City Of Bones By Cassandra Clare || Book Review

Hey Guys! It is Max here and I will be doing a book review for ‘City Of Bones’ by Cassandra Clare today! Just to let you guys know: I actually have two pending book reviews that have reached the deadline that I had set up to write before reviewing this novel but I have so much to say about this novel that I have to push all the others aside before my utterly forgetful brain neglects on what I have wanted to speak on. Therefore, let us get this review started!

But wait! Before we get into the remarkably detailed side of the review, I would like to cultivate a mini-synopsis for this blockbuster before we move our eyes into the review that will be performed later on in this article! So, here goes the synopsis of this novel:

City Of Bones is a Young Adult, Paranormal Fantasy novel following Clary Fray as her mother disappears from her life and finding out that she is part of an angelic race which her mother had been determined to keep her from knowing all these years that she had been living with her. 

Now, we can finally get into the official review for the novel!

Disclaimers:

• All thoughts and opinions are on my own and…
• Be aware of some mild spoilers as this is a novel that is hard to contain everything systematically! So, let us now jump into the review!

“The boy never cried again, and he never forgot what he’d learned: that to love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be the one destroyed.”- City Of Bones, Cassandra Clare.

Synopsis:

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It’s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know… 

My thoughts: The Beginning

The very first thing that I would like to talk about in this review is the diversity that the author had installed in this novel. I loved how the author had represented a gay character in this novel because to me, I feel like there were not much representation of the LGBTQIA+ community in YA novels and the fact that the author had laid the community in this novel was just fantastic! Therefore, I liked the diverse cast of characters in this book!

Moving on, I would like to discuss on the relationship that Cassie had deposited in this novel. The relationships between the characters were very unique and magical that I thought it was a great experience to have with the casts in this book because everything was not one-dimensional but complex and hard to guess (Does it make sense? I hope so) that I just really relished on how beautiful the experience that I had with this book was. Thus, I enjoyed the relationships that the author had dropped into this book.

Furthermore, we have the pacing that I would like to rattle on in this book review. I would not say that the pacing of this novel is fast or anything because it literally took me two weeks to finish this book due to the level of hardness at the beginning of the novel which I will talk more about later on in the review. However, as I had gotten past the first 150 pages of explanation and the ‘Wikipedia’ of the world, I was immediately sucked back into the story and the pages flew by so quickly that I had a hard time knowing that I actually reached the certain page count. Thus, I did not enjoy the pacing for the beginning of the novel but overall, I thought the pacing was pretty good!

Moreover, we have the beginning and the ending of the novel that I have to converse on in this review. The beginning which I will be conversing on first was filled with world-building and although I enjoyed how well the author had built the world, I could not help but feel how aridity and anti-climatic the beginning was. It was not that the world was not interesting, it was just that the author had included too much of information that resulted in information overload. Plus, nothing really happened in the beginning except for the planning that the characters’ had to bring Clary’s mother back. Thus, I kind of hated the beginning of the book.

In addition, the ending which was non-identical to the beginning of the novel was juicy, action-packed and overall frustrating (in a good way). The ending of the novel clutched on my heart, burned it to the ground and put it back into my chest again with no remorse except for the blisters on it that will never be healed ever again. Sorry for being so dramatic but I really loved the ending for this novel and because of that, I have decided to read book 2: City Of Ashes!

Into the bargain, we have the world-building and atmosphere of this novel that I have to include in this review! The world-building, just like what I have said earlier, was great and it enhanced the reading experience for us, readers. However, the author had included too much of the functions of the world in the beginning that I really found it to be an extremely hard segment to get through. In addition, the atmosphere for this book was exceptionally good because it increased my heart rate as the scenes had gotten intense and while I was reading this book, I can feel the chemicals that were working hard and revolving much around my brain. Plus, when the story came to a closure and the plot twists damaged my brain temporarily, I felt so drowsy that I had to read the next book almost immediately. Thus, I liked the world-building but not that much and I loved the atmospheres that were gyrating around this novel.

Finally, we have the favourite quote segment that I would like to address on in this review. My favourite quote from this novel was:

“By the Angel,” Jace said, looking the demon up and down. “I knew Greater Demons were meant to be ugly, but no one ever warned me about the smell.”
Abbadon opened its mouth and hissed. Inside its mouth were two rows of jagged glass-sharp teeth.
“I’m not sure about this wind and howling darkness business,” Jace went on, “smells more like landfill to me. You sure you’re not from Staten Island?”- City Of Bones, Cassandra Clare.

This quote was not the best quote in the whole book but I thought it was funny, idiosyncratic and weird to be a favourite quote throughout the novel but still, I thought it was a great quote and I loved it so, don’t judge me.

Now, let us get into the writing section of this review!

Writing: The Middle

Cassandra Clare’s style of writing in this novel was not the best writing style out there- in the literature world, but I did really enjoy how she held onto some interesting words and made them lively. So, here goes the review of the writing style in this book!

The writing style for this book was chatty, articulate, idiomatic and sometimes- verbose. The reason why I said the writing style was verbose because of its constant used of unnecessary sentences to get to the main point that the characters’ were trying to harangue on. However, the writing style was also pretty informal which I, personally, enjoyed because it lets us, readers, see that this is how the characters’ are going to react when they are facing a situation. In addition, it was also very articulate and idiomatic! It keeps the readers in a constant flow of indulging in the book and performing wonders such as their imaginations- in the brain. Thus, I did enjoy the writing style! But I have more to talk about in the below paragraphs.

[Sort of Rant ahead]

Presently, we are going to address on the excessive use of commas in this novel. As you can see, I am not the biggest fan of the redundant use of commas in the writing style because it is pretty hard for the readers to get through them and also, if you dive deeper into the novel, it gets very vexatious. And with all of that that I have said, I thought that this novel’s writing style fell into that category of ‘Commas-are-overused’. Furthermore, there were not enough prose to keep the sentences from breaking apart from each other and I thought the sentences do not flow well as they kept falling apart from each other due to the lack of prose like ‘as, because, etc.’ Therefore, it bothered my reading of this book to death due to the flaws in this novel.

[Out of the rant]

Moving on, we are going to discuss about the word choices that Cassandra’s Clare picked to entwine words together to make them feel alive. I thought Cassie did a really good job on picking out words that were added pleasingly to the story and the word drizzled and diffused through each sentence accordingly. Thus, I enjoyed the careful handing out of words for this novel!

Finally, we have the descriptions of the novel that I would like to talk about. The descriptions which I really enjoyed drifted through the book as the scenes in this novel were thoughtfully picked out and the descriptions that had taken place in the book had made everything so easy to be visualized in the brain that I had no hard time trying to conceive anything in my head. Thus, I enjoyed the beautiful descriptions in the novel.

Now, let jump right into the characters’ break down section of this review!

Characters: The 3/4 Section Of The Review

Clary Fray: Almost everyone on the internet called her out as an annoying protagonist but I thought otherwise. To me, Clary was a sympathetic character that I commiserate with and she was somewhat dumb at times but never annoying because the shreds of evidence were clearly placed in front of her eyes but she still managed to overlook them. Furthermore, she was a little cliché because her characterization fell under the category of ‘She-is-pretty-and-I-am-not’ but other than those flaws, I thought she was kind and decent. Therefore, I liked her as a character in this novel.

Simon Lewis: To be honest, I do not really enjoy Simon as a character in this book even though he had the potential to grow as a character in the later novels but I just did not enjoy his perspective because he was whiny, needy and ibwerobgib. Thus, I have nothing to compliment on his character except for the features that he had held.

Jace Wayland: He was the boy with a dark past. Although I did indeed sympathize with how abusive his father was and how everything- for example, the blood that ran in his veins, was not his fault but the blame was somehow atop of his head, he was still a very sarcastic, rude and not-very-sexy person who Isabelle called him out as sexy. I do not understand how a person who is so rude… can be sexy. Therefore, I liked him (again) as a character in this book; but I did not love him as a character in this novel.

Luke Garroway: I loved Luke as a character in this book! He was kind, friendly and ‘Has-Jace’s-Sarcastic-attitude lite‘. He was somehow a character that I commiserate even more because he was stripped of his title as a Shadowhunter and he was also forcefully banned from his own homeland due to the demon disease that flowed in his capillaries. Plus, he was betrayed by his dearest friend who he thought was a brother. Therefore, I loved Luke’s characterization in this novel!

Valentine Morgenstern: I hated him! UGH! THIS VILLAIN WAS A FREAKING ARSEHOLE IN THIS NOVEL LIKE KJFBIJBFABIBFIBA. Basically, words cannot express how irritated (in a good way) I am with him. He was one of the most interesting villains that I had read in a while and I hope he will just jump off the cliff soon. Thus, I loved this villain but hated him (hopefully it makes sense).

Overall: The Ending

Although the ending for this novel was exciting and action-packed, I thought the beginning- somewhere around page 1 to page 100, was pretty dull and anti-climatic. Plus, there were some flaws in this novel that I, personally, did not enjoy. However, I am going to read the sequel to this book because the ending had me shook and I need more of Cassandra Clare’s world and characters. Therefore, I am giving this book a 69.5% rating.