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A review by dc7
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
3.0
After having very much enjoyed watching the City of Bones movie as well as the Shadowhunters TV series I was unfortunately a little disappointed by the novel. The writing is okay, Clare uses easy-to-read, easy-to-follow language which I appreciate, although I sometimes noticed the lack of voice and inventiveness which would have made the novel so much richer.
The book was too long and the story could have been told in maybe two thirds of the pages. The beginning is quite good and so is the ending but like many other novels City of Bones suffers from saggy middle syndrome. Maybe it's because I had already seen two film adaptations of the material but I really felt like the middle of the book dragged on for way too long.
The characters in City of Bones are quite young too. They are all 15 or 16 whereas in the TV show they are 18-23 years old (and some characters in the TV show, like Alec for example, could easily be in their mid- to late-twenties). I know this is very personal and younger readers might not have a problem with it but I found it difficult to relate to a 15 year old protagonist. I'm in my 30s and naturally find it easier to connect with characters that are past the "asking adults for permission" stage in life. The themes in City of Bones are fairly mature, too, and making Clary 18 like in the TV show would have made it easier for older readers to relate. In general character development was okay though and I do love Jace, his sense of humour is the absolute highlight of the book.
Overall it's an easy to read book but it would have benefited from trimming down and slightly older characters.
The book was too long and the story could have been told in maybe two thirds of the pages. The beginning is quite good and so is the ending but like many other novels City of Bones suffers from saggy middle syndrome. Maybe it's because I had already seen two film adaptations of the material but I really felt like the middle of the book dragged on for way too long.
The characters in City of Bones are quite young too. They are all 15 or 16 whereas in the TV show they are 18-23 years old (and some characters in the TV show, like Alec for example, could easily be in their mid- to late-twenties). I know this is very personal and younger readers might not have a problem with it but I found it difficult to relate to a 15 year old protagonist. I'm in my 30s and naturally find it easier to connect with characters that are past the "asking adults for permission" stage in life. The themes in City of Bones are fairly mature, too, and making Clary 18 like in the TV show would have made it easier for older readers to relate. In general character development was okay though and I do love Jace, his sense of humour is the absolute highlight of the book.
Overall it's an easy to read book but it would have benefited from trimming down and slightly older characters.