Cassandra Clare’s Best Seller Series Mortal Instruments is widely known and we have brought you a review today.

Brought by OBS staff member Farrha

Book One: The Mortal Instruments

Summary
Teenager Cassandra thought her life was fairly ordinary hanging out with either her artistic mother, best friend Simon or close family friend ‘Uncle’ Luke.

After a visit to a club, she discovers she can see supernatural beings that no one else can. With this discovery Cassandra gets drawn into the world of Shadowhunters (a group of people with extra strength and powers that hunt and kill demons) and dark creatures. The next day, she comes home only to discover that her mother has been kidnapped and a demon is waiting to kill her off too, she has no choice but the become a part of this world in order to help save her mother.

With the help of Jace, a young charming but arrogant Shadowhunter, she goes on a journey into the Shadowhunter world only to discover she belongs tere. Everything is not what it seems; her mother is involved in the tangled political history of the Shadowhunters, ‘Uncle’ Luke is not what he seems to be and her neighbor knows more than she’s letting on. And it only becomes more difficult when she begins to fall for Jace, someone she shouldn’t be falling for.

Review
Firstly, I want to say that this is a novel to be thoroughly enjoyed. Strap yourself in, sit back and enjoy the ride. It’s fast, it’s got highs, it’s got lows and when it’s over, you’ll be thankful for the ride… and that’s pretty much it.

City of Bones is a guilty pleasure. Both for the reader (especially if the reader is a fan of fantasy books, television shows and movies – like myself) and the writer. Quite frankly, it’s not the best or the most original piece of work, but I’m glad I read it and have it sitting on my book shelf.

While reading City of Bones, I found myself likening bits and pieces, elements and character, etc. to other books, shows and films. At first, I found it slightly annoying. But I stopped thinking too much on it, and simply paid attention to the story instead. In a way, City of Bones is to me, a big mash up homage to Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Buffy the Vampire, etc. And that thought makes me sad because Cassandra Clare DOES have a good story line here…

On the other hand, readers may find it fun to spot things that mirror Clare’s fan fiction. But while things like a ‘Still Not King Yet’ badge did make me smile, it also distracted me from the story. This, in the long run, isn’t a good thing. I want to stay immersed within the drama of the characters, rather than send a nod to the author.

And speaking of the characters, while the banter is fun and made me laugh out loud (some memorable one liners), the characters themselves didn’t seem very consistent to me, contradicting their very own nature. And I wanted to smack them around for their obliviousness at times. They are thoroughly flawed and while this should make them more ‘real’ the flaws seem very contrived. On a side note, I’m getting sick of heroines who are ‘beautiful’ but they don’t know it as they are shy and not very confident, while having to rise to the occasion and do great things all the while falling in love with the guy she can’t/shouldn’t have.

All in all, however, I will at some stage love to re-read the series. And while I have nit-picked in this review, it’s simply because though I don’t have many issues with this novel (I did really enjoy it and have a great respect for the world that Cassandra Claire has created), the issues I do have are glaring and very obvious. I have to make my self ignore things and not think about it the narrative flaws, and I really wish I didn’t have to. I would have loved this novel all that more.