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disasterwarlock 's review for:
City of Bones
by Cassandra Clare
It means 'Shadowhunters: Looking Better in Black Than the Widows of our Enemies Since 1234'
I was surprisingly into this book for the first like 100 pages, then really not for the next 250, and then it got me again in like the last 150. This was a ride is what I want to say and I'm still reeling a little.
Also I have a bit of a bone to pick with everyone who kept insisting that this story felt very christian, because...it doesn't. There's a lot of jewish folklore and mysticism woven into the fabric of the world building, starting at the Angel Raziel and by far not ending there. I'm officially a Simon-Lewis-stan, by the way - I love this silly little dude. At least I like him a good deal better than Jace, even though it's painfully obvious who Clary is gonna end up with when its all said and done. Anyway.
Clary Fray...well she's certainly a protagonist. I mean, in-story she's 15 (and US-american) so I'm gonna cut her some slack for not knowing about Luxembourg, and asking what a Magnus Bane is (come on, sweetheart, that's obviously a name). She does some dumb things and some...less dumb things, though I wouldn't call them particularly smart. But I have to admit that I find it a little endearing that she isn't exactly given the "oh so smart AND good at fighting"-treatment of a lot of YA-protagonists of that era. She's a little stupid sometimes, probably to a large part because she is still just a teenager and that's perfectly fine.
The story is fine, it's nothing special to me - but that's partly because I'm more than a decade late to this series and have read multiple books that have build and expanded upon the inspiration that The Mortal Instruments probably provided the authors with. For my taste there was a little too much going on at once in the last quarter of the book though. Especially because it happens immediately after I had gotten fatigued with the constant back and forth that plagues the middle of the story. It just kind of hit me really unexpectedly and I was really engaged again all of a sudden but also really confused because I hadn't necessarily paid close attention to every single one of the approximately million conversation between Clary and Jace that all just amount to teasing and flirting.
Because of that the story occasionally felt a little disjointed and I wondered a couple of times if I had accidentally skipped a page or two.
The twist(s), and this ties back to me having read a bunch of book probably inspired by this series, were fine even though I saw some of them coming a mile away, while others slapped me in the face (probably because I hadn't been paying attention) - that doesn't take too much away from the story though, because even If I knew that a certain piece of information was gonna be revealed, I still felt the reactions by the characters were interesting enough that I could appreciate the in universe impact of a reveal.
We'll see if I read City of Ashes - but I am kind of interested to see where this goes, partially because I've heard that the lore gets more interesting as this series and it's spin-offs continue.
I don't think I have to recommend this to anyone because everyone and their mother, except for me until now, has at least read this first entry in the SEU (Shadowhunter-Expanded-Universe (i just made that up)).
I was surprisingly into this book for the first like 100 pages, then really not for the next 250, and then it got me again in like the last 150. This was a ride is what I want to say and I'm still reeling a little.
Also I have a bit of a bone to pick with everyone who kept insisting that this story felt very christian, because...it doesn't. There's a lot of jewish folklore and mysticism woven into the fabric of the world building, starting at the Angel Raziel and by far not ending there. I'm officially a Simon-Lewis-stan, by the way - I love this silly little dude. At least I like him a good deal better than Jace, even though it's painfully obvious who Clary is gonna end up with when its all said and done. Anyway.
Clary Fray...well she's certainly a protagonist. I mean, in-story she's 15 (and US-american) so I'm gonna cut her some slack for not knowing about Luxembourg, and asking what a Magnus Bane is (come on, sweetheart, that's obviously a name). She does some dumb things and some...less dumb things, though I wouldn't call them particularly smart. But I have to admit that I find it a little endearing that she isn't exactly given the "oh so smart AND good at fighting"-treatment of a lot of YA-protagonists of that era. She's a little stupid sometimes, probably to a large part because she is still just a teenager and that's perfectly fine.
The story is fine, it's nothing special to me - but that's partly because I'm more than a decade late to this series and have read multiple books that have build and expanded upon the inspiration that The Mortal Instruments probably provided the authors with. For my taste there was a little too much going on at once in the last quarter of the book though. Especially because it happens immediately after I had gotten fatigued with the constant back and forth that plagues the middle of the story. It just kind of hit me really unexpectedly and I was really engaged again all of a sudden but also really confused because I hadn't necessarily paid close attention to every single one of the approximately million conversation between Clary and Jace that all just amount to teasing and flirting.
Because of that the story occasionally felt a little disjointed and I wondered a couple of times if I had accidentally skipped a page or two.
The twist(s), and this ties back to me having read a bunch of book probably inspired by this series, were fine even though I saw some of them coming a mile away, while others slapped me in the face (probably because I hadn't been paying attention) - that doesn't take too much away from the story though, because even If I knew that a certain piece of information was gonna be revealed, I still felt the reactions by the characters were interesting enough that I could appreciate the in universe impact of a reveal.
We'll see if I read City of Ashes - but I am kind of interested to see where this goes, partially because I've heard that the lore gets more interesting as this series and it's spin-offs continue.
I don't think I have to recommend this to anyone because everyone and their mother, except for me until now, has at least read this first entry in the SEU (Shadowhunter-Expanded-Universe (i just made that up)).