Clary only wants success as an artist after graduation, but when her mother’s call ends in screams for her to stay away from home, she is thrown into a world she never knew existed. Clary is a Shadowhunter, and so was her mother. If she wants to save her mother from her captor, she must regain the memories stolen from her and accept her role as a demon hunter.
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Author Cassandra Clare didn’t hold back on creating new identities for common fantasy creatures such as warlocks, vampires and werewolves. Unlike any other story — or series — “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones” holds on to some of the original traits we all know and adds a new twist on them. Clary’s character is stubborn and ignorant, but it takes her places no other attitude could. She never sees what’s right in front of her, which proves ironic since her entire world is an illusion that slowly reveals itself. Before discovering she was a Shadowhunter, Clary lived a normal, human life, or as Shadowhunters call it, life as a mundane. She never knew her father. Her mother had pictures of him and spoke of him, but that’s all she had left of those nonexistent memories.
Clary quickly falls in love with a character named Jace, who happens to fall in love with her although he puts on a careless façade and claims a painful, traumatic past. I had trouble with this because for someone who had such a terrible past — a jerk father who he loved but watched die in front of him — Jace doesn’t take long to fall in love with this naïve girl who has a lot to say with nothing to show for it. That said, the ending fixes it for me because they’re placed in an awkward situation that unravels and changes in the next books.
The plot is what drew me in and kept me flipping pages until 2 in the morning. Fantasies with a dash of realism tend to lure me into the world because I find myself imagining my own scenes even after I close the book. Clary’s character added constant conflict because she’s a silly teenager who overestimates herself, but she learns, and that’s always fun to read.
The antagonist, Valentine, is only a threat until the end of the book. He has Clary’s mother the entire time, but we don’t experience him, physically, until the end when Clary meets him and finds out who her father really is. The new show on FreeForm “Shadowhunters” is based on this series; however, if anyone wants to enjoy the show, it’s best not to read the books. Personally, I think the books did a better job and instead of watching FreeForm mess up what I love about the book, I plan on picking up the second book in the series, “City of Ashes,” and you should do the same.
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