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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I first read City of Bones when I was fifteen and enjoyed it. Now coming back to it, I like it less, but it's still worth a read. I always classified these books as fantasy soap operas because everything is so damn dramatic. Here we have your typical plot of an 'ordinary' girl--don't worry, she's still pretty--who finds out she's part of an elite race of humans who fight demons. Obviously, she's slightly more special than the other super special humans, called Shadowhunters, but that part comes later.
City of Bones is fun to read if you're not super nitpicky like I am. I noticed a ridiculous amount of grammatical errors throughout the book and a startling amount of inconsistencies.
• At the beginning of the book Clary reads a book about faeries, ghosts and demons, and when Luke asks her about it, she says it's her mother's. Later, when Hodge asks Clary if her mom ever educated her about folklore, she says that she hated all of that stuff and wouldn't even let her watch Disney. Um??
• We're told that witches are human beings who've taught themselves magic and that Warlocks are the offspring of demons and humans, therefore, have magic in their blood, but then later we're told human beings can't do magic at all.
• Clary is told she's the first mundane to step inside the institute in over a hundred years(later to learn she's not a mundane), and then later Simon is told he's the first mundane to EVER step inside the institute.
The characters and world-building were the two things I focused on most in this book. For the most part, I found the world-building to be relatively well thought out and interesting. I thought the explanation of faeries being the offspring of angels and demons, werewolves and vampires being the results of demon curses and warlocks being the offspring of demons and humans was well thought out. I think having warlocks be sterile because they're crossbreeds is also an interesting concept to include. But it makes me wonder if werewolves can procreate. They're not cross-bred. They're humans with a disease. If they have a child with another human, will that child be a wolf? Or what if they have a kid with another wolf?
One thing that infuriates me, though, is that the wolves fur grows OVER their clothes. How is that even possible? How long is their fur? Also, when Alaric is half-phased, he has clawed feet at one point. Are you telling me his long toenails just burst through his shoes? If you try to tell me his shoes magically fix themselves when he turns back into a human, I will lose my damn mind. Also, Luke is a werewolf...and he wears glasses. Why? He says that the crossbow was his weapon of choice because he had excellent sight and aim, yet.....he wears GLASSES?!
The self-insert of Clary Fray boggles my mind. It could not be more obvious. I know many authors fall into the trap of writing themselves into the MC but at least choose a name that's not so similar! Clare-Clary? Are you joking?
Okay, now focusing on characterization. I had a hard time liking many of the characters, in all honesty. Everyone was jealous of one another for some ridiculous reason. Jace is jealous of Simon because he was close to Clary. Simon was jealous of Jace because Clary liked him. Clary was jealous of Isabelle because Simon was paying attention to her even though she didn't even like Simon. Isabelle was jealous of Clary because she's tiny and pretty(and please, just let Isabelle be gay). Alec was jealous of Clary because Jace liked her. Like my god. They all need to get over themselves.
Clary annoyed the absolute crap out of me 95% of the time. No one in this book knows how to talk to another human being normally. She's asking about everyone's personal life on the first day, like it's any of her business, wanting to know how Jace's dad died. So many of the characters seem to lack any social skills at all. There are so many unnecessary throwaway lines, but at the same time, they gave away some of the big reveals of the book for me. Those throwaway lines also made me believe that Clary is a whole idiot. There's a part where she mentions she's going to turn 16 on Sunday, and later on, Hodge tells the story of how Valentine killed himself and his child in a fire. When she learns that Valentine was married to her mother, if she had only had the idea to ask WHEN all this occurred, she might be able to intuit that Valentine is her father and that she had a brother. Like legit, all she had to do was say, 'yo, Hodge, when did the Uprising happen/my mom disappear?' '16 years ago, Clary, why?' 'oh noooooo, I think Valentine might be my dad.' And then the whole last chapter would be far less dramatic. It’s infuriating that Clary is so nosy, but she never asks the right questions. She’s too busy sniffing around Jace’s sad orphan life and Alec’s gayness to do some investigative work about her mother’s past. If she had listened to Hodge and used her brain, she could have figured out that Valentine was her dad.
Also like, they ignore what anyone tells them! Hodge told them Valentine's bones were found alongside a child's bones and backtracks when he 'hypothetically' talks about him having a son. Like, I see you, you lying sack of shit. Just because Clary doesn't pay attention to anything doesn't mean I don't.
Clary's jealousy of Isabelle drives me insane. She feels violent anger towards her because she's tall, thin, and beautiful. And any time she flirts with Simon, she gets mad. YOU DON'T EVEN LIKE SIMON, CLARY. Like, relax.
If there were one thing I would say to Clary, it would be to relax. She is so ready to jump down everyone's throats all the time. When she calls Luke a slimy Downworlder even though he's been basically her dad her whole life. Like she let herself get influenced far too easily.
I remember being excited that there was a gay character in this, but reading it now, I realize Alec is very much a trope. He's a self-hating gay hiding in the closet, in love with his straight best friend. He could not be more of a trope. I know he gets a happy ending and whatnot but just, ugh. I get tired of seeing these made-up fantasy worlds where everyone is still homophobic. Give me one fantasy world where they don't give a shit, please.
I'm not fond of Jace much either. He's egotistical and not in a cute way. He puts Clary in danger by marking her; like I don't care if he suspected she was a Shadowhunter, he still could've potentially killed her if he was wrong. I'm still unclear if marking a human kills them, burns them or turns them into a Forsaken or does all three simultaneously, but Jace deserved that slap.
Poor friend-zone Simon is my favorite character, more than likely because Robert Sheehan played him in the film adaptation. I still think he and Clary should've just dated from the beginning, but she's an idiot and doesn't deserve his goofy vibes. I don't think Isabelle is a good fit for him either, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I love that he saves the day with Abaddon in the end. Probably my favorite part of the book.
I like the concept of the seraph blades a lot but wouldn't naming them in the heat of battle be super inconvenient? Some Angels have super long names! Imagine you're fighting a big ole baddie, and you try to name your blade Macroprosopus, but it takes so long to say the word that you get killed. What happens if you call two different blades the same angel name? Can you run out of angel names? Will seraph blades become moot at some point? Also, are they legit just hilts and a blade grows out of them? Or are they like glass blades that fill with heavenly light when named?
I'm also curious about the stele. It seems like it is sometimes a universal solvent and other times not. It can heal a broken arm in two seconds but can't cure Greater Demon poison. It can hold a door against pursuit but can't unlock the same door? What exactly are its limits?
Also, how did Valentine manage to murder Michael Wayland and his son, drag their bodies over to the manor where Jocelyn's parents were and burn them all alive to the point that Jocelyn was already able to see their charred bones by the time she arrived. Judging by the sequence of events, there was not enough time for all that to happen from when Luke found Jocelyn by the river and then got to the house. Unless he like burnt it in advance and was prepping for this.
I'm curious why Cassandra Clare named Valentine's birds Hugin and Munin when this book has nothing to do with Norse mythology. Like yes, runes are Norse, too, but that's it.
Okay, last thing to say and then I'm done. It's a weird flex to leave your readers with the knowledge that they were rooting for a brother and sister to be together lmao. Like I've read the series so I know they're not actually related but I'm genuinely curious how that was a selling point. "then the first book ends with them thinking they're related even though they made out...and the whole second book they'll still think they're related all the way until near the end of the third book! then people won't feel weird for shipping them."
Random notes I made while reading.
* What is Clave blood?
* Jace saying it’s impossible for Dorothea to have a witch mother. Have you never heard of adoption?
* “The style of artwork was as familiar to her as her own breath.” Lmao WHAT.
* If the Circle were dedicated to killing Downworlders why were Pangborn and Blackwell part of it? I thought Jace said they were warlocks. (nope, they're shadowhunters but it def says they're warlocks in that one chapter)
* Love when Brother Jeremiah rides up on his goth af chariot with his smoky goth horses.
* The ducking glass mole part tho
* Jace thinking that because the Phouka was into Alec he couldn’t also be into Isabelle. Bisexuality exists Jace, gosh. (Maybe that's where Alec gets his biphobia from.)
* The whole ‘hello being too girly’ conversation was so stupid I wanted to die.
* Why would the warlocks fight with iron at the uprising when they know that faeries are gonna be there…?
* There’s one random page where Luke’s glasses are called spectacles like three times in a row
* Them calling the werewolf alpha the ‘clan leader’ just keeps throwing me OFF man.
* “The stench of death lies heavy on the air.” God, Alaric you goth ass bitch.
* “I’m all over blood.” WHAT?!!!
* Valentine mansplaining the type of knife Clary had.
* The image of Valentine laughing and saying “a true hit!” Has me in TEARS. I’m just thinking of some super ridiculous British guy in a Monty Python film.
City of Bones is fun to read if you're not super nitpicky like I am. I noticed a ridiculous amount of grammatical errors throughout the book and a startling amount of inconsistencies.
• At the beginning of the book Clary reads a book about faeries, ghosts and demons, and when Luke asks her about it, she says it's her mother's. Later, when Hodge asks Clary if her mom ever educated her about folklore, she says that she hated all of that stuff and wouldn't even let her watch Disney. Um??
• We're told that witches are human beings who've taught themselves magic and that Warlocks are the offspring of demons and humans, therefore, have magic in their blood, but then later we're told human beings can't do magic at all.
• Clary is told she's the first mundane to step inside the institute in over a hundred years(later to learn she's not a mundane), and then later Simon is told he's the first mundane to EVER step inside the institute.
The characters and world-building were the two things I focused on most in this book. For the most part, I found the world-building to be relatively well thought out and interesting. I thought the explanation of faeries being the offspring of angels and demons, werewolves and vampires being the results of demon curses and warlocks being the offspring of demons and humans was well thought out. I think having warlocks be sterile because they're crossbreeds is also an interesting concept to include. But it makes me wonder if werewolves can procreate. They're not cross-bred. They're humans with a disease. If they have a child with another human, will that child be a wolf? Or what if they have a kid with another wolf?
One thing that infuriates me, though, is that the wolves fur grows OVER their clothes. How is that even possible? How long is their fur? Also, when Alaric is half-phased, he has clawed feet at one point. Are you telling me his long toenails just burst through his shoes? If you try to tell me his shoes magically fix themselves when he turns back into a human, I will lose my damn mind. Also, Luke is a werewolf...and he wears glasses. Why? He says that the crossbow was his weapon of choice because he had excellent sight and aim, yet.....he wears GLASSES?!
The self-insert of Clary Fray boggles my mind. It could not be more obvious. I know many authors fall into the trap of writing themselves into the MC but at least choose a name that's not so similar! Clare-Clary? Are you joking?
Okay, now focusing on characterization. I had a hard time liking many of the characters, in all honesty. Everyone was jealous of one another for some ridiculous reason. Jace is jealous of Simon because he was close to Clary. Simon was jealous of Jace because Clary liked him. Clary was jealous of Isabelle because Simon was paying attention to her even though she didn't even like Simon. Isabelle was jealous of Clary because she's tiny and pretty(and please, just let Isabelle be gay). Alec was jealous of Clary because Jace liked her. Like my god. They all need to get over themselves.
Clary annoyed the absolute crap out of me 95% of the time. No one in this book knows how to talk to another human being normally. She's asking about everyone's personal life on the first day, like it's any of her business, wanting to know how Jace's dad died. So many of the characters seem to lack any social skills at all. There are so many unnecessary throwaway lines, but at the same time, they gave away some of the big reveals of the book for me. Those throwaway lines also made me believe that Clary is a whole idiot. There's a part where she mentions she's going to turn 16 on Sunday, and later on, Hodge tells the story of how Valentine killed himself and his child in a fire. When she learns that Valentine was married to her mother, if she had only had the idea to ask WHEN all this occurred, she might be able to intuit that Valentine is her father and that she had a brother. Like legit, all she had to do was say, 'yo, Hodge, when did the Uprising happen/my mom disappear?' '16 years ago, Clary, why?' 'oh noooooo, I think Valentine might be my dad.' And then the whole last chapter would be far less dramatic. It’s infuriating that Clary is so nosy, but she never asks the right questions. She’s too busy sniffing around Jace’s sad orphan life and Alec’s gayness to do some investigative work about her mother’s past. If she had listened to Hodge and used her brain, she could have figured out that Valentine was her dad.
Also like, they ignore what anyone tells them! Hodge told them Valentine's bones were found alongside a child's bones and backtracks when he 'hypothetically' talks about him having a son. Like, I see you, you lying sack of shit. Just because Clary doesn't pay attention to anything doesn't mean I don't.
Clary's jealousy of Isabelle drives me insane. She feels violent anger towards her because she's tall, thin, and beautiful. And any time she flirts with Simon, she gets mad. YOU DON'T EVEN LIKE SIMON, CLARY. Like, relax.
If there were one thing I would say to Clary, it would be to relax. She is so ready to jump down everyone's throats all the time. When she calls Luke a slimy Downworlder even though he's been basically her dad her whole life. Like she let herself get influenced far too easily.
I remember being excited that there was a gay character in this, but reading it now, I realize Alec is very much a trope. He's a self-hating gay hiding in the closet, in love with his straight best friend. He could not be more of a trope. I know he gets a happy ending and whatnot but just, ugh. I get tired of seeing these made-up fantasy worlds where everyone is still homophobic. Give me one fantasy world where they don't give a shit, please.
I'm not fond of Jace much either. He's egotistical and not in a cute way. He puts Clary in danger by marking her; like I don't care if he suspected she was a Shadowhunter, he still could've potentially killed her if he was wrong. I'm still unclear if marking a human kills them, burns them or turns them into a Forsaken or does all three simultaneously, but Jace deserved that slap.
Poor friend-zone Simon is my favorite character, more than likely because Robert Sheehan played him in the film adaptation. I still think he and Clary should've just dated from the beginning, but she's an idiot and doesn't deserve his goofy vibes. I don't think Isabelle is a good fit for him either, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I love that he saves the day with Abaddon in the end. Probably my favorite part of the book.
I like the concept of the seraph blades a lot but wouldn't naming them in the heat of battle be super inconvenient? Some Angels have super long names! Imagine you're fighting a big ole baddie, and you try to name your blade Macroprosopus, but it takes so long to say the word that you get killed. What happens if you call two different blades the same angel name? Can you run out of angel names? Will seraph blades become moot at some point? Also, are they legit just hilts and a blade grows out of them? Or are they like glass blades that fill with heavenly light when named?
I'm also curious about the stele. It seems like it is sometimes a universal solvent and other times not. It can heal a broken arm in two seconds but can't cure Greater Demon poison. It can hold a door against pursuit but can't unlock the same door? What exactly are its limits?
Also, how did Valentine manage to murder Michael Wayland and his son, drag their bodies over to the manor where Jocelyn's parents were and burn them all alive to the point that Jocelyn was already able to see their charred bones by the time she arrived. Judging by the sequence of events, there was not enough time for all that to happen from when Luke found Jocelyn by the river and then got to the house. Unless he like burnt it in advance and was prepping for this.
I'm curious why Cassandra Clare named Valentine's birds Hugin and Munin when this book has nothing to do with Norse mythology. Like yes, runes are Norse, too, but that's it.
Okay, last thing to say and then I'm done. It's a weird flex to leave your readers with the knowledge that they were rooting for a brother and sister to be together lmao. Like I've read the series so I know they're not actually related but I'm genuinely curious how that was a selling point. "then the first book ends with them thinking they're related even though they made out...and the whole second book they'll still think they're related all the way until near the end of the third book! then people won't feel weird for shipping them."
Random notes I made while reading.
* What is Clave blood?
* Jace saying it’s impossible for Dorothea to have a witch mother. Have you never heard of adoption?
* “The style of artwork was as familiar to her as her own breath.” Lmao WHAT.
* If the Circle were dedicated to killing Downworlders why were Pangborn and Blackwell part of it? I thought Jace said they were warlocks. (nope, they're shadowhunters but it def says they're warlocks in that one chapter)
* Love when Brother Jeremiah rides up on his goth af chariot with his smoky goth horses.
* The ducking glass mole part tho
* Jace thinking that because the Phouka was into Alec he couldn’t also be into Isabelle. Bisexuality exists Jace, gosh. (Maybe that's where Alec gets his biphobia from.)
* The whole ‘hello being too girly’ conversation was so stupid I wanted to die.
* Why would the warlocks fight with iron at the uprising when they know that faeries are gonna be there…?
* There’s one random page where Luke’s glasses are called spectacles like three times in a row
* Them calling the werewolf alpha the ‘clan leader’ just keeps throwing me OFF man.
* “The stench of death lies heavy on the air.” God, Alaric you goth ass bitch.
* “I’m all over blood.” WHAT?!!!
* Valentine mansplaining the type of knife Clary had.
* The image of Valentine laughing and saying “a true hit!” Has me in TEARS. I’m just thinking of some super ridiculous British guy in a Monty Python film.
adventurous
slow-paced
rasanya kaya balik ke jaman Wattpad tahun 2016 yg isinya sama kaya city of bones ini. soal nephilim, demon dll. love it, but this book gimme plot twist that is sooo mean😭💔
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
So, I once made it to book four in this series and then… quit. Why? No clue. Thought I knew, but turns out the thing that bugged me happened right here in book one 😅.
On this reread, I’m seeing more of the flaws, but also appreciating the fun of it more - the universe is bursting with creatures and magical rules, even if book one doesn’t expand much on them.
Bottom line? It kept me entertained, it’s shaking me out of my reading rot, and I’m ready to finally finish this Shadowhunter ride.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Great attention grab at the beginning. Had an interesting and intriguing plot. Not a fan of the ending. Some aspects are predictable, but one in particular was completely unexpected and a little bit disappointing for all the romantasy readers. I just waited for
a big fight to happen at the end.
So many secrets revealed to this fun world portrayed to be right before our eyes. Great setting and world building.
a big fight to happen at the end.
So many secrets revealed to this fun world portrayed to be right before our eyes. Great setting and world building.
Horrible writing. Tried to make it through. It then when they said there are no fat or ugly vampires because they wouldn't want to live forever I was out.
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated