City of Bones: Book Review

Recently, While endorsed in my studies at MPHS--which have unfortunately kept me from blogging for quite a duration of time--I discovered that in order to receive Honors credit for my Language Arts class, it was required of me to write a scholarly book review of at least 250 words, as well as prove that I posses all the quotation blending skills that are listed on the Honors Requirements Checklist.

As most of you already know, I have a thing for writing REALLY LONG sentences (and blog posts, for that matter) so the 250 words should be a piece of cake. The quotation blending, I'm not quite as proficient at--my sentences are already so confusing with their great number of words, and thus trying to add in quotes just confounds the reader further--but I'm not going to let that stop me.

I want to be a writer, and thus I shouldn't fear writing about writing.

Of course, it's not as easy as it looks.

But enough of this pointless chit-chat. Now it is time for me to write this review, and share it with the world.

Well, maybe not the world... the entire world doesn't read my blog (yet), but you get what I mean.


City of Bones, by Cassandra Clare, was a fun, engaging, interesting story, which captivated my attention and had several inspiring elements in it, (like the whole concept of the Shadowhunters, their Runes and the Angel) though it lacked originality in its side characters and the writer's style struck me as if it were trying to be poetic, lyrical and fantastical while still being quick and action packed, but only managed to come off as if it was comprised of words cut out from two different kinds of poems (one incredibly violent and pathetic, the other beautiful and exquisite) and mashed together tolerably, but not quite as excellently as they could have been.

Of course, had I written the book, it most definitely would have been 200 pages longer and 10 times more confusing, and I cannot say that I would do any better, but I wouldn't chop it up so much. (I prefer chocolate bars to chocolate chips sprinkled in with shredded spinach).

The plot, was very engaging--it made me forget that almost every other sentence sounded forced (meaning it didn't sound like something that the character would think, it sounded like a mushy script writer rambling on about this and that)--and kept me turning it's pages right up until the end. I even want to read the sequel!

However, there was one flaw that I found oddly disturbing:
I could predict nearly every "shocking" plot twist at least three pages before it happened, if not ten chapters before it happened. The "subtle" hints that the author dropped to clue in to the plot twists were just a little too obvious--probably because every sentence was so cliche, that the author couldn't really keep anything hidden. Everything was obvious--which is nice if you want the reader to understand your story, but isn't so nice when you want the to be surprised, but they know your story so well they already know what's going to happen.

Don't read me wrong, I loved this book, and no writer is perfect--for anyone who likes a good paranormal action flick with sprinkles of romance thrown in, then this book is the perfect match for you, however, I have read books that are, in my opinion, better written than this one, and I would, on no occasion, try to imitate the writing style of Cassandra Clare.

The book is about a girl named Clary (short for Clarissa) who is described as having "carroty hair" and "a face full of freckles", who, while attending the Pandemonium, a Night Club in New York City, witnesses a otherworldly murder, that no one else can see, and is plunged into the dark world of demons, Shadowhunters and a slew of many other mythological creatures, which she had always been convinced never existed. She goes home, confused and embarrassed, but soon after her mother is kidnapped, and she runs into a Ravner Demon--a powerful, inhuman creature from another dimension--which she kills, though nearly dies in the process.

The people who committed the murder, Jace Wayland, Alec Lightwood, and Isabelle Lightwood come to the rescue, heal her demon-venom-poisoned wounds, and take her to their secret hideout, The Institute (which is disguised as an old, run down church to ward off "mundanes" [regular humans who cannot see demons, faeries and the other mythological creatures the roam the earth]) where they introduce her to the Shadowhunter world, in which they live in, and discover that she, though raised as a mundane, is actually a Shadowhunter herself.

After staying at the Institute for quite a while, reading their books and learning more about the things which she was supposed to be taught while growing up, it is reveled that her mother, Jocelyn, was a Shadowhunter as well, but had participated in an event known as the Uprising, which had been a rather traumatic event for her--for it resulted in the death of her parents, and her son--and had decided thereafter to protect her daughter from the Shadowhunter world to save her from the pain it had brought her. It is also revealed that Jocelyn was married to a man named Valentine (though Clary was told that her father's name was Jonathan and that he died in a car accident before she was born) and that he wanted possession of the Mortal Cup--a cup filled with angel blood mixed with human blood, which, if drunk from, turns the person who drank from it into a Shadowhunter, or kills them if they're not strong enough--and believed that Jocelyn was in possession of it.

Clary has never heard of such a thing, which confounds those at the Institute, but she is determined to get her mother back, and, is willing to give Valentine the cup in exchange for the return of her mother. And thus the search for the Mortal Cup, Valentine, and Clary's mother begins.

As you can see, the plot is very engaging, but before committing to reading it, I advise you to read the following (which is an excellent example of what I believe is one of her worst, forced, choppy poetry sections) to get a taste of Cassandra Clare's writing style.

If it doesn't bother you, by all means, read the book.

If it does, grit your teeth and enjoy it. That's what I did.

Here it is:

The wind tore her hair as they rose up, up over the cathedral, up above the
roofs of the nearby nigh-rises and apartment buildings. And there it was spread
out before her like a carelessly opened jewelry box, this city more populous and
more amazing than she had ever imagined: There was the emerald square of Central
Park, where the faerie courts met on midsummer evenings; there were the lights
of the clubs and bars downtown, where vampires danced nights away at
Pandemonium; there the alleys of Chinatown down which the werewolves slunk at
night, their coats reflecting the city's lights. There walked warlocks in all
their bat-winged, cat-eyed glory, as they swung out over the river, she saw the
darting flash of multicolored tails under the silvery skin of the water, the
shimmer of lone, pearl-strewn hair, and heard the high, rippling laughter of
mermaids.

So there it is.

Yay.

(sarcastic smiley face). :)