Book Review: City of Bones

City of Bones
by  Cassandra Clare
Date Read:  8/10/2011, re-read: 9/14/2013
Rating:  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
 
I first read this book about 2 years ago.  I had just finished the Twilight series, and was going through book withdrawals.  So I was looking for something that hooked me like that series.  I did a lot of research and found that most people were recommending The Mortal Instruments series.  When I read the description, I thought it sounded interesting, so I decided to pick it up.  Boy am I glad.  Now, my husband also did some research and said that there was a very controversial cliffhanger at the end…and eventually had to tell me because he thought it would turn me off to the whole series.  Luckily, the last book had already been released, so he was able to find out how it ended.  He had to tell me before I was able to actually read the books.  To this day, I’m really not sure why she choose to add that in there as the conflict.  I did go to the release launch party in Mesa, AZ for Clockwork Princess, and her answer was, she “wanted to come up with the most messed up situation, and go with it”.  Hmm, doesn’t seem like the best way to go about writing a book. But hey, it worked for her.  Though, I think a lot of people are like me and either had to know the ending first, or loved the Shadowhunter world and characters so much that they were able to overlook this part of the story.  Either way, I still read the book series, and absolutely loved it.

So now that the City of Bones movie released in August of this year, I had to go back and reread the book for two reasons: 1) I wanted to see exactly how much they changed in the movie from the books, and 2) I couldn’t let my Jace and Clary story end on that cliffhanger!  I plan to reread the entire series now…well, through book 5…which I didn’t like.  But by the time I finish it, I’ll be prepped and ready to go to read the final book in the series which releases in May 2014!

So on to the review of my reread.  I still loved this book.  I feel like all the characters actually get set up really well in the book.  Rereading it though, I felt like maybe I didn’t learn as much about the characters in this book as I thought I did.  I think a lot of my character development comes from the next books – that’s the only problem with a reread.  You already know how much the character grow, so it’s a bit hard to go back to the beginning.  But it is fun to watch their journey again, knowing where it goes.

Valentine is really one of the worst bad guys.  I still loathe his existence.  And he’s so much scarier in the book than he is in the movie.  It’s really hard to take him seriously in the movie when he has braids and only looks 10 years older than Jace and Clary!    But in the book he’s actually very menacing.  And you don’t actually meet the character until the end.  But he’s a scary dude!

I love the Shadowhunter world.  I love how it’s set up with Shadowhunters being demon hunters, and the downworld which includes vampires, werewolves, and warlocks.  And then you have the demons.  I love how the runes work to give the shadowhunters special powers.  It’s such a unique world and it was thoroughly developed.  I didn’t have any questions regarding the world or how things worked by the end of the book.

Jace is hands down my favorite male character ever.  Well, maybe he’s a second to Will from the Infernal Devices trilogy (also written by Cassandra Clare).  I love his bad boy attitude and arrogance.  But I love it because deep down it’s just a façade.  He just puts up this front because he doesn’t want to get too attached to anyone because he’s already lost so many people.  And he’s also hot.  I love that he lets Clary see his kindness.  That’s when I love Jace most.  When he’s with Clary and starts letting his guard down.

I love the setting as well.  Having been to New York City now, I can understand some references much better.  Actually, I had just finished reading this book and starting the next when we went to NYC.  While we were walking along the first street from our hotel, we walked by a building that said “Simon and Schuster”.  I had to take a picture because that was the publishing company who published these books!  What are the odds?  Anyway, back to the setting.  I thought it was a unique idea to have this world inside a world.  And what better place than NYC?  There are so many different people and there could definitely be a shadow world hidden there.

Clare’s writing just sucks me in.  I’m not sure what it is about it, but I almost instantly get hooked into the story and the characters.  And once I’m in, I have to read quickly to find out the end.  This is something that I absolutely love about a book.  And lately I haven’t been able to find that.  So I’m grateful to be rereading this series.

The ending was handled really well.  Even though I could still do without that revelation at the end, the way it all came out was handled really well.  The tension was really there.  Clare does one thing really well – wrap up - especially at the end of a series.  But even at the end of a book.  I always feel like there was a beginning, middle, and end - even if there’s a cliffhanger.  She doesn’t just drop the bomb and end the book.  She still gives you a satisfying end to the book while still leaving you with unanswered questions in which you have to wait for the next book.