The City of Bones

            

Reviewed by Saad

  The City of Bones by Cassandra Clare is an amazing story full of adventure, mysteries, humor, and is backed up by a suspenseful plot. It follows the protagonist, a girl named Clary and her adventures when she learns that what she believed for so long isn’t what it seems. Clary is a hot-tempered redhead girl who is 15, after a watching a murder in a all ages club which no one but her sees, she begins to question what she knows. The book is filled with magic seeing you can tell by the title of the story; its plot gets more intense and seemingly more brutal as it goes on. In the story, you will find warlocks, demons, fairies, unicorns, and other magical and mythical creatures not known by man. Humans are called mundanes by everything else for being “normal” and are thought to be very weak.

            The main characters in the book are separated into two groups, humans and Shadowhunters. Shadowhunters are warriors which protect humans from creatures such as demons, warlocks, etc. They use weapons which contain powers in them to slay the monsters. The main Shadowhunters are Jace, Alec, and Isabella. They live with another Shadowhunter named Hodge. The main humans are Clary and her friend Simon, Simon is described as being a sarcastic to the point of even being scolded for it. Isabella and Alec are siblings with Alec being the oldest and Jace is an only child with a mysterious past.

            The book relies on many scenes and is the first in a series. It’s a pretty big book since it reaches up to 512 pages, but the plot and action makes you want to continue reading the story again and again to get that suspenseful, scary feeling back in your chest. The author throws in a few twists in the story to make you want to read the other books in the series. There are several problems in the story that interfere with the plot and cause it to feel more realistic, those being Clary’s relationships with her friends and the Shadowhunters. The Shadowhunters make her feel less normal then what she thinks now and she is having problems dealing with boys. Her maturity in the story plays well with the plot since it seems to add on to it.

            The main antagonist of the story from the beginning is more of a group then a person or thing, the main antagonist of the story up till around end are downworlders, such as werewolves, vampires, etc. Near the end, a new, more powerful antagonist named Valentine shows up and reveals a deep secret to Clary which changes her and makes her rougher.

            Personally on a scale of 1-10, I would give this story a 10 being because it has been a long time since I read a book this good; the plot, the sequences, the drama, it all works together to form an excellent book and a great story to start a series of with. As stated before, the book makes the reader want to read the other books in the series so they can solve the problems left from the previous one. The book is great for anyone looking for a great time and a wonderful book they will never forget. 

There is never a time in the story in which you would feel bored or just want to close the book and forget it. It makes the readers connect to their younger selves when they believed in dragons, fairies, ghosts, and other things we believe is false now. It defies science and goes with more of a religious like structure as it goes through a catastrophic event happening, a person going corrupt and defying the rules, two different groups working together to stop it, and world we would perceive as non-existing due to the otherworldly beings. So, if anyone has the time, I suggest you get a copy of this book and read it.