Clarissa is a just a regular teen with normal problems – or so she thinks until she starts seeing things she’s never seen before - like demons and fairies! Kidzworld has the review of City of Bones, the first book in the Mortal Instruments Series.
Demons in NYC
One night Clarissa Fray heads to an all ages club, Pandemonium, with her best friend Simon and stumbles across some teens covered in ancient-looking tattoos trying to attack a boy, but realizes that they aren’t ordinary teenagers when it turns out no one else, not even Simon, can see them. Clary is just a normal girl living with her artist mother in New York, but there’s always been something mysterious about how her mother would never tell her anything about her past or her dead father. After another encounter with Jace, one of the seemingly-dangerous teens, Clary learns that he’s a shadowhunter and starts to realize that there’s a whole world of magic, demons and fairies that she’s only just beginning to see – but why? Mundanes – or non-magical people – aren’t supposed to see Shadowhunters, so how can she see Jace and his friends Isabelle and Alec?
Secret Shadowhunter
Clary gets a frantic call from her mother telling her not to come home, but Clary rushes there anyway to help her only to discover a demon in her apartment. She defeats the demon, but to save her life and get her back to the Institute, a safe place for shadowhunters and Jace’s home, he takes a risk and places a rune on her. The runes help shadowhunters fight, and prove that Clary has had shadowhunter blood in her all along, but she doesn’t know why her mother kept it a secret. Her best friend Simon stumbles into all action looking for her, and she finds out that her family friend Luke also used to be shadowhunter –until he turned into a werewolf!
Family Ties
Although Clary has lost her mother, who she thought was her only family, after travelling to meet the Silent Brotherhood in the City of Bones (sort of like the ultimate librarians but with psychic power) and contacting the warlock who clouded her ability to see the magical world she finds out that her mother wanted her to have no part of being a demon hunter, and that her true father is a terrible man and powerful shadowhunter, Valentine, who started a war within the shadow hunter world, and Clary’s memories along with Jace’s unparalleled abilities might be the key to stopping him from rising again and gaining “The Mortal Cup” with which he could build his own army. But before Clary can do that she’ll have to find the cup, find out where her mother has disappeared to, win Alec and Isabelle’s trust, convince Simon to stay out of it and discover where Valentine is hiding.
The Bottom Line
City of Bones, the first in Cassandra Clare’s demon hunter Mortal Instruments trilogy is a non-stop rollercoaster of action, emotion and magic that will have you on the edge of your seat and asking for the second book. A movie adaptation of the book is currently in the works and it was just announced that Mirror Mirror starlet Lily Collins has signed on to play Clarissa Fray!
Rating:
Have Your Say
Have you read City of Bones? What did you think? Let us know in the comments section below!
