The Messenger Reviews

Obviously, this is a book review blog. I mostly read Young Adult books, but I try to branch out every once and a while as well!

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1)

City of Bones - Cassandra Clare

Much like Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, I went into this book with a closed mind. However, I had quite a different reaction to this book. This book I liked. When I had first tried reading it, but hadn't gotten past about the first two pages, where they are in the club. I got the impression that this book was quite different from what it actually was. I thought the blue hair and crazy fashion was not just a normal in the club, but in the entire world that existed in this book. I got the impression that this was some strange dystopian. I put the book down and didn't come back to it. However, one day I sat in the movie theater and saw a preview for this movie (just in case anybody was wondering, the movie was awful. Don't see it, especially if you haven't read all the books, there are MAJOR spoilers.) and I decided that it was time for me to read this book. 
Just so that nobody makes the same mistake I made, I have a brief, spoiler-free summary. This book is not some dystopian. This book is about Shadowhunters, who seek to rid the world of demons. Jace is a Shadowhunter, Clary is not. As you can probably guess, Clary and Jace meet, and things get crazy. Demons come, people disappear, and action is everywhere. 
There is a little bit of everything in this book. It's full of action, romance, and even a little comedy. This book can appeal to a wide audience. I would suggest this to almost anybody, so long as they don't have an opposition to things like love triangles (most don't really like them, but this one isn't too bad [at least in my mind]), battle scenes, and some infrequent semi-strong language. Plus, Clary is a pretty good role model. While she starts out helpless, and sometimes she needs to be saved, she does a lot on her own, and works on becoming independent. The series as a whole is a bit of a whirlwind, but this book itself is pretty good. It gets a little creepy towards the end (if you've read it, you know exactly what I am talking about), but if you overlook that, things are pretty good. Jace is not in particular my cup of tea, but he wasn't too terrible, and I grew to love him later in the series.
Really, I thought this book was good. It was interesting, and kept me wanting to read more. In my opinion, the characters weren't the best, but they weren't so bad that they ruined things. However, people tend to either love or hate this series, so I think anybody with even a remote interest in this book should give it a swing to see what they think.
Three Point Five out of Five stars

Source: http://themessengerreviews.blogspot.com/2014/03/city-of-bones-mortal-instruments-1.html