagonist I've run into in awhile.

Full Review:

Clary (Clarissa) Fray is your ordinary teenager, going to clubs with her best friend Simon etc. But when she sees two boys and a girl murder, what she thinks is a regular boy, but learns that he's actually a demon, her whole world changes. Her mother is taken, Clary is attacked by a Demon and she's taken to the Institute, by Jace, the quietly mysterious and moodily sullen boy who saved her from the Demon.

She later learns that Jace is a Shadowhunter, as was her Mother, as was her "Uncle" Luke. They were part of the Circle, a group of Shadowhunters led by maniacally fanatic Valentine. They trace their lineage back to the Nephilim, offspring of Mortals and Angels from the Apochrypha of the Bible. When they drank blood from men and angels mixed in the Mortal Cup, they became Shadowhunters. Their only duty is to protect mortals from the Downworlders, lesser Demons such as Vampires/Werewolves/Fairies, what have you.

As Clary learns more about their world, she also learns more about herself and her own upbringing. Her mother is not the person she thought she was. And as the book reveals, neither is her Father. I have a feeling it will all be explained away in the series but the end of it left me feeling uneasy and like I'd just read something incestuous...

It was full to bursting with unrequited love, love triangles, characters so completely oblivious to everything around them that even a monkey with half a brain could have figured out what was going on, but...well...they can't all be winners. To be honest, by about mid-way through the book, I was so sick of the narrative that I just finished it to get it done, cause I wanted to see how it ended. And it ended, that was the best part.

I highly doubt, unless there is absolutely nothing else to read, that I'll be continuing this series. I've meant to read it for awhile and now I'm very glad that I got it from the library instead of purchasing it cause in my opinion, it would have been a huge waste of money.

Comments

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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

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