City of Bones

Published Information

Author:	Cassandra Clare
Series:	The Mortal Instruments Series, #1
Published:	March 2007
Genre:	Modern Fantasy
Pages:	496

Ratings

Violence:	PG-13 (Fantasy violence, demon blood)
Sexual Content:	PG-13 (Teen flirting, kiss)
Language:	PG-13 (B and A words used)
Reading Age:	High School
Buy Recommend:	Borrow (I am only one if family that might enjoy it)
Overall Rating:	6 out of 10 (Imaginative, light read)

Plot Summary

The book is set in an alternate reality where most people have no idea magic and monsters exist, but a small subset of the population can see how the world really is. The normal people are called mundanes, and the sub population are called shadowhunters. The world is populated by humans, underworlders (fairy, werewolves, vampires, etc), and demons. Demons don't belong in our universe, but invade every once in a while. It is the shadowhunters job to remove them to keep the mundanes safe.

As the book begins, Clary and Simon are mundanes who, very quickly, become involved with the shadowhunters world. Clary witnesses a group of shadowhunters, Jace, Alec, and Isabelle, killing a demon, not knowing that she is seeing things no other mundane can see. The shadowhunters are just as surprised when they realize she has seen them. Later, as a demon attacks Clary, the shadowhunters realize Clary is someone special.

The rest of the book is dealing with figuring out who Clary is, and that she is much more involved in the shadowhunter world than anyone at first believed. She holds the information necessary to find a hidden item of power, the Mortal Cup, one of the Mortal Instruments, that allow new shadowhunters to be created.

Comments

I did enjoy this book. It was a quick read and worth the time. It was fast paced and kept me turning pages. There were some points where the book was very predictable, though, and that was a bit disappointing.

As a parent, there are a couple of topics that can be considered offensive, but more importantly should be discussed if you allow your teenagers to read it (Please note, these will include spoilers):

• One of the characters is homosexual, but isn't open about it. Some of the characters know about it, and it brings in some tensions about relationships.
• One of the characters grew up in an emotionally abusive home, but believes his parents to be dead. Later, he is reunited with his father, though it turns out his father is the bad guy of the book. But even with that being the case, he still has wanted a father all his life and is willing to overlook (at least for a while) who is father is.
• One of the main themes of the book is that demons and angels exist. Demons are evil, and angels are fighting on the side of the light. At one point, the main characters need to find some holy weapons. The go to a Catholic church, but have a discussion that they could have gone to any religious sect to find the weapons, since all sects are just the same thing taught from a different culture.
• Along those lines, one of the characters thinks shadowhunters must be "believers" then, since they are fight evil using holy weapons. That is not the case, and one of the shadowhunters explains that this is just a job that he is good at, and if god does exist, he doesn't care.