Book Review: City of Bones

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....

Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.

City of Bones is Cassandra Clare's debut and book one of The Mortal Instruments. Our main character, Clary Fray, finds herself a witness to murder by three teens covered in strange tattoos. These teens, Shadowhunters, are invisible to humans, so why can Clary see them?

Jace, Isabel, and Alec are Shadowhunters who protect the world by killing demons. Clary has questions, and the only person who can answer them has been kidnapped. She and her friend, Simon, are pulled into this new world that neither knew existed. And now it's up to her, and her new friends, to find her mother and find answers to her many questions.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. The writing itself was only okay, but it was fun, if not too predictable. I was not a fan of Clary. She was much too whiny. And Jace, the main love interest and second main character, was a d-bag. So it says something for the story that I can enjoy a book while hating the two main characters. Simon was crush-worthy. And I enjoyed Isabel, Alec, and Max... three siblings of the family who has more or less adopted Jace. And Magnus, the warlock, was a lot of fun.

As soon as I finished this one, I grabbed book two, City of Ashes.