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A review by feuillycakes
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Honestly, this is solidly average. I don’t think that about a lot of books but there were so many parts I enjoyed while the rest had me fighting off the cringe, so I think I’m justified here. I have the misfortune of kind of knowing a few things that will happen just by virtue of existing on the internet, so I wasn’t shocked by anything important and I’m not on the edge of my seat about the Thing that’s the big plot twist of this book. The Rat Thing? I absolutely lost it. The vampires get smashed and turn into small animals or piles of dust temporarily thing? Ridiculous. Loved it. The information overload was not so fun. Neither were the occasional dramatics or the bouncing around from place to place for previously stated info-dumping reasons.
I enjoyed that Clary is not a perfect character as usually happens with main ya characters written around this time. She can be a total b-word (you choose which) and knows it. She loses her temper and gets irrationally jealous and is horrible at times and doesn’t excuse that. I can respect that in a character. It’s rare.
Surprisingly, the only other character I understood as well as Clary was Simon. This is probably because she knows him the best and we are in third person limited, but even when she wasn’t understanding his actions or feelings I could tell what was up. Their friendship was honestly the best and most developed relationship in the book and I won’t back down on that.
Mostly what I noticed was these teenagers talk like teenagers, they act like teenagers and think like teenagers and that must be such a flex for this author around all her author friends. How many people can claim to be able to write teenagers so accurately even a decade on they still hold up? I’m telling you besides the off colour remarks here and there and that part where Clary straight up outs someone (who knew already but still) these could be present day teens who just don’t swear.
So yeah, average.
I enjoyed that Clary is not a perfect character as usually happens with main ya characters written around this time. She can be a total b-word (you choose which) and knows it. She loses her temper and gets irrationally jealous and is horrible at times and doesn’t excuse that. I can respect that in a character. It’s rare.
Surprisingly, the only other character I understood as well as Clary was Simon. This is probably because she knows him the best and we are in third person limited, but even when she wasn’t understanding his actions or feelings I could tell what was up. Their friendship was honestly the best and most developed relationship in the book and I won’t back down on that.
Mostly what I noticed was these teenagers talk like teenagers, they act like teenagers and think like teenagers and that must be such a flex for this author around all her author friends. How many people can claim to be able to write teenagers so accurately even a decade on they still hold up? I’m telling you besides the off colour remarks here and there and that part where Clary straight up outs someone (who knew already but still) these could be present day teens who just don’t swear.
So yeah, average.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Violence
Minor: Incest