Reviews with content warning for Death - City of Bones

This was a fun, light read that feels like a mish-mash of ALL the supernatural tropes blended together to make the most YA of YA novels.

The Shadowhunters are a secret group of demon hunters whose job is to protect the “mundanes” of the world from the demons. Pretty simple premise and pretty fun execution. The only thing I would say is that this book feels VERY of its time with some cringe-inducing language and prose that definitely wouldn’t make the cut if it was published today.

I have hope for the rest of the series, because I have heard good things about Cassandra Clare but as of this book it’s very middle of the road. Enjoyable but forgettable.

3/5

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feuillycakes's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Honestly, this is solidly average. I don’t think that about a lot of books but there were so many parts I enjoyed while the rest had me fighting off the cringe, so I think I’m justified here. I have the misfortune of kind of knowing a few things that will happen just by virtue of existing on the internet, so I wasn’t shocked by anything important and I’m not on the edge of my seat about the Thing that’s the big plot twist of this book. The Rat Thing? I absolutely lost it. The vampires get smashed and turn into small animals or piles of dust temporarily thing? Ridiculous. Loved it. The information overload was not so fun. Neither were the occasional dramatics or the bouncing around from place to place for previously stated info-dumping reasons.

I enjoyed that Clary is not a perfect character as usually happens with main ya characters written around this time. She can be a total b-word (you choose which) and knows it. She loses her temper and gets irrationally jealous and is horrible at times and doesn’t excuse that. I can respect that in a character. It’s rare.

Surprisingly, the only other character I understood as well as Clary was Simon. This is probably because she knows him the best and we are in third person limited, but even when she wasn’t understanding his actions or feelings I could tell what was up. Their friendship was honestly the best and most developed relationship in the book and I won’t back down on that.

Mostly what I noticed was these teenagers talk like teenagers, they act like teenagers and think like teenagers and that must be such a flex for this author around all her author friends. How many people can claim to be able to write teenagers so accurately even a decade on they still hold up? I’m telling you besides the off colour remarks here and there and that part where Clary straight up outs someone (who knew already but still) these could be present day teens who just don’t swear.

So yeah, average.

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brynn_books's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book was a good introduction to the series. However, compared to the other books in the Shadowhunter universe, this was a little underwhelming. I love the Shadowhunter world and all of the characters (especially Isabelle, Alec, and Magnus). But the ending makes me mad... definitely my least favorite part about this book.

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