City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Published: March 27, 2007
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Summary: 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 Review: Okay, so I'm going to admit that I was disappointed while reading this book. I had such high expectations of this book. After reading Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare and absolutely loving and devouring it, I was so looking forward to reading this one. But seriously, I felt as if I was reading Clockwork Angel again, but with different character names, and not as interesting a setting. I mean, in Clockwork Angel we had Will, Jem, and Tessa (Jessamine too). In City of Bones we had Jace, Alec and Clary (Along with Isabelle). Sure, these characters weren't exactly the same, but they were pretty darn close. (Will and Jace - both are cocky and conceited, come on, Jace even said "my one true love remains myself" pg 354. Tessa and Clary - both completley oblivious to this whole other world until one day when they are exposed, and thrown into it. I could also compare Jessamine with Isabelle and how similar they are -but I wont)
At first, I wasn't into this book, it took me a lot longer to get into the groove of it, but I stuck to it because there was something in it that made me know it wouldn't be a complete waste of a book. And I'm pretty sure its Cassandra Clare and the way she writes. She has an amazing skill with putting detail in her novels without going over board and making it too much. Her characters are real and mysterious. The detail to the setting was there for sure, but I didn't get the same "wow, this setting is so real" feeling like I did with Clockwork Angel.
But let me tell you this, things started to look up around chapters 14 and 15. The book got very interesting here, and fun! This is, thankfully, where the story started to be its own story! From here on, I could picture in my mind everything that was happening. I enjoyed City of Bones from chapter 14 onward almost to the point of being able to forget that the first part was hard to get into.
But overall, I was glad I read the book, and yeah, I liked it! (I wasn't able to put the book down after chapter 14, and I finished it within a few hours of reading.)