Book Review: City of Bones

So I walked into this knowing what Cla(i)re did in the past on FF.net. To be honest, the only reason why I decided to read this was because of people I work with gushing about it and, like the sucker I am, I want to be up to date with the literary scene.

It took me at least two years of employees AND friends talking me into reading this. Cla(i)re's past literary 'accomplishments' really discerned me from reading TMI until now.

Before I get into characters and plot-line, I'd like to discuss Cla(i)re's writing style. I feel she wrote this for NaNoWriMo and realized she ran out of plot before reaching her word count. So what's the next best thing? Nonsensical embellishment.

Don't get me wrong. I've participated in many a NaNo season--both Camp and November--and I've gone back to embellish to boost my word count but some of the descriptions were just confusing to read--but part of that might have been my e-reader which decided half way through to play 'lets rearrange sentences!' How she worded certain character's actions could have been written simpler and the same message could get across to the reader. (again, nonsensical embellishment)

I know I'm probably being overly analytical about her writing style but, as an unpublished writer spending the better half of my lifetime buried under several hundred different stories, I'm bound to look at another author's work under a microscope and nit pick.

All writing style issues aside, now's the time to talk about characters. Originally, I had a paragraph per character but this review would get too long. So.... a few sentences.

'Minor' characters first, by that, I mean those major players under the age of eighteen. Let's start off with Clary, I wasn't really a fan of her at first. She was too whiny and treated Simon like crap but she grew a little as the book went on. I'm still not a fan of her but there are more books to get me to like her... I hope.

Simon was probably one of the few characters that I marginally liked--and that's saying something. Simon was a great friend to Clary: he's loyal, he gives her rides, he's almost always her side (when she let him) and worries about her well being. Clary should seriously consider Simon as a romantic option instead of trying to please Jace--who will probably be a lost cause after the 'shocking' turn of events toward the end of the book. I really don't have anything bad to say about Simon--yeah he was a bit of a push over towards Clary but, being in love with someone for so long may be a little hard to shake...

Next will be Jace. Let's start off with a positive: Jace is probably one of my favourite boys' names. Negative: I didn't see much in the way of his and Clary's romance. In fact, they butted heads so much that the spark of their romance about a third to half way through the book felt like it came out of left field. If I hadn't heard from multiple sources (friends/family that read the series, articles on the Interwebs, etc.) I would probably have been more shocked when I found out that Jace and Clary were 'siblings' but then again I had more of a heads up so I knew about it in advance.

Next are the Lightwoods. Alec was a douche for most of the book and his only redeeming chapter was the epilogue (I actually started to think he was a decent human being/nephilim). Isabelle came of as a 'bitch' but she wasn't as much as her brother.  I did like the fact that Alec was a--albeit publically closet--homosexual and the other hunter's dismissal was interesting.

Last and probably least, the adults of this series. I'll add them into one big paragraph because they--aside from Hodge--were pretty much nonexistent. Luke pretty much disappeared after Clary was attacked by a ravener and didn't show up again [until two three chapters before the final battle where we find out he's a werewolf]. Jocelyn was captured early on which was Clary's main drive of the first half of the book was to find her. She is also mentioned a few times while her daughter was trying to find out what was going on with her memory [and we learn Jocelyn was altering it to protect her]. [One thing I wasn't expecting was Hodge's betrayal. I hope we find out what happened to him later.] I did also like Valentine as a villain but I didn't fully understand why he wanted to kill all Downworlders. What made him think that way? Was he raised by elitist parents? Did a Downworlder wrong him?

Next is the plot line. To be honest, that's what made me finish. I really enjoyed it. It was new and fast paced. A lot of the paranormal romance I've read thus far has been vampires, werewolves and the occasional witch so it was nice reading something not centered around those. I didn't fully understand the mythos--part of it could have been that I took breaks from it every now and then--but maybe Cla(i)re will go further on it in later books.

So, in short: hated most of the characters, loved the plot and will probably continue for another two books. So, for now, I'll give it a three out of five stars.