City of Bones – Cassandra Clare

City of Bones, the first book in the Mortal Instruments, is a book that I have been absolutely lucky to read. It is the 7th book in the chronological order of the Shadowhunter Chronicles, which is one of the best loved and cherished book series that I have ever read.

It tells the story about a red haired 16 year old girl, who with her best friend, discovers the previously veiled world of the Shadowhunters, a band of warriors who dedicate their entire lives to training and fighting demons, who are basically the evil side of the Shadowhunter world.

Cassandra Clare, the main author of the entire remarkable series, has a very legendary talent of fantastical writing, thinking up about demon and faerie-ran restaurants, small citadel-like areas inhabited with mind reading and telepathically communicating with their own minds.

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So the “main” main character, Clary Fray, and her best friend Simon Lewis, find out that there are actually other intelligent peoples and enemies, like vampires, werewolves, and demons after a small period in a nightclub. Then Clary realizes that her mother had hid a very valuable secret from her and the rest of the Shadowhunters’ world, but while doing so, her mother also made a very lethal mistake; one that could have actually wiped away the entire existence of the Shadowhunters and everything else in their path.

I feel that the book was quite nicely written. The dialogue was enrapturing me in every single sentence that was outlined in quotations, and the characters felt so real; so alive that it made my heart hurt when I realized that they weren’t real after reading the book for 3 hours. I couldn’t stop reading this book; I smiled at the funny parts where the characters said something humorous, and I felt terribly sad at the more downcast feelings, like when one of the characters regrets something almost 5 seconds later after she does it. However, my favorite parts of the book would’ve been the detailing, which the author did absolutely effortlessly, and each and every one of the descriptions formed a clear image in my head, little by little, until the entire puzzle was fit together in what seemed a stunning picture.

A couple of things that readers should know before they read this series (and this is just a precautionary thing in case any of the readers aren’t uncomfortable with this)- the book has some very light swearing, and that kind of made me feel unnatural until the point where I was sort of used to it by then (hinting at Jace and Simon here ●ω●). The main characters are all teenagers, but there’s still the fact that there’s some kissing scenes (not many), and I was kind of fine with it for a while. 

Those are basically harmless, but I will be fine with it if you decide not to read it anyway, that’s fine. But if you think it’s going to just be in this series, you’re quite mistaken. Most urban fantasy books and series usually have this content, but overall it’s quite harmless. If you don’t have a problem with this series, then read it. It won’t disappoint you; on the contrary, you might be begging for more.

One particular thing that made me feel better about the world is that Cassie tackled the topic of LTGBQ+. Many of the characters in the Shadowhunter Chronicles fit into those categories – I’m keeping those names a secret… – but they all feel slightly judged because of how they act around others, and that’s maybe why Cassie chose that as a topic that stood out; not a lot of people understand the topic of LTGBQ+, and as a result, they go against it. Personally, I love all of the characters, and if you ever think that the pride community is different from yours, you probably might not understand the book, or the later books in the series. I always embrace differences in our world and the reading/lit world, and I hope that you readers do as well.