This month, OBS is happy to have ‘City of Bones‘, the first of the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare as our book club.  We hope you enjoy!

CHAPTERS 1-3 By Caro

Part One – Dark Descent

I sung of Chaos and eternal Night,

Taught by the heav’nly Muse to venture down

The dark descent, and up to reascend…

-John Milton, Paradise Lost

Chapter 1 – Pandemonium

The story starts off at the all-ages Pandemonium Club, where we first see fifteen year old Clary Fray and her best friend Simon. The bouncer has just stopped a boy at the entrance and everyone is curiously eavesdropping. Clary is immediately interested in him for some reason; he has electric blue dyed hair and bright green eyes. Once inside the club, the mysterious blue haired boy spots a beautiful girl among the mass of dancers with long black inked hair and charcoaled eyes. He can feel her vital energy pulsing from her like blood; taste her death on his lips. She smiles at him and he starts following her towards the wall, this seems so easy for him. The girl leads him to a storage room door where they slip inside for some privacy.

On the other side of the dance floor Simon tries to attract Clary’s attention, but Clary’s eyes are still on the boy and his new date, which makes her hopes fade away. The boy and girl disappear into the room, nothing she hadn’t seen before, but something caught her attention. Two boys, one carrying a knife, start to follow the couple. Clary freaks out and makes Simon go for help while she tries to wriggle through the crowd.

Clary riches the storage room’s door and steps inside. Everything looked normal and for a moment thought that there was no one in there. Then she hears voices and sees the blue haired kid tied to a pillar surrounded by the girl and two boys, questioning him about more of his kind being there. Demons. One of the boys, with blond hair named Jace, has the sparkling knife in his hand and tries to kill the demon boy, but Clary screams stopping him. They all turned astonished to see her. The distraction caught Jace off guard when the demon frees himself, jumping on Jace. They roll to the ground and the girl, Isabelle, brandishing a whip in her hand hits the demon across the back making him fall. Jace rolls over and sinks the knife into his chest. Clary couldn’t understand or believe anything of what she had seen. By the time Simon was back, the demon had disappeared and only she could see the trio. Simon was so embarrassed with the bouncer that he thought they would never let them in again, yet he didn’t believe that Clary hadn’t seen anything.

Chapter 2 – Secrets and Lies

Clary had gotten into trouble for coming home late last night from Pandemonium. She was still nervous of what she had seen and Simon only made fun of her. He invited her to some poetry reading at Java Jones but Clary was hesitant about going, she didn’t want to get in more trouble with her mom.

Luke, who had been Jocelyn’s friend and an uncle figure to Clary her entire life, got home with some boxes. When she asked about them, he acted weird and said that her mom wanted to pack some things. He acted even stranger when she asked him about seeing things other people couldn’t. Jocelyn came in a little after and when the boxes subject returned she told Clary that they were leaving on vacation to the farmhouse for the rest of the summer. Clary didn’t like the idea and asked for permission to stay, that she already had plans with Simon for the summer and a class which she had saved all year to pay for. One thing lead to the other; both Luke and Clary got angry and Jocelyn got more nervous with every question she was asked. At the end Luke left annoyed, Jocelyn tried to stop him but Simon, who had just arrived, got in her way. Clary saw her opportunity to leave too and dragged Simon by the arm, leaving Jocelyn alone behind.

READ THE REST OF THE SUMMARY AND JOIN IN THE DISCUSSION HERE!

Characters

Clary Fray
Simon
Jace
Isabelle
Alec
Valentine
Bouncer
Demon Kid
Hodge
Eric
Luke
Jocelyn Fray
Matt
Kirk

Memorable Quotes
“I wanted to tell you that lately I’ve been cross-dressing. Also, I’m sleeping with your mom. I thought you should know.” –Simon
“Isabelle and Alec think I talk too much. Do you think I talk too much?” –Jace
“It’s a girl. Surely you’ve seen girls before, Alec. Your sister Isabelle is one.” –Jace
“Hi, I’m one of the knife-carrying hooligans you met last night in Pandemonium? I’m afraid I made a bad impression and was hoping you’d give me a chance to make it up to–” –Simon
“Just coffee. Black – like my soul.” –Clary
“Furious Mole is not a good name for a band.” –Clary
“I said his poetry was terrible. It sounds like he ate a dictionary and started vomiting words at random.” –Jace

Questions
Why do you think only Clary could see Jace, Alec, Isabelle and the demon?
What was your first impression of the blue haired boy?
Do you think that Clary’s encounter of last night has something to do with Jocelyn’s decision to leave?
Why do you think that Clary is seeing all of these things?
What do you think is after Clary and her mom?