Yzabel / August 16, 2012

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

My rating: [rating=3]

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. . .

Review:

As weird as it may seem, before reading this book, I had no idea who Cassandra Clare was, nor about her ties with the Harry Potter fandom. One of the first things I thought when reading the first chapters was that I could feel a strong HP influence in it, probably too strong (even in the family names: Lightwood/Rookwood). The whole Circle thing reminded me of the Death Eaters, Jace was enough of a blond jackass to smack of Draco, Simon might just have well have been Ron… I won’t list other parallels I drew, since they’d be spoilers, but I felt them nonetheless. This, I must said, irked me a little: not that I dislike J.K. Rowling’s series (on the contrary!), just because at first it seemed, well, too much like fanfiction turned into original fiction at the last moment. This sometimes detracted me from the story’s intrinsic values, and it was too bad (probably, also, what partly explains why I’m not giving it a higher grade).

On the other hand, I still managed to enjoy “City of Bones” in the end, so there are clearly good things about it.

The story is pretty much built along traditional plot lines, that anyone familiar with Campbell’s “journey of the Hero” will likely recognize, because they’re as old as humanity itself. Some may be bothered by this, some may like it, some may not care. As far as I’m concerned, as long as it works in terms of storytelling, I enjoy that. And it worked here, so it’s all good for me, even though it makes it a little easier to predict where things are going (for instance, “J.C.”: alright, who couldn’t see at least that one coming?). It also worked in HP, by the way. It’s not something that prevents me from enjoying a piece of writing. I found many interesting things in the novel as a whole, such as the beginning scene (among other things: the killers that nobody but Clary can’t see; the Shadowhunters who’re clearly not such nice guys; where all the non-human originate from). All in all, it was an entertaining read, meaning I didn’t have to think too much, wanted to see the plot progress, kept turning the pages, and thought at the end: “OK, I kind of what to pick up the second book.”

Oh yes, I forgot to mention the author’s writing itself, which I found good enough, even though she sometimes makes use of weird similes. ften the dialogues made me smile or even chuckle, and it was pleasant. (Yes, there were lighter moments in the darker plot; those are never a bad thing, in my opinion.)

Unfortunately, I was less than thrilled about the characters, whose main flaw was that they lacked substance. They’re likeable in their own ways, but didn’t feel ‘present’ enough throughout the story—as if the substance was here, underneath, but not fleshed out enough. I don’t think it has to do with the fact that they pretty much fit archetypes that are often seen in YA novels or TV series in general—I’m convinced that archetypes, if made deep enough, can be very interesting. It’s just that they struck me as bland at times. Jace often came too much as a jackass (oh, boy, you’re not as witty as you think you are, and no, you’re clearly not more witty than Simon, and putting him down all the time won’t make you appear more badasse). Isabelle seemed too cookie-cutter. Alec would’ve deserved more attention. Clary was a nice girl, but didn’t stand out more than the supporting characters (and I kept on wanting to smack her head because she was so blind to what was so evident from the beginning). Poor Simon was really played for the resident butt-monkey, when he’d deserve to be treated better. I think I liked Magnus Bane best; too bad he got only minimal screen time.

All in all, this novel was enjoyable. I’m quite tempted to go on reading “The Mortal Instruments”, or at least the next installment, because there *is* room for improvement, and it may very well still happen. In spite of what I didn’t like in it, it isn’t enough to drive me off the series.