I had high expectations for City Of Bones as I had previously read Clockwork Angel first, in the prequel series to this one, and was thoroughly astounded. I can definitely say without hesitation that I was not disappointed.
Clary (Clarissa) Fray is a normal human, living her life as a normal human would do so. That is until she gets drawn into the world of the shadow hunters whereupon she realises that not all in her world is what it seems, and that a lot of secrets have been kept from her by the people she loved and trusted.
Let us start off with the basics. This book is the first book in 'The Mortal Instruments' series and was written before it's prequel 'The Infernal Devices' series. City of Bones is set in a modern day society, whereas Clockwork Angel was set in the 19th century in 1878 and this was the only difference I happened upon in the beginning. At the start I found myself really disliking this book as everything seemed exactly the same as it was in Clockwork Angel; the characters were similar, the plot was similar and even some of the things that the characters said were similar - I just thought that I was reading the same book but in a different time zone and this disappointed me. That is until it got into the nitty gritty of the book, things started getting interesting, the characters were coming to their own and turned out to be nothing like the characters I once thought they were. When I actually finished the book I found myself thinking that if I would have read this book first I would have thought the same about Clockwork Angel as I thought about this book initially, but was proven completely wrong.
After the initial slight disappointment, I realised that this was pretty much nothing like The Infernal Devices, other than the fact it followed the world of the shadow hunters, and the plot was a masterpiece in itself. Everything was ridiculously well but fast paced and action packed and there wasn't one scene which bored me at all. Every time I thought something was going to happen, something completely different and unexpected happened instead - this is what I loved about the book, the fact it was so very unpredictable. The unpredictability made the plot twists even more ground breaking in my eyes, they were absolutely amazing and out of every single twist (and there was a lot) I did not even have the slightest hint that they would have been coming. There was one twist which I had an inkling about, but it was a very small inkling, but other than that everything made me sit up in astonishment at what I had just read. I literally found myself sitting at the edge of my bed for a lot of the book as it was so gripping.
I loved each and every character, and there was no character that I particularly hated. I found that I got to know each of them well throughout the book, with enough to be left thinking about as well, and even the sub characters were well distinguished. However much I loved these characters I do think that they aren't as good as the ones in Clockwork Angel - Will pips Jace to the post any day with his quick wit, charming nature and just the hilarity of himself, with Jace I found myself smirking on occasion but it seemed a little too put on and fake for me.
Upon reading this book, because I had read Clockwork Angel first, I was learning a lot more about the shadow hunter world than I previously knew. This created a great basis for the rest of the book as everything was explained brilliantly and there wasn't a thing that Clary didn't know that I didn't know or wasn't fully aware of. The complexity of the world was explained so well that I found myself feeling as though I was part of the book and was there in that time and place alongside them, I found myself picturing everything so clearly that I almost forgot I was in my boring bedroom reading a book instead of in a vampire lair.
Clarissa Clare is a literary genius who everyone should read at least once in their life, her worlds are so enchanting and I can say that the two books that I have read of hers have been ranked in the top 3 books of the year so far for me. If you haven't read any of her books, where have you been?
★★★★★