City of Bones

I’ve wanted to reread this series for a while, mainly because I really want to start on The Dark Artifices and I didn’t remember much about the details in The Mortal Instruments. I do remember some of the main plotlines, but I felt I needed more information about the world and characters before delving into the Shadowhunters world again.

In City of Bones, we get to know Clary, a normal girl, living in New York with her mom. She spends most of her time with her best friend Simon and she has a pretty average life.
That all changes when she meets Jace, Isabelle and Alec. They are Shadowhunters and they hunt demons.

When her mom suddenly disappears, Clary is trust into a world were demons and Downworlders like vampires, werewolves, etc. are real.

Just like the first time I read this, I really enjoyed the story, but I did feel the writing was a little on the simple side. Maybe it’s because I’m older (ok, only a few years, so that really shouldn’t matter…) or it’s that my reading tastes have evolved after my initial read, but I didn’t love it as much as the first time.

The story is well developed, but that also felt a little simple and the characters are all a bit full of themselves. Clary is somewhat dimwitted, Jace thinks the sun shines out of his own *ss and Alec feels he’s the only one clever and strong enough to look after the people he loves…
That irked me a bit.

Now Simon… sweet, geeky Simon… I still love him :D

And the romance… came out of nowhere!

I did enjoy the last 100 pages or so a lot and I know the series gets better along the way, so I can’t wait to keep reading :)