City of Bones (Mortal Instruments) Hardcover – March 27, 2007

Alright yall, I feel like I’m gonna be blasphemous here, but this just didn’t do it for me. When Shadowhunters (the tv show) first came out, I watched the first season. And I loved it. So, I figured I outta check out the books. I read the first three a while ago, but honestly couldn’t remember anything.I decided to delve back in now that the full series in on Hulu. And yall, I just couldn’t get into it. I rarely like a show (or movie) more than I do the book, but in this case it was absolutely the case. I think my three biggest reasons on why I like the show more are Clary, Jace, and Alec.In the show, Clary is just such a strong character. She isn't passive or just sitting around. But I feel like in the book she's just constantly waiting for someone to tell her what to do. There are a few moments where she sort of acts of her own accord, but it seemed rare. A lot of the time I was just screaming at her to do something. And like, listen, I get that she has ZERO training and all that. But there’s a direct scene where Jace is holding her and I just was like “GIRL HOW HAVE YOU NOT JUST NUT-CHECKED HIM YET?!” It was so frustrating to me. I love how quickly she wants to fight and get trained in the show. It was so much more interesting to me for her character.As for Jace, holy hell I forget how much I hate him in the book. He's completely arrogant and I don't understand how anyone thought he had any redeemable qualities in the book. Like, literally he is the biggest dick I have read in a book in a long time. And come on with this whole, “We’ve always known Valentine was evil, but he says he’s my dad so now I’m blindly loyal” bullcrap. Like what even is that? In the show he at least seems to act kindly towards Clary, and I do think part of that is because of how Clary comes into her own a lot faster. He still definitely bugged me a little in the show, mostly because I hate arrogance in general, but he definitely seems like he’s a friendly person, just a little cocky.But above all, it's about Alec for me. I love him (and Magnus Bane of course) and he doesn't get enough book time at ALL. And I get it, the books are from Clary’s point of view really. But overall, he’s my favorite character, and I love the whole group dynamic, and this just didn’t really get played into at all in the book. We barely see him and we barely see him with Magnus. I just really would’ve loved more Alec and more queerness in general.Overall, I’m not sure I’ll even try rereading the rest of the series. I think I’m just gonna call this one a day and finish binging the show.

The media could not be loaded.  If you are a huge fan of this series, this book is a must have! It is gorgeous from the cover to all the special illustrations inside to the gold pages. Definitely something special to put on your bookshelf and show off.

I wasn't sure that I was going to like this book. Honestly, when I did pick it up I was just trying it in expectation of unhauling it. By the end of the first chapter, however, I was hooked. The world building was strong. Although there was a lot of it at times, occasionally bordering on feeling like an info dump, it never fully crossed that border. A first book in a fantasy series is expected to be heavy on the world building anyway. The characters were also well-developed and three-dimensional. The plot, although slowed down at times due to filling in backstory, remained fast-paced enough to maintain interest throughout. This isn't to say that there weren't problems. The writing wasn't always as smooth as it could have been and I'm not sure how I feel about the Jace/Clary bit (I don't want to say more because of spoilers). At this time, it seems like this plot point was unnecessary and the author would have been better off avoiding it. Despite a few shortcomings, however, I was pleasantly surprised by this book and am definitely interested in seeing where Cassandra Clare takes this story next.

City of Bones is the book that started the phenomenon that is the Shadowhunters world and fandom. The book introduces us to a beloved cast of characters and the fascinating Shadow World that will be developed over the course of the future novels. We discover the world through the eyes of Clary Fray, a girl who always thought she was normal but discovers that she is actually part of a race of people who are part-angel and spend their days fighting back the demon hordes.Clary and her best friend Simon are thrust into a world full of werewolves, vampires, warlocks, fairies and demons. They meet three Shadowhunters around their age: Jace, Izzy and Alec who live in the New York Institute. The first book has a number of different action scenes, but I think it shines most in the world-building department. Cassandra Clare develops an intricate world that you can easily imagine and yet is infinitely more complex than our own familiar one.While there is some character development, the book only takes place over a period of two weeks. We are just getting to know the characters and that development or growth will come in later books. For now, we are learning about these characters and their secrets. Having read the series before, I am already in love with certain characters so it's strange seeing their early personas. They grow so much over the course of the six books that there are some that I don't particularly connect to, yet absolutely adore them later on.Although I relate most to Clary, Jace is by far my favourite character in the series. He is witty, sarcastic and has the best lines in any scene. Some of the other characters have hilarious, memorable lines as well because Cassie writes fantastic dialogue - but Jace is the star. He can cause you to laugh out loud, which might garner you strange looks if you're in public reading.This book is fantastic, but you can definitely see the difference in writing quality between this book and Cassie's most recent series. I think the writing is well done, the world building is immersive and the characters are relatable. I adore this book because it is what introduced me to the Shadow World and my beloved Shadowhunters, but I can admit that her writing has come so far in the last ten years. Regardless, I cannot recommend this series more to young adult/teen fans of fantasy, books with unique and immersive world building and if you're willing to continue with it fantastic character building throughout the series.

This is the first in a long series of books about Angels (Nephilim) fighting demons. There are vampires, werewolves and all sorts od nasties the Nephilim are trying to stop hurting the human race. The books are aimed at YA, but a bit like Harry Potter can be read by all ages. I'm in my 70's and am thoroughly enjoying them before handing on to my grandchildren. They are giving me many a late night, with just one more page! These books have sold in their millions and I can see why. It's also a Netflix series called Shadowhunters. I've not watched it yet as I want to finish the books first. Highly recommended if you like Fantasy, or even if you've not tried yet.

I watched the tv series on Netflix and saw it had been adapted from the book having enjoyed the series I decided to invest in a copy of the first bookI have to say the book was better than the first season although they followed very similarpathways the book has a lot more humour making me laugh out loud on more than a fewoccasions also the emotions of the characters seem to be more intense and helped me relate to the characters and empathize with themAll in all a great read so much so after finishing this book I bought the other 5 books in the seriesLooks like I'm going to be busy for a while reading if your thinking of buying this title then I hope you have as much fun reading it as I have done

Although I thoroughly enjoyed this book as a great story line and would love to read the series, I refuse to be ripped off by exorbitant pricing as the next book in the series is more than twice the price than any other book I have purchased through Kindle and those number in the hundreds, So until the publishers realize that they are pricing themselves out of the market i will forgo the pleasure of continuing in this series 😣it is a shame but $50 + for the remaining books in the series is beyond my limited budget, for what is after all an escape from reality, and there are many authors of equal ability who sell their wares at an affordable price. So on just the price of future books I will have to give a big thumbs down on this series and unfortunately will not be reading or enjoying any more books from Cassandra Clare.

The City of Bones in a young adult book that is the first novel in the Shadowhunters series, also known as the mortal instruments series, written by Cassandra Clare. This novel focusses on our main character Clary who accidentally witnesses a murder in a local club by two mysterious boys and a girl. She quickly finds out that nobody except her can see these killers. The killers are the handsome, arrogant Jace and a brother-sister duo who all live together. Clary quickly becomes involved with these three as her mother is mysteriously taken by a villain and they help her to save her mother. In a nutshell.This book is something that was being raved about on Booktube. Emmabooks loves this series and thought that I should give it a go. First impressions were good. The opening of the novel was gripping and I enjoyed the different POV that it had in the start, but this did not continue on. This book is a fantasy novel that involves vampires, demons, faeries, werewolves etc. It has them all.The writing was enjoyable to read but often sometimes juvenile. As this is the first book in the series, I can understand maybe a lack of perfected skill in the writing process and I've heard the other books show a great improvement on this. I, however, still felt it didn't take away from the novel and I enjoyed it. The MC is also a teenager and so the language and storytelling were appropriate for the age of the MC and target audience.There is a lot of action happening in this book. It's very adventurous and has lots of "missions" involved in it. I felt it had maybe one too many missions in it as it was getting a little bit drawn out. The storyline of Clary's best friend becoming a rat and being stolen by vampires wasn't entirely necessary in my opinion, but nevertheless, the action was good. That is just an example of a part where I felt it was just added in for length and more action. Whilst there is action and fantasy there is also a little romance between Clary and Jace. Jace is such an arrogant character he made me laugh out loud for most of his dialogue. He was my favorite character just for being a bit of a jerk. I was really reading to see the romance subplot between them and I was so happy... and then so, so disappointed. There is a further storyline between these two that I honestly felt was unnecessary and annoyed me that it was added. It leads you into the second book, which is great to entice readers, but I just did not like the idea of that storyline. Especially when you know deep down it's going to unravel in the next or coming book anyway because it obviously will. It was kind of like a filler subplot - and it bugged me. It actually put me off reading the second one.I did buy the second and the third novels when I was halfway through this book as I was enjoying it. I don't read a lot of YA but felt this was a good series. That twist at the end between Jace and Clary did happen to put me off. I have started the second book a few weeks ago and I'm not further than 50 pages in. I think it might be because that twist at the end of this book detracts from the second and so causes the MC become all mopey etc. But, that was my biggest issue with the plot of this novel. I do love a romance, it's my primary fiction genre to read, and with that under my belt it did crush my love for this book.I think if you love twilight and things like that then you will enjoy this book. It has lots of creepy things going on. The characters are loveable. I'm still laughing at Jace's sarcastic comments, and I did like Clary as a female MC. She's headstrong and not a Mary Sue in my opinion. I also loved the "silent brothers". Damn... those guys are creepy. Just picturing them makes me shudder. The descriptions were in-depth and enjoyable to read. There is also a map in the cover of my book which I also found to be a nice touch.Overall, I would recommend this book to someone who likes Twilight and likes to read in the fantasy YA genre. I also bought this as a "good like new" book from the Amazon marketplace and it was pristine. There wasn't a broken spine or any dogeared pages. That thrilled me and my inner book nerd to its maximum. I felt the plot was sometimes a little too much, and that ending wasn't quite up my street, which in turn has put me off the second. But, I do still have the second and third books and will be reading them anyway out of enjoyment for the characters - and I know, I will put money on that ending being false.Happy reading!

I love how Cassie built up the characters in this book. Instantly I was intrigued by Clary and her strained relationship with her mother. I didn’t find anything about the characters and their relationships to be predictable or corny. It felt real almost. My favourite character so far has got to be Magnus. He is so sassy, much like myself, teehee! I loved how his character was so unique. He threw his fare share of shade but also proved to be a really loyal friend and help to the group as well. I’m really excited to see how his character develops as the series continues.Although not necessarily set in a fantasy world, I still felt really engrossed into the settings. Able to imagine the different places very vividly in my mind as I read along. Cassie is incredibly detailed in all her descriptions. I appreciated her descriptive writing of the world, characters, weapons, everything! It helped so much to feel like I could fully grasp every scene in all its glory.Again, without revealing any major story details or spoilers. I would like to address the incredible story progression and plot twists in this book. It felt so good to experience a good juicy plot twist and genuinely be shocked! I threw the book down at several points in this story because I just didn’t see any of it coming at all. In addition, The pacing of the story was perfection! I never felt bored or that things were moving too slowly. All the scenes were relevant and none of them felt like pointless filler for the word count. I was gripped from start to finish. I found it so hard to put down towards the end and I hope it continues that way into the second book.I LOVED City of Bones. I’m so glad I got it, I had no idea if I would like it or not or whether I was ready to get stuck into such a long series but I am so ready! Though I am only at the beginning, because it started off this well I have extremely high hopes for the rest of my journey reading The Shadowhunters Chronicles. I rate this book a solid five out of five stars with absolutely zero complaints!