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A review by court3sy
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
The world building is great in this book. The concept of angels, demons, humans, and "half-breeds" is super cool, and makes a lot of sense in the way it's presented. It's very dialogue heavy, which I enjoy, but the storytelling still feels pretty natural and not too exposition-heavy as we find out more about the world of the Shadowhunters. In the beginning of the book, the dialogue is more of realistic/childish conversations, but the dialogue gets better as more characters are introduced.
Clary, the main character, is a Mary Sue that doesn't seem to have any exceptional skills so far, but the rest of the characters are interesting. They all have really good dialogue, but all the kids come off pretty similarly; sarcastic, kind of mean but secretly caring. The adults act a bit more diverse, which makes sense.
The ending is...complex (see content warning if you want to know more), and the main reason I took away a star. A different ending would have put this book around a 4.5-4.75 for me.
Simon was pretty one-toned, and kind of a pick-me if I'm being honest. I know he's only 15-16, but he could've told Clary how he felt without pinning the whole "I've been in love with you for 10 years" thing on her. That was basically his arc; going from her best friend, to a friend who's had a crush on her and was bitter she was about to choose Jace over him...until she finds out Jace is her brother. Now he's in a weird spot where he would be the second choice if she did pick him, in my eyes.
Izzy's character growth is good; she goes from being a bratty, stuck up, and gate-keeping her friend group to being vulnerable and admitting she's learning how to have female friends since she's never had one. It was interesting that this only happened after the Jace/Clary sibling twist (aka no more competition for Jace), but I will let that slide.
Alec's character growth was even better than Izzy's. I love how he started out as the brooding older brother, and how he truly seemed to hate Clary for picking up on him having a crush on Jace and threatened to kill her. The growth from that, to Clary lying to him and telling him he killed the Great Demon and saved Jace, was very well done. Clary's relationship with him was the best, after Jace of course.
Finally, Jace. He was my favorite. His dialogue was my favorite, and I loved his character. He was an atheist demon hunter, which was such a cool dichotomy. BUT, I had to take a star away for the not-dead sibling love interest twist. Jace being short for Jonathan Christopher, the dead brother who Clary thought was her father, just found out about, is too much coupled with a bad fake-out death, which I loathe. What made it worse was the fact that Jace is basically the love interest (especially after the green house thing where Clary completely forgot about Simon). I kept thinking there had to be a point where Valentine said "no you actually aren't my son/daughter so you aren't related", but that point didn't come in this book. If it was just suggested and they hadn't made out, I would have been less grossed out by it. But since she was leading him back to her room...yikes. Even though I love this world and the premise, I had to look up if they are actually siblings or not for myself, because I'm not super interested in reading about a love triangle where one of the points is/was the FMC's full brother.
Clary, the main character, is a Mary Sue that doesn't seem to have any exceptional skills so far, but the rest of the characters are interesting. They all have really good dialogue, but all the kids come off pretty similarly; sarcastic, kind of mean but secretly caring. The adults act a bit more diverse, which makes sense.
The ending is...complex (see content warning if you want to know more), and the main reason I took away a star. A different ending would have put this book around a 4.5-4.75 for me.
Simon was pretty one-toned, and kind of a pick-me if I'm being honest. I know he's only 15-16, but he could've told Clary how he felt without pinning the whole "I've been in love with you for 10 years" thing on her. That was basically his arc; going from her best friend, to a friend who's had a crush on her and was bitter she was about to choose Jace over him...until she finds out Jace is her brother. Now he's in a weird spot where he would be the second choice if she did pick him, in my eyes.
Izzy's character growth is good; she goes from being a bratty, stuck up, and gate-keeping her friend group to being vulnerable and admitting she's learning how to have female friends since she's never had one. It was interesting that this only happened after the Jace/Clary sibling twist (aka no more competition for Jace), but I will let that slide.
Alec's character growth was even better than Izzy's. I love how he started out as the brooding older brother, and how he truly seemed to hate Clary for picking up on him having a crush on Jace and threatened to kill her. The growth from that, to Clary lying to him and telling him he killed the Great Demon and saved Jace, was very well done. Clary's relationship with him was the best, after Jace of course.
Finally, Jace. He was my favorite. His dialogue was my favorite, and I loved his character. He was an atheist demon hunter, which was such a cool dichotomy. BUT, I had to take a star away for the not-dead sibling love interest twist. Jace being short for Jonathan Christopher, the dead brother who Clary thought was her father, just found out about, is too much coupled with a bad fake-out death, which I loathe. What made it worse was the fact that Jace is basically the love interest (especially after the green house thing where Clary completely forgot about Simon). I kept thinking there had to be a point where Valentine said "no you actually aren't my son/daughter so you aren't related", but that point didn't come in this book. If it was just suggested and they hadn't made out, I would have been less grossed out by it. But since she was leading him back to her room...yikes. Even though I love this world and the premise, I had to look up if they are actually siblings or not for myself, because I'm not super interested in reading about a love triangle where one of the points is/was the FMC's full brother.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Incest