Monday, February 27, 2012

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare


BOOK DESCRIPTION: 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. . . . Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end
MY OPINION: I don't know about this one. I am sitting here trying to put my feelings into words, literally reaching into my mind and trying to pull something out, but it's proving to be very difficult. When it comes down to it, City of Bones isn't really anything that I haven't read a thousand times before.
Clary is one of my biggest problems. The way she was written, she was continuously contradicting herself. She explains that she is shy, yet in the first chapter she follows a group of strange looking people into a storage closet because she feels like they're going to stab another boy with a knife. She hides in the closet, planning to merely demand them not to hurt each other. I don't understand that at all. I know that if I was suspecting a possible stabbing, I would not follow after them into a small space. I would scream, I would call for help, I would do something...but I would not put myself in danger by trying to talk some sense into them. And she also hated people for no reason other than the fact that they were prettier than she was. I'm serious. Her and Isabelle spend a good chunk of the novel completely detesting other one because they felt threatened by the other's beauty. It was ridiculous.
Jace. Oh, Jace. I can see why Clary would find him physically attractive (his tawny hair and golden eyes) but I don't see why their relationship progressed any more than that. Jace was completely self-absorbed. I mean, completely. He was your typical rude bad-boy that is continuously being reminded of how charming he is, when really, he isn't. He's an ass to Clary, who seems completely unaffected by his rude remarks. Don't get me wrong. I like sarcasm. I like witty jokes and I like confident characters, but Jace seems to take everything one step too far. I don't know. I just didn't find him appealing, and I wish he'd been more of a fleshed out character because I feel like the idea of him has a lot of promise, if that makes sense. But I do love his name. Jace. It feels like a sugar cube on my tongue. I just really enjoy characters with nice names.
Also, the story world just felt like a regular walk in the park for me. In any type of dystopian or fantasy novel, the story world should be something that the author thinks a lot about and this one just didn't cut it. When I read the title City of Bones, I was expecting a little bit more. But through the whole story, we're just stuck in Manhattan and I don't know...I would have liked it if the Bone City had been more than it was.
Let's talk about the villain, or lack-thereof. First off, his name is Valentine. This alone should be enough, but I doubt it is. The villain felt so forced. I didn't see any reasoning behind his motives whatsoever. All we know is that he wants to completely exterminate anything that isn't humanbut why? I wish Clare would have let us into the villain's mind a little bit more so we could see what he was thinking and why he thought that way. But since she didn't, Valentine came off as a two dimensional character with no personality whatsoever.
It was a decent book, I can say that. It did take me a little bit of effort to get through it. Clare's writing, however, does show a lot of potential. I'm looking forward to seeing any books she may publish in the future, outside of the Shadowhunter world.

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