City of Bones- Cassandra Clare

Loved.

This is the first of a six book series and I can’t wait to dig into the others.

If you have read any of my posts, you’ve probably figured out I have a slight obsession with this idea of Nephilim (the offspring of angels and humans). This book fills my constant need- well sorta. Nephilim are the main characters in this series, but the series (thus far) hasn’t addressed the religious issues that usually correlate with the word- angels. The ever-present “good vs. bad” theme plays a heavy roll in the plot, but there isn’t much of a mention of Heaven and/or Hell in a literal sense.  There has been a little foreshadowing to the topic however and I’m interested to see Clare’s interpretation.

In a nutshell…….

This story takes place in New York City- where else? Anyway, Clary (our shining star), goes clubbing one night and witnesses the murder of a demon by the hands of a tattooed trio. This event triggers the altering of Clary’s entire life- not to be cliché, but- everything Clary has ever known has been flipped upside down. She learns she is part of the Shadowhunter (aka Nephilim) world. Their purpose in life is to destroy demons and send them back to their worlds (not Hell per say, but different dimensions of the Universe).

Clary’s mother has been taken and it’s her responsibility to get her back. It plays out similarly to a mystery and many times; the reader gets to put the clues together before the characters do. I always like this because it gives me a flippy feeling in my tummy when they finally have that realization moment. There is, of course, a love story, but it gets to be a pretty sticky situation. Go ahead; try to guess what happens- you won’t believe it!

Clary is only fifteen, which is a little younger than I’m used to, but Clare made the dialogue entertaining. The sarcasm and constant one-liners kept me chuckling to myself throughout the whole book, reminding me of how I interacted with my friends at fifteen.

This book was a good foundation and introduction to the Shadowhunter world- witty, entertaining, a page-turner- and I’m already anticipating opening City of Ashes.

Check out Cassandra Clare at http://cassie-claire.com/cms/home.

Read more about The Mortal Instruments at http://www.mortalinstruments.com/.

Happy reading,

B