Saturday, August 3, 2013

The City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1)

Title: The City of Bones
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series?: The Mortal Instruments
Synopsis:
When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder—much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing—not even a smear of blood—to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It’s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . . .

 Why I Read This:
Some friends on goodreads made a topic about TMI and convinced me to *finally* read the book. I have been thinking about it for a long time, but I never really wanted to because is so mainstream, and most mainstream stuff is either really well-deserved to be mainstream and is genius, or it's a load of crap. Typically, it's the load of crap option. LUCKILY, The City of Bones is the first option and I'm really glad that I was convinced to read it.

My Thoughts/Review: 
So, lemme get the bad out of the way before I start on the good, since the good outweighs the bad by a lot.

This book starts out not very well. It didn't hook me from the first few pages, which really sucked because I've been reading some really awesome books here lately that had me hooked from the first pages, the first few paragraph, and in some cases the first sentence (*coughDivergentcough*).

That was pretty much the only thing I didn't like about it, except that it didn't make me cry at the parts that it was supposed to. Now, I'm not usually one to cry; I didn't cry at most of my family members' funerals. However, books are different for me. I get into the character and I disappear in the mix and swirl of emotions. I always, always, end up crying where I'm supposed to cry, where there's so much emotion in a character. My eyes did water when reading certain parts, but I didn't cry. I thought it was weird, and not necessarily bad, but very strange.

Now for the good.

There were a lot of long words in this book; most I knew what they meant, but some were words that I'd never even seen before. I like when an author uses long words. It gives me a sense of pride because I think, People do know how to use English in this world! Maybe there's hope for the human race, after all! Because, let's face it, most people nowadays are illiterate and hate to read and write. So, yeah. I liked the long words. I learned something new, which is weird because I usually know all the words that are used in a book. I just....really liked her diction.

I liked the scenery she did. She was awesome at descriptions, and at just fitting them in with everything and everyone else.

I loved the characters in this book. All of them. No matter how much they annoyed me or betrayed my feelings, I loved them. Clary was....different. I liked her as a heroine, even when she couldn't do a whole lot, because she was real about herself. She knew she was afraid. She felt guilt. She felt so many things. She was so real that I felt like I could have a conversation with her and not freak out because she's just so real and you hardly think of her as being not real. I feel like I'm best friends with her or something.

I loved Jace's character. I like the way he was written, and he also seemed really real. It was awesome, and I fell in love with him. I fangirled about him and got frustrated at his behavior towards Simon and then about his behavior towards Clary. The twists with this guy were not totally unexpected, but it was still a surprise. About a third of the way through the book, I thought, Okay, so this is gonna happen. I can tell. and then 100 pages later I thought, Nope, nevermind, it's not gonna happen because it can't now MWAHAHA I'm almost glad it can't! and then it happened.

Simon was another guy I fangirled over. It's hard to say anything more about him, especially if I liked him or Jace more (WHICH I DO NOT KNOW WHO I LIKE MORE DON'T ASK). I don't really know what else to say about him, other than I thought he was cute and sweet and nice.

Isabelle and Alec. Okay, I really liked Alec, I did, but I was not expecting that character twist. At all. I was totally shocked when Clary said it. Just....*shock*. And Isabelle was really grating on my nerves there for the longest time, and then I felt pity for her, and then she was badass and I didn't know what to think. I guess she was pretty decent, but she wasn't my favorite.

The plot of this book. Oh my goodness, it was such a good plot! I loved it. There were so many twists and so much suspense.. I got all tense and stuff. She had her world carefully planned out, and it put a new spin on the world of fey and vampires and werewolves.

And then there was comedic relief! I've never laughed so much or so hard in my life! I loved the comedic relief! I'm so glad she had it, just enough for the book, because authors nowadays are not getting in enough comedic relief (either that or they make their whole book into a comedian act).

Overall, this book was just really, really good and I loved it! I'm so glad that I read it. It was way over my expectations (which were pretty low, actually).

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

~Jessicah

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