City of Bones review

Goodreads 3 stars 

Average star rating 2.25 stars 

Area Rating (out of 5 stars)

Synopsis

Cassandra Clare has created a world in which there are Shadow Hunters (warriors who are called to rid the world of demons), down worlders (the name given to creatures such as vampires and werewolves), who live alongside the mundanes (humans). 

We explore this world following Clary Fray who, like the reader, is discovering it without any previous knowledge. Her mother is kidnapped at the start of the story, and we follow Clary as she tried to save her mother, navigate the world and come to terms with her feelings for Jace. 

There isn’t much more to this story, and to talk too much about the plot enters into spoiler territory. Further discussion below may contain some minor spoilers but I will try to avoid them as much as possible. 

Review

I had heard about this book before I went into it, and had watched the first episodes of the Shadow Hunters on Netflix I knew something of what to expect. It was an ok read that didn’t really give me an reason to shout about it, and I felt completely underwhelmed by the whole thing. It’s not that it was a bad book, but rather I just didn’t think it lived up to the hype that seems to surround this series. I have been told that the books get better the further through the story you go, and I am not sure that I want to slog through another book at this level if I can’t guarantee that it is going to be worth it. I will explain my reasoning down below. 

Writing style – I didn’t mind the writing style as I found it engaging and easy to read. It was a fast paced read that kept the plot moving and that meant that I really enjoyed reading it. I found that it was also incredibly easy to get back into the story if I ever had to put it down for any reason. I did notice some grammatical and spelling errors throughout it didn’t detract too much. All in all, I enjoyed reading it. 4 stars 

Plot – This is not a criticism in itself BUT this is a genre that has been done before so it is something we are used to seeing, therefore it is hard to make something unique that makes sense. Cassandra Clare created some plot points that did not make sense throughout this novel, meaning that the twists that are there are annoying rather than surprising. I prefer my twists to be something that is  hinted at so when I look back it makes sense, but in this case there were twists that just did

not make sense within the story and what had been told to the audience previously. The plot continued to move at a decent pace however, meaning that there was very little time to pause for breath before the next event happened. 2 stars 

Characters – This is one area of the book I was completely unhappy with for the simple fact I did not like any of the main characters, at all; 

•  Clary is silly – she is unable to make good decisions and is completely self-absorbed at times. She doesn’t notice that her best friend may have feelings for her, which I could forgive, however when he tells her his feelings she leaves him hanging, and effectively stringing him along until she needs him next, then completely forgets he exists. I really didn’t like her treatment of Simon, or to be fair how she looked at Isabelle for the majority of the book. I didn’t get on with her at all 
• Jace is an egotistical, narcissist and completely self-centred. He also develops a character change that happens for all of 5 pages before he is back to his old ways again. This sudden character change is completely out of the blue and it made no sense…it was annoying. 
• I liked Simon and I liked Alec, and if the story had been centred on them I would have been happier. They would have been nicer to read about and I preferred their characters, however they are severally underused. 
• I will also say that Isabelle is completely underused, and feels like she would be the main contender for Jace's affections, but that was dropped early on and her character then basically stands around trying to look BA, but is still relegated to kitchen duties at the end of the day (by Clare not necessarily the characters in the story)
• Valentine is supposed to be the bad guy of the piece, and turns up around (I would estimate) the two third mark. He is one-dimensional and your standard villain when it comes to his "taking over the world" plot (fairly sure he would fit in well with Pinky and the Brain). I hope he gets some development in the rest of the series as at the moment he poses very little threat and seems to be more of a pantomime villain.

1 star

World building - In terms of world building, it is interesting but again there is not a lot that makes sense - with the attack on the hotel why would the wolves attack on the vampires not be seen as a breach of the accords and therefore a declaration of war??! With the story taking place on earth, the world didn't need explaining other than - yes it is earth but not as you see it as we can hide it from you. It was ok, but nothing to shout about. 2 stars