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376 reviews for:
The Mortal Instruments Boxed Set: City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass
Cassandra Clare
4.07 AVERAGE
376 reviews for:
The Mortal Instruments Boxed Set: City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass
Cassandra Clare
4.07 AVERAGE
Not outstanding, but entertaining. The relationships are realistic, and some of the characters (especially Simon and Hodge) clearly have an excellent grasp on their interactions with other people. Clary is frankly kind of annoying; she's not very bright, and not very brave or adaptable or capable, so often she feels like a Mary Sue and I'm not sure what others see in her. She is unfailingly kind, however, so I'm hoping she (and Isabelle) will grow to become more than one-dimensional characters.
Really not a big fan of the awkward love triangle. Also there seem to be plot/world-building details that Clare hasn't really worked out yet.
Really not a big fan of the awkward love triangle. Also there seem to be plot/world-building details that Clare hasn't really worked out yet.
One word: INCEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2 stars but because of Maia, +1 star.
So, okay, no grammatical errors in this one(as far as I remember, though I'm not a hundred percent sure--there were some parts I scanned because of boredom), and of course LET'S NOT FORGET THE SIMILES. They are as present in this book as the stars in the galaxy. They also sprout unexpectedly and when you least want it to(in which case, ALWAYS, since I was so sick of those similes) like a virus in your body spreading, which, when left ignored could become contagious, YES. SADLY, SOME OF THE SIMILES WERE AS RIDICULOUS AS THE ONES I JUST DID. And, puh-lease, incest is not cool.
I don't know what to write about the book because it was.. okay. I'm kind of neutral about it and I really can't say anything so instead I'm gonna write about the characters.
CLARY
Clary was soooo boring. It's not exactly she's just sitting there doing nothing, waiting for someone(ahem, Luke) to think of the next steps.... oh wait, she is, most of the time. So, okay, she can make ~*~SPESHUUUULLL*~ runes, is the daughter of Valentine, probably supposed to be the main character BUT SHE DIDN'T INTEREST ME AT ALL. I felt like her runes were just something to make her more special and interesting but it didn't work for me. I actually didn't care for her character. The author could kill her off and I wouldn't care.
JACE
OH! TOO MUCH ANGST I CAN'T HANDLE IT.
SIMON
I didn't him in the first part of the book(OKAY WE GET IT STOP TRYING TO MAKE JACE JEALOUS), but when he started being a vampire he became INFINITELY interesting to me.
MAIA
MY BB GIRL! She's such a kick-ass character even if she's not exactly, say, Jace, who we all know stabs and kills demons easily. I liked her. I hope she ends up with Simon. This supporting character is, needless to say, more interesting than Clary, a "main" character. I'd really love to see more of her in the next book.
I would just like to say two things.
1. Clary, who's got this rune-making ability and is the daughter of the enemy, FOR PETE'S SAKE, bored me, while Simon, who's simply a vampire(and of course can walk in the sunlight), is more interesting.
2. Clary, who's got this rune-making ability and is the daughter of the enemy, FOR PETE'S SAKE, bored me, while Maia, who's simply a werewolf, is more interesting.
2 stars but because of Maia, +1 star.
So, okay, no grammatical errors in this one(as far as I remember, though I'm not a hundred percent sure--there were some parts I scanned because of boredom), and of course LET'S NOT FORGET THE SIMILES. They are as present in this book as the stars in the galaxy. They also sprout unexpectedly and when you least want it to(in which case, ALWAYS, since I was so sick of those similes) like a virus in your body spreading, which, when left ignored could become contagious, YES. SADLY, SOME OF THE SIMILES WERE AS RIDICULOUS AS THE ONES I JUST DID. And, puh-lease, incest is not cool.
I don't know what to write about the book because it was.. okay. I'm kind of neutral about it and I really can't say anything so instead I'm gonna write about the characters.
CLARY
Clary was soooo boring. It's not exactly she's just sitting there doing nothing, waiting for someone(ahem, Luke) to think of the next steps.... oh wait, she is, most of the time. So, okay, she can make ~*~SPESHUUUULLL*~ runes, is the daughter of Valentine, probably supposed to be the main character BUT SHE DIDN'T INTEREST ME AT ALL. I felt like her runes were just something to make her more special and interesting but it didn't work for me. I actually didn't care for her character. The author could kill her off and I wouldn't care.
JACE
OH! TOO MUCH ANGST I CAN'T HANDLE IT.
SIMON
I didn't him in the first part of the book(OKAY WE GET IT STOP TRYING TO MAKE JACE JEALOUS), but when he started being a vampire he became INFINITELY interesting to me.
MAIA
MY BB GIRL! She's such a kick-ass character even if she's not exactly, say, Jace, who we all know stabs and kills demons easily. I liked her. I hope she ends up with Simon. This supporting character is, needless to say, more interesting than Clary, a "main" character. I'd really love to see more of her in the next book.
I would just like to say two things.
1. Clary, who's got this rune-making ability and is the daughter of the enemy, FOR PETE'S SAKE, bored me, while Simon, who's simply a vampire(and of course can walk in the sunlight), is more interesting.
2. Clary, who's got this rune-making ability and is the daughter of the enemy, FOR PETE'S SAKE, bored me, while Maia, who's simply a werewolf, is more interesting.
I am going to keep reading The Mortal Instruments, but the series is starting to feel like many other YA series’; the plot is being stretched way too thin so that the author can publish more books and make more money. But I still love Clary and Simon, and it’s a page-turner so I will buy the next one. I'll just read it on my Kindle so no one can see what I'm reading and think I'm poring over something Russian and written in the 19th century.
Overall, I thought this was a well written book with an original plot. I will be continuing the series for sure!
I was waiting for a certain moment for two books and it finally happened. It's kind of crazy how different the show treated it. I had suspicions about Sebastian while reading the book & I'm glad I guessed correctly. I can't wait to see what happens next and to read the Infernal Devices series.
I did not finish reading this. I simply could not make myself do it.
The plot is great. It could, no doubt, have been an amazing book. But when I reached page 100 and the characters were still two-dimensional and the writing still made me cringe, I took it as a sign to stop. Thus, I did.
The plot is great. It could, no doubt, have been an amazing book. But when I reached page 100 and the characters were still two-dimensional and the writing still made me cringe, I took it as a sign to stop. Thus, I did.
I feel like a jerk for not liking this book. I want to say "it's not you, it's me!"
It's usually pretty easy for me to get lost in a book and become absorbed in the world and the characters, but I was unable to do so here. I found myself focusing on the writing vs the story, if that makes sense.
Like, I find it difficult to believe that someone (ANYONE) would introduce themselves by saying, "I'm Firstname Lastname, by the way." NOBODY WOULD DO THIS. Not only do people never introduce themselves by saying "by the way," practically nobody would use their last name in that instance. (One of the other books I read recently did this as well, and it bugged me then, too. This "BTW" issue is not unique to this book because it is an easy way to insert another character, but it is so, so not true to life that I can't ignore it.)
There are also many places in which characters speak way more pretentiously than even very stuffy, pretentious people would. It felt too over-the-top and made the characters less believable for me.
Basically, I kept getting bogged down in noticing the writing, and while I think the story is good, I did not fall in love with this book the way I expected to. I wanted to like it, but this book just didn't do it for me. I haven't decided yet if I will read the sequels.
(Plus, what was withJace and Clary making out and then later finding out they are siblings?! Gehhh. Not into that plot twist at all. I was really hoping they'd get together and now I just feel like a dirty person. )
It's usually pretty easy for me to get lost in a book and become absorbed in the world and the characters, but I was unable to do so here. I found myself focusing on the writing vs the story, if that makes sense.
Like, I find it difficult to believe that someone (ANYONE) would introduce themselves by saying, "I'm Firstname Lastname, by the way." NOBODY WOULD DO THIS. Not only do people never introduce themselves by saying "by the way," practically nobody would use their last name in that instance. (One of the other books I read recently did this as well, and it bugged me then, too. This "BTW" issue is not unique to this book because it is an easy way to insert another character, but it is so, so not true to life that I can't ignore it.)
There are also many places in which characters speak way more pretentiously than even very stuffy, pretentious people would. It felt too over-the-top and made the characters less believable for me.
Basically, I kept getting bogged down in noticing the writing, and while I think the story is good, I did not fall in love with this book the way I expected to. I wanted to like it, but this book just didn't do it for me. I haven't decided yet if I will read the sequels.
(Plus, what was with
this may be closer to 3.5 stars now. I remember really enjoying this book when I read it for the first time. I still enjoyed it this time as well but I was much closer to Clary's age the first time I read this and there were many times during this read that I was practically rolling my eyes. The characters were very young and it showed. They made terrible decisions, didn't communicate, and sometimes they were just stupid. There were also times I didn't like the writing style of this book. a lot of things that I thought we should go back to were just explained later with one of the characters being like " oh yeah this thing happened." There were also times where the characters would think something and a page later, or sometimes just a sentence later, they would say the exact same thing out loud and I got really annoyed my that. Also to me, Jace did nothing good or redeemable this whole book. I do not understand why Clary would fall in love with him. He was egotistical, annoying, mean, and a terrible friend to Clary and and terrible person to Simon who was Clary's best friend, and she did nothing about it! I didn't read any of the other books so I don't know if Jace changes his character in later book but in this book I really don't like him at all. I did enjoy this book. It was a nice fun read. To be perfectly honest I had no plans to pick up this series again but one of my best friends has almost finished this series and she writes funny comments in them and she tells me all about the stupid things in the later books and I wanted to be able to talk about them with her. I'm going to read the other books and she if I have a different opinion from her but based on this book I don't think I will. Also I think a lot of people forget that this book isn't really set over a long period of time. Clary and Jace fell in love really, really quickly which I didn't like and I also didn't understand (see previous Jace hate). I will continue this series. A lot of people say it gets better. My friend says they get worse so I'll just have to see.
City of Bones is not a deep book, but I didn't really expect it to be either. It was a fast and entertaining read, and I'm sure it makes for a good movie. In many ways, the characters and plot were typical of young adult fantasy, but there were some subtle deviations from the mold that I definitely appreciated. On a very personal note, it was nice to see an author with the same first name as me - there aren't too many Cassandras out there. I plan to read the next book in the series.
god the writing is still bad and i absolutely hate the incest plot line but it’s vaguely better than i remember it being even though it’s still bad (If you see this Ola: are u proud of me for finishing it)