Fifteen year old Clary Fray and her best friend Simon, are among dozens of people who want to enter Pandemonium Club. They stand in line, with patience, to get inside after the necessary face control to be approved by the bouncers. But, while they are waiting, they couldn’t ever imagine what would happen…
…
the blue-haired boy, with a high, yowling cry, tore free of the restraints binding him to the pillar, and flung himself on Jace. They fell to the ground and rolled together, the blue-haired boy tearing at Jace with hands that glittered as if tipped with metal. Clary backed up, wanting to run, but her feet caught on a loop of wiring and she went down, knocking the breath out of her chest. She could hear Isabelle shrieking.
Rolling over, Clary saw the blue-haired boy sitting on Jace’s chest. Blood gleamed at the tips of his razorlike claws. Isabelle and Alec were running toward them, Isabelle brandishing her whip in her hand. The blue-haired boy slashed at Jace with claws extended. Jace threw an arm up to protect himself, and the claws raked it, splattering blood. The blue-haired boy lunged again — and the whip came down across his back. He shrieked and fell to the side.
Literraly pandemonium!
That was the first time Clarissa (that’s Clary’s standard name) met Shadow Hunters and Demons. Two species totaly different from humans, eventhough their appearance has similarities. The fact that Clarissa can see Shadow Hunters, while most people cannot, is scary and dangerous even by itself.
Almost as dangerous as the first love in a teenage girl’s heart. His name? Jace! One of the Shadow Hunters who she met that night. Jace with his lion like amber eyes, tawny gold hair, and swift as a wild cat! With the looks of a movie star and deadly as a monster from a horror movie.
Don’t you think that Clary is caught in a tornado already? Guess what happened next. Few days after the events in Pandemonium Club her beloved mother Jocelyn disappears. Jocelyn was forced to let Clary face on hew own the tidal waves that are coming next. A gigantic wave that gives her the most unbelievable and gruesome knowledge about the world and her origins… things that her mother hide so carefully all these years!
The plot takes place in New York City and Cassandre Clare lead us in a story with demons, wizards, vampires, werewolves, zombies, goblins, fairies, deadly beings from different dimensions and of course Shadow Hunters! You will find all these and more in City of Bones, the first book of the Mortal Instruments series.
Is this yet one more Gothic book about the eternal battle between good and evil? No! And here’s why.
First of all, the plot is particularly rich, imaginative, addictive and with many original points, even if it’s on the same road that Stephanie Meyer paved with Twilight, making vampire and werewolves stories in fashion.
Secondly, the team roles aren’t clear and distinct, something that is true in real life as well. DO you remember the ying yang symbol? Inside the white there is some black and inside the black there is some white and both are in motion and keep changing place. In “City of Bones” you can find good people among the bad and bad people among the good. So we don’t choose which side are we one, but we can choose which characters we like and support. Oh well, ok, above all we support Clarissa, after all she’s the protagonist!
Cassanda Clare has a very good style of writing, the characters are even better and the plot not only overtook me, but many times gave me a witty smile as well. I really enjoyed reading “City of Bones”, and even though it is about 600 pages, when I finished it I wished it had 300 more! I believe that the Mortal Instruments series will take its place among the best novels of that genre!
I am looking forward, in agony, to read the following books. City of Ashes (October 2010 in Greece), City of Glass and City of Fallen Angels (March 2011 in USA). On http://www.mortalinstruments.com Cassanda Clare announced that she will write a prequel series, and Clockwork Angel (the first book) will be published on September 2010.
The synopsis at the back of the book:
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. Clary knows she should call the police, but it’s hard to explain a murder when the body disappears into thin air and the murderers are invisible to everyone but Clary.
Equally startled by her ability to see them, the murderers explain themselves as Shadowhunters: a secret tribe of warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. Within twenty-four hours, Clary’s mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a grotesque 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….