Review: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Book: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Genre: YA Paranormal/ Urban Fantasy
Rating: A-
For: Fun
From: I bought it at Costco I think

Talk about a book I've heard TONS about. Sheesh, I've felt so left out of the buzz on this one! And we just can't let that happen so after a false start last summer, I finally got it read last week! Why the false start? I think when I was trying to read it back then, I was just sick of the same old paranormal story. Simple as that.

It went much better this time around, even though for me it still had a slow start but it did end up with quite a bunch of twists and turns! And breath holding moments.

First, quick summary for those of you even more out of the loop than I am! Our heroine is Clary, who stumbles upon a couple of demon hunters in action. Funny thing, she isn't supposed to see them because they are shrouded in glamor! So right off, we know that something is up with Clary and she isn't quite "normal" like she thinks she is. Then suddenly, her mom disappears, she herself is nearly killed by a demon, and so the demon hunters (wait make that Shadow Hunters) take her in and fill her in on all the bits about the world she doesn't know. (Here's the part where I started glazing over a bit... all the background story!) Anyway, and so now she is on a quest to save her mom, with the help of these new friends, Jace, Alec and Isabelle... and of course her loyal best friend Simon.

So, even though I ended up liking it just fine, my problem is that it does fit the typical formula for these paranormal books. We've got our girl who discovers she's not who she seems to be, and the world is not what she thinks it's been all her life. We've got the two boys, one blond one dark. One new and mysterious, one loyal and familiar. Choices, choices! We've got the weird parent situation, the old tutor/mentor guy, and the scary mean overlord. We've got werewolves and vampires! Oh my!

What I liked that was different was the cool world that's created here. Even though I didn't want to hear the whole back story, it is cool nonetheless. The foreshadowing about the loyal friend. (Which I'm sorry to say Jace fans, I think I'm really liking Simon... dark hair of course and there's something up with the arrows, and as you can see from my post of yesterday I'm sucker for a boy with arrows!)  The twists that I didn't really see coming (but I'm usually clueless about these sorts of things, so that's not saying a whole lot.) New and different demons... and of course, my favorite... a flying motorcycle! With Jace at the helm! Yeah, that's cool.

Bottom line: I really enjoyed it, especially the second half, despite it's familiar plot pattern. I will read the others, and see if it veers away from the "normal" paranormal experience! (Ha! Normal paranormal... did you catch that? It wasn't even on purpose either!)

Too many other reviews to list and look up, especially since I'm feeling extremely lazy at the moment. Just click on any other book blog... they've probably read and reviewed it! And probably liked it too.

And yeah, there's going to be a movie.