A review by gussurireads
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

As a fellow adult teenager, this is the kind of series I needed for my second adolescence (I'm LGBT and therefore my first adolescence does not count)

It was cheesy at times, overtly dramatic at others, the banter between Jace and Clary was funny and Isabelle is an underrated queen that deserved more  "screentime". I was afraid she and Clary would've stayed "enemies" just for the sake of girl drama but I'm glad I got them being friendly at the end (they should've been lesbians, just saying).

Still it took me longer than I expected to get through this because for a looooong time, the plot just didn't progress at all. I felt we were just being dragged along to all these different little adventures set up purposefully for Clary to find out more about the Shadow World. I'm hoping that the second book, having more of the world set up and explained, will feel a bit faster on the pacing.

Act III was kind of wild with all the reveals and the ENTIRE CHAPTER dedicated to Luke just infodumping his entire backstory to us. At one point, I was having such a hard time keeping up with all the surnames for Clary's family! And the confrontation with Valentine felt so goofy and over the top, only missing out on a villainous monologue as he explained all his plans.

Can't wait to see how Cassandra Clare is going to work out the "sibling” conundrum (as I said above, just make Clary and Isabelle a couple, I promise it'll be so much better!)

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