City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
YA Fantasy
If there was one thing she was learning from all this, it was how easy it was to lose everything you had always thought you'd have forever.
Clary Fray is just a normal girl with a normal best friend living a normal life in New York. Or so she thought. Everything changes one night at a club when she witnesses what could only be classified as a murder. However, Clary seems to be the only one who can see what happened. When the perpetrators are finished, there isn't even a body. The boy disappeared. Was he even there?
This is the first time that Clary comes in contact with the Shadowhunters. Shadowhunters part human part angel demon slayers. They are very surprised that Clary can even see them in the first place. Amongst those that killed the "boy," is Jace--an incredibly beautiful young Shadowhunter. Soon enough, Clary finds herself drawn into his world as she is attacked by a demon and her mother disappears. What would demons want with Clary and her mother? How can Clary even see the demons? All that Clary thought she knew gets turned on its head in this epic fantasy thriller.
To be honest, I was very hesitant to pick up this book. I hate to say it, but I do often judge a book by it's cover, and this book's cover, along with blurb, made it seem incredibly foolish. I only did pick it up because it was on sale at Wal-Mart and had surprisingly good ratings on GoodReads. When I got into the book, however, I was pleasantly surprised. The writing style was not bad, the characters were interesting, and the story was gripping. I found myself not wanting to put the book down. I really, really liked it.
That being said, I had one major complaint about it. The Shadowhunters are purported to be Nephilim. If you are familiar with the Bible, or an extra-biblical texts such as Enoch, this term will be familiar to you. Although yes, the Nephilim were half angel and half human, they were nowhere close to being good in any sense of the word. The angels who had created them by taking advantage of human women were cast from heaven, and their descendants, the Nephilim, were decidedly evil. Like, crazy evil. That, and they were also giants. They certainly were not concerned with the fate of humanity and would never be considered its protectors. I thought I could overlook this egregious error, but I found it increasingly annoying as I read. To most people this won't be an issue, but to me, it really was. I understand that Clare has artistic license, but in this case, she was just so incredibly inaccurate. I would have been fine with the whole thing if she had not insisted on calling them Nephilim. But she did. And often.
Overall, this book was a really good read, and I am looking forward to the film and the rest of the books in the series. I recommend this book to those who have read young adult fantasy in the past and enjoyed it.
Labels: A-, Fantasy, Review, Young Adult