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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
This is getting four stars purely for the plot, which I did find enjoyable. If I could give it one star or less for the writing itself, I would. Cassandra Clare needs a simile intervention; they've been excessive since the first book, but after that one, they've even stopped making sense 90% of the time.
My review is posted at the Just A Reader book review blog.
http://mellymeljustareader.blogspot.com/
http://mellymeljustareader.blogspot.com/
Another fast-paced (and scary) read from Miss Clare. I actually listened to the audiobook version of this for the majority of the chapters, which I also highly recommend. The female reader did a excellent job distinguishing between the voices of the different characters, both male and female, and kept me on the edge of my car seat.
When I mention scary, this book kind of freaked me out. Clare did a great job describing the different hordes of demons that challenged and often hurt the characters. Don't think I will be going swimming anytime soon!
I also thoroughly enjoyed the various romantic tangles, including the relationships between Clary and Simon, Clary and Jace, and even a relationship between two male characters. Pretty ballsy for a YA author. The book had enough romance without being inappropriate for teens but kept my adult interest too.
And what a cliff hanger! Ack. Hurry up and deliver my next book library!
When I mention scary, this book kind of freaked me out. Clare did a great job describing the different hordes of demons that challenged and often hurt the characters. Don't think I will be going swimming anytime soon!
I also thoroughly enjoyed the various romantic tangles, including the relationships between Clary and Simon, Clary and Jace, and even a relationship between two male characters. Pretty ballsy for a YA author. The book had enough romance without being inappropriate for teens but kept my adult interest too.
And what a cliff hanger! Ack. Hurry up and deliver my next book library!
I read this, it was something to read and keep me away at work. It was just what it was a book nothing to write home about.
I remember walking past the book section at the shops and always seeing the stunning cover, so one day I finally decided to buy the first three, and I've never regretted it.
This series has the best of every paranormal thing you can think of.
The characters are funny, witty and sarcastic, and so well written. I couldn't put the book down from the moment I started reading it until the moment I finished it. The entire storyline was so captivating.
This series has the best of every paranormal thing you can think of.
The characters are funny, witty and sarcastic, and so well written. I couldn't put the book down from the moment I started reading it until the moment I finished it. The entire storyline was so captivating.
3.75 / 5
My lil heart remembers reading this in middle school and not touching it since. Always nice to relive something I enjoyed so much as a 13 year old.
My lil heart remembers reading this in middle school and not touching it since. Always nice to relive something I enjoyed so much as a 13 year old.
What to say? City of Bones was pretty fantastic. I've never fallen into a book that has captivated me so completely.
In all honesty, I didn't really get into this book until almost page 100. It wasn't because the writing was bad or the story wasn't interesting and the characters were fine. For some reason, it just took me a little longer to get into this one. If you find yourself having the same issue, I urge you to keep reading. Do not give up. If you do, you will be missing out on a wonderfully captivating series.
The world and plot were put together very nicely. Clare has managed to seamlessly weave vampires, werewolves, demons, and angels all together into a coherent story line. The plot itself is...unpredictable. At least, I didn't expect the ending.... But, to be honest. When I started reading this book, I wasn't really expecting everything it turned out to be. City of Bones actually left me a little disappointed. But not because it wasn't great. It was. But I went into it expecting something totally different and similar to every other urban fantasy out there. I went into it thinking that the author would give me what I wanted. She didn't. And that made rating this book really hard. I had to separate how the book actually was from the fact that I didn't get what I wanted.
Now, you're probably thinking, that it doesn't sound like I enjoyed it all that much. The thing is, I did but I didn't at the same time. We're all so use to having (for example) the love interests ending up together in the first book. We get what we want. We may not know how we'll get it, but we know that in the end it'll be there and it'll happen. Clare does not write like that. She doesn't typically give you what you want and that's something you just have to accept. Which brings me to the topic of writing.
There is absolutely no assurance in her writing that there will be a happy ending. None whatsoever. Clare strings you along like no other author possibly could. And she does it so well. City of Bones is written in third person, but I get so pulled into the characters heads and POVs that I sometimes forget. Clare is a very talented author.
Characters...hmm, that's a tough one. I actually found Jace, Alec, and Isabelle to all be jerks throughout most of the book. But for some reason, I couldn't help but vote for them. They had to win. It didn't matter how badly they treated Clary, they had to succeed. As the story progresses, you get the sense that there's more to them then what you see. And you primarily see them acting like jerks because it's in Clary's POV. She doesn't know them. They don't know her. There's no bound between them, so you don't see the depths of Jace or any of the other characters, excluding her best friend Simon.
Simon bugs me. In fact, I wanted Simon to leave every time he showed up. I just hated him so much. He's actually a very sensitive and kind character but that's one of the reasons why I didn't like him. He lets Jace push him around and he was getting in the middle of Jace and Clary, messing things up when they just started getting good.
Luke, Clary's father-figure, is so wonderful. From the moment he entered the book, I couldn't help but like him. He's the solid, dependable character that remains on the sidelines that we all love so much.
All in all, trust me when I say, you do not want to pass on City of Bones.
In all honesty, I didn't really get into this book until almost page 100. It wasn't because the writing was bad or the story wasn't interesting and the characters were fine. For some reason, it just took me a little longer to get into this one. If you find yourself having the same issue, I urge you to keep reading. Do not give up. If you do, you will be missing out on a wonderfully captivating series.
The world and plot were put together very nicely. Clare has managed to seamlessly weave vampires, werewolves, demons, and angels all together into a coherent story line. The plot itself is...unpredictable. At least, I didn't expect the ending.... But, to be honest. When I started reading this book, I wasn't really expecting everything it turned out to be. City of Bones actually left me a little disappointed. But not because it wasn't great. It was. But I went into it expecting something totally different and similar to every other urban fantasy out there. I went into it thinking that the author would give me what I wanted. She didn't. And that made rating this book really hard. I had to separate how the book actually was from the fact that I didn't get what I wanted.
Now, you're probably thinking, that it doesn't sound like I enjoyed it all that much. The thing is, I did but I didn't at the same time. We're all so use to having (for example) the love interests ending up together in the first book. We get what we want. We may not know how we'll get it, but we know that in the end it'll be there and it'll happen. Clare does not write like that. She doesn't typically give you what you want and that's something you just have to accept. Which brings me to the topic of writing.
There is absolutely no assurance in her writing that there will be a happy ending. None whatsoever. Clare strings you along like no other author possibly could. And she does it so well. City of Bones is written in third person, but I get so pulled into the characters heads and POVs that I sometimes forget. Clare is a very talented author.
Characters...hmm, that's a tough one. I actually found Jace, Alec, and Isabelle to all be jerks throughout most of the book. But for some reason, I couldn't help but vote for them. They had to win. It didn't matter how badly they treated Clary, they had to succeed. As the story progresses, you get the sense that there's more to them then what you see. And you primarily see them acting like jerks because it's in Clary's POV. She doesn't know them. They don't know her. There's no bound between them, so you don't see the depths of Jace or any of the other characters, excluding her best friend Simon.
Simon bugs me. In fact, I wanted Simon to leave every time he showed up. I just hated him so much. He's actually a very sensitive and kind character but that's one of the reasons why I didn't like him. He lets Jace push him around and he was getting in the middle of Jace and Clary, messing things up when they just started getting good.
Luke, Clary's father-figure, is so wonderful. From the moment he entered the book, I couldn't help but like him. He's the solid, dependable character that remains on the sidelines that we all love so much.
All in all, trust me when I say, you do not want to pass on City of Bones.
it's derivative and the seams show (you can see the author's smug smile over some of the hackneyed lines), yet strangely addictive.
by Cassandra Clare
Opening line: “The cold snap of the previous week was over; the sun was shining brightly as Clary hurried across Luke’s dusty front yard, the hood of her jacket up to keep her hair from blowing across her face.”
Okay, third book of the Mortal Instruments series! It was still being billed as a trilogy back then, but apparently it’s turned into a six-book series. Which I’m not opposed to–for one thing, I’m a bit done with trilogies (okay, a LOT done) and for another, I do like the characters. In this installment, they all end up, circuitously and with angst, in Alicante, the capital of the Shadowhunter county of Idris.
I have a friend who felt like the first part of the book was slow, and I would certainly agree with that. It didn’t particularly bother me at the time, given that I knew something was going to happen sooner or later. There were certainly some plot twists along the way! I had halfway called one of them (I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to go there on a particular issue, which meant that necessarily one of the characters had to be something other than they appeared), but was wrong about some of the details. Overall I liked the surprises, although there was one point that I have some issues with.
It’s hard to talk about the book without being all spoilery for the first two. Basically it’s a nice light read, with enough substance to keep me engaged.
Book source: public library
Book information: Simon & Schuster, 2009; YA
My other Cassandra Clare review:
City of Bones
Opening line: “The cold snap of the previous week was over; the sun was shining brightly as Clary hurried across Luke’s dusty front yard, the hood of her jacket up to keep her hair from blowing across her face.”
Okay, third book of the Mortal Instruments series! It was still being billed as a trilogy back then, but apparently it’s turned into a six-book series. Which I’m not opposed to–for one thing, I’m a bit done with trilogies (okay, a LOT done) and for another, I do like the characters. In this installment, they all end up, circuitously and with angst, in Alicante, the capital of the Shadowhunter county of Idris.
I have a friend who felt like the first part of the book was slow, and I would certainly agree with that. It didn’t particularly bother me at the time, given that I knew something was going to happen sooner or later. There were certainly some plot twists along the way! I had halfway called one of them (I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to go there on a particular issue, which meant that necessarily one of the characters had to be something other than they appeared), but was wrong about some of the details. Overall I liked the surprises, although there was one point that I have some issues with.
It’s hard to talk about the book without being all spoilery for the first two. Basically it’s a nice light read, with enough substance to keep me engaged.
Book source: public library
Book information: Simon & Schuster, 2009; YA
My other Cassandra Clare review:
City of Bones