Book Review: "City of Bones" by Cassandra Clare

(Mortal Instruments #1)
My Rating: 
Why? City of Bones is full of tropes and flat characters that simply don't work for me in fantasy fiction.

---

Plot Tease

When Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons.

This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors who  rid the earth of demons. Clary is pulled into Jace’s world when her mother disappears. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? Exotic and gritty, Cassandra Clare’s ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.

Full Book Review

Sorry for the long summary, but I had to include that last sentence in this book review. Exotic and gritty? Ferociously entertaining? Not hardly. If we're calling average fan fiction exotic and gritty, City of Bones does not fit the bill. Clare's prose is overly simple, clumsy and just plain uninspiring. Clary's story often becomes an infodump on Shadowhunters and their mystical world of fantastic hot guys and mythical creatures. Well.

Cassandra Clare has got a nice secret I'd like to tell you, also.

The Problem with Clary

Where to even begin this book review? Clary's character is such a blatant Mary-Sue. I'm sure you can see the similarities between her name and the author's. Clary is described as having red hair and green eyes. Guess what Cassandra Clare looks like?

Her personality sadly remains the same all the way through the book, which we can sum up here by saying: always right, supposedly super nice while also being cutting and sarcastic, uses other people and rebellious in an oh so cool way.

Everyone is attracted to her, but she doesn't seem to realize this. She has laser-precision amnesia that allows her to be the unknowing heiress to a warrior-race heritage capable of learning to slaughter demons and monsters overnight with stunning accuracy.

Also, other women don't tend to like her. But they're just jealous. Clary's character is so incredibly unrealistic. It's an obvious author insertion, where the main character is exactly what the writer would like to be, and all the characters around her metaphorically bow down in awe.

Good Guys = Bad Guys The antagonist in the series is a Bad Guy because he is somewhat racist and kills people he considers beneath him. BUT WAIT. The Shadowhunters don't hold harmless supernatural creatures around them in very high esteem either.

And the Mundanes - Humans - seem to be regarded as suffering from skill handicaps that aren't capable of anything. SPOILERS: When Simon kills the giant demon at the end, everyone is absolutely amazed. He's a mundane. He's not capable of anything cool. So tell me, how are the Shadowhunters really that different in their ideals?

What Consequences? Realism is under heavy fire in this book. You may be protesting to me that it's fantasy fiction, it doesn't have to be real. Let me explain. Good fantasy fiction is fantastic and imaginative in all ways, but still maintains an edge of "real". It's still a world that works under certain rules. If those rules are that everything is random, so be it - but at least be consistent. [/small rant].

Clare's characters are constantly doing things that could be considered taboo. All kinds of taboo relationships and actions. It's so dangerous and alluring, oh mah gawd. Do they ever face consequences? Of course not. Clare would never intentionally endanger her characters. Which brings me to another point of grief. The only people to ever actually be harmed are the bad, or the socially-low (non-humans, etc).

Of course, this could be explained by the way that all of the Good Guys are drop-dead beautiful, full of perfect skill and grace, while the Bad Guys are all hideous. Stop for a minute. What does this imply? I'm not going to assume Cassandra Clare was actually consciously considering the connotations of this particular plot feature. But really?

I thought we were past the point in good fantasy fiction where not beautiful characters = evil characters.

Thievery This is getting long, so I'll leave off the book for now. I mentioned earlier that Cassandra Clare has a secret. It's chonicled very nicely in this post about her past plagiarism. Before she published these books, she wrote other stories on the internet in which she blatantly stole published authors' work without credit. If you scroll down in that web page there are side-by-side examples, if you don't take my word for it.

So do posterity and publishing a favor: don't support authors like Cassandra Clare. There is no good reason why this book should have been on the New York Times Best Sellers list.

I can't recommend it for anyone, unless you're looking for a guilty-pleasure fan fiction read and don't particularly care about the quality of content. In that case, have at it.

From a character development standpoint, I'd be sinning if I gave it more than 2 stars.

What Do You Think?

Do you prefer that edge of realism in fantasy fiction, or does it matter at all to you?
Where is the line between "fan fiction" and "fiction"? Do you think such authors should be published?
Tell me about the most awful Mary Sue you've ever encountered!

"'Dont,' Clary raised warning hand. 'Im not really in the mood right now.' 

'Thats got to be the first time a girl's ever said that to me,' Jace mused." - City of Bones

Cost: New $7.36/Used $3.30 (Available on Kindle and Nook.)

Buy City of Bones on Amazon
(This book review is not sponsored in any way. All opinions are mine.)