THE DETAILS:
Pages: 442
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy
Release Date: 2007
Publisher: Walker Books
Won in a Competition
THE BLURB:
Clary Fray is seeing things: vampires in Brooklyn and werewolves in Manhattan. Irresistibly drawn towards a group of sexy demon hunters, Clary encounters the dark side of New York City - and the dangers of forbidden love.
THE REVIEW:
What a book! Another novel that I have judged by it's cover (Yes, the abs are stunning, but I'm normally drawn to covers with pretty dresses or something a bit more girly) and missed out on enjoying all those years ago. A great novel that combines bits and pieces from all different types of fantasy fiction.
My friend has been telling me to read this series for ages. Occasionally I would pick up a copy at a department store and think about it, but I'd always put it back. There was something about the cover that just screamed masculinity. Maybe I was too daft to realise that the tough guy on the front was probably supposed to be eyecandy... Then, sometime last year I came across a competition on a blog where you could win one of three series and I chose 'Mortal Instruments', because I had heard so much praise for the series that I just had to find out what the big deal was. I finally decided to open 'City of Bones' on Wednesday.
I got about 100 pages in and was already so mad at myself. This book was going to be awesome. Why did I wait all this time to finally read it?
One thing I really liked about this book was the action and the way it was described. This book was absolutely action packed. There were all these little adventures that took place during the novel that each had a bit of fighting or escaping of some sort. The imagery that the author created was pretty amazing. The descriptions reminded me of Japanese cartoons a little. Everything was picturesque and clear, but it was also kind of far-fetched.
One thing I was worried that I wouldn't like when I started this book was the number of creatures and myths involved. We are talking about a world here filled with shadow hunters, demons, fey, witches, vampires, werewolves and pixies. That is a lot of creatures. I think I was worried that the amounts of the fantasy elements in the story would effect the believability; That maybe, it would seem too far-fetched for me to be able to take it seriously. Somehow the author manages to write a reasonably enjoyable story even with all the fantasy stuff.
I did think that some of the book reminded me of other books I had already read. 'The Mortal Instruments' for example, reminded me of 'The Deathly Hallows' from 'Harry Potter'. Also, the fact that Valentine (Starting with 'V') was thought to be dead and apparently isn't also seemed a little Potterish. There were a few other bits that reminded me of the 'Wicked Lovely' series and even 'Twilight'. These things seemed less and less like they were copied as I progressed with reading the book. When certain things were revealed later on in the novel I thought "Nope. This isn't like Harry Potter at all...", but even so nothing is ever 100% original is it?
There was one bit towards the end - which I won't spoil for anyone ,but - will say that I know some people out there will find disturbing. It shocked me a little bit, but I found that I thought it quite possible in real life with all the split families and such. I also found it a little funny...
Overall, This was a great book. I give it 5/5 Stars, but I'm not marking it as a favourite. I don't think it was as great as some of the other books I've read, but it definitely was entertaining and belongs amongst some of the highly rated novels. I recommend it to those who enjoyed one of the following series: 'Harry Potter', 'Vampire Accademy' and 'Wicked Lovely'.
Natalie
1 comment:
There was something about this book that made me go: Naaaah, that's nothing for me. But after reading your review, I became more anxious about it. Perhaps I'll give it a chance :)
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