City of Bones (Cassandra Clare novel)
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| Author | Cassandra Clare |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | The Mortal Instruments trilogy |
| Genre | Young adult |
| Publisher | Margaret K. McElderry |
Publication date | 27 March 2007 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 496 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-1416914280 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| Followed by | City of Ashes |
City of Bones is the first book in The Mortal Instruments trilogy, a young adult urban fantasy series set in New York written by Cassandra Clare. It was originally published in hardcover in 2007, and is schedule for paperback release on February 19, 2008. It achieved #8 on the New York Times Best Seller list (Children's books category, Chapter book division) in April 2007.[1]
Plot summary
In the city of Brooklyn, in an all ages club called Pandemonium, 15 year old Clarissa (Clary) Fray waits with her best friend, Simon, to get in. While in line she watches a blue haired young man enter ahead of her. When she gets into the club she dances with Simon while still keeping her eyes on the blue haired man, noting that he follows a beautiful dark haired girl wearing a white dress into another room. At the same time Clary watches as a pair of young men, one dark haired one tawny haired, walk into the room behind him, the tawny one bearing a knife. Simon goes off to get Security while Clary follows the group into the storage room. Within she watches as the group of four exchange threats, noting that all but the blue haired individual have strange black marks on their arms. She witnesses the young blue haired man calling the others Shadowhunters before is stabbed by the tawny haired young man named Jace. As the blue haired man dies he tells the others that a man named Valentine is returning, and then he crumbles to the ground. Clary is appalled by all of this until Simon arrives with a Security guard who points out that nothing is amiss. Clary is shocked to see that there is no body where the blue haired man once was. In dual embarrassment she and Simon leave Pandemonium.
The next night Simon invites Clary to attend a poetry reading of one of his band mates, but Clary is reluctant to go because of her mother’s outrage at her lateness the previous evening. When her mother, Jocelyn, springs on her that she is taking her to her friend Luke Garroway’s farmhouse in upstate New York for the rest of the summer Clary fights with her and runs out of the apartment with Simon. They discuss the vacation over dinner and then head to the Java Jones café where the poetry reading is happening. Clary is startled to see Jace sitting behind her in the café and when he leaves she gets up to follow him.
She catches up with him and introduces herself and Jace points out that as a “mundane” or a “mundie” Clary shouldn’t be able to see him. Even though Jace is human he is part of an elite society of demon hunters called the Shadowhunters. He asks to see her hand and after examining it proclaims that she is not marked with a rune that would prove her to be one of his kind. But he says he still has to take her to a place called the Institute to speak to someone named Hodge because she knows too much then any average Mundie should. Before they can do this Clary receives a frantic call on her cell phone from her Mother who demands that Clary not come home then the phone goes dead. Jace tries to calm her down as she slips an object out of his pocket she believes to be his phone but turns out to be a device called a Sensor. When Jace offers his help Clary strikes him in the face and runs off.
When Clary arrives home she runs into her downstairs neighbor, Madame Dorothea, who asks what the commotion in the apartment is all about. Clary finds the door wrenched open and the apartment in chaos, but more importantly she does not find her mother. Further in the apartment she discovers a strange creature that resembles an alligator and a centipede and she barely escapes an attack from it. She can hear it speaking to her as it nears her and then tries to eat her. It mentions Valentine, the same person the blue haired boy had spoken of. While its mouth is open Clary shoves Jace’s Sensor into its mouth. While the creature writhes from ingesting the Sensor something strikes Clary in the back of the head, knocking her out.
When she comes to Jace is there warning her not to move. He tells her she has been poisoned by the creature in her apartment, a Ravener Demon, but that it was killed by the Sensor. As Jace takes her to the Institution for treatment he sets a protective Rune on her wrist with his Stele, a cylindrical tool. She passes out again shortly after.
Three days later Clary awakens in the infirmary of the Institute to see the dark haired girl from the club. Isabelle Lightwood administers a draught of a healing broth before giving her some of her own clothes to wear. After cleaning up Clary wanders through the building until she finds Jace playing a piano. He takes her to the library telling her of Isabelle and her brother Alec, the dark haired young man in Pandemonium. Their parents are away with their brother Max in the Shadowhunter home country, Idris. In the library Clary meets Jace’s tutor Hodge Starkweather, an older man sitting with a pet raven named Hugo. Soon Alec joins them and together he and Hodge gang up on Jace who has to defend his decision to mark Clary’s wrist. As Jace argues that someone in Clary’s family must have been a Shadowhunter Clary remembers that she hasn’t talked to her mother’s good friend, Luke, for several days. She calls him and he warns her not to come to his home either.
Hodge requests to speak to Clary alone and he coaxes the entire story out of her. He becomes interested when she mentions Valentine and tells her that he used to be a Shadowhunter as well but he has been dead for fifteen years. He says that it is the right time for Valentine’s name to come up because there are currently peace negotiations going on with the Downworlders. The Downworlders inhabit the same world as the Shadowhunters but are made up of magical beings called the Fair Folk- Faeries, half-demons, vampires, werewolves, and warlocks. He tells her that the proper name for the Shadowhunters is the Nephilim said to stretch back 1000 years. Legend has it that a warlock summoned the angel, Raziel, who combined Raziel’s blood and the blood of men into a cup and then gave it to the humans to drink. Those who drank from the Mortal Cup became Shadowhunters. Hodge also tells her that the cup was destroyed by Valentine before he killed his family and himself. Prior to his death his group, the Circle, killed many Downworlders until the Clave, Idris’ law enforcers, bore down on the Circle. This was during the time of the last Accords, and Valentine did not approve of both sides being peaceful, believing that all non-humans should be wiped out. Because Hodge is worried about who is invoking Valentine’s name he promises to alert both the Clave and the Silent Brothers to what is going on. Clary asks if she can return home to get some personal belongings and Hodge sends Church, a fat Persian cat, to take her to Jace in the weapons room.
Jace and Alec are working on new seraph blades, the chosen weapons of the Shadowhunters, and Jace gets up to accompany her home. In the elevator Clary slaps him again because he makes a quip about having been not totally sure about her Shadowhunter heritage. After some time Clary starts up an awkward conversation and asks what a parabatai is, something she overheard Alec call Jace. Jace clarifies it as a pair of warriors who fight together and defines it as being closer than brothers. The Lightwoods are his adopted family though he doesn’t share the same last name.
When they arrive at Clary’s apartment they find fresh blood on the banister. In the apartment they discovered it has been emptied of its contents. They encounter another creature, this time a forsaken giant loyal to a Downworlder who marked him, and as Jace takes it down the giant falls on him and breaks his arm. He asks her to pull out his Stele and he heals his arm with it, touching it to an iratze, or one of the many black healing runes on him. After this Madame Dorothea calls them to her apartment where she reveals to them that she knows about the Clave and the Forsaken. She also reveals that she knows Jace’s last name- Wayland. She tells them she was adopted by a witch so she knows much of the world of Idris, and used to feed gossip to Joceyln Fray about Valentine. She reads Jace’s tea leaves and tells him that he will fall in love with the wrong person and that he has an enemy. She tries to read Clary’s mind but claims there is a block on her that is jumbling her memories. She also reveals a deck of tarot cards that Jocelyn painted for her, pointing out that the card Clary pulled, the ace of cups, is the card of love. She continues to reveal that she is the guardian of a five dimensional door in her apartment. Clary, knowing her mother wanted to use the door, rushes through it with Jace hard on her heels.
On the other side she discovers Luke’s house. In the bushes she encounters Simon, who joins them. She catches him up on everything and he follows them into the house where Clary grabs a bag of her things. Luke and two men called Pangborn and Blackwell enter the home just as the three hide themselves. They overhear a conversation largely about Jocelyn and the two strangers offer to exchange her for the Mortal Cup. Luke declines, saying he doesn’t know where the cup is. After the men depart Jace reveals that they were the men who killed his father.
When the three arrive at the Institute where they find Isabelle trying to make soup for everyone. Simon becomes distracted by her and Clary finds herself annoyed by this. Jace ventures to the greenhouse to find Hodge and tells him of what happened since they left. They return to the library where Hodge shares with them the loyalty oath of the Circle of Raziel. He tells Clary that her mother was involved because she was Valentine’s wife. Also in the Circle was Hodge himself, Jace father Michael Wayland, Pangborn, Blackwell, Luke, and Robert and Marys Lightwood, Alec and Isabelle‘s parents. Because Hodge didn’t leave the Circle in time he has been bound to the Institute by the Clave. His worries turn to Valentine, who is clearly back, and wants the Mortal Cup to build an army. It was not destroyed, as legend would have it. Jace points out that they can find Clary’s mother, and likely the cup as well, by retrieving Clary’s repressed memories. The Silent Brothers can do this, as they use runes that change their bodies to attain higher powers, like mind reading.
The next morning Clary is awoken by Jace to discover that Brother Jeremiah of the Silent Brothers has arrived. She finds that he can speak directly into her mind and when he tries to further investigate the block Clary’s gets an eyeful of how the Silent brothers have to alter themselves to attain their power. His eyes have been removed and his face is completely scarred. Brother Jeremiah examines her mind and declares the spell too strong, that she will have to go to Bone City and present herself to the Brotherhood to remove it completely or she may be killed. Jace goes with her and on the way he shares more about his father and the Forsaken who killed him when Jace was ten years old. He has promised to get revenge.
When she presents herself to the council of the Brothers they unearth the name Magnus Bane in her mind. They cannot find anything more than that because of the block on her mind being so strong-any further tampering might kill her. During the ordeal Clary wounds her elbow so Jace heals it with his Stele.
After they leave Jace takes Clary to a diner called Taki’s where they meet Alec and the others. Isabelle and Simon turn up together, much to Clary’s annoyance. She notices that most of the clientele are not human, including the waitress Kaelie who seems to know Jace intimately. Isabelle points out that Kaelie is a Downworlder though, so therefore off limits to Jace. Clary tries to understand the logic of this point of view but fails. Jace and Clary tell the others about Magnus Bane and Isabelle points out the name of a party flier she acquired from Pandemonium hosted by a Warlock named Magnus. They plan to attend the fete.
When Clary arrives back at the Institute she heads to the library and finds a photo of all of the members of the Circle in it, including her mother in the arms of Valentine. Hodge enters and updates her with news from the Clave about dispatching Shadowhunters to find her mother. He then gives her a sleeping draught and when she arrives at her room she finds Jace leafing through her sketchbook. He tells her a story about a boy and a falcon given to him by his father and it doesn’t take long for Clary to recognize that the boy in the story was him before she falls asleep
Clary is awoken by Isabelle who insists on giving her a make over for Magnus’ party. During the makeover Clary asks Isabelle if Alec is gay, which she confirms but beckons Clary not to tell, as the world of Shadowhunters is ambivalent about this. Feeling like her mom in her new grown up look the two meet up with the others. Jace looks Clary over appraisingly and then hands her a dagger with a red rose stone set on the hilt. Armed with this the group head to Magnus’ where he lets them in just barely. He recognizes Clary so he decides to tell her how her mother had come to him when she was young and then he has been seeing her every two years to reinstate his memory suppressing skill but that he can also not take it off of her completely. He shows her a copy of the Graybook, that is the book of Shadowhunter Runes that everyone learns hoping that it will help trigger dormant memories. She asks about the Mortal Cup and Magnus tells her that nothing in her memories mentions the Mortal Instruments- a cup, a sword, and a mirror bestowed upon the first of the Shadowhunters by the angel Raziel.
When the group return to the party Isabelle reveals that Simon has been turned into a rat by drinking one of the party drinks. Clary stows him into her backpack but because of an earlier altercation with some of the vampire guests Simon gets snagged and taken to the Vampire headquarters. Jace and Clary stop at a church to arm themselves with some Nephilim weaponry and then venture to the Vampire Hotel Dumort where they meet a young Latino named Raphael who shows them how to get inside. Once inside Jace stabs Raphael, figuring him to be a Vampire, and Clary works out a trade of hostages, Raphael for Simon still in his rat form. Once she has Simon Raphael orders the Vampires to kill them despite the Peace Accords, but just as the Vampires advance they are joined by a group of Werewolves, their mortal enemy. Clary is surprised to discover that when she throws one of Jace’s knives at a wolf it flies straight and true, though she had never thrown a knife before. Rather than get caught in a war Jace and Clary race to the top of the buildings where they discover the Vampires legendary flying motorcycles that run on demon energy. Jace and Clary climb aboard one and escape on it but because of it running on demon energy it dissipates into a pile of dust when the early morning sun hits it. Just as they struggle to their feet Clary sees that Simon has been restored to normal. A tender reunion ensues as Jace looks on.
After their arrival at the Institute Alec tells Clary that she is unwanted, that her presence is a nuisance for Jace. This conversation nags at her and prevents her from sleeping until she is joined by Simon who promptly falls asleep. Jace knocks on her door and invites her to a midnight picnic in the greenhouse to celebrate her sixteenth birthday. After he shows her some rare night blooming flowers as her birthday present she warms to him. He also gives her a witchlight rune-stone as a token. Before they leave he kisses her and she finds him kissing her again outside her bedroom door. Simon suddenly stumbles out, seeing them kissing, and becomes quite enraged and heads back into the bedroom. Jace walks away dismissively and Clary enters the room to find Simon packing for home. He confesses that he’s in love with her and then flees when she doesn’t say the same.
After his departure Clary realizes that her sketchbook drawings hide a secret to finding the Mortal Cup. She goes to alert Jace and gather the others into the library. She shows that having a rune on the paper will allow an object to become real or become fixed into the paper hiding it from view, and she knows where her mom hid the cup- in the tarot deck she hand painted for Madame Dorothea. The group formulate a plan to retrieve it, relying on Simon’s drivers license and friend’s van to get them back to the apartment. Isabelle, Jace, Alec, and Clary prepare for battle and head back to Brooklyn.
Outside of the apartment Clary and Simon have a moment alone. Inside the apartment Clary tells Madame Dorothea where the cup is hidden and pulls it from the tarot card. Madame Dorothea transforms into a Greater Demon called Abbadon and tries to get the cup from them. Jace and Isabelle do battle with it but Alec is severely wounded. The battle seems lost until Simon steps in, using Alec’s bow to shoot out a skylight that floods the building with sunlight, instantly destroying the Great Demon‘s form. The five flee from the scene back to the Institute where Alec has to be treated for demon talon wounds.
Back at the Institute Jace admits to Clary that he feels a tremendous sense of guilt and responsibility over what happened to Alec. Hodge tells them he has to contact the Silent Brothers to heal Alec but then he urges the raven, Hugo to attack Clary. Clary finds herself trapped in an invisible boundary and Jace is suddenly rendered unconscious. Hodge contacts Valentine and gives him the cup in exchange for his freedom from the curse that binds him to the Institute. Valentine leaves with Jace in his arms. Clary remembers that she has Jace’s stele in her pocket from earlier and uses it to escape and follow Hodge, but another wolf intercepts them. Hodge uses his chakram weapon to wound the wolf but it manages to get away with Clary after it kills Hodge.
When Clary comes to she is stunned to see Luke. Clary realizes he’s a werewolf and that he was defending her against Hodge. Hodge’s second, Gretel, and his third, Alaric, enters and gives Clary back Jace’s dagger that she wounded Alaric with at the Hotel Dumort. Luke tells Clary about his youth with Jocelyn, her romance with Valentine, and the forming of the Circle. He tells her that she first had a son named Jonathan Charles, but that she left Idris after Valentine staged his own and her son’s death. He also tells about his own infection from a hunt and how Valentine urged him to commit suicide. When Jocelyn left Idris she was carrying another child and convinced that Valentine was alive. Luke follows her into New York shortly after.
Clary has difficulty accepting that her father is Valentine and that she had a brother. She tells him Valentine spoke of a portal and they realize the only other portal in New York is at a place called Renwick’s. after a call to Simon he reveals that Renwick’s is an asylum on Roosevelt Island. They head to the asylum and encounter Forsaken outside of it. The wolves battle their way through and once inside Clary uses her witchlight to find the room where her catatonic mother is. They are interrupted by Blackwell and Pangborn and Luke kills Blackwell before Clary escapes. She finds Jace alone in a room who insists that his father is alive and Clary is shocked to see when he enters that Jace claims Valentine is his father.
Jace takes Clary’s blade from her and Valentine points out the star of Morgenstern, his family name. Clary also sees that the ring that Jace always wears matches the one Valentine is wearing. Valentine calls Jace Jonathan and it is then revealed that his full name is Jonathan Charles- Clary’s older brother. Jace is horrified at this news and Valentine goes on to talk about his death and how he assumed Michael Wayland’s identity to raise his son in peace, but he had to fake another death when an anonymous letter threatened to expose him.
Luke bursts into the room covered in blood and pulls the blue handled knife that matches Jace’s red handled one. It was the knife Valentine gave him to kill himself with. Clary speaks to Jace of their mother and tries to talk sense into him as Luke and Valentine duel each other. After several minutes Jace throws himself between Luke and his father and denounces him. After Valentine tells them the cup is hidden in Idris Alaric enters and Valentine throws the knife at Luke. Alaric gets between Luke and the knife hits him, killing him. Valentine reveals that the mirror is the portal to Idris as Jace and Clary stand him down but Valentine slips through the portal ahead of them because Jace can’t bring himself to kill him. The mirror shatters and Valentine is gone.
After things die down Clary visits her mother in the hospital. The Silent Brothers are unable to break her spell and reveal that Magnus Bane saved Alec’s life, not them. Simon picks her up and takes her back to the Institute where meets with Isabelle and Alec. In the greenhouse she also finds Jace and sees that he has a piece of the mirror still and is despondent about the entire situation. Clary convinces him to come to the hospital and Jace and her ride off on his newly acquired vampire motorcycle to see their mother.
External Links
- "Children's Book Reviews: Week of 4/9/2007". Publishers Weekly. 2007-04-09. Retrieved 2008-01-11.
- Excerpted reviews of City of Bones reprinted on the Mortal Instruments website
- Post on her LiveJournal