Book Review
Title: City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1)
Author: Cassandra Clare
Genre: YA/Paranormal/Romance
Rating: ****
Review: I read the full Mortal Instruments series years ago and I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either, it was pretty meh for me. I went on to read the first book in the Infernal Devices and didn’t like it and DNF’d the second and I haven’t read anything by Cassandra Clare since because all her books are set in the same universe. However, this is my last chance read meaning this is the last chance for me to change my mind on the book and/or author, if TMI doesn’t vibe with me this time I will not be reading anything more by Cassandra Clare. The opening chapter was interesting to be fair as we see Clary and Simon going to a club called Pandemonium where Clary witnesses a murder but it is clear to her that only she can see and speak to the people responsible as Simon and the bouncers can’t see them. I was surprised that Jace, Isabelle and Alec didn’t cart her off straight away when they realised that Clary could see them but they let her go and she heads home with Simon troubled by the events of the night but unable to do anything about it. I was also surprised that there was a mention of Valentine so early on in the series, since Valentine plays a large part in the latter half of the series. After the events at the club, Clary’s mother wants to take her on vacation for the rest of the summer which doesn’t sit well with the 15 year old Clary but Luke, her mother’s friend has a strange conversation telling Jocelyn to tell Clary about something and mentions someone called Magnus.
Clary’s anger gets the better of her and she leaves with Simon, however, at the poetry slam she sees Jace again and confronts him but before they can talk Clary gets a phone call from her mother telling her not to return home for any reason and the call ends. Clary races home to be confronted by a ransacked apartment, her mother missing and a demon in her living room. While Clary manages to kill the demon, she is injured in the process and wakes three days later in the Institute, the home of the Shadowhunters. From Jace and Hodge, Clary gets a crash course in Shadowhunters, which are said to be the children of mortals and angels, Downworlders, the non-human creatures including demons which inhabit the world and mundane, which are regular humans. Jace has learnt that even though Clary doesn’t know anything about their world she is one of them and they need to find out what she is as soon as possible.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, I have to admit I was enjoying City of Bones as it is fast-paced with some interesting characters especially the snarky Alec and the immensely entertaining Jace. I was also surprised by how many easter eggs are being dropped in the first book which hint at the conclusion of this series which means it was really well thought out by Cassandra Clare and she gets major points for that. Hodge explains to Clary how the Shadowhunters work and what they are and gives her permission to return to her home in order to see what is left and if there is any trace of her mother as long as Jace goes with her. When the return they find Forsaken there, which are mundane people marked with Shadowhunter runes that drive them mad and they also learn that the downstairs neighbour, Madame Dorothea knows of the Shadowhunter world and might know what happened to her mother. Madame Dorothea confirms Jace’s suspicions that Jocelyn was a Shadowhunter and was in hiding for a long time but she was found by someone who wants her and Clary desperately. She shows the pair a portal that Clary launches herself through without thinking and they end up in Luke’s store but before they can really investigate Luke arrives back with two warlocks who want Clary to deliver her to Valentine. The warlocks are also under the impression that Luke knows where the Mortal Cup is, the Mortal Cup has the power to turn ordinary humans into Shadowhunters but it requires the blood of an angel too and Valentine possibly wants it to create an army but it has been assumed for decades that Valentine was dead which leaves Jace, Clary and now Simon with a whole new set of problems.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Hodge begins to tell Clary of her family’s history with the Shadowhunters and it turns out her mother was married to Valentine and along with Isabelle and Alec’s parents, Jace’s father and Hodge were all members of the Circle. Some like Clary’s mother and Jace’s father left as soon as they knew the full extent of Valentine’s plans but some like Hodge were too scared to leave and suffered because of it, as Hodge is now bound to the Institute and can’t leave or return to his home in the Glass City. While Hodge informs the Clave about the Circle rising again, he sends for one the Silent Brothers to investigate Clary’s repressed memories. However, Brother Jerimiah can’t access the memories alone and asks Clary to come to the Bone City which she does but it turns out that there is a block on her mind but there by someone very powerful and it can only be removed safely by that person. The name that comes to Clary in that moment is Magnus Bane, and Jace obviously recognised the name but doesn’t say anything about it right now. I really like how Clary’s history is being given to us slowly and there is still a very large mystery surrounding Clary and her connection to the Mortal Cup and I am finding that I don’t remember as much about these books as I thought as certain information is still taking me by surprise.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Alec, Isabelle, Jace, Clary and Simon manage to get invites to a party being thrown by Magnus Bane and they decided to attend to get him to remove the block on Clary’s mind. Upon arriving at the party there are numerous other non-humans there and Alec ends up doing something that will come back to bite someone later on in the book. Magnus explains to Clary that the block he put on her is a masterpiece and it is exactly what her mother requested of him. This deals a major blow to Clary as coupled with everything she has learnt about her mother’s past so far it solidifies the idea that her mother never wanted her to learn about the Shadowhunter world and did everything possibly to keep it from her. Magnus is definitely a character I enjoy reading about as he is sassy and sarcastic to the point it makes me laugh a lot. However, I didn’t like the fact that being gay is seen as something extremely distasteful in the Shadowhunter world by the older generations and it forces Alec to keep a major part of himself hidden from the world, even from his best friend because he isn’t sure how he would react.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, Magnus party comes to a shocking end with Isabelle dead drunk, Simon turned into a rat and kidnapped by vampires. The group need to get Simon back but before they leave Magnus warns Clary to remember that when her mother went into hiding it wasn’t the Downworlders she was running from but the Shadowhunters and it is a lesson that she will learn the hard way. However, I did really enjoy Magnus’ flirting with Alec as it showed a younger, more naïve side of Alec that we haven’t got to see yet and as the head to the Hotel Dumont, they make a pit stop in a church to collect some weapons. Upon arriving at the hotel, they are deceived by the leader of the vampires that leads them into the hotel and they soon find themselves surrounded by the night children. Clary takes charge and explains that they will return their leader in exchange for Simon who is still a rat and the exchange is made but the vampire are chasing them down to kill them and when all options of escape are gone they can only fight but they are majorly outnumbered. That is until the wolves arrive and beginning fighting off the vampires, but they also want Clary so she, Jace and Simon make a run for it and barely manage to escape the hotel with their lives intact. Back at the Institute, Jace is being reprimanded for facing the vampires alone when Alec and Isabelle should have been with him. This causes Clary to get into a fight with Alec and he hits her which in turn makes her seek out Jace for some comfort as she feels an attachment to him. In the previous readings of this book I was never really on board with the Jace and Clary romance and I am still not, I would have preferred Clary either to be single or with someone like Simon who seems to get a lot better with her than Jace does but this series might change my mind. I also didn’t like the way Alec is portrayed at all in this novel since his character grows so much in the later books and it just wasn’t a nice thing to do to an amazing character.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, the pace really begins to pick up after Clary celebrates her birthday with Jace leading to their first kiss but are interrupted by Simon who confesses to Clary throwing her into further emotional turmoil. However, in the immediate aftermath of this, Clary discovers she has the ability to make objects she draws real with the aid of runes although she isn’t sure which ones she is using and makes the connection to the tarot cards her mother painted for Madame Doretha and realises that is where she has been hiding the Mortal Cup all these years. Clary relays the information to Jace who tells Hodge, together with Alec and Isabelle and the aid of Simon they head to Clary’s home to retrieve the Cup only to come face to face with a greater demon who wants the Cup. While Simon manages to kill it by breaking a skylight letting in the sunlight, Alec is injured in the process and not even Hodge is able to heal him. Things get difficult when Hodge takes the Cup and summons Valentine who takes it leaving with Clary’s only chance at getting her mother back, but she is helping by Luke. Luke turns out to be a werewolf and not an ordinary werewolf as he is the leader of a pack but now Clary has Alec injured, Valentine is going after Jace and she still has to get her mother back.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, we get to see the final showdown between Luke and Clary against Valentine and Jace. It turns out that Jace is Valentine’s son which also means he is Clary’s brother shining a whole new perspective on the kiss they shared earlier and the feelings they have for each other. It also turns out that Valentine raised Jace or as he calls him Jonathan to be the ultimate warrior in a new generation of the Circle. With the Cup in his possession and now hidden in Idris, Valentine has seemingly one despite everything our heroes are trying to do. As he escapes into Idris, Jace has the opportunity to kill him but can’t do it because he still sees Valentine as his father, and he holds a place in his heart. This first instalment ends with Jocelyn still in a magically induced coma which not even the Silent Brothers can remove although Magnus did heal Alec which has led to much nicer relationship between him and Clary. Overall, City of Bones was a much more enjoyable read this time around and I am going to give the Shadowhunter universe another chance but this time reading the books in chronologically order in terms of the story rather than the publication order so I will be reading a lot of the Bane Chronicle and Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy in the near future as well as The Infernal Device trilogy.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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